Possible sites for housing

By Erin Mayes

In a follow-up study session on the housing element of Campbell's General Plan on Aug. 28, members of Campbell's Planning Commission discussed how to meet the state-mandated goal of identifying 777 adequate sites for housing by 2006.

Since 1999, 212 new units have been built, leaving the goal at 565 new homes.

California requires all cities and counties to regularly update the housing elements of their General Plans, which are blueprints for future development in cities.

The deadline for all Northern California cities and counties to adopt housing elements for their General Plan updates is Dec. 31, 2001.

The commission discussed secondary living units, often called "granny" units, as it had in its Aug. 8 meeting. Such units are completely separated from the main house. In Campbell, granny units may be a maximum of 640 square feet.

Commissioners and Campbell City Council members are interested in lowering the square footage requirement for adding units from the current 12,000 feet to 10,000 feet. Commissioners discussed lowering the requirement even further, to a minimum of 8,000 square feet, but decided it should be an option when the next housing element update comes along in another five years.

Campbell receives few applications for the units, but city planners estimate that 1,000 additional homes could add such units if the requirement was lowered to 10,000 square feet. The average lot in Campbell is 6,000 square feet.

Planners estimated they would receive about 100 applications per year if the requirement was lowered. About 250 secondary units have been built in Campbell since 1999.

The commission also discussed the city's goal of creating mixed-use projects in high-density areas of the city, such as along Bascom and Hamilton avenues and Winchester Boulevard. The projects would be a minimum of two-stories in height, with retail on the bottom floor and residential units on the top floors.

Commissioner Elizabeth Gibbons said she would like to see more "mixed-unit" projects, similar to the mixed-use projects, but excluding retail and instead creating studio apartments or condominiums on the ground floors.

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