Novato

The City shall promote and facilitate ADU construction to facilitate an annual production of approximately 15 units per year (118 units during the planning period) by: • Continuing to implement a public information and proactive outreach campaign via the City’s website to support residents to construct ADUs, inform property owners of the standards for ADU development, permitting procedures, and construction resources, as well as the importance of ADUs in providing affordable housing to lower-income households. • Promoting the construction of ADUs in high-resource areas and areas of concentrated affluence at least annually by supplying informational materials in community gathering places and/or as mailers to residents in high-resource areas. • Working with small home manufacturers to develop and promote pre-approved, permitready building plans to reduce construction costs. Plans will cover a variety of unit sizes, bedroom counts, and architectural styles. • Promoting the availability of funding for ADUs, including the CalHFA ADU Grant Program that provides up to $25,000 to reimburse homeowners for predevelopment costs necessary to build and occupy an ADU. • Collecting and monitoring the production and affordability of ADUs throughout the planning period and the progress made according to the assumptions described in Appendix B. • Ensuring continued compliance with State ADU law and promptly amending the Zoning Ordinance as needed. • Participate in the Napa Sonoma ADU Center, which will be expanding their services to cities and towns in Marin County as of Winter 2024, including dedicated staff to answer ADU-related questions, staff to work with property owners on feasibility reports, educational newsletters, webinars, and other shared resources.

Adopt and provide City Standard Permit-Ready ADU Plans (2024). Construct at least 118 ADUs by the end of the planning period. Maintain compliance with State law through prompt Zoning Ordinance amendments as needed. Geographic Targeting: Aim to achieve 50 percent of quantified ADU objective (i.e., 59 units) in RCAAs and High Resource neighborhoods.

[Adapted from 5th Cycle Programs 1.B and 1.C] The City will actively participate in the ABAG Regional Housing Needs Determination and other regional discussions about meeting housing needs. The City will meet with ABAG staff to provide land use, housing, employment, and other information related to the RHNA formula to ensure that the allocation accurately represents Novato’s fair share of the region’s housing needs.

Collaborate with State and regional staff to develop and implement effective housing policy. Participate in at least one ABAG-sponsored housing planning or information program per year.

[Adapted from 5th Cycle Program 7.E] To increase affordable housing opportunities, the City will develop and adopt a TDR Ordinance, subject to clear applicability criteria and operations standards.

Amend Zoning Ordinance; development of affordable housing Facilitate TDR transactions to produce eight multi-family residential units by the end of the planning period.

[Adapted from 5th Cycle Program 14.A] Continue to work toward the maintenance and development of local sources of funding to support affordable housing, including: • Continue accepting in-lieu fee payments as prescribed under inclusionary requirements for residential development; • Voluntary donations, grants, and matching funds; • Land acquisition or donation and land banking; and, • Work with special districts that serve Novato to provide reductions in connection fees for deed-restricted affordable housing units. • Identify and pursue funding focused on meeting the housing needs of ELI and Special Needs households.

Obtain a two percent annual average increase in the value of inlieu funds, or other local funding sources over the planning period. By 2031, contribute local funding towards at least 135 BMR units and units for ELI and Special Needs households. Geographic Targeting: Prioritize all actions that help to achieve lower- and moderateincome housing units in RCAAs and High Resource neighborhoods.

Pursuant to Chapter 727, Statues of 2004 (SB 1087), the City, upon completion of an amended or adopted Housing Element, is responsible for immediately distributing a copy of the Housing Element to area water and sewer providers. The legislation allows for coordination between the City and water and sewer providers when considering approval of new residential projects. Water and sewer providers must grant priority for service allocations to proposed developments that include housing units affordable to lower-income households. Chapter 727 was enacted to improve the effectiveness of the law in facilitating housing development for lower-income families and workers. Additionally, City staff and elected officials will work with District staff and elected officials to reduce fees for 100 percent lower-income housing projects.

Priority for water and sewer service granted to lower-income housing units.

Continue to implement the City’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO) and actively pursue strategies to improve its effectiveness in producing affordable housing units in conjunction with new development. The following actions will be undertaken by the City: 1. Study the following amendments to IHO and adopt such amendments provided they are not found to be an undue constraint on the production of housing: o Restructuring the City’s current IHO to remove different inclusionary rate requirements by project size, and instead apply inclusionary requirements to all projects beyond a certain project size threshold based on the number of units. For example, exclude projects from the inclusionary requirement under 10 units, and require all projects with 10 or more units to comply with the inclusionary requirements. Restructuring the inclusionary ordinance this way may help simplify the policy, which may help project applicants navigate and design projects that comply with the policy. Restructuring the City’s current ordinance may also improve the efficiency of testing the feasibility of the policy in the future. o Reevaluating the feasibility of the City’s inclusionary requirements every three years to ensure that the ordinance is not inhibiting housing production as market conditions change over time. There has been no evidence that the current inclusionary ordinance is preventing housing production. o Updating the City’s inclusionary requirement on rental residential development projects to be 15 percent with units made affordable to low-income households o Updating the City’s inclusionary requirement on for-sale residential development projects to be either 15 percent with units made affordable to moderate-income households, or 12 percent inclusionary rate with half of the units made affordable to moderate-income households and half made affordable to low-income households. 2. Monitor the ongoing effectiveness of the IHO in producing new housing units on-site. Monitoring will include a review of the extent to which developers are building on-site affordable units versus using alternative methods of compliance, as allowed by State law (AB 1505). The City will align its inclusionary program with the goal that a majority of required inclusionary units over the course of the next eight years are either provided on-site or constructed off-site at the same time as projects are constructed if it is demonstrated that alternative methods are being disproportionately accessed. At the mid-point of the Housing Element cycle, if it is determined that the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance is not meeting this goal, evaluate and modify the Ordinance so that it can better achieve that objective, including consideration of additional incentives to encourage units to be constructed. As part of the IHO review, conduct meetings with developers to identify specific changes that may be considered by the City.

