Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday October 1st, 2024 City Council meeting, regular City Council meeting.
The Walnut Creek City Council encourages a respectful dialogue that supports freedom of speech and values diversity of opinion.
The council and the staff and members of the public are expected to be civil and courteous and to refrain from questioning the character or motives of others participating in the meeting.
The City requests that speakers not use threatening, profane, or abusive language which disrupts,
disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the council meeting.
If you have any questions, please refer to the end of the agenda to review the options
for participating in the meeting and after that, will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
May I have a roll call vote, please?
Councilmember Francois?
Here.
Councilmember Silva?
Here.
Councilmember Wilk?
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Darling?
Here.
Mayor Haskew?
Here.
is the oath of office for our student commissioners.
So would you please student commissioners come forward.
So if you could please raise your right hand
and repeat after me.
I state your name.
You could all repeat together and do solemnly swear
that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution of the State of California
against all enemies, foreign and domestic,
that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution of the State of California,
that I take this obligation freely,
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion,
and that I will well and faithfully
discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
I'm out here because I'm very proud of your committing
to all of this and excited about your opportunity
to help the city be a better place.
So each of you, I'm going to ask a question.
What inspired you to apply for this?
I attended a city council meeting last year,
and I'd never seen anything like this before in our city,
so I got really interested in that.
and I was just waiting for the school year to start to apply,
because I found out about the Youth Commission
and Youth Chiefs on this commission.
Which commission are you going to be on?
Arts Commission.
Arts Commission.
Are you an artist?
Yes.
Oh, good.
OK, don't go away, because we're going
to have a picture later on.
Come forward, please.
Your question is what inspired you.
And then I'll think of something else to ask you.
What inspired me is that I'm Diego Kirsh.
I'm a junior at Los Alamos.
What inspired me to become a youth commissioner
is to make sure that young voices are being represented
in government.
And I also want to make a positive change in the city.
OK.
And which commissioner are you going to be?
I'm on the Transportation Commission.
And how do you get around the city?
My parents drive me.
OK.
And are you going to try?
And transportation is one of my specialties, too.
Are you going to try and make more people find
other means of transportation than just driving around?
Yeah, that's the goal.
That's the goal.
OK, all right.
Good luck.
And you, please, would you come forward and tell me your name?
I'm Elijah Conson.
I'm a junior at Wasolnes.
Good job.
And which commission are you going to be on?
Parks and recreation.
Do you use our parks very often?
Oh, yeah, very common.
I usually go there when I have nothing else to do for the day.
OK.
And do you play a specific sport?
I do like archery.
Oh, really?
I don't?
Where do you do that?
Well, not exactly in the city, but in the neighboring city.
OK, anything else besides that?
I like track and field.
OK.
Yeah, basically my second favorite, sports.
Good.
Well, you're taller than I am, and your legs are longer,
and you're probably a whole lot faster.
OK, well, congratulations to all of you,
and thank you very much for your application and come.
With the council, please join us.
Join me.
You can join me if you want to.
And next to on the agenda is a proclamation.
Whereas the city of Walnut Creek adopted local roadway
safety plan a pass to vision zero on August 2023,
with a goal to improve safety on city roadways
for all users, Walnut Creek is a vision zero city
and endeavors to eliminate all transportation related deaths
and severe injuries while increasing safer, healthier,
and more equitable mobility for all.
Whereas between 2015 and 2021,
about one out of every three serious injuries
or fatal collisions in Walnut Creek involved a pedestrian.
Everyone shares the responsibility for road safety.
Drivers must slow down and be alert for pedestrians.
Whereas personal, physical, and environmental benefits
walking can lead to safer, healthier, and cleaner streets. Walking can improve local economies and
enhance social and community engagement which can lead to more vibrant, resilient, and livable spaces
and walking has been shown to enhance citizens' health, well-being, and overall quality of life
also contributing to Walnut Creek's economy and reducing pollution, congestion, and parking
challenges on our streets. Now therefore I will ask you, Mayor of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the
City Council, to hereby proclaim October 2024 as Pedestrian Safety Month and encourage citizens to
recommend the joys of walking and prioritize safety of pedestrians in our community. And this
This is especially important to me as a proclamation because from those of you who were here when
I was first elected to council, every council meeting, I tried to remind people about pedestrian
and traffic safety.
It was my goal to improve the safety in Walnut Creek.
Sadly, it wasn't a complete success.
So I'm going to turn this over to you with this proclamation to make sure that that happens
and please come forward to accept this.
Yes.
I'm not going to ask you any questions.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you, Mayor Haskew.
Council members, my name is Brianna Byrne.
I'm an associate traffic engineer here at the City of Walnut Creek.
And I mean, I could go on about as well about how much traffic safety means to me, but on
behalf of Public Works, we are doing what we can, both in terms of coming up with the
designs and then maintaining this facility so that our residents can continue to use
them safely.
We're always appreciative to partner with our Walnut Creek Police Department.
And then lastly, I would just like to urge drivers to slow down, drive within the speed
limit and be a conscientious driver and look out for those more vulnerable roadway users
who also call Walnut Creek home.
Good evening Madam Mayor and members of council.
I wanted to say thank you on behalf of the Walnut Creek Police Department.
I am your traffic and outreach manager, Lieutenant Jeff Slater.
So I'm fortunate enough to be here to say thank you again for your continued support
of public safety particularly when it comes to traffic. This is something that we have
discussed for years and has also been a council priority for several years. I'm happy to say
that this is the first of the month. We did a social media post today to outreach to our
community to let them know that we are committed to that for this month. But that is not just
going to be October. It will be going forward much longer than that. But you can expect
Walnut Creek PD to be doubling down on our efforts at the school zones before and after
school since we know that there's increased pedestrian traffic during those times. All
at the time during our downtown patrols that we do, reminding officers that we need to
keep our restaurants and shopping districts safe. And above all, our Rossmore community
that we get a lot of complaints and concerns over there. And I'd also like to invite you
to a personal invitation. Don't worry, I'll send you a calendar invite. But we are doing
Coffee with a Cop where Rossmore invited us there to do an emphasis on traffic safety
as well as fraud prevention.
So I encourage you all to make it if you can.
And thank you again for supporting us
in all of our endeavors.
And thank you for making our community safer.
We really appreciate it.
Does anybody have anything to add?
I'll just say thank you for being so responsive as well.
I think I'm not unique in that we probably all get
more complaints about speeding and safety on the streets
and sidewalks and you name it, and we direct them to you.
So thank you for being responsive in all of that.
I know that I appreciate it, we appreciate it,
and there's no doubt that the community does this,
so thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right, next on the agenda is the consent calendar.
Does anybody wish to pull an item?
I'd like to pull item E.
Okay, anybody else?
Would anybody in the audience like to come forward
and do public comment on any item on the consent calendar.
Seeing none, I'm bringing it back to council.
I move the adoption of the consent calendar items
to A through D and F through I.
May I have a second?
Second.
Thank you, may I have a roll call vote?
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Council Member Wilk.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Darling.
Aye.
Motion carries. Okay, item E. So pretty this was I didn't have a question on this
I just wanted to bring this forward because it's regarding seeking
authorization on applying for a grant for up to almost $180,000 for ADUs and
this was made possible due to our state senator Steve Glazer wanted to see if
the city manager had a quick comment on this just to let the residents know how
this came to be and it's great to be able to apply for grants. Yeah as you
You noted this is basically a trial program to incentivize the acceleration of the building
of accessory dwelling units and for those cities that don't have pre-approved construction
plans on file to develop those to simplify the process.
Walnut Creek already does have that on file, that process in place.
