City’s Housing Plan-No Cause for Alarm

by Susan Goldbeck

John Biggs, Pacific Grove's Community Development Director

The California Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2022,

issued a mandate directed at all municipalities in California: each jurisdiction

would be subject to the requirement that a housing plan be developed to a facilitate

the future creation of new housing at all income levels. This directive was part of a

once- a -decade review of the housing needs in the state.

It outlined a comprehensive strategy to accommodate the projected growth

in urban populations and the related need for housing . This was to done through

adoption of plans which include updated policies and programs and a detailed site

inventory.

Pacific Grove’s amendments to the Housing Element in its General Plan,

which the City proposes to implement in response to this mandate, is nearing the

point where submission for certification by State officials will take place. The

Draft Environmental Impact Report as well as the plan itself will be at the City

Council level for its consideration and possible approval before the end of the year.

On August 13, the Pacific Grove Planning Commission had a review session

which was one of two it will have before they make a recommendation to the City

Council about the housing plan. The City Council can either accept or reject the

recommendations and can come up with their own changes if they deem them

appropriate. Once approved, it will send the City’s housing plan in for State

approval by the end of this year.

Each Planning Commissioner was well versed in the extremely lengthy reports

that were part of this approval process and each asked some very thoughtful

questions.

Commissioner David Sweigert complimented City staff for the good work

done on the plan. Community Development Director Jon Biggs and his Chief

Planner on the project Arron Campbell, were both at the meeting. Campbell had

been tasked with shepherding the City through the process of creating a revised

housing element in its General Plan and otherwise help create the city’s plan

which would meet state criteria and be certified.

Despite some citizen complaints at the session about the lack of public

outreach on the housing plan, there have been a number of study sessions which

by all accounts have been attended by a only a small number of residents,

business owners. and members of the public . At this point the period for public

input into the environmental impacts of the plan had closed earlier that month.

Biggs, in response to the complaint of insufficient public involvement , told

the Planning Commission that although only thirty people attended the last

public study session on August 9, 2025, that in his experience this was a typical

number of attendees to these types of review sessions. Campbell agreed and

added, “Actually I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from members of the

public about the City’s plan.”

Biggs was a long- time planner for the City many years ago, but has recently

returned recently to Pacific Grove to head up its Planning Department as Director

of Community Development. Biggs told the Beacon that after working for many

years in the City of Los Altos, he has had considerable experience working on that

city’s Housing Element. Los Altos, he said, had a similar demographic but

somewhat was t more high end than Pacific Grove.