San Mateo County Planning to Hold Public Meeting on Midcoast Building Permit CDP at Supervisor Mueller's Office

Dear Midcoast Residents,

The San Mateo County Planning and Building Department is writing to provide an update regarding the annual residential building permit limits in the Midcoast area and a proposed amendment to the Local Coastal Program (LCP) designed to address the halt on accepting new residential units permit applications for 2026 & 2027.

The Issue at Hand

Currently, the County’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) Policy 1.23 limits residential growth in the Midcoast to 40 new units per calendar year. This cap was established to manage growth and protect coastal resources while the county works to address critical infrastructure constraints related to traffic congestion and wastewater conveyance. There is, however, an exemption designed to facilitate affordable housing: if the 40-unit cap is reached, additional permits can be issued as long as the average growth rate over a three-year period (the year of issuance plus the following two years) does not exceed 40 units per year.

In 2025, the County issued a total of 102 building permits, heavily driven by the 71 units approved for the Cypress Point affordable housing project. As a result, the Department is currently limited to issuing a total of just 18 new residential building permits for the entirety of 2026 and 2027 combined.

Since January 2026, five permits have been issued, leaving 13 permits available. Once these 13 permits are processed, the Department will be entirely halted from issuing new residential permits until January 1, 2028.

Given this limitation and the number of previously submitted building permit applications in review, the Department is not accepting any additional building permit applications for new residential units in the MidCoast area.

New planning permit applications for urban Midcoast residential projects will still be accepted and processed.

Waitlisting Program for Housing Permits
As we navigate these immediate permitting limits, the Department is actively making an effort to establish a waitlisting program for residents seeking building permits new housing units. This program will help us fairly manage the queue of applicants waiting for development opportunities during this constrained period. We will outline the details of this waitlist process on our website and in the upcoming public meeting.

The Proposed LCP Amendment & Upcoming Public Meeting
To prevent a complete freeze on construction of new residential development, the Planning Department has proposed a narrow amendment to LCP Policy 1.23 d.(2). Instead of using the current three-year average, the amendment would calculate the average number of permits issued annually dating back to January 1, 2013. This approach accounts for unrealized permits under the annual cap since it went into effect; in many years, the number of permits issued has been well below the 40-unit maximum.

This approach has been informally presented to Coastal Commission staff, and staff responded favorably to the proposal, on the basis that the amendment does not allow residential development beyond the overall growth rates initially established in 2013. The change would ultimately require formal approval by the Coastal Commission.

The proposal was reviewed by the Planning Commission at its May 27 hearing, and the Commission voted 4-1 to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve the proposed amendment. However, concerns were raised by the MidCoast Community Council at their meeting on May 27th, and in response to these concerns, the Planning Department will be hosting a public meeting to explain the proposal presented to the Planning Commission as well as other potential alternatives to addressing the current cap.

The meeting will be held on June 30th at 6:00 PM at Supervisor Mueller’s office in Princeton. All community members are welcome to attend, share their input, and help make a recommendation on the best path forward.

Meeting Address: Supervisor District 3 Office, Shoppes at Harbor Village, 270 Capistrano Rd. 94019

Meeting Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Zoom link: https://smcgov.zoom.us/j/85635126184

If you have questions regarding this meeting, please contact Bharat Singh, Planning Services Manager (bsingh@smcgov.org)

Sincerely,

San Mateo County Planning and Building Department

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San Mateo County Planning Tries to Amend Mid-Coast LCP To Allow More Building but Planning Commissioner and MCC Push Back; Supervisor Mueller Asks Staff to Return to MCC with Alternatives; June 4, 2026