This would provide those that are looking to build and own the ADUs anywhere from roughly
$5,000 to $14,000 to help offset the cost of construction depending upon the type of
ADU and if there are any deep restrictions to keep it low income.
So we're excited about this.
We hope to accelerate the production of ADUs as is intended by the pilot program as it
is part of our housing element and housing strategy to have more ADUs built in the city.
Thank you.
There's a question.
I have a question.
and perhaps this will involve the community development director.
Many members of the public may not know that we have pre-approved plans available for accessory
dwelling units.
Perhaps somebody explained where they are located, how you find them, and how are we
promoting them?
Hello.
Erika Vandenbrandt, Community Development Director.
In terms of where to find them, you find them on the city's website.
The easiest way to go through the lab rent is just to type in in the search PRADU or
pre-reviewed access ADU plans.
So that's the easy way.
And in terms of telling the community about it, there are a number of different things
that we've done already in terms of getting that out into the nutshell and so forth.
But in addition, as part of the grant program, we will have additional information available
to the community, both the front counter and in various places throughout the city, and
that we'll be working together with council at your Sunday farmer's market time to be
able to have information available to the public there, too.
And in addition to that, we have a developers forum coming up, and so there's information
that will be available there, but there's a lot of social media that's going to be anticipated
Assuming that you actually do approve us getting them, you know
I getting the grant or seeking the grant dollars and so forth
Thank you
Welcome and with that I'll make a motion to approve second
Thank you. May I have a roll call vote?
Council member Wilk I councilmember Silva. I councilmember Francois. I mayor pro tem. Darlene. I mayor haskew. I motion carries
Okay, next item on the agenda is public communications
Excuse me, under this portion of the meeting
is reserved for comment on items not on the agenda.
Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items
raised during public communications,
but may respond briefly to statements made
or questions posed, request clarification,
or refer the item to staff.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the city council handbook,
pardon me, 30 minutes will be allocated at this time
for public communications for items not on the agenda.
If there's more than that,
we'll do it after the final of the meeting.
Is there anybody who would like
to make a public communication?
Holy hell.
Okay.
There seems, seems to be,
now I have no idea what's happening.
There seems to be none.
So we're going to move on to council member
and staff announcements, reports on activities
request city attorney. Madam Mayor there were no reportable actions from closed
session this evening. City manager. I do not have an update this evening mayor.
Kevin Wilk. Okay there were a few things that happened over the last couple of
weeks one of which one of the most favorite things to do every year and I
did this with councilmember Francois as well as went to Los Lomas and spoke to a
couple of the government classes regarding local government and really
just here was here's an opportunity for any government class so anybody watching
Northgate Las Lomas any of the private schools we are happy to talk about local
government for a day in your senior government classes I did note and I
don't know if you know we didn't talk about this afterwards but in all the
classes now they have pouches for I think it was up to 35 and all the
students come in when they enter the classroom and put their phones in this big matrix with
pouches at the beginning of class and then they pick them up when the bell rings and they leave.
And this is an Akalani school district mandate now and of course we're seeing that the state
mandate is going to be one as well but they're not doing this currently in Mount Diablo school
district and I noticed that every student was paying attention when we spoke this time and
and they weren't on their phones so kudos to you Las Lomas and Akalani
school district glad to see that. I also had the honor of welcoming the
Mothers Against Drunk Driving Walking Walk Like Mad event which was yesterday
at Civic Park and there were police departments from all over including our
own Walnut Creek Police Department and the CHP as well as San Leandro to the
Police Department and really this is just to ensure that people are safe and
not driving under the influence and they save lives. We have still 11,000 people
that are killed annually from drunk driving so I really appreciate the work
that they do and and the walk that they bring to Walnut Creek to end up to
highlight their activity. I was invited and attended the Chick-fil-A opening in
the willows in Concord. I see the mayor with her, I was invited to attend this.
Of course we've had we've had Chick-fil-a discussed here in the council
chambers but what I brought this up for a couple of reasons. One is they are
pulling away all of that some of some of that traffic that is on North Main Street
and those people that are coming to our Chick-fil-a in Walnut Creek now if
they're from Pleasant Hill or Concord they're much more likely to go to the
willows and so it's going to help our own traffic and and the parking problems
that are happening at Chick-fil-a. It's not going to alleviate all of them but
it's going to have an influence there. So that was the first part I wanted to
bring up and the second was that the owner there told me that they have
hired 155 people for jobs at that Chick-fil-a. Most of these are students
most of them it's their first job ever. So I just wanted to bring this up as when
and we do have these kind of businesses
that are in Walnut Creek, whether or not it's a Chick-fil-A
that's going to be in one area of town
or another restaurant, these bring local jobs.
And as any of us who have children
that are looking for the first job,
we're always hopeful they can get that first job
and get something on their resume.
So I thought that was interesting to bring up.
I also represented with the Mayor Pro Tem
Sustainability Awards Gala,
and that was in Pleasant Hill about 10 days ago,
I guess it was, and then great to see these kind of awards,
and I think we did have a couple of businesses that,
okay, Mayor Pro Tem's gonna talk about that,
so thank you for that one.
And then I also was at the Bedford Gallery opening
for Abstraction, which just opened this last weekend.
The works in this exhibition capture the vibrancy
of the emerging abstract movements during the 60s and 70s,
including abstract expressionism,
minimalism, op art, and pop art.
This runs through December 15th,
and I would encourage anybody that is able to,
to attend it, and of course, if you have a ticket
to go to an event for the theater at Lesher Center,
that ticket will also get you in,
just come a couple minutes early,
and that'll get you into the Bedford Gallery as well.
That's my report.
Council Member Silva.
Thank you, Mayor.
Just a couple of things.
At our recent Recycle Smart board meeting,
which Council Member Francois and I serve
on the Recycle Smart board,
which is a six agency recycling waste and organics entity.
We heard about the,
we heard the annual report on our schools program,
but there are 68 schools within the service territory
of our six areas or six agencies and from elementary
and then middle schools and high schools,
as well as some private schools as well
that participate in the school program.
And this last year, through this work,
these schools diverted 2356 tons
of what would have been waste
into either organics or recyclables,
which translates to 4,500 metric tons
of greenhouse gas emissions,
or the equivalent of 950 passenger vehicles
per year on our roads.
So kudos to the schools.
It was interesting to hear the report
because as usual, they describe their teaching,
elementary school-age children, how to recycle,
and they do it really, really well by the time they're,
you know, all the way through fifth grade.
They get to middle school, they're a little distracted,
and then they get to high school,
and they're really distracted.
So elementary schools do a great job.
Some of them are over 75% diversion totals.
So the other thing we heard about, and I will mention it,
and then I'm sure we can get a report on it
from our own public works staff is that the Recycle Smart
and the city of Walnut Creek and Republic services
are preparing to partner on a pilot of a compost hub
that would be located at Heather Farm Park.
And this is basically a program in which compost
will be available on a defined day of the month
and it would be available on a first-come, first-served basis
to people not just within Walnut Creek,
but within the whole area to come get compost.
And I would love it if we could hear more about it
as the plans are coming to fruition.
And it's being operated or would be operated
similar to the sandbag stations
that our Public Works staff deploys in our neighborhoods,
including mine, every winter.
And finally, I will mention that a week from Saturday,
The 12th of October is our annual community service day.
It is the 14th year.
We have 34 projects.
One of them had to be canceled today
because of rattlesnakes
in the Pine Creek Detention Basin area.
So the prudent thing was to ask volunteers
to go work someplace else
and not to be digging around in the Arundo
amongst rattlesnakes.
The city's home, you can sign up.
There are still, there are more than 750 people
currently signed up to help that day,
but there are still places where we need help
and you can get to it through the city's homepage.
