Housing & Below-Market-Rate Project Updates
Los Altos, Calif. — May 31, 2024 — Earlier this year, 'Housing' was identified by the City Council as a strategic goal for 2024, which includes implementing the Housing Element, in addition to various programs and policies to facilitate the availability of safe and affordable housing for all income levels.
As part of furthering this strategic goal, at the May 14 City Council meeting, Mayor Jonathan D. Weinberg proclaimed May 2024 as Affordable Housing Month, reaffirming the City's commitment to addressing the critical need for affordable housing.
"To ensure our community’s long-term stability, the Los Altos City Council recognizes the need to develop new, affordable housing and to preserve existing affordable homes. We are committed to ensuring that our housing market meets our needs, including having sufficient affordable housing to protect our most vulnerable residents," said Mayor Jonathan D. Weinberg.
Several housing developments along First Street in Downtown Los Altos are nearing completion. These developments will provide ten below-market-rate (BMR) for-sale condominium units and 47 market-rate condominiums. The upcoming construction of the housing development at 5150 El Camino Real will begin later this year, which is set to provide 29 low-income units as part of its 172 rental apartments and 24 for-sale townhomes. Additionally, EAH Housing is working on securing funding for the 100% affordable housing development at 330 Distel Circle, which will provide 68 very low-income and 22 low-income affordable housing units for a total of 90 apartments.
In addition, the City has issued over 100 Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) building permits in 2023 to meet the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation. Efforts are underway to develop permit-ready building plan sets for the development of ADUs by the end of 2024, with plans to make building plan sets available to the public free of charge to encourage and streamline the permitting of ADUs within the City.
The recent addition of the City's first housing manager underscores the City's commitment to focusing on producing, protecting, and preserving affordable housing options and collaborating with the affordable housing community.
For more information on the City’s affordable housing efforts, please visit losaltosca.gov/housing.
