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Earlier in the month, the city of Mountain View announced that it received a special “prohousing” designation from the state, making it the first city in Santa Clara County to be recognized with this distinction.
To help meet its goals of 2.5 million new homes by 2030, the state established a Prohousing Designation Program to incentivize local jurisdictions to speed up the rate of their housing production.
The program, which got its start in 2021, is still in its infancy, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), but prohousing communities already are reaping some of the program’s benefits. The designation opens the door for more funding opportunities, and gives them a leg up when applying for housing, transportation and infrastructure grants.
So far, out of 66 applications, 37 jurisdictions have been awarded the prohousing status, with Mountain View being one of the most recent cities to achieve this distinction, along with Eureka, Healdsburg, Petaluma, San Luis Obispo, Santa Monica and the County of Tulare.
Mountain View met the program’s threshold requirements, which has some basic eligibility criteria, like adopting a compliant housing element. But the city also “demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting new housing development, encouraging smart growth policies, and reducing fees,” HCD said in a press release.
The city also received praise for several specific prohousing strategies, with HCD citing the top ones as: the streamlining of building and planning permits for affordable housing projects; exempting these projects from fees; directing in-lieu fees to a trust fund for affordable housing; and adopting maximum parking requirements.
The prohousing designation comes at an opportune moment for Mountain View. The state already has committed $33 million to its Prohousing Incentive Program (PIP), and recently announced another funding cycle of $9.5 million for prohousing communities.
The city plans to apply for the PIP funding to support affordable housing projects in the pipeline, according to city spokesperson Brian Babcock. It also will consider other sources of state funding that it is now available, based on its prohousing certification, to support different kinds of housing and infrastructural developments.
This includes looking at the possibility of acquiring and preserving rent-stabilized housing to respond to tenant displacement; more opportunities for affordable home ownership; and resources that would support the community at large, like funding for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects, Caltrain grade-separation projects and climate resiliency programs, Babcock said in the emailed statement.
While Mountain View is the first city in Santa Clara County to earn the prohousing designation, HCD said that it was optimistic other Bay Area jurisdictions would follow suit.
Still, “the current rate of housing production is not keeping up with the need,” HCD said in an emailed statement, which is why it was continuing to employ a range of housing compliance strategies in addition to using incentives like the prohousing program to get cities and counties on board with its goals.
“All 539 cities and counties in California are eligible,” according to the HCD, which also said it accepts prohousing applications on a rolling basis and would work with jurisdictions to help them achieve the designation.
Mountain View residents launch app to help homeowners navigate building permitsMarch 11, 2026 8:29 am