And thank you very much.
Council Member Francois.
Thank you, Mayor.
As Council Member Silva mentioned,
I also serve on the Recycle Smart Board.
She gave a great report about the school progress report.
We also had an agenda item on the collection franchise.
You've heard me talk ad nauseam about our collection process.
I don't think you're going to explain what we talked about.
I'm ready.
I've got my bullet point.
So we are entering some of the terms that we agreed to include in the RFP for the collection
contract differ from our current contract.
And the primary issue that we're facing is transition to zero emission vehicles.
So we've expanded the term of the agreement from 10 years to 15 years to try to account
for and accommodate the increased costs that'll be associated with the transition that these
collectors will have to make to zero emission vehicles.
And also have changed the rate year from March to March to a fiscal year, the way that our
budget works and most city budgets work. And that we've also on the cost-saving
standpoint though, unlike our current contract, which required the provider to
come in day one with all new trucks and all new carts, we're allowing for
existing trucks and carts to be used. We'll have to, if it's a different
provider than we're, than we have now, then it'll be relabeled so you'll know
that your complaints will still be answered but by a different service provider. How do
I do?
We're releasing this RFP in about a month. The proposals are due in January, and the
new program wouldn't take effect until March of 2027. So you're going to hear the two of
us talk about it a lot.
So the good progress on that front, I did want to point out too in terms of the school
report that in addition to the impressive total figures of waste that's been diverted
from the landfill, several of our elementary schools in Walnut Creek have, you know, get
the gold star for achieving the 75 percent preferred diversion rate. And we're still
working with our high schools, but almost all of our elementary schools are there, which
which is really great, and so I'm pleased with that
along with, well, I serve as a chambered liaison.
Unfortunately, I left my notes at the office,
but I remember Dan was there,
and he gave a good update about what we're doing,
and Charles was there to introduce Charles Ching,
our new assistant city manager.
Got an update on kind of the business survey
that they're putting out for all their members
and working on their strategic plan
In addition, they've got the dates on the calendar
for Art & Wine next year,
which will be at a downtown location
due to construction happening in Heather Farm Park,
as well as the Women's Conference,
which will also be at the Lesher Center again next year.
And I did have the pleasure of going to Los Lomas
with Council Member Wilk, and we're often asked,
or some council candidates were even asked this year,
how do council members interact with our local schools?
And this is one area where obviously the schools
are represented by different board of directors
and we don't have purview or jurisdiction over that.
But it feels like one area where we can,
as city council members, kind of interact
with teachers, students.
We stopped by and visited with the principal afterwards
and said hello, we've been to the Wellness Center
at Los Lomas before, so nice to make that connection
once a year and glad to do that.
And then finally, with several of my colleagues,
I was at the East Bay Division of the League of Cities
meeting in Dublin at their very impressive aquatic facility
called The Wave, which has a ton of really cool slides
and pools and beach entries.
It was a nice evening and it was the KQED political reporter,
Guy Maserati gave an update on the initiatives
on this year's statewide ballot.
And that's my report, Mayor.
Thank you very much.
Mayor Pro Tem.
Thank you.
And as Council Member Wilks said,
we went to the Sustainability Gala
and there were three Walnut Creek awardees.
The Planet Renew, which is a retail outlet here in town
that focuses on sustainable goods, won a prize.
Phillip Cow, who is a Northgate recent graduate,
did a lot of work in sustainability.
That was his project in helping reusable clothing collection
drives and taking those to Trinity Center.
And then our own Sustainable Walnut Creek got an award,
which was really nice to see.
So that was a lot of fun.
There was a lot of other great green business recognitions
and folks working hard at implementing all of our various
sustainability action plans.
We went to, City Manager Buxay and I went to
the Walnut Creek downtown board meeting.
I think Kevin, you were also there.
A couple things going on there.
First of all, Chief Knox gave them a great update
on public safety downtown,
focusing in part on the nightlife and the activities
that our police department has had undergoing
to kind of help curb some of the excesses
that are going on in the nightlife,
and then getting ahead of the wave of Christmas shopping
and holiday season and getting ready
to have good presents downtown
so that we can keep people feeling safe downtown.
We did also talk about outdoor dining.
They are, Walnut Creek downtown
is talking to different people who are looking
at whether or not they're doing outdoor dining.
You know, we all worked together to come up with that program
and now we're looking to see how is it working in real time?
Are there lessons that we can learn
and things that we can see?
Of course, most of Locust Street has been torn up
and repaved and torn up and repaved
so that we haven't been able to get going there,
but we're looking forward to hearing more
about what they're hearing from their members
at outdoor dining.
And lastly, there is an artisan market on Main Street,
October 27th and November 24th.
And that is to help bring some of the activity.
Right now, Locust in spite of the fact
we keep tearing up the street has a lot more going on.
So we wanted to bring some activity over to Main Street
and the artisan market will be that opportunity.
So the last thing is MCE, a couple things going on there.
they just started a water heater loaner program.
Come 2027, you won't be able to buy
a regular gas water heater.
But in the meantime, we would like people
who have their water heater go out,
have the chance to think about whether or not
they wanna do a heat pump water heater
so that it's on electric instead of gas.
And so this is a loaner program
working through different contractors
so that they can install a temporary new gas one.
When yours goes out in the middle of the night
in the middle of laundry, you can get something in place so that while you're doing the research,
there's a little bit of evaluating your electrical panel and trying to figure all that out that needs
to happen to make the switch. That way you could still have hot water and your kids can go to
school in clean clothes while you're making that decision. And it's something that will help people
with the decision-making process. Then MCE also has a grant opportunity out right now to
partnership opportunities and looking for people to help educate communities about clean energy
programs and services. You know many of the hard dates where things are going to have to start
happening are 27, 28, 29. In the meantime people can start learning about them and things like
the fact that there is a water heater loaner program. So I've sent that around to our partners
here in Contra Costa and Walnut Creek and hopefully we'll get some money to help with that.
And that is my sustainability and downtown report. Thank you. I don't have anything nearly
as exciting. There was a CCTA meeting that was remarkably dull and I'm not going to bore you
with any of the things we talked about. I did attend a kind of pop-up community concert at the
the place, the City Lights, what do we call the place?
Waterlight Plaza.
Waterlight Plaza, where some amateur musicians
got to play part of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony
and outside with an audience,
and it was pretty exciting
because they actually were conducted
by the conductor of the California Symphony,
So it was a great, great experience to listen
and to watch the faces of the musicians look so happy,
and of course their parents,
because some of them were young enough
to have the parents there.
I believe that is the first of many of those programs.
And we are looking for all kinds of programs
to consider doing something like that in Walnut Creek.
It attracts people downtown,
which is part of what we want to have happen.
But it's also a chance to meet new neighbors and friends
and people who have similar interests, so.
And while we're talking about that,
I didn't go to Oktoberfest because I was tired this weekend,
but we did drive downtown to see the last
of Arsenic and Old Lace, a very, very funny production,
new production on the way.
but the Oktoberfest looked like it was just barn,
it was a barn burner.
There was lots of people walking up and down the streets
and lots of no parking spots available.
So I believe that Walnut Creek downtown
is gonna consider that a giant success.
That's it for me and that moves us on to the public hearing
where we waive reading and introduce an ordinance
amending title 10 chapter two of the Walnut Creek
municipal code confirming that California
employee housing act and removing constraints
on persons with disabilities.
Hello and welcome again.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor Haskew and members of the council.
Aaron Sage, principal planner
with the community development department.
And I'll be presenting this item as the first
two housing element implementation ordinances before you this evening.
