As a new state housing bill, SB 9, goes into effect Jan. 1, Seaside looks to limit its impact.

The city of Seaside is rushing to get out in front of Senate Bill 9, a state housing bill that goes into effect Jan. 1 and which allows homeowners in single-family zoned neighborhoods to subdivide their lots and add more dwelling units with only ministerial approval from local agencies – meaning projects wouldn’t have to come before an agency board for approval.

But as permissive as SB 9 is, it does allow local governments to establish objective standards for new units, and Seaside City Council will meet Thursday, Dec. 16 to consider approving an urgency ordinance outlining what those standards will be.

“If there’s no ordinance,” City Attorney Sheri Damon says, “neighbors would have no say, no public hearing, no appeal rights. It would be all done by a building official.”

With an ordinance outlining objective standards, Damon says, building officials can instead rely on the city’s specific guidelines when deciding whether to approve a project.

And if the draft ordinance is any indication, those standards appear to be as restrictive as possible within the parameters of the law, and could potentially kneecap SB 9 to the extent that no new housing units would be built on subdivided lots within the city.

One proposed guideline, for example, is that any new unit built under SB 9 must have the same “color tones, window types, door and window trims, roofing materials and roof pitch” as the primary dwelling. Another is that at least one new parking space be added for each additional unit, and that they be a minimum of 16 feet long.

But by far the most onerous proposed standard is that any new parcel created by subdividing a lot would have a deed restriction stipulating that any units on the new lot would be restricted to the county’s definition of low – or very low-income households.

That proposed guideline in particular struck Councilmember Jon Wizard, who says many renters in the area who can’t afford a house, but who make between $25-$30 an hour, wouldn’t qualify for those units. Not to mention that it could make it impossible for new construction to pencil out for any homeowner wanting to add more units.

“All we do is end up making it infeasible to build these things,” Wizard says of the proposed standards. “If we make it more complicated and less feasible, then why are we doing that?”

According to Seaside city staff, about 1,800 properties in the city could be split pursuant to SB 9, and about 682 lots could add a new duplex. The city’s planning department has already been approached by people looking to potentially take advantage of the new law on their property.

If the city doesn’t establish standards, Damon says, “If everybody came into the Planning Department in January 2022, we would have the potential of 11,000 houses hitting the Seaside streets at the same time.”

Damon also adds the city is in compliance with its adopted housing plan. “Seaside has built all the houses it’s supposed to build,” she says. “Then you have the state coming in and throwing this at us.”