Amend the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance and achieve higher proportions and/or lower affordability levels of inclusionary units from projects approved consistent with the amended Ordinance. Produce at least 225 BMR units as a result of IHO requirements. Geographic Targeting: Achieve lower- and moderate-income housing units in RCAAs and High Resource neighborhoods.

The City’s Hillside and Ridgeline Protection regulations (Zoning Ordinance Division 19.26) apply special development standards to all parcels with an average slope of 10 percent or greater, even when a proposed project does not intend to build on land that exceeds 10 percent slope. In addition, certain definitions within the regulations are difficult to apply consistently among parcel characteristics and need to be made more understandable and universally applicable. The City will study and revise the Hillside and Ridgeline Protection regulations to reduce their ambiguity and streamline their application to relevant parcels, considering the difference between gross site area and the area of a site that would be available for development.

Amend Zoning Ordinance Division 19.26 to not require a proposed project that does not intend to build on land that exceeds 10 percent slope to adhere to the City’s Hillside and Ridgeline Protection regulations Reduce average processing time for residential development of hillside parcels.

The City has adopted objective design standards for housing developments, including community/residential care facilities. Additional Code amendments will follow to establish a single review by the Design Review Commission to determine compliance with the objective standards identified in Program 3.C. Code amendments will also be made to eliminate the Use Permit process for mixed-use developments in commercial zones. Use Permits would apply only to the commercial component that may or may not be a conditional use in the specific zone where a project is located. Those commercial uses may or may not be known at the time of the development proposal. If specific conditional uses are known, there will be concurrent processing of design and land use approvals. If they are not known at the time, any required Use Permits for the commercial uses may be processed anytime prior to initiation of operation of the use. Additionally, the City will continue to hold training sessions with the Design Review Commission, Planning Commission, and City staff regarding State law provisions (e.g., Housing Accountability Act, SB 330, etc.) including limited purview, number of public meetings, and timeframes for project reviews. Additional actions include: • Amend the Zoning Ordinance and modify City procedures to streamline the review of development proposals to require only one hearing to determine compliance with objective design standards; and, • Remove Use Permit requirements for mixed use developments in commercial zones.

Reduce average processing time (from deemed complete) for both design review and use permit applications by 10 percent from fourth quarter of 2023 to fourth quarter 2025. Permit at least 450 multi-family units in the form of missing middle townhomes and apartments units by-right during the planning period. Geographic Targeting: As with objective design standards, streamlining of the design review process will apply citywide. Targeting will apply throughout Novato, including High Resource single-family neighborhoods.

The City will evaluate applying the residential development tax, park dedication and in-lieu fee, public facilities fees, and traffic impact fees on a per square foot basis rather than per unit to facilitate the development of higher densities and smaller, more affordable housing units. Based on this evaluation, the City will adjust these fees in accordance with the provisions of AB 602. The City will also coordinate with the various special districts which provide essential services (i.e., school and utility districts) to do the same.

To ensure new projects help pay for the cost of maintaining City services and infrastructure and eliminate development constraints for housing. Geographic Targeting: As impact fees are applied to new development citywide, targeting will apply throughout Novato, including High Resource single-family neighborhoods.

[Adapted from 5th Cycle Program 6.C] The City will amend the Zoning Ordinance to provide automatic incentives for transit-oriented development when specific criteria are met. Criteria may include, but are not limited to, the project’s distance from transit stops, unit affordability, and the integration of transit-oriented amenities. Incentives may include, but are not limited to, reductions in required parking, off-site parking alternatives, and transit impact fee reductions. Parking reductions should be coupled with programs to prevent overflow parking or other impacts on city mobility and emergency vehicle access, such as centralized structured parking, regulated on-street parking, residential parking permits, transportation demand management, red curb parking restrictions on narrow or marginal streets, or other strategies.

Reduce constraints to transit-oriented housing development and amend the Code to reduce parking for transit-oriented development, achieving the development of at least 250 units within Transit Priority Areas (TPAs) during the planning period. Geographic Targeting: Those parts of Novato within Transit Priority Areas (TPAs) (i.e., within half mile of a High-Quality Transit Stop). This includes areas within this half mile distance of the City’s three SMART rail stations.