The title of the item is Zoning Updates to Conform with the California Employee Housing
Act and to Remove Constraints on Persons with Disabilities, and of course I'll be explaining
what all of that means shortly.
But first, a little bit of background from our housing element.
Just wanted to set the policy background for you.
There are two programs that give us our marching orders for this item.
The first is program H4E, which requires us to update the zoning ordinance to regulate
employee housing for six or fewer employees in the same manner as a single family dwelling
per the California Employee Housing Act.
And in short, what that act states is that when you have housing that's provided by employers
and such housing is provided for six or fewer employees, cities have to treat that in the
same manner that they would as a single family dwelling.
not allowed to treat it as a boarding house or any other type of use.
And staff, in analyzing our code and determining what would be the best way to comply with
that act, we determined that the most expeditious way would be to amend the definition of family
in the zoning ordinance.
Which brings us to the second program on the screen, H4H, to update the definition of family
to remove language that creates a constraint for persons with disabilities.
This program is actually further out on the schedule than the first program, but because
we are already needing to amend the definition of family to address the first program, we
decided to combine these two into one item tonight and save you some time and as well
as saving staff some time.
So we're going to look quickly at the two definitions that tie together in our zoning
ordinance.
unit. It states, one or more rooms served by a single common kitchen designed for
occupancy by one family for living and sleeping purposes. So obviously we have a
reference to the term family and that term becomes important from a legal
standpoint. We have a separate definition of family which I won't read through
thankfully, but as you can see it's it's quite long and complicated and the gist
Most of it is to provide various ways in conformance with various court decisions over the years
that the city is allowed to define what type of group of people is considered the occupants
of a single dwelling unit, whether that be a single-family unit or an apartment unit
within a multi-family property.
Now our housing element cites these two items that are highlighted in yellow, B and E, related
to shared household expenses and shared responsibility for household work.
It cites those two as being constraints on persons with disabilities, and when you stop
and think about it, that becomes fairly obvious why that might be the case, particularly shared
responsibility for household work for those that have limited mobility or limited physical
limitations that obviously could be problematic.
But staff also identified some additional ones that we believe also would be constraints
in some cases on persons with disabilities and those are highlighted with the teal color.
D, E, and G are quite obviously, I think, constraints on persons with disabilities.
I is really more of a practicality issue around, it's a term that is very vague and very difficult
for staff to enforce.
So while we're in this process of essentially streamlining and cleaning up this definition,
we wanted to include that as well.
So this is the ordinance amendment that we've proposed.
The deleted text is struck through and the red underlined text is new.
So it's quite simple really.
It's just removing those problematic items from the definition of family and then adding
a specific reference that employee housing for six or fewer employees is considered a
family.
I won't read through the next few slides, but these just give you some policy background
tying into your goals and priorities around why we believe that this is consistent with
council's policies and direction.
From our general plan, high quality of housing and affordable workforce housing.
The second one I'll just note briefly, obviously we always want infill development to be compatible
with adjacent and nearby uses whenever possible.
We believe that although one might characterize that we're taking away some teeth from the
definition of family, we don't believe that those are really important teeth when it comes
to preventing impacts on other uses.
We still have the most important elements of the definition of family such as sharing
a single lease, having a single kitchen, and I apologize, I forget what the other one is
off the top of my head, used by all persons of a shared common entry.
So those are physical elements that, or in the case of Elise, a very easily enforced
and identified financial element as well, that really go directly to what might distinguish
a dwelling unit from a boarding house or other types of uses along those lines.
This is the goal from the housing element that led to the program that we're implementing
to remove constraints.
And I'll just summarize the objectives with this item.
Obviously comply with applicable state laws, implement our housing element, increase housing
options and provide more equitable options for both employees and persons with disabilities,
and then maintain the components of the family definition that distinguish individual dwelling
units from higher intensity group residential uses as I just described.
The recommendation before you this evening is adopt the resolution and adopt the amendments
to the zoning ordinance to conform with the California Employee Housing Act and remove
constraints on persons with disabilities.
And I'll include in our recommendation there was a typo on the last paragraph of page two
of the ordinance that was brought to our attention.
We just need to delete a D there as noted in that parenthetical.
So I'd ask that that be included as well.
And I'm at this point happy to take any questions.
OK, I'm opening up for questions.
Thank you very much for the presentation.
We had a public comment that we received this afternoon
that I think might be worthy of addressing, which
is really a protocol issue, whether you can answer it
or the city attorney.
But since state law says we have to do this,
why do we have to go through the process of doing it?
Why doesn't just automatically happen
or couldn't staff just have done this?
And I think that would just, that clarification.
An amendment pursuant to state law and amendment
to the zoning codes requires public hearings
before the Planning Commission and the City Council
and actions by the City Council.
And if we didn't actually amend the zoning code,
then what could happen under state law?
if we didn't comply with state law?
Many things, but in some instances,
it could call your housing element certification
into question if it's severe enough.
If you're not implementing the policies
of your housing element, making the changes
that you've agreed to make,
it can result in enforcement by HCD
and potential de-certification
of a certified housing element.
would it be safe to say also that we're compliant,
every city is different and may have a different way
of having interpreted and codified the definition of family.
So everybody has to do this in a different way potentially.
There's no one quick fix.
Generally that's correct.
As Aaron indicated, there's been a fair amount of case law
about the definition of family over the years.
And so cities have been probably over the last decade or two,
they have been engaged in updating
their definitions of families.
But it isn't as simple as saying,
now that you had your zoning code written in black,
it now needs to be written in blue.
No.
Okay, thank you.
Yes.
And I know you're gonna have a good answer for this one,
but with this new definition of family in the,
It does say that this does not include a group
occupying a boarding house, dormitory fraternity,
or sorority house, convent, rectory,
or private residential club.
How do you differ, what's the differential?
Or are those things defined somewhere else in the code?
They do have their own definitions.
Really, I think it's,
you know, the lack of those items that are identified
in the dwelling unit and family definitions
are key to the other definition.
Okay, all right, thank you.
Anything else?
I see nothing there.
I'm looking for a public comment.
Is there any public comment?
I am not, I, there is one person
who potentially could make that public comment
and they're not moving.
So I'm assuming there's no public comment.
So I'm bringing it back to council.
Is there any?
I will move to wave reading and introduce the ordinance
making CEQA exemption findings under section 15061B3
of the Secret Guidelines and amending Title 10,
Chapter Two, Zoning Ordinance
of the Walnut Creek Municipal Code
to update the definition of family
to conform with the California Employee Housing Act
and to remove constraints on persons with disabilities.
May I have a second?
Oh, I was gonna let Matt second.
Okay, he was ready to vote.
Oh, okay, may I have a roll call vote, please?
Mayor Pro Tem Darlene.
Aye.
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Council Member Wilk.
Aye.
Moving are we on to the second and do you get to do that when too I do
convenient I won't bother introducing myself again so this item is gonna be a
little more complex so I'll ask for your patience in advance this item is updates
to our accessory dwelling unit ordinance regulations also part of the zoning
ordinance and I'll start by just saying that essentially everything that's
included in the proposed ordinance before you tonight is to conform with
state law so there's very limited discretion in any of the text before you
tonight there's one caveat to that and I'll explain that a little bit later
related to design criteria. Just an overview of the presentation starting
with legislative background and then we'll briefly summarize our current regulations,
overview some of the new legislation that took effect after we last made changes to
our AD ordinance, and then we will summarize the proposed amendments before you this evening.
So as we all know, we've been in a housing crisis for the last several years and going
back before that, I think most people would say that there's been a housing shortage
for perhaps decades.
And because of that, the state has been passing laws related to ADUs to streamline them in
one form or another for several years.
