California Flunks Affluent San Mateo County Town’s Housing Plan

The affluent Northern California town of Portola Valley announced last week the state’s housing department decertified its mandated plan for housing leaving the small town of about 4,200 residents vulnerable, for the time being, to what’s known as builder’s remedy. Such allows developers to ignore certain local zoning rules for proposed developments that include a portion for affordable units. According to a February letter from the state’s Housing and Community Development Department to Portola Valley officials, although the town received approval of its housing plan showing locations that could be rezoned on January 30, it had only until the next day to officially redesignate them from single-family residential to mixed-use and multi-family housing zones....