What is the Housing Element?

Since 1969, California law has required that all cities and counties adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community. The state forecasts the need for additional housing based on population projections, and then each region must show how it will accommodate that need. When these forecasts are updated, housing plans, known as Housing Elements, must be updated too.

The Housing Element of the General Plan is intended to provide the city with a coordinated and comprehensive strategy for promoting the production of safe, decent and affordable housing within the community. A priority of both state and local governments, Government Code Section 65580 states the intent of creating Housing Elements:

The availability of housing is of vital statewide importance, and the early attainment of decent housing and a suitable living environment for every Californian family is a priority of the highest order.

California law acknowledges that in order for the private market to adequately address the housing needs and demand of Californians, local governments must adopt plans and regulatory systems that provide opportunities for (and do not unduly constrain), housing development. As a result, housing policy in California rests largely on the effective implementation of local General Plans and, in particular, local Housing Elements.

Why this matters

• Providing housing to meet the needs of all income levels is critical to the social and economic health of a city.
• It can be challenging for high-cost communities like Calabasas to attract teachers, police officers and other middle-income professionals due to a lack of workforce housing.
• Children who grow up in Calabasas will have a hard time returning here later, as adults, due to the lack of housing affordability.
• Over the past decade Los Angeles County has seen a staggering increase in homelessness and the cost associated with managing the effects on the community.
• Having an approved housing plan makes Calabasas eligible for a variety of state grants, including funds for affordable housing, parks and infrastructure improvements.
• If Calabasas doesn’t meet its deadline to create a plan to accommodate the state’s forecasted housing needs, the city could face tens of thousands of dollars in fines per month until a plan is approved by the state.
• Without an approved housing plan, the risk of housing-related lawsuits increases.

Background

The City’s current  Housing Element (5th  Cycle)  was adopted by the City Council in September 2013 and certified by the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The adopted Housing Element covers the planning period from October 2013 through October 2021. Staff is currently implementing the respective actions and programs for the current planning cycle. The next housing cycle (6th Cycle) will cover the planning period from October 2021 through October 2029.

To comply with State law, the City’s Housing Element must be updated to ensure the city’s policies and programs can accommodate the estimated housing growth need identified in the Southern California Association of Government’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation for the 2021-2029 planning period. Any future changes to Housing Element policy will require environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The 6th Cycle Housing Element and associated environmental document(s) will be reviewed for compliance with state law by the California HCD and shall be adopted by the City Council no later than October, 2021

Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA)

The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) is mandated by State law to quantify the need for housing throughout the State and each city in the Southern California region. This informs the local planning process to address existing and future housing need resulting from projected state-wide growth in population, employment, and households.

As the Council of Governments (or regional planning agency), SCAG is responsible for overseeing the RHNA process for the Southern California region, which encompasses six counties (Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura) and 191 cities in an area covering more than 38,000 square miles. SCAG is currently overseeing the 6th cycle RHNA for the 2021-2029 planning period. In August of 2019, HCD issued its final Regional Housing Need Determination to SCAG, stating that the minimum regional housing need for the six county region is 1,344,740 new housing units. HCD then directed SCAG to develop a methodology for allocating all 1.34 million units throughout the region, based on statutory guidelines for housing needs and development.

The City of Calabasas has been provided a final RHNA allocation for 354 units to accommodate estimated growth need at various income levels. The Housing Element must provide sites to accommodate this estimated growth at each income level. The 6th cycle RHNA allocation for Calabasas is as follows:

Sites to Accommodate Housing Inventory

One of the important steps in the Housing Element Update process is to identify sites that can accommodate the housing units assigned to Calabasas in the above RHNA allocation table, at all income levels. Choosing sites was completed with a thorough analysis of site specific constraints, including but not limited to, zoning, access to utilities, location, development potential, density and whether or not the site was in a previous Housing Element.

6^th Cycle RHNA Sites Inventory