ADUs, accessory dwelling units for the untrained, are essentially small secondary units that
are built on a property that has a single family dwelling or more recently as allowed
by the state a multi-family apartment structure as well.
And they are inherently affordable
because, obviously, being smaller,
they will cost less to build.
They'll cost less for the occupant to rent.
And then they also provide income
to the landowner who's building them, which
helps to offset the cost and further incentivize
construction and allow those cost savings
to be passed on to renters.
Since 2002, there have been numerous laws related to ADUs starting with a law to permit
them by right, to streamline the processing of them in various ways, and to reduce or
remove certain standards.
So, our AD ordinance was last updated in 2021, and the major amendments that were done at
at that time included allowing four foot side and rear
setbacks.
And I'll just note that side at that in that version of the code
was just an interior side rather than what
we call a corner side or a street side for corner lots.
Also at that time, the concept of state exempt ADUs
was introduced.
State exempt ADUs are essentially
specific defined types of ADUs, which I'll
cover a little bit later that the state says these have to be allowed with no
further regulations by the city other than what is spelled out for those
particular types of ADUs. So that was added in 2021. Also an allowance for ADUs
on multifamily lots was added at that time and then parking was removed for
ADUs at that time as well. So some new legislation took effect after 2021. Most
Most notably AB 2221, SB 897, and AB 434, and these bills required jurisdictions to
permit multiple ADUs rather than the one ADU that was required previously to allow additional
height.
Previously, 16 feet was the default height limit that had to be allowed, and the state
added several tiers of height up to 25 feet, which I'll go into.
And there were various other changes included in those laws.
In 2024, SB 477 was signed into law, which outlines review timeframes and processes allowed
for ADUs and junior ADUs for the permit review of those.
And tonight's ordinance includes adding a new section that closely matches the review
timeframes and processes for that bill.
So as I indicated at the beginning,
all of the changes in the ordinance
are necessary to conform to state law.
But there is one caveat, as noted in the second bullet.
We do have some discretion on how
we go about requiring objective design criteria.
We get to decide what criteria to apply
as long as they are objective and they
don't create an unreasonable constraint on ADU production.
But other than that, all of the other components
of the ordinance are essentially just restating
what is already stated in state law
within the framework of our own ordinance.
So the next several slides are going
to get into the maximum number of ADUs
that is allowed on a single family lot, which is obviously
going to be the most typical type of ADU that we see.
Our current regulation allows one accessory dwelling unit
and one junior accessory dwelling unit.
And state law along with guidance
from the State Housing and Community Development Department
states that we have to allow one conversion
or attached ADU that's part of a new dwelling,
one of those two, as well as one detached ADU
and one junior ADU.
So essentially our ordinance currently allows
a total of two ADUs if you include a JDU,
whereas state law allows up to three.
And so the ordinance will match the law
and the guidance from HCD,
and I'll go into a little more detail right now.
So these two images here show you
a couple of different options of how someone can achieve
the one ADU and the one JDU
that's currently allowed by our ordinance.
And I don't know if there's a pointer on there, is there?
Okay, okay, that's fine, but on the left you can see there's an ADU that's
detached from the main home that could either be a brand new construction ADU
or it could be converting a workshop or a garage another or other detached
structure that existed previously and then the JADU in this case is shown as a
garage conversion of the main dwelling. On the right we have another way of
achieving the same number of ADUs. In this case, it's converting or perhaps adding on
to the primary home at the rear there. And then again, we have the same JDU.
So can you go back, please? That's currently. This is our current ordinance, which is not
compliant with state law. Correct.
Okay, thank you. Those are just two different ways that someone
can max out under our current regulation. By the way, I should note that we always comply
with state law where it conflicts with our current ordinance so I'm really just
describing what's in the text of our ordinance not what someone would get if
they walked in the door today. So this slide shows under the proposed
regulations consistent with state law as you can see there's three purple boxes
so a total of three ADUs including the JDU as well as the primary home which
Which would bring you up to a total of four units.
This slide shows.
Can you go back on that diagram?
Sure.
So what that diagram says to me is primary home plus one junior accessory dwelling unit
plus two ADUs but one must be attached versus one must be somewhere within the confines
of the footprint of the existing home.
that thought because on the next slide I'm going to, okay you're going to elaborate,
I'm going to address that. Thank you, sorry. How about what's the difference in this
scenario between the ADU and the JADU? They're both purple boxes connected to the house. Right, junior is a
very important question. Junior ADUs are limited to 500 square feet and they can
only be built within an existing single-family home so they have to be
done as a conversion rather than through an addition.
The ADU in the upper left of the primary home
could be done either as a conversion.
You could take any portion of your home,
whether it be the garage or some other bedroom
or group of bedrooms, turn that into an ADU,
or you could do an addition on the home.
So JADU in this scenario limited to 500 square feet,
and the one up in the upper left is,
it's a state-approved exempt ADU, so it's 800 square feet?
On this slide, we're not distinguishing
between state-exempt and non-state-exempt.
So on the next slide and several slides,
I'll show you how that- Let you go there.
But before you do.
Yes.
Can you just kind of just step back?
ADU kind of, if you were to, that scenario,
looks like it could be the primary bedroom or something
like that.
There's got to be cooking facilities and bathrooms.
What makes an ADU an ADU?
It's essentially the same as a primary dwelling.
It has to have independent cooking and bathing facilities.
The exception to that is for junior ADUs.
The cooking facilities are more minimal,
and they're allowed to share bathroom facilities
with the primary unit.
Also, ADUs have to have an independent entrance slash exit.
I don't believe that is the case for junior ADUs,
but I would have to confirm that.
So this table shows how we have addressed
this issue of state-exempt versus non-state-exempt ADUs.
And the number of ADUs that you're allowed to get.
The proposed ordinance allows an applicant
to pick from one type 1 ADU and one type 2 ADU.
With the caveat that, as you can see in red,
on 1D and 2B, which are not state-exempt,
all the others are state-exempt.
And I'll just go here.
So in the purple boxes are the state-exempt ADUs.
So the non-state-exempt ADUs have the caveat
that they have to be built prior to any other ADUs in order
to be combined with a second ADU.
So if somebody builds type 1D first,
they then could build a type 2 ADU.
However, if someone builds a type 2 ADU first,
They would not be eligible for type 1D.
They would only be eligible for type A, B, or C from type 1.
You might be wondering why are we going through those gyrations?
The reason is that the types 1D and type 2B go beyond the mandates of state law.
They're non-state exempt.
So we are not required under state law to allow those types of ADUs.
We are required to allow the others.
Because of that, and because of the way our ordinance is currently set up, staff has approached
this under the assumption which, you know, you are welcome to differ with tonight if
you choose.
It's a policy decision.
But we've drafted the ordinance to maintain the current approach of limiting the number
of ADUs as much as we can under state law.
So what that leads to is type 1D, again, can only be built
if it's built before any other ADUs, not including junior ADUs.
Those are always going to be allowed in combination with ADUs.
But if somebody does build type 1D or type 2B first,
Then they get to select one of the state-exempt ADUs
from the other type that they did not choose.
I'll just let that sink in for a moment.
OK, so the ones in purple, or pink, are exempt?
Correct.
And by exempt means we have very little discretionary review
possible.
we have no discretionary review on any ADUs.
What exempt means in comparison with non-exempt,
which are both going to be ministerial, non-discretionary,
but what exempt has, what exempt doesn't have
that non-exempt does have is design review.
But that's a staff level
with objective design standards or a checklist.
