This is my semi-annual letter to Atherton residents to update you on the critical issues before the City Council. After Atherton opened the new Town Center earlier this year, the largest issue before the City Council has been how to comply with state housing requirements. This letter principally addresses those housing issues. Atherton also has an election because four candidates are running for three seats. My re-election letter is attached to this email here. If you would like to read my areas of focus in this election, please open the letter. Also, attached here is a form that I encourage you to fill out if you would like to support my re-election; however, this letter is not principally about elections, it is principally intended to keep you informed about what I believe to be the biggest issues before the council. Accordingly, the focus is on housing:
Housing and Affordable Housing in Atherton
Atherton, like every other municipality in California, is required to comply with the Housing Element requirements under the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), as administered by the state Housing and Community Development Department (HCD). Over the past 4-5 years, the state legislature has passed bills to require an increase in housing, based on the theory that an increased supply will reduce the cost and improve the affordability of housing in California. The RHNA guidelines are supposed to increase supply and affordability, but to date they have largely benefited developers at the expense of local control (by city councils) and affordability has not improved.
In the last housing cycle administered by HCD (2015-2023), Atherton was obligated to zone for 94 new housing units. In the new housing cycle (beginning January 31, 2023), Atherton is obligated to zone for and see built 348 new housing units (an increase of 375%). Atherton objected to this significant increase because, unlike many other cities and towns, Atherton has no undeveloped property on which to build, other our only park (Holbrook-Palmer Park) and adding housing to our park would remove the only recreational resource in Atherton.
Atherton’s outsourced planning group initially insisted that to comply with the 348 RNHA housing requirement, that the city council must zone for denser development than is currently allowed. The planning group recommended that the city council add “Overlay Zoning” to authorize property owners to build 6-20 townhouses per acre on specifically identified lots in Atherton (generally on busier streets and near the periphery of Town). After initial consideration, the Council decided against this suggested density increase because we realized that with property costing approximately $8M per acre, no matter how dense the allowed development, the housing that would be built would never be able to be affordable if the developer had to purchase the land. Further, we heard from several hundred residents that they didn’t want townhouse development in Atherton. In general, Atherton residents have spent dearly to buy into a community that is semi-rural, quiet and not crowded.
I believe that the ONLY place that townhouses can reasonably be in Atherton to yield affordable housing is on existing school property. Because land is so expensive in our Town, affordable housing can only be built by the existing landowner and the ONLY realistic location for that housing to be built is on current school property. This is not a small matter in Atherton because we have seven schools in Town and on every school day Atherton’s population just about doubles with the influx of students and school staff. Accordingly, there is an enormous need at each of these schools for affordable housing for their teachers and staff.
Based on this strategic understanding that the only realistic affordable housing in Atherton must be built without a required purchase of new land, the Town’s recently submitted Housing Element to HCD relies on a strategy to (1) enable and incentivize schools to build townhouses on their land for their teachers and staff and (2) encourage residents to build and rent ADUs (accessory dwelling units) on their property. The incentives for residents to build new ADUs (and to qualify existing pool or guest houses as ADUs) are (1) the square footage of any ADU (separate from the main house) or JADU (within the main house) is excluded from the maximum allowable square footage on the property and (2) if we get sufficient interest to build ADUs, then we should be able to avoid a requirement to approve denser development.
Over the next few months, the city council and Town staff will design a comprehensive program to incentivize residents to build ADUs to satisfy the bulk of our RHNA housing obligation and we will be asking residents to confirm that they are interested in building these ADUs (or converting pool or guest houses to qualify as ADUs). This will need to be a very robust program to satisfy HCD that Atherton will build sufficient ADUs to satisfy a large part of our RHNA housing obligation. Staff will also be working with the schools to encourage and incentivize them to build housing for teachers and staff on their land.
Please send me your thoughts. I respond to every email that I receive from an Atherton resident. Please note that there will be public meeting on the Housing Element at 6 pm on Tuesday, October 11th.
Warm regards, 
Rick DeGolia
