STATE SENDS ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LETTER TO CITY OF GILROY
CA Dept. of Housing and Community Development’s Second Technical Assistance Letter Warns Gilroy Incompleteness Determination is in Violation of Permit Streamlining Act and Housing Accountability Act.
GILROY, CALIF. On July 23, 2024, California’s Department of Housing and Community Development clarified an earlier July 2, 2024, letter to Gilroy’s Community Development Director. The earlier letter stated that the 315 Las Animas Ave. Project “is eligible for the protections of the Builder’s Remedy” – correcting the false claims made by Gilroy city officials and staff that the Builder’s Remedy does not apply to this project. The July 23, 2024, letter expands on this initial letter and warns that basing an incompleteness determination on items outside the scope set by the Permit Streamlining Act (PSA) is a violation of the PSA. The letter further advises Gilroy that City Council voting to uphold City staff’s incomplete determination, based on items outside the PSA’s scope for completeness, is a violation of the Housing Accountability Act (HAA).
The letter states:
“It appears that the City has conflated this HAA consistency review item and others with the PSA completeness review. When a local jurisdiction improperly characterizes comments as incomplete items, the jurisdiction impermissibly raises the bar to achieving a complete application, in violation of the PSA.” (see July 23, 2024, letter, p. 2, paragraph 2).
The letter further states:
“HCD understands that on May 20, 2024, the City Council voted to uphold the determination that the project application was incomplete. . . . HCD wishes to clarify that under subdivision (d)(5), the City may not disapprove the project for inconsistency with either 1) the general plan land use designation or 2) the zoning ordinance. Therefore, should the City determine that the application is incomplete based on an inconsistency with either the general plan land use designation or zoning ordinance, this would constitute an effective disapproval of the project in violation of the HAA.” (see July 23, 2024, letter, p. 3, paragraph 1).
On May 20, 2024, the City Council did just that—it voted to uphold the determination that the application is incomplete based on items outside the scope of a PSA completeness determination.
In response to this follow-up “Letter of Technical Assistance” (attached), William McGuinn, General Counsel for the developer of the 315 Las Animas Ave. project, issued the following statement:
“This clarifying letter from the State’s Department of Housing and Community Development, while welcome and appreciated, is not news. The State confirmed what is stated clearly in State law. We have repeatedly explained this fact to Gilroy city leadership and government personnel for nearly a year. Just because some at the City don’t like this State law does not mean that this law doesn’t apply to the City.”
About Las Animas:
The proposed multifamily development at 315 Las Animas would be the most beautiful and most amenitized multifamily community in the entire south San Jose area. The developer expects that the development will be the first in the region to receive a 5-star rating from the real estate industry leader CoStar. Although the specification level and amenities package proposed for 315 Las Animas exceed that of nearly all luxury multifamily developments across the state (and even many of the new for-sale housing in the region), the development would set aside 20% of its units to serve lower-income households – and the remainder of its “market rate” units would be targeted at moderate-income households.
