SENT VIA EMAIL November 15, 2016 Honorable Mayor Liccardo and City Councilmembers City of San Jose 200 East Santa Clara Street, 18 th Floor San Jose, CA 95113 Re: Support for Proposed Secondary Dwelling Unit Ordinance Amendments; Agenda Item 4.3 Dear Honorable Mayor Liccardo and City Councilmembers, On behalf of the Bay Area Council, I writing to express our support for the proposed amendments to the San Jose Zoning Code, which would better enable the production of secondary dwelling units. The Bay Area is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis that threatens our economy, environment, and diverse communities. We need creative solutions to shrink the supply-demand mismatch responsible for driving up housing costs. The Bay Area Council sees secondary dwelling units, aka- accessory dwelling units (ADUs), as a critical part of the solution to our housing shortage. This year, the Bay Area Council led a broad coalition of business leaders, environmentalists, housing advocates, social justice groups, teachers associations, and others from around California to support the statewide enabling legislation SB 1069 (Wieckowski), which eases barriers for homeowners to adopt ADUs. Reaching a consensus on housing policy can be extremely hard to come by, but recent reports out of the McKinsey Global Institute, Bay Area Council Economic Institute, and the White House all uphold that secondary units are a necessary component of our housing supply. ADUs offer a unique opportunity to bring the community together behind a commonsense solution. ADUs are affordable by design, environmentally sustainable, require no public subsidy, and provide supplemental income to homeowners. They also have huge potential to add a substantial amount of units to the market. UC Berkeley Professor Karen Chapple s research estimates that the potential market for ADUs is around 30% of single family homes. With 1.5 million single family homes in the Bay Area, if just 10% adopt an ADU, we would add 150,000 new units to our housing stock. We thank the City of San Jose for being a prominent leader on housing and commend its proposed amendments to the Zoning Ordinance to ease barriers to secondary units. The Bay Area Council looks forward to working with you to raise awareness about this innovative strategy to solving our housing crisis. Sincerely, Matt Regan Senior Vice President, Public Policy Bay Area Council
From: Donald P. Gagliardi [mailto: ] Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2016 10:02 AM To: Liccardo, Sam <sam.liccardo@sanjoseca.gov>; District1 <district1@sanjoseca.gov>; Kalra, Ash <ash.kalra@sanjoseca.gov>; Peralez, Raul <Raul.Peralez@sanjoseca.gov>; District4 <District4@sanjoseca.gov>; District5 <District5@sanjoseca.gov>; Oliverio, Pierluigi <Pierluigi.Oliverio@sanjoseca.gov>; District7 <District7@sanjoseca.gov>; Herrera, Rose <rose.herrera@sanjoseca.gov>; Rocha, Donald <Donald.Rocha@sanjoseca.gov>; District 10 <District10@sanjoseca.gov> Cc: Laura Tolkoff >; t Taber, Toni <toni.taber@sanjoseca.gov> Subject: In support of Item 4.3 on 11/15/16 SJ City Council Agenda -- amend Title 20 to relax requirements for accessory units Mayor Liccardo and City Council Members I write to echo the recommendations of Vice Mayor Herrera and of SPUR San Jose, urging the San Jose City Council to amend Title 20 of the San Jose Municipal Code to relax regulation of accessory dwelling units (self-contained housing secondary to a main residence) even beyond the dictates of new state legislation. SPUR s recommendations are set forth in a table contained within a letter dated November 8, 2016 to the City Council from Kristy Wang, SPUR Community Planning Director. The development and legalization of secondary units is a critical piece of the puzzle in solving our city s housing crisis. As Vice Mayor Herrera observes in her memo, there are already thousands of illegal second units in our neighborhoods, including my own downtown area neighborhood. Accessory units are a fact of life, necessitated by the imperative for shelter regardless of a given legal regime. We as a community should recognize reality and bring these units out of the shadows and up to Code, and we should further encourage our residents to create more accessory units and thereby help alleviate the housing shortage, without further taxes or property assessments. I urge the City Council to be bold in relaxing the rules which hinder the opportunity for dignified and affordable housing for all. Regards, Don Gagliardi