The Santa Clara County Planning Collaborative is a shared effort among the county’s jurisdictions to help address the region’s housing challenges. The jurisdictions, by working together collaboratively, save money, time and resources by sharing information and capacity; maintain & facilitate relationships with non-profits, affordable housing advocates, and key governmental organizations; and receive additional staffing support from Community Planning Collaborative.
Formed in October of 2019, the Santa Clara County Planning Collaborative is a shared effort among the county’s jurisdictions to address the region’s housing challenges. The jurisdictions save money, time, and resources by working together collaboratively to share information, build capacity, connect with community partners, and consult with key governmental organizations. The Cities Association contracts with Community Planning Collaborative to lead the effort.
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Use these resources to educate staff and community members on laws, construction, and finance, and explore policy options for legalizing ADUs and reforming city ordinances.
ADU Documents
Under the Fair Housing Act all jurisdictions are required to take steps for Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing. The Santa Clara County Planning Collaborative offers several resources to design meaningful policies for overcoming patterns of segregation and fostering inclusive communities.
Use these resources to explore policy options, educate staff and community members, and access services offered by the Planning Collaborative.
AFFH & Equity Documents
Affordable Housing Finance Documents
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
| Affordable Housing Finance Workshop – Session 3 | |
| Affordable Housing Finance Workshop – Session 2 | |
| Affordable Housing Finance Workshop – Session 1 |
The Santa Clara County Planning Collaborative is developing technical assistance resources to support jurisdictions with their anti-displacement efforts, including support and outreach for renters and property owners.
See the documents linked below for resources and more information.
If you have questions or would like assistance developing your jurisdiction’s programs, contact David (driskell@planningcollaborative.com) or Abbie (tuning@planningcollaborative.com). See the work plan for upcoming resources and trainings through 2025.
Anti-Displacement + Tenant and Landlord Resources
Constraints Documents
We are pleased to announce that the Santa Clara Collaborative Grand Nexus and Feasibility Reports have been successfully completed and delivered to each of the participating jurisdictions.
Each jurisdiction will proceed with its own review and adoption process in accordance with local requirements and timelines. The reports will be made publicly available by each jurisdiction as part of these processes.
If you would like more information about the next steps for a specific jurisdiction, please contact the staff member listed below:
- Gilroy: Christie Thomas, christie.thomas@cityofgilroy.org
- Mountain View: Wayne Chen, wayne.chen@mountainview.gov
- Los Altos Hills: Jay Bradford, jbradford@losaltoshills.ca.gov
- Los Gatos: Joel Paulson, jpaulson@losgatosca.gov
- Santa Clara: Adam Marcus, amarcus@santaclaraca.gov
- Sunnyvale: Ryan Dyson, RDyson@sunnyvale.ca.gov
Background:
Six jurisdictions in Santa Clara County collaborated on an initiative to explore updates to and/or enact new affordable housing policies to be applied to new development. These policy studies covered residential affordable housing impact fees, inclusionary requirements and in-lieu fees, and commercial linkage fees—with different jurisdictions opting into different components of the study.
The six jurisdictions that participated in the study were Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Mountain View, the City of Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale. Some of these jurisdictions had affordable housing ordinances in place, while others were exploring them for the first time.
Strategic Economics performed the necessary nexus and feasibility studies to support this effort and recommended updates to policies for the various communities in the fall of 2025. Community Planning Collaborative Community Planning Collaborative facilitated coordination between the cities and Strategic Economics.
Links to View December 2025 Virtual Meeting Recordings and Slides
Community Planning Collaborative and Strategic Economics hosted two virtual presentations to introduce the draft project reports and present key findings for each of the participating jurisdictions in the Santa Clara County Multi-Jurisdiction Affordable Housing Study. The presentation will cover studies performed for the following jurisdictions:
- Gilroy
- Los Gatos
- City of Santa Clara
- Sunnyvale
To view the meeting recording held on Tuesday, 12/9/25 at from 11am to 12pm, please click here.
To view the meeting recording held on Wednesday, 12/10/25 at from 6pm to 7pm, please click here.
To view/download the presentation slides from the meetings, please click here.
All of the drafts mentioned in the presentations are available for review/download in the post below and the project team is accepting comment until 12/19/25 through this input form.
Please email stakeholderfeedback (at) strategiceconomics (dot) com with any questions or additional comments.