Correct. So non-state exempt is going
to have some additional objective design criteria which we've beefed up and made it completely
objective in this ordinance whereas state exempt we're not even going to get into those
at all. It's going to be a lot fewer boxes to check than on a non-state exempt. We're
checking, we're only checking boxes in both cases but the number of boxes is going to
be a lot fewer when you stay within the purple boxes that are before you.
But the exempt ones are still subject to standards such as setbacks that have been established
in state law?
Correct.
Thank you.
Yes.
As well as of course building code, you know, various public work standards that might apply
to any site work that they're doing, you know, utility connections, et cetera.
There's various codes that live outside of the zoning ordinance that will always apply.
Okay, I'm going to go through each of these so we know what we're talking about.
So Type 1A, our first state exempt type from Category 1, we're talking about an ADU that's
located within a proposed dwelling.
So state law identifies when you build a proposed single-family dwelling and have an interior
ADU as part of that, that is so-called state exempt and not subject to design review or
those additional regulations that the city has authority to impose. Type 1 B,
converting from a portion of an existing dwelling, so your home is already there,
you come in for a permit to convert part of that to an accessory dwelling unit.
Very similar to a junior ADU but doesn't have the 500 square foot limitation.
Type 1 C is converting a detached, an existing detached, accessory structure
such as a garage or workshop.
So someone has to choose 1A, 1B, or 1C.
They can't combine those.
And then a fourth type they can choose from
is an attached new construction, again,
if it's built prior to any other ADUs.
And that's, again, because this is non-state exempt.
We can apply design criteria on this,
as well as we can make the decision
that if somebody has already taken advantage
of building one of the other ADUs,
that they're allowed to, we're not obligated to allow a second ADU when it's non-state
exempt.
So this is again new construction rather than converting a portion of your existing home.
Any questions on those first four before I move on?
Garage conversion.
It's within the footprint of the house.
Is that a conversion or is that considered?
That would be this one.
That's what I thought.
And I thought when you got to 1C that you said something like a workshop or a garage
and I thought, wait.
Like a detached.
You'd have to be a detached garage.
Detached garage, which is probably not as common in our current inventory of single
family homes.
Correct.
Okay.
And can you just go back to 1A quickly?
What's the difference between 1A and 1B?
This is when someone's building the entire home with an ADU inside.
So they're coming in, they're saying, I'm building a new home, it's going to include
an ADU.
Okay.
Yeah.
But that would still mean that there's a separate entrance, separate kitchen, separate bath.
Correct.
Okay.
I'll move on to type two if we're ready.
Okay.
So now we're in the second type, and again, this one of the next two can be selected in
addition to one of the ones from type one unless you're, you know, triggering one of
of those caveats that I mentioned.
So this is the first one, 2A, it's state exempt.
It's gonna be a detached new construction ADU,
800 square feet or less.
Must meet at least four foot side and rear setbacks.
And whatever the applicable height limit is
under state law.
So that would be a range from 16 to 20 feet
depending on basically how close you are to BART.
We'll actually go into the height limits on another slide.
Then type 2B is also detached new construction, but this is where it's over 800 square feet and
That would also have to meet
Those same setbacks, but we're not specifying that in the code because it is covered elsewhere
But for type 2a we have to specify that to qualify as a state exempt adu
any questions on type 2
Okay, so
Hopefully, no one's head head will explode. We're going to get a little more complicated here
because
We thought that based on planning commissioner questions
We thought that it'd be helpful to talk about how adus combines with SB 9
another state law that
essentially allows
Additional typically smaller units to be built in single-family zoning districts
And they can be combined and so we did want to cover this
So on the left, we're showing how many units you could get by combining ADUs,
maxing out the number of ADUs that you can build, and then also building an SB9 unit.
So on the right, you have the, in blue, you have the existing single-family home.
You can add your two ADUs and one junior ADU as shown in the purple.
So that gives you four units and then under SB9 you're allowed to create a so-called two-unit
development which is considered different from ADUs and that would allow you to basically turn
your home into a duplex or to you could also that orange box could be a detached stand-alone
single-family dwelling but either way you would get up to five units. I want to stress that this
is going to be probably a pretty unique situation.
One, a lot of homeowners may not want to cram as many units
as possible onto their lot.
But two, you need a certain amount of size
to meet all of the setbacks that are required.
But it is possible that there may
be somebody that's just seeking to maximize rental income.
And state law does allow this scenario
with if all of the other objective criteria can be met.
We do have, I'll just, I'll note that we do have
design criteria for SB9 units.
They have to match the primary home architecturally.
So we have some guardrails on this type of scenario.
So by SB9 unit, what we're basically using
the nomenclature SB9 unit to be a duplex.
You're turning, in each of these cases,
step one is you're turning the primary home
and creating a duplex.
The one on the left, the SB9 duplex unit
is the fifth unit.
The one on the right, you're lot splitting first,
duplexing on the lot split,
and duplexing on the original lot,
and then adding three accessory dwelling units for one lot.
So, that's all correct except for the sequence on the right.
And then there could be multiple sequences going on.
Because the only way that somebody could have those 380Us is if they do that before the
lot split.
No, actually, I don't believe that's correct.
Yeah, I'm sorry, that's not correct.
would be able to do you would be able to do the lot split oh boy I'm thinking
can you can you do on the lot split scenario can that the lot with the two
SB 9 units only can that also have 80 years no it could not you the way our
sb-9 ordinance is written is that you're allowed to have two SB 9 units per state
law on each lot, so that's four units there, and that could be a combination of an existing
home and then adding a second SP9 unit, but either way, two units on each lot, plus one
ADU.
Thank you.
This question is helping me answer my little moment of uncertainty there.
So the reason that you would have to first build those multiple ADUs and then do the
the lot split is that our code only allows one ADU when you have an SB9 lot split.
So there's no way to get multiple ADUs after the lot split.
It also sounds like you, but you can get up to seven.
That's right.
Again, theoretically.
What size are you talking about in R20 zoning?
I wouldn't want to speculate on, you know, it sounds like you're asking what's the minimum
lot size that would make this possible?
A concept, because there aren't many R20 zoned lots in Walnut Creek.
We're in the middle of election season, and we walk door to door, and we can kind of see
them.
They're big lots.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
But there is no minimum lot size necessarily to achieve this number.
It really depends on the specific configuration,
the size of these units.
Obviously the smaller the units are,
the more room someone has to maximize.
Okay, well that concludes the portion
on single family lots.
It's gonna be a lot easier going forward.
Thanks for your patience.
So briefly, let's talk about the maximum number
of ADUs on a multifamily lot.
The current regulations, our current zoning regulations
allow either two detached ADUs on a lot that has a multifamily
structure, or converting existing non-livable floor
areas in that multifamily structure
to up to 25% of the existing multifamily units,
or at least one, whichever is greater.
And based on language and state law, as well as input from HCD,
we need to change that to allow both of those options.
So two detached ADUs, as well as the conversion
through of existing non-liveable space.
Any questions on that?
So by existing non-liveable space,
it doesn't mean it couldn't be lived in.
It just means that it's not currently
used to accommodate housing.
Correct.
This could be like a community room.
It would definitely include something like a basement
or a storage room or an attic that's not currently developed
occupied space, I'd have to go back and check on something like a community room
which is you know built for human occupancy it's just not residential
space. I think the language in state law is livable so that may that may include
something like a community area but I wouldn't want to definitively answer
that without double checking. I think we should check on that because livable
might mean it has a kitchen and a community rooms you could camp in them
for a while, maybe.
OK.
Let's talk about height.
So the current regulations allow ADUs
to meet the base district height limit, which I believe
is typically 25 feet or two stories.
And that would be the applicable height if the setbacks are met.
But if a portion of the ADU crosses over the required
setback line, but still meets the minimum forefoot setback
that state law requires, that piece would have to be 16 feet tall.
