CityofSantaBarbara
On Tuesday December 12, 2023, the Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously to adopt the City’s 2023-2031 Housing Element. City Council considered the policies and programs and adopted the 2023-2031 Housing Element as a General Plan amendment with minor edits to the Glossary