The county is adding pre-approved building plans, tiny homes on wheels and accelerated permit review to spur new home construction amid a housing and homelessness crisis.

These new county rules to expedite housing construction will provide guaranteed timelines for permit review, offer pre-approved home plans and relax other regulations, marking a long-awaited effort to streamline homebuilding amid a regional housing shortage.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a package of items aimed at making housing construction in unincorporated communities quicker and easier and approved $14.5 million to make the changes.

Together they comprise a “broad suite of strategies and initiatives designed to help remove barriers to producing housing,” said Planning and Development Director Dahvia Lynch.

Residents and builders have called for the county to clear the way for more home construction, ranging from subsidized housing to apartments, condos and single-family homes.

“San Diego builders stand ready to help solve the housing crisis,” Hannah Gbeh, vice president of government affairs for the Building Industry Association of San Diego County, said in public comments Wednesday. “The problem is that regulatory systems keep telling us no.”

Under the new policy, the county will add planning staff to expedite building permits, with a guaranteed turnaround of two to 30 days for affordable housing and emergency shelters.

It sets a timeline of 15 to 30 days for urban infill areas and those designated efficient for vehicle miles traveled — a measure of how much driving, and therefore emissions, an area generates. And it establishes a similar 15-to-30-day timeline for what it calls workforce housing for middle-income people.

The new rules also remove paperwork requirements for previously approved home designs, cutting the time needed to obtain permits for tracts containing similar housing units.

“Some home builders use nearly identical home designs for multiple projects,” Lynch said “This expedites approval of permits for those projects.”

The policy will also add free, pre-approved housing plans builders can pull to save money on home design.

“Staff would develop floor plans for multiple homes and make them available at no cost to the public,” Lynch said.

The system would be similar to plans the county now offers for accessory dwelling units, also known as backyard cottages or granny flats. Those plans save time and design fees and have led to a 40 percent uptick in new backyard units since they were introduced, according to the board letter.

Similar plans for single-family homes would save home builders about $20,000 to $25,000 and could be used with small modifications to each building site, the letter stated.

Under the new rules, tiny homes on wheels — small, movable houses typically 500 square feet or less — will be counted as accessory dwelling units. County regulations already allow tiny homes on permanent foundations, and the new policy adds mobile versions to housing stock for unincorporated areas.

Planning staff will also create “short videos on common topics to help customers navigate the land development process,” Lynch said, and they will assign a development liaison to support more complex projects.

Extra planning staff will help “make sure applications are complete and correct when submitted,” the county said in a press release. And there will be special help for projects that need septic tank approvals.

The board rejected a separate proposal to provide financial incentives to cover the cost of septic systems on homes without sewer access. Supervisor Joel Anderson said a cheaper alternative would be to expand sewer lines in areas without them. “We know sewer lines are far better than septic.”

Source: SDuniontribune by Deborah Sullivan Brennan