Known for its lack of sidewalks, its high-profile residents who want to keep a low profile, and its stunning single-family homes, Atherton, Calif., is at a crossroads. Not only is it home to some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest, it’s also among the region’s least diverse towns, with some of the highest income per capita in the entire country—along with being the nation’s most expensive zip code. But the state is requiring it to adopt a new housing plan, and the billionaire investor and multimillionaire basketball star who call it home don’t like that one bit.
Every eight years, the state of California requires all local governments to adopt housing plans, also known as a housing element. This is essentially a blueprint showing how the jurisdiction plans to meet its housing requirement. In Atherton’s case, the state has put it on the hook for 348 new units over the next eight-year cycle—not such a big ask, you’d think. This will require partial rezoning and some development of multifamily housing. But Atherton’s previous zoning prohibited any single-family home from being built on less than a third of an acre of space.
