After approving an ambitious plan to make room for more than 6,000 new dwellings by 2031, Palo Alto is preparing to take the scalpel to its zoning code next month with the aim of removing barriers for housing developers.

The zoning changes are based on the city's Housing Element, a state mandated document that the City Council approved in May but that has yet to get certified by the state Department of Housing and Community Development. The state agency is now reviewing the city's latest draft and is expected to issue its decision in August on whether to certify the document or demand further revisions.

In the meantime, however, the city is moving ahead with zoning changes that city planners believe are needed to meet the state-established quota of 6,086 dwellings in the 2023-2031 cycle of what's known as the Regional Needs Housing Allocation (RHNA) process. Some of these zoning revisions, including the loosening of density limits for multi-family developments, will be reviewed by local commissions and the council later this year with the target of adopting them by the end of this year.

Other changes will take longer to enact. These include, most notably, the expansion of the city's Housing Incentive Program (HIP), which relaxes zoning standards for affordable housing developments. The program, which Palo Alto introduced in 2019, aims to provide a local alternative to the state Density Bonus Law, which also incentivizes development by allowing taller and denser buildings. To date, however, the local program has only been used twice, according to Jean Eisberg, Palo Alto's consultant on the rezoning effort.

The most dramatic and immediate zoning changes will focus on the commercial, industrial and mixed-use areas in southeast Palo Alto — a section of town that the council hopes will accommodate roughly 2,000 housing units over the next eight years.

Sites along San Antonio Road, West Bayshore Road and East Charleston Road that are currently zoned for "general manufacturing" (GM) and "research, office and limited manufacturing" (ROLM) will get the heaviest dose of densification, with new projects allowed to build up to 90 dwellings per acre. Today's zoning code, by contrast, allows a maximum of 40 dwellings per acre in the city's densest residential districts.

Other parts of Palo Alto will see more modest changes, with RM-30 zones (which allow 30 units per acre) becoming RM-40 (which allow 40) and RM-40 zones becoming RM-50.

Areas within half mile of Caltrain stations and high-frequency bus routes will be able to construct up to 50 and 40 dwellings per acre, respectively. Commercial districts that currently prohibit residential use will be modified to allow it. And some manufacturing sites will now be allowed to have up to 72 dwellings per acre (this is in addition to the ones around San Antonio, where the density limit will be 90 dwellings per acre).

In addition, areas that to date have not allowed multi-family developments, including public parking lots and churches, will now be allowed to accommodate affordable housing. And three sites owned by Stanford University will be rezoned by the end of January to allow taller and denser development.

According to a report from the city's Department of Planning and Development, the additional density is required for the city to meet its state designated housing target. Palo Alto would see a shortfall of more than 4,500 dwellings in the current RHNA cycle if it only relied on sites that currently allow housing.

While state law requires most of these changes to be implemented by the end of January, Palo Alto has until December 2024 to complete revisions to the Housing Incentive Program, which is not as critical as the other zone changes to the city's ability to meet its housing targets.

Even so, city officials and consultants plan to reform the Housing Incentive Program by late January as well, Eisberg told the Planning and Transportation Commission on June 28.

Eisberg said the city has been encouraged by the Department of Housing and Community Development to move faster on adopting programs that could increase housing production, particularly for below-market-rate households, early in the planning period.

"The idea is if we offer the incentives as early as next year, they can have more of an impact," she said.

Some of the changes are still being hashed out. Last year, the city hired consultants to evaluate the physical and financial constraints that existing development standards pose for housing developers. The results will inform the city's effort to reform the Housing Incentive Program.

According to the Housing Element, the analysis explores "potential changes to density, height, parking, lot coverage, setbacks, open space, and other development standards to facilitate multi-family housing that is also financially feasible, given current market conditions."

The planning commission is scheduled to review the zoning changes that are required as part of the Housing Element in August and September with the goal of having the council approve them by November. Revisions to the Housing Incentive Program would be considered by the planning commission and the Architectural Review Board this fall before the council approves them in December or January, according to a schedule that Eisberg presented to the commission.

In its initial discussion of the rezoning effort, the commission broadly supported the suite of proposed changes. Commissioner Bart Hechtman lauded the city's progress in creating new housing opportunities within the city. Commissioner George Lu, meanwhile, encouraged the city to also engage some of the larger property owners in San Antonio Road in conversations about adding parks and other community amenities to support the expected housing boom in the area.

Commission Chair Doria Summa similarly suggested that as part of the rezoning effort the city consider requirements that would create a true community around San Antonio Road. While the city is tentatively planning to create a coordinated plan for that area, the effort has yet to launch and is expected to take several years to complete once it does.

"We say we're concerned about making a real neighborhood, a livable neighborhood in southeast Palo Alto, but we're not actually doing anything about that. And those opportunities will be lost if we don't make some requirements," Summa said.