Housing Planning

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Housing Planning

• Kimberly Wong

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California General Plan

• State law requires each governing body of local
  government to adopt a comprehensive, long-term
  general plan for the physical development of
  locality
• 7 mandated elements of general plan

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Housing Element

• Became a required element of general plan in 1969
• Goal to increase the availability of a mix of
  decent and safe housing affordable to all income
  groups and should be conducted in an efficient,
  planning-driven manner
• Adopt plans to provide opportunities for housing
  development
• Only component of local governments general plan
  subject to mandatory state review

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Housing Element

• Responsive to local conditions and needs
• Informed by local concerns and perspectives
• Developed to implement State housing policies
• Organized, reinforced, implemented by local
  governments in general plans
• Consistent and predictable in application across
  State

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Housing Element

• Five-year policy program
• Must identify sufficient set of potential sites
  for future housing development to accommodate
  communitys need by right
• Number of needed units are goals not mandated
  acts
• Details what programs and policies local
  government foresees undertaking

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Fair-Share Planning

• Regional process by which each local community
  works to accommodate a fair proportion of
  regions housing need
• Cities need to plan for needs of the wider region
  not just current city residents
• Determine where housing should be built within a
  region
• Place housing where it will expand housing
  opportunity

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• Based upon your knowledge of different cities in
  California, do you think the goals of the Housing
  Element law meets the necessary requirements of
  housing for a city and a region? What would you
  add?

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Department of Housing and Community Development
(HCD)

• Seeks to develop viable communities by promoting
  integrated approaches that provide decent
  housing, suitable living environment, expand
  economic opportunities for low and moderate
  incomes
• Reviews local housing elements for compliance
  with state law
• Determines whether city/countys Housing Element
  is compliant or noncompliant

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Compliant

• Cities with large populations are likely to reach
  compliance
• Large local governments have the resources to
  complete successful housing plan
• Less pressure of homeowners and more influence of
  pro-growth business elites

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Noncompliant

• Non-compliant if HCD determines that the plan
  cannot meet targeted number of units
• There is a high degree of local government
  noncompliance with the law
• As of September 25, 2002 33 of Californias
  localities were considered noncompliant, 51
  compliant
• Limits eligibility for state and federal funds
  for affordable housing and can result in lawsuits

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Why do so many communities have noncompliant
housing elements?

• Community social status and exclusion
• Cities dont want low-incomes in the city
• Homeowners fears of reduced property values
• Suburbanites want to associate with people of
  similar socioeconomic status
• Local land-use characteristics and vacant land
• Lacks sufficient land resources to accommodate
  new housing units
• Normally consists of older housing stock
• Housing more settled with less vacant land

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• Resources of the local government
• Dependent upon the availability of subsidized
  housing funds
• Population size
• Planning staff resources
• Revenue base
• Local politics and residential growth policies
• Political choices in context of citys political
  traditions
• Reduction of residentially zoned land
• Limits on building permits
• Higher level of citizen opposition to growth and
  use of citizen antigrowth initiatives

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Does compliance mean that more housing is
produced?

• There is no evidence of a detectable relationship
  between compliance and percentage increase in
  housing in 1990s
• Cities that are noncompliant weigh more toward
  single-family units with lower proportion of
  multi-family housing for newly built units
• Whether compliant or not it is not a guarantee
  that there will be housing units built

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Can states ensure adequate local provision of
housing development?

• Senate Bill 910- strengthen states control local
  governments with noncompliant housing elements
• Bill denied in assembly
• Fine cities and counties that were noncompliant
• States could impose inclusionary zoning
  requirements on all communities

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• Self-certification based upon performance-
• Must meet fair-share housing needs through
  production standards and avoids State review
• Produce 15 of regional housing need for
  lower-income households
• Subregional allocations and joint housing
  elements-
• Jurisdictions in a subregion should decide
  collectively how to divide up the areas housing
  allocations

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• Encouraging transfers of housing allocations
  among jurisdictions-
• Exchange for payments or other considerations
• Housing may be accommodated more easily in some
  jurisdictions
• Rewards for performance-
• Rewards local governments for addition of housing
  units
• Jobs/Housing Balance Incentive Program
• Establish a regional fund

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• Do you think there are any problems Californias
  Housing Element Law?

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Problems With Housing Element Law

• Goes against politics by asking cities to plan
  for the wider region
• Represent a mismatch of goals and policy tools
• Embraces multiple objectives making it difficult
  the general public to understand

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Housing Element Work Group

• Disagreement regarding effectiveness and
  implementation of current law
• Goal identify top priorities for reforming
  Housing Element law and develop recommendation to
  improve effectiveness
• Focused on Regional Housing Needs Assessment
  (RHNA) and performance-based certification

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Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA)

• Allows for the consideration of regional issues
• Distributes responsibilities among jurisdictions
• Relieves local governments of data-gathering
  burdens
• Redistributes burdens of lower-income households
  in geographic areas

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Performance-based Certification

• Meets certain production standards (15 housing
  for lower-incomes)
• Avoid State review if complies with specified
  performance measures
• Prior housing element must have been compliant
• Housing element must be adopted in conformance
  within statutory time frames

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• Difficult to set a standard due to lack of
  consistent data on production of affordable
  housing
• Group thought it was important to consider
  meeting affordability goals and overall supply