Mountain View approves zoning changes to allow emergency shelters on El Camino

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As of now, there are no year-round emergency shelters in Mountain View, but that might not be the case for long. The city is changing its zoning to allow emergency shelters to exist by-right – not just in industrial areas, but also in residential parts of the city, albeit in a limited scope.

The City Council, in a 5-0 vote, unanimously approved a plan to expand zoning and permitting regulations as well as other development standards related to emergency shelters on Tuesday, March 26. The upshot is that parts of El Camino Real would automatically allow shelters serving the homeless to proceed without special permitting.

Council member Ellen Kamei was absent for the proceedings and Council member Margaret Abe-Koga recused herself because of the proximity of her home to the area under consideration.

Emergency shelters serve homeless people, typically for six months or less, with minimal supportive services. To comply with state law, AB 2339, and meet its housing element obligations, the city is required to zone for emergency shelters by-right in the El Camino Real Precise Plan by March 31. But whether this rezoning needed to cover the entire precise plan, or just a portion of it, has been the subject of debate.

Last month, the Environmental Planning Commission took a crack at the rezoning amendment, ultimately recommending in a 3-2 split vote to allow for emergency shelters by-right in only a subsection of the El Camino Real Precise Plan, specifically the Castro and Miramonte area.

The council supported the recommendation to partially rezone the precise plan for emergency shelters by-right, with provisional (or conditional) use permits required for the rest of the precise plan. They aligned on this recommendation largely to uphold another council priority: the historic preservation process.

Last year, a consulting firm identified eight possible historic sites within the boundaries of the El Camino Real Precise Plan. These sites would not be protected by a historic preservation permit if the entire plan was rezoned for emergency shelters by-right, according to the council report.

To get around this, the council supported the idea of creating a regulatory framework, like an “overlay zone,” that could expand zoning areas for emergency shelters by-right at a future date, while also protecting identified historic resources.

The council settled on this option, although not without some ambivalence from Council members Lucas Ramirez and Emily Ann Ramos, who each expressed dismay about how they got there.

“It may be technically legally defensible, but it’s hard for me to feel good about it,” Ramirez said, referring to how the council parsed the language of the housing element. “Because three months ago, if I were to ask anybody in this room what this meant, I would doubt that anybody would say, ‘Well, it means El Camino Real Precise Plan, you know, Castro/Miramonte sub-area one or sub-area two.’ It’s not in my mind an adequate reading of that program,” he said.

Similarly, Ramos expressed disappointment about how the language of the housing element was interpreted to mean only a partial rezoning of the precise plan. But she also said that she was committed to removing barriers to emergency shelters, even if it took a bit longer.

“One of the things that… I kind of committed myself when I first became a council member is to not disregard things that are important to others. And I find having the options for shelters incredibly important for those who are vulnerable in our communities. But I understand how important it is that we take the time to evaluate historic resources,” she said.

It is still unclear how the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) will respond to the city’s interpretation of its housing element, although the staff report said that a “good faith effort” would be considered as part of the city’s attempts to comply with state mandates.

Council member Alison Hicks, who supported expanding emergency shelters by-right while still protecting historic resources, also noted that it was important for shelters not to be clustered together in one part of the city. The El Camino Real Precise Plan was ideal because it has several options for shelters over a wide area, she said.

Hicks also pointed out that the city was only planning for the possibility of shelters as part of a long-term strategy. “The advantage, or the reason you might want to designate a larger area is not because you’re going to have more shelters, but you’ll have more places to choose from that might be better for the city, the developer and the people in need,” Hicks said, summarizing points made by city staff.

The city has identified four possible sites in the El Camino Real Precise Plan that could serve the purpose of an emergency shelter. Two of the sites, 836 West El Camino Real and 1098 West El Camino Real, are located in the Castro and Miramonte subarea that the council approved to rezone for emergency shelters by-right. The two other sites are located at 860 Bay Street and 1065 West El Camino Real.