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Conduct a noticed public hearing and consider adopting a resolution to approve an Addendum to the Solano County General Plan Final Environmental Impact Report pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act and adopt the 2023-2031 Housing Element
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Published Notice Required? Yes _X__ No _ _
Public Hearing Required? Yes _X__ No _ _
DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
The Department of Resource Management recommends that the Board of Supervisors:
1. Conduct a noticed public hearing; and
2. Adopt a resolution which:
a. Approves an Addendum to the Solano County General Plan Final Environmental Impact Report pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act; and
b. Adopts the 2023-2031 Housing Element.
SUMMARY:
Since 1969, California has required that all cities and counties adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community. This is accomplished through the adoption of a Housing Element, which is one of seven required components of a local government’s General Plan. The purpose of the Housing Element is to establish a comprehensive plan to address housing needs in the unincorporated area of Solano County and it is required to address the housing needs of all economic segments of the County including low- and moderate-income households and populations with special housing needs. The current draft of the Solano County Housing Element includes goals, policies and programs, in addition to a housing sites inventory and analysis and a discussion of potential constraints to the development of housing.
Unlike other Elements of the General Plan, which may be updated at the discretion of each jurisdiction, California Government Code Sections 65580-65589.8 require local jurisdictions to update the Housing Element of their General Plans every eight years, subject to the review and approval of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The County’s current Housing Element, the 5th Cycle, was adopted in April 2015 and covers the period from 2015 to 2023. The proposed updated Housing Element covers the period of 2023 to 2031. The draft 2023-2031 Housing Element can be found on the County’s website at:
<https://www.solanocounty.com/depts/rm/planning/regional_housing_needs_allocation_and_housing_element.asp>
On January 11, 2024, the Airport Land Use Commission (ALUC) determined that the draft Housing Element update was consistent with the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan. On January 18, 2024, the Planning Commission conducted a noticed public hearing and recommended approval of the 2023-2031 draft Housing Element to the Board of Supervisors without any additional revisions.
On December 14, 2023 the County received notice from HCD that the current draft was consistent with State Housing Element law.
Once adopted by this Board, the Housing Element and the approval resolution will then be submitted back to HCD for final certification that the Housing Element is consistent with the requirements of State Law.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The Housing Element update is included in the Department of Resource Management’s FY2023/24 Working Budget. The costs associated with preparing the agenda item are nominal and absorbed by the Department’s FY2023/24 Working Budget.
DISCUSSION:
Background
The Housing Element is considered the primary policy document for any given jurisdiction to guide the development, rehabilitation, and preservation of housing for all economic segments of a County’s population. Accordingly, the County of Solano County Housing Element includes the identification and analysis of the existing and projected housing needs of the County. The document also contains a sites inventory; fair housing assessment; and goals, policies, and objectives along with implementation programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of a range of housing needs.
Attachment D is the Planning Commission staff report. Attachment C to the Planning Commission staff report provides a detailed timeline for the ultimate development of the 2023-2031 Housing Element including notable dates and approvals for the development of the County’s housing allocation.
Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)
Typically, under State housing law, the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is tasked with determining how many housing units a city or county must plan for over an eight-year period within its Housing Element. This is known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). However, the law also allows adjacent cities and counties to form a Subregion, which would allow the subregion to redistribute the countywide allocation among its member agencies. As such, Solano County and each of its cities formed a Subregion for the purpose of allocating ABAG’s countywide housing unit allocation of 10,992 units among its member agencies. The Subregion allocated a total of 315 housing units to the unincorporated area of the County in the following household income categories: very low-income (80), low-income (50), moderate-income (56), and above moderate-income (129). The Housing Element is required to discuss and analyze how the County can accommodate these housing units over the next eight years. Housing Element law does not require that the RHNA units be constructed. It simply requires the local agency to identify sites and provide the necessary zoning to allow for the development of the units.
Attachment G of the attached Planning Commission staff report provides a land inventory summary and brief explanation of the County’s RHNA obligation. While most cities rely on higher density housing to satisfy their lower income RHNA, the County does not have the available municipal services to provide high density residential development. As such, the County is primarily relying on additional accessory dwelling units (ADU) and manufactured housing to meet its RHNA needs over the course of the next eight years.
Housing Programs
In addition to identifying sites to accommodate the RHNA, the 2023-2031 draft Housing Element lists various housing related programs. These programs are intended to facilitate and encourage additional housing development by minimizing constraints, seeking additional financial resources, encouraging housing for different population needs, and ensuring zoning code definitions and permitting are consistent with current State law. While some of the programs carry over from the current 2015-2023 Housing Element, others are revised or consolidated to allow for easier implementation. New programs are also proposed.
Section 1.3.3.2 of the Addendum provides a detailed explanation of the consolidated and amended programs in the draft Housing Element. These programs primarily relate to housing rehabilitation (A.1.), preservation of existing housing units (C.3.), program partnerships (C.4.), fair housing (D.5.), and energy conservation (H.1.).
Section 1.3.4 of the Addendum provides a summary of newly proposed programs. The programs include the following:
Program A.2.: Provides for utilizing information derived in the code compliance process to evaluate areas or sites in need of resources for housing rehabilitation.