So it would have to drop down.
And state law has modified that for detached ADUs.
If the property is within a half a mile of a major transit station,
which would be BART in our case, then 18 feet is going
to be the allowable height limit, plus an additional allowance of 2 feet
if necessary to match the roof pitch of the primary dwelling.
So if you think of a Tudor style home that
has a really steep pitch, if someone wants to match that
and they can show that I can't match that unless I go up
an additional two feet, then they're allowed to do that.
So that would bring them up to 20 feet.
Again, that's only applicable within a half mile area.
Also, if there's a lot with a multi-level, multi-family
dwelling, then the allowance would be 18 feet, and that's regardless of proximity
to transit, and then everywhere else would be six the 16 feet that we already
have. So that's detached ADUs. For attached ADUs, the law now states we
have to, we have to allow up to 25 feet for an attached ADU, but not more than
two stories. So we have to allow 25 feet, but we don't have to allow more than two
stories. What we're doing with these height limits is we're maintaining the
current approach where if someone is meeting the main building setbacks they
can go up to the base district height limit. That concept will still apply but
where somebody doesn't meet the main building setbacks the default would go
to these state law limits rather than just to just 16 feet. This is just a
quick list of some other amendments that we thought were worth pointing out. We
need to allow sale of ADUs separately through a condo or a similar type of
legal instrument when in a narrow case when they're being built or developed by
a qualified nonprofit organization but otherwise ADU condos are not allowed.
I'll note that there is a bill that authorizes cities to allow ADU condos for
or not just this scenario, but for any other scenario,
but that's not a mandate that's an option under state law.
And secondly, we have specifying that corner sides
are treated the same as interior sides.
They're also subject to a four foot setback.
That's mandated by state law.
Removing the minimum rental period of 30 days
that we currently specify for JDs,
Basically, JDUs basically can be operated,
similar to a short-term rental.
There's not going to be that 30-day requirement
that we have in our current ordinance.
Removing non-objective standards.
We had some language that was just a little vague,
a little fuzzy around architectural compatibility.
So we've really spelled that out in a much more definitive way,
very similar to how we handled that issue on SB9 design
standards from earlier this year.
That's what I just mentioned.
And then finally, adding language
to allow conversion of non-conforming structures,
structures that have a zoning condition that doesn't meet
the current zoning ordinance, for example.
We have to allow conversion of those structures to ADUs
unless there are health and safety threats.
So it really limits the scope of nonconformities
that would rule out a conversion.
All right, we'll finally hear the recommendation.
So again, we're recommending to wave reading
to introduce this ordinance, making CEQA findings
and amending our ADU ordinance consistent with state law
guidance from HCD and our housing element.
Thank you for your patience and happy to take any questions.
there any? Matt, please. Okay, one question I had a general question was on if the if
an ADU application or an ADU is billed and it's not assuming it's not deed
restricted in some way how is it characterized because I saw in the staff
report we rely on these for low or moderate so what category does it come
into in terms of affordability when there's no deed restriction we report
those to the state based on their floor area and their number of bedrooms the
state has allowed a methodology where you basically pull data from the last
year on how much ADUs of a certain size are renting for and you can kind of just
assume that you know based on the past you know rental amounts that that's
what the affordability is going to be. Alright thank you and then there was a
section toward the back of the report on objective standards for exterior
entrances and I was just wondering if you would do a little bit of a deep dive
on that because they it had to do with entrance of the obviously the entrance
of the ADU has to be separate from the main home and it can't be located on any
wall plane visible from the street and we're removing the word visible is that
because that's not that seems objective to me but is that so I think you're on
page 10 page 8 can you give me a section reference so under exterior
entrances on page 8 are you in the same documents it looks like Aaron is in the
ordinance itself are you in the step okay okay okay yeah I've got exterior
I've got exterior entrances here in the ordinance and okay you're looking at the
deleted text yeah any other wall plane that is visible from the street so I
So I think staff felt that visible from the street is going to be very difficult to objectively
define and enforce because.
Where on the street.
Yeah, where on the street, how can it be hundreds of feet away with a pair of binoculars?
Can it be standing, climbing a tree, that's a street tree?
So you get into lots of weird scenarios.
And so we wanted to just make it a lot easier for the public and for staff to know what
that means.
Still has to have its own separate entrance, but it doesn't have to be visible from the
street.
You showed several scenarios where the ADU was at the back of the home.
That's fine.
It could have an entry facing the rear yard.
So per exterior entrance, the new language, an exterior entrance shall be provided for
all ADUs, independent of the exterior entrance, so it has to be a separate entrance.
No exterior entrance to an attached ADU shall be located on the same building side as the
main entrance to the single family dwelling.
So that's only for attached.
So for detached, they can...
So it actually can't be on the street side, assuming the main home is on the street side.
it's attached, it has to be on the back. Well if you have a wide lot, if you have a
wide lot with room to build next to your home toward the front, then that could
have an entry that faces the street. It's really, this is intended to avoid
the appearance of a duplex. We have ADUs in the front yards of homes. And state
State law has gotten a lot more mandatory, for lack of a better word, when it comes to
front setbacks.
Our ability to prevent ADUs within a front setback is severely curtailed under the most
recent legislation.
Okay.
And I think just two more.
I think you mentioned, was it AB 2477, it was a law from this year, so we're incorporating
even the latest round of changes the governor just signed into our ordinance?
Not the ones that have been signed in the last several days, but that one yes.
And then I wonder if we just kind of kind of step back and philosophically kind of if you
wouldn't mind getting on your soapbox a little bit because I reading all this and all the changes
that are made I'm just like thinking why like this seems it's kind of you could almost make the
the argument that we need a part-time legislature,
that I understand the policy behind promoting ADUs,
and I support it.
But when we're starting to say it should be 16 feet here,
unless you're within four feet of then,
and then it can be 25 feet, as a practical matter,
are these changes making any difference?
Like, do you see people running down into your office
because we made these changes to the state law,
or is it, what's driving the ADU buses,
I guess when I'm trying to get at,
can you tell the legislature that?
Well, I would say that in general,
these changes are going to facilitate more ADUs.
Whether that has shown up in the data thus far,
I don't know.
And it's probably honestly too early to say,
and we wouldn't know if it didn't show up,
if that was influenced by other factors like interest rates
and the economy, et cetera.
But in general, I think allowing a greater number of ADUs,
allowing more flexibility with height,
allowing more flexibility with setbacks,
making sure all the design criteria are objective,
all of those things can only help homeowners and applicants
navigate the rules and not run into back and forth
with the city around what's actually required.
That's helpful, and I think that's a good point.
So it's not, you can't point to one of these changes
is saying, oh yeah, this is it, this is the holy grail.
But if kind of the cumulative nature of these changes
is going to lead to more ADUs produced?
I think so.
I think it's safe to say that.
Thank you.
So I wanted to step back.
I thought you were going to go here.
I want to step back and ask, we've
got six types and categories or whatever they are.
Was there a simpler way to do this?
Or was this derived because this is complicated.
And I feel like it's, you know, jiu-jitsu and we're getting wrapped up in a pretzel.
If the assumption was that we wanted to have control, is that why we end up like this?
And if we said, give us the simplest solution, what would it have looked like to comply with
state law and at least adhere to the standards that we had in terms of size.
You know meet the either exempt or 800 square feet or less and then larger.
Was there a simpler way to do this so that it's easier to understand? We've got a
secret slide. Yeah let me just go back to that that table. So yes I think there's
There was a lot of iterations and wrestling with, you know, okay, how do we carry forward
what we can carry forward from our current AD ordinance?
