Anonymous
By the County of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara County will formally submit a revised Draft Housing Element Update (Draft HEU) to the State Housing and Community Development Department (State HCD) for their consideration on September 22, 2023. The Draft HEU is posted on the County’s Housing Element website for the State-mandated seven-day posting period: September 14 – 21, 2023.
The County has been working on revisions to the Draft HEU to ensure that it meets all of the State’s requirements. Pursuant toGovernment Code Section 65585(b)(1), the County must “post the draft revision on its internet website and shall email a link to the draft revision to all individuals and organizations that have previously requested notices relating to the local government’s housing element at least seven days before submitting the draft revision to [State HCD].”
The County’s seven-day posting period is September 14 – 21, 2023. The County will formally submit a revised Draft HEU to State HCD fortheir consideration on September 22, 2023. The revised draft can be found at https://www.countyofsb.org/3177/Housing-Element-Update; all revisions are tracked in the Housing Element Update documents.
The County continues to work with State HCD to ensure that it finds our Draft HEU in substantial compliance with State law. The notable revisions include 1) the addition of a new program (Program 25) to ensure equitable access to services and resources, particularly in the disadvantaged communities in the county, and 2) as directed by State HCD, assumptions of lower-income housing on larger sites on the South Coast (San Marcos Growers 1 and 2, Glen Annie, and Giorgi) were reduced from 50% of the total units to a maximum of 300 total lower-income units each.
The County submitted the draft housing element to the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (State HCD) for review on March 31, 2023. After receiving preliminary comments from the State during their 90-day review period, the County submitted revisions to address the State’s comments on June 30, 2023. Those revisions were primarily clean-up and clarifications.
“Our team has worked very hard to produce a draft that we believe meets State HCD criteria and the County’s needs,” said Director of Planning and Development Lisa Plowman.
The County hopes State HCD will find the Draft HEU in substantial compliance during this round of review. State HCD has 60 days to review the revisions.
The Housing Element Update is one of the mandated components of a General Plan. It directs local governments to plan for the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community.
For this cycle, State HCD requires that Santa Barbara County identify sites to accommodate 5,664 new housing units in unincorporated portions of Santa Barbara County between 2023 and 2031. This is an 8-fold increase from the last cycle. That housing needs allocation, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), is further broken down to require 4,142 units in the South Coast region and 1,522 units in North County.
The State requires the County’s Housing Element to accommodate 2,818 very low, low- and moderate-income units. The new public and private sites following the public comment period added nearly 1,200 units in these categories.
An interactive map showing all the potential housing sites can be found at, https://sbcopad.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9375e0705e864eada0ff535c23ba99ac.
Once the State finds the Housing Element to be generally in compliance, the updated Housing Element will move through the public hearing process including review by the Planning Commission and adoption by the Board of Supervisors later in 2023.
The next steps in the process include refinement of the rezone sites and the preparation of a Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) assessing potential impacts associated with the proposed rezones needed to meet the County’s RHNA. The next opportunity for public participation will be during the public comment period on the Draft PEIR. The Department will hold two public comment hearings; one in north county and one in south county.