Public Drafts of the Reports Available
The public drafts of the SCC Grand Nexus and Feasibility Study are available for review and comment. Public drafts are available for the following jurisdictions:
- Gilroy
- Los Gatos
- City of Santa Clara
- Sunnyvale
Interested parties will have the opportunity to review and provide comment during each jurisdiction’s individual public process when they bring forward policies and ordinances for consideration. Please note that Mountain View and Los Altos Hills have also participated in the study, but the results of their specific affordable housing studies are still under review.
The studies include the following policies; however, the analyses and reports produced for each jurisdiction vary depending on the jurisdiction’s participation:
A residential affordable housing impact fee that may be charged on new residential development to help fund affordable housing.
An inclusionary affordable housing policy that may require certain residential developments to offer a percentage of the new housing units at a price that is affordable to households at specific income levels. These developments also generally have the option to pay a fee in lieu of the requirement.
A commercial linkage fee that may be charged on new commercial development (office, life science and R&D, hotel, industrial, and/or retail) to help fund affordable housing.
Please use this form to provide your comments on the draft reports by 12/19/25.
Please email stakeholderfeedback (at) strategiceconomics (dot) com with any questions.
Public Drafts of the Studies by Jurisdiction
December 2025 Virtual Meetings for the Inclusionary Zoning and Affordable Housing Study Draft Reports
Community Planning Collaborative and Strategic Economics will host two virtual presentations to introduce the draft project reports and present key findings for each of the participating jurisdictions in the Santa Clara County Multi-Jurisdiction Affordable Housing Study. The presentation will cover studies performed for the following jurisdictions:
- Gilroy
- Los Gatos
- City of Santa Clara
- Sunnyvale
Interested parties will also have the opportunity to review and provide comment during each jurisdiction’s individual public process when they bring forward policies and ordinances for consideration. Please note that Mountain View and Los Altos Hills have also participated in the study, but the results of their specific affordable housing studies are still under review.
The meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, December 9th, from 11am to 12pm and on Wednesday, December 10th, from 6pm to 7pm. Both meetings will be identical in content presented.
Please use the following links to join us:
- Zoom link for Meeting on Tuesday, December 9th from 11am to 12pm
- Zoom link for Meeting on Wednesday, December 10th from 6pm to 7pm
Please email stakeholderfeedback (at) strategiceconomics (dot) com with any questions. We look forward to your attendance.
2/25/25 Affordable Housing Advocates and Developers Meeting
On February 25, 2025, the project team, Strategic Economics and Community Planning Collaborative, hosted a virtual affordable housing developers and advocates meeting to share the purpose and goals of the study, explain how the findings could be used to inform housing policy, and answer participant questions.
3/24/25 Public Virtual Meeting
On March 24, 2025, the project team, Strategic Economics and Community Planning Collaborative, hosted a virtual public meeting to share the purpose and goals of the study, explain how the findings could be used to inform housing policy, and answer participant questions.
To view the Zoom recording of the public meeting, please use this link.
5/29/25 2nd Real Estate Industry Stakeholder Meeting
On May 29, 2025, the project team, Strategic Economics and Community Planning Collaborative, hosted the second virtual real estate industry stakeholder meeting to share the preliminary results, including the working assumptions about the financial feasibility of residential and commercial development.
Previous Meeting Materials
Housing Element Overview & Other Resources
Housing Needs
Collaborative participants have access to several resources for identifying community-specific housing needs. Use these resources to build on existing needs assessments and find region-wide information. ABAG drafted housing needs sections for every jurisdiction. These are available on the HESS site. We suggest this goes in your appendix.
The Planning Collaborative meets regularly to share resources and updates on state timelines. Following each call, meeting agendas with notes will be updated below.
To add additional resources to this page, please email Project Manager Samantha Dolgoff dolgoff@planningcollaborative.com.
If you have questions or would like assistance developing your jurisdiction’s programs, contact David (driskell@planningcollaborative.com) or Abbie (tuning@planningcollaborative.com).
Missing Middle Housing
Check out these resources from partner organizations and state departments for updates on legislation and housing news.
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
| HCD Memo: AB 2339 | |
Builder’s Remedy Resources
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| “Builder’s Remedy” ABAG Technical Memo | |
| Housing California website | |
| Non-Profit Housing Northern California website |
Use these resources to access program materials and explore policy options.
Policies & Programs
Use these resources to develop an inventory of potential sites for new housing development. Several documents included links to recordings of trainings and presentations by California’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
| HCD Sites Inventory Form Instructions | |
| HCD Sites Inventory Form | |
| How to Do a Sites Inventory | |
| Programs to Rezone – ABAG Memo | |
| SB 9 Guidance for Site Inventory | |
| RHNA 6 Sites Training (12/10/2020) |