How do we come up to speed with the state law and the requirement now that we have to
allow, you know, a type one and a type two, not one or the other?
And if we are going to have non-state exempt ADUs, how do we mesh all that together?
And we felt that this was the most clear, not necessarily the simplest, because I think
that would require changing our goals, but the simplest and clearest way that we could
come up with to do all of that.
If we got away from the idea of for type 1D and type 2B, if we were to give up the idea
that somebody should only be allowed to do that if they build that ADU first, then I
think that would simplify it.
Because then you wouldn't have the language in red there about when built prior to other
ADUs.
would be one way to simplify it. The flip side of that choice would be that then council
would be allowing ADUs over 800 square feet in combination with the state-exempt ADUs
when it doesn't have to. But if that is a trade-off that council would like to make,
we would be happy to make that change.
So that's one easy way I could think to simplify it.
But other than that, we're still going to need, I think,
these two different categories.
Because again, the way state law is set up
for single family lots, they basically
list if it's one of these, you can do that.
And if it's a detached ADU of 800 square feet or less,
you can do that as well.
unless we wanted to be more permissive than state law.
Because state law, what you're describing to me,
is a restriction that was written into state law,
clearly to address some perceived objection.
Do you want to make a comment?
If I may, you know, as Erin had started this off,
this explanation is really the best we can do
to take a very complex set of state laws
and attempt to make sense of it over time.
And I've described this to some people as trying to go,
how much wood could a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
But that is how the law
and the collective set of laws have unfolded.
And so the intention here is to bring our ordinance
into compliance with the state law
so that we're not having to navigate the space
between what the state law says
and then what our ordinance says
so that there's clarity when people look it up
on our website and so forth.
And that really is the intention behind this.
And so it's not to go beyond what state law requires,
but it's to be able to interpret for the public
what they can actually build and construct.
And I'll just add to that that we won't be relying on our code
to be the main way that we convey this information.
We'll be putting together a website and a handout
that basically breaks this down in a much more digestible way
with pictures and with diagrams, et cetera,
so that people don't have to read through the code itself.
We want the code to be as clear as possible,
but we'll have supplemental materials to help explain it,
what I'm trying to say. And of the people who we have seen the 147 applications
over five years or whatever than those numbers were, how many were wanting to do
more than one? Really most people want to do one and they're gonna pick one?
Mm-hmm yeah I don't I wouldn't know that off the top of my head. That would be
anecdotal you know we'd have to go back and ask our planners. So in earlier times
I think people's expectations were that they could do one. Now with the changes
in state law more ADUs are possible and so we might then anticipate in response
to the loosening up of the state law and the regulations that we could see more
applications and then having more conversations with the general public
their homeowners trying to explain all this to them about what is possible.
going to need a movie, it's going to need to be translated into six languages with subtitles.
Just while you're on this slide, I just want to make sure I understand this point then.
So the restriction on 800 square feet, that only applies when you're doing multiple ADUs,
right?
Because you can do a single ADU that's over 800 square feet.
You can.
Yeah.
You can.
So all these are just, you're mixing and matching and you're doing multiple ADUs, that's when
these restrictions coming to play?
Well, even if you're not doing multiple ADUs,
if you want to be so-called state exempt,
if you don't want to have to deal with our objective design
criteria, for example, then you would need to stay under,
you'd need to be 800 square feet or less,
even if you were just doing that one detached ADU.
So it's still important from that standpoint.
Yeah.
You can do a detached ADU over 800 square feet.
you'll be subject to the objective design standards.
Correct.
Yeah, and a few other rules.
Basically, the stuff that's in section 504, property
development standards for ADUs.
So that includes the rules for entrances.
That's under design.
So all of the design stuff.
The size limitations.
So we have a table, kind of a sliding scale of if you're
studio or one bedroom, you're allowed a certain amount, 850
to 950, then it's 1,000.
If you're two or more, that only applies, obviously,
if you're over 800.
But it's mainly the design criteria.
I believe we have at least one new question.
OK, as the third former planning commissioner,
She's over here bad mouthing as former planning commissioners.
The 30-day rental for a JADU.
Are we still allowed to require,
if somebody is going into the short-term rental business
in a neighborhood, that they have to get the Airbnb
or the B&B permit that we have currently?
I would need to ask this.
Is he turning it away and on that one?
Yes.
Yes, okay.
And then it sounds like on the separate sale,
whether or not you can sell your ADU,
we are defaulting to only what the state requires right now,
which is if you're a nonprofit developer, you can do it.
But Joe, the next door neighbor, can't do it yet,
but we're gonna come back and look at that in 2027.
That's right, we'll check in with the council at that time
along with other policy options.
And so we'll, at that point, we'll have more experience
from the couple cities that have started to allow that
to see what issues come before that we'll
have to deal with for doing that.
Can I ask a question there?
I didn't remember it saying nonprofit developer.
I remember it said nonprofit, which I translated
could also be a religious, a nonprofit.
OK, thank you.
I'm assuming a nonprofit that has the ability to.
Yeah, it says a qualified nonprofit corporation
as defined by the California Government Code.
Okay, are we close to being at the end?
I have one more question.
So on the, when somebody is converting a structure
that was built without a permit,
are we still anticipating that they will have to comply
with requirements for separate utility hookups?
Many of those don't have separate utilities,
and that's not something that we control.
It's something that they would have to do
with East Bay Med and Central San and PG&E.
Right. I believe that's going to be determined by the utility company.
Okay. So all we do is look at the structure and say is it safe and then go on from there.
Right. Let me just – That's correct. We don't – so the state law
allows the ADU as long as it's not unsafe, you know, by definition.
to be legitimate or to be recognized as an ADU,
even if it was constructed
without the proper zoning approvals before.
So I would think of it in the context,
not so much of the utility hookups,
which is a very practical issue for these,
but from the city's regulatory standpoint,
it's zoning compliance, not utility compliance.
Okay, I'm just making sure that we'll look at the structure
and whether or not it's safe,
And then they'll have to figure out the other part of things.
That's correct.
For instance, I think the hypothetical you're talking about
is if you're going to create separate meters
for the electrical and other services, water and whatnot.
OK.
That is my question.
All right.
Well, I'm going to ask this.
There is any public comment at this moment.
And I'm looking around to the potential public commenters.
And I'm seeing none looking even marginally interested.
So we're going to bring it back to council.
And do we have any comments and keep them short if you do?
And the next thing is, do we have a motion?
I'm happy to make a motion,
but I also wanna make a comment first.
First of all, for staff, this was hard.
This is what we talk about
when we go talk to the legislators and we say,
would you work out the kinks between these laws
before you put them, throw them over the wall
to all us municipalities trying to comply
because this is a morass.
My second comment is, I don't think the morass
that has been created that we're trying to address
is going to make it easier to address the housing crisis.
I think it just kind of plugs the holes on the dike
of whatever analogy you want to use.
And I would hope that midway through the mid eight years
At the midway point of our eight year cycle
that we look at this and say,
is there a better way to encourage more housing
through ADUs and make it simpler?
Because I think this is just a patchwork quilt
that's gonna be hard for the public to understand.
So I'm happy to make the motion to waive reading
and introduce an ordinance making exemption findings
under CEQA pursuant to section 15282 H
of the CEQA guidelines and amending the municipal code
to adopt the proposed amendments
to the Walnut Creek accessory dwelling ordinance
consistent with state law,
guidance from the California Department of Housing
and Community Development and program H4F
of the 202331 housing element.
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
May I have a roll call vote?
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Council Member Wilk.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Darling.
Aye.
Mayor Haskew.
Aye.
Motion carries.
And since that's the last item,
the good news is we are adjourned.