REPORT TO PLANNING COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Recommend that City Council adopt an ordinance to amend Sunnyvale Municipal Code Section 19.68.040 (Accessory dwelling units) and find that the action is exempt from environmental review pursuant to Public Resources Code 21080.17.
Report
BACKGROUND
Government Code Section 65852.2, as amended in late 2016 by Senate Bill 1069 and Assembly Bill 2299, created a streamlined permitting process for accessory dwelling units (ADUs). The legislation requires local jurisdictions to consider ADUs as allowed uses within single-family residential zoning districts, subject to limited development standards. Additionally, the legislation required local jurisdictions to update existing ADU regulations for consistency with the new requirements by January 1, 2017. On December 13, 2016, the City of Sunnyvale became one of the first jurisdictions in California to amend its codes for ADUs to comply with this new law. (Sunnyvale Municipal Code Section 19.68.040).
Subsequently, the City considered further refinements to the ADU regulations as part of an action item in the 2015-2023 Housing Element of the Sunnyvale General Plan. In November 2017, the City Council adopted several additional amendments to Sunnyvale Municipal Code Section 19.68.040 as recommended by staff, following several months of public outreach. Those amendments further reduced the minimum lot size for newly built ADUs in the R-0 and R-1 zones, made the owner-occupancy requirement permanent, and made several other minor changes. Those amendments increased the number of single family lots in those zones where an ADU can potentially be developed.
Meanwhile, in late 2017, the state Legislature enacted two new bills, Senate Bill 229 and Assembly Bill 494, to clarify certain unclear and inconsistent provisions in the 2016 legislation. To ensure that the City's ADU ordinance is fully consistent with the 2017 amendments, staff has prepared a draft ordinance (Attachment 2) that ...
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