Program B.3.: Provides for an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) incentive program. The County relies on ADUs to help meets its low and moderate income RHNA obligations. This program will incentivize and encourage the construction of additional ADUs by providing financial incentives.
Program B.4.: Consistent with requirements in the Government Code, continue to allow housing development with at least 20% affordable units by-right that have been counted as available sites in previous Housing Element cycles.
Program B.5.: County will continue to support multifamily development opportunities in the cities and unincorporated areas where feasible and continue to analyze the Benicia Road corridor in the Homeacres area for opportunities to facilitate and add new multifamily housing options.
Program B.6.: Continue to provide for a variety of housing types and designs (duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, etc.) to provide for greater flexibility and affordability options within housing stock.
Program D.4.: Encourage and support additional housing resources for extremely low-income residents, such as financial support and identification and removal of barriers to development.
Program E.2.: Continue to find ways to streamline permit review and processing.
Program E.3.: Update the zoning ordinance, where needed, to bring definitions and permitting requirements consistent with State law, such as allowing emergency shelters by-right in at least one zoning district.
Fair Housing Assessment
One of the new requirements for Housing Elements is to provide an assessment of fair housing. Assembly Bill (AB) 686 requires that all housing elements due on or after January 1, 2021, contain an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) consistent with the core elements of the analysis required by the federal Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Final Rule of July 16, 2015. Under California law, AFFH means “taking meaningful actions, in addition to combating discrimination, that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics.”
California Government Code section 65583 (10)(A)(ii) requires local jurisdictions analyze racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, disparities in access to opportunity, and disproportionate housing needs, including displacement risk. Although this is the Housing Element for the County of Solano, Government Code section 65583 (subds. (c)(9), (c)(10), 8899.50, subds. (a), (b), (c)) requires all local jurisdictions address patterns locally and regionally to compare conditions at the local level to the rest of the region. To that end, the Solano County Housing Element Collaborative, comprised of the cities of Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo, and the County of Solano prepared a regional Assessment of Fair Housing and each participating jurisdiction prepared a local AFFH.
Environmental Analysis
The Housing Element update primarily provides high level policy revisions to encourage, facilitate, and maintain housing development in the County. The Housing Element identifies and inventories sites suitable for residential development, assesses current County programs to encourage housing, and develops objectives to ensure that existing and projected housing needs are met. It has determined that there are adequately zoned lands for the County to accommodate its RHNA and no changes to land use designations are proposed in conjunction with the update.
The County prepared an Addendum to the Solano County 2008 General Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which was certified in July 2008. The Addendum demonstrates that the EIR adequately addresses the potential physical impacts associated with implementation of the 2023-2031 Housing Element, and the Housing Element will not trigger any of the conditions described in the CEQA Guidelines section 15162 calling for further environmental review.
Links to the Addendum and the 2008 General Plan Final EIR are attached as Attachment C for the Board’s consideration.
Approval Process and Next Steps
The first iteration of the draft Housing Element was submitted to HCD on January 6, 2023 for its initial 90-day review period. In response to both formal and informal comments received from HCD, the draft Housing Element has been revised multiple times over the last year to ensure consistency with State law. A more specific timeline is included as Attachment C to the Planning Commission staff report. The timeline includes the development of the County’s RHNA, document submittal dates to HCD, and meetings and workshops that provided opportunity for public input. The most recent comments received by HCD on December 14, 2023 (Attachment E of the Planning Commission staff report) indicate that the current draft of the Housing Element complies with State Housing Element law and, once adopted by the County, can be submitted to the State for final certification.
The Airport Land Use Commission (ALUC) reviewed the draft Housing Element update on January 11, 2024 and determined that it is consistent with the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan. The Commissioners stressed the importance of preserving safe densities identified in the Compatibility Use Zones, noting that any proposed changes in densities would be required to come before the ALUC for compatibility determination.
On January 18, 2024, the Planning Commission conducted a noticed public hearing. The Commission recommended approval of the 2023-2031 draft Housing Element to the Board of Supervisors without any additional revisions (Attachment E).
Once adopted, the Housing Element and the approval resolution will then be submitted back to HCD for final certification that the Housing Element is consistent with the requirements of State Law.
Public Hearing Notice
Consistent with Government Code sections 65090 and 65094, a public hearing notice was published in the Daily Republic at least 10 days prior to the February 6, 2024 public hearing (Attachment F).
ALTERNATIVES:
The Board may choose not to adopt the 2023-2031 Housing Element or may choose to make revisions based on public or Board comments. Staff does not recommend these alternatives since Housing Element law requires each city and county to have a State certified Housing Element and HCD has determined that the current draft meets the requirements of the State’s Housing Element law and can be certified by HCD.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The Solano Transportation Authority (STA) holds the contract with PlaceWorks, the planning consultant preparing the draft Housing Elements, with each of the cities in Solano County a party to an Agreement with the STA to fund its specific portion of the work with PlaceWorks. Additionally, HCD is required to review, comment on, and ultimately certify each agency’s Housing Element update. The ALUC determined that the draft Housing Element was consistent with the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan. The County Administrator and County Counsel have reviewed this item and concur with the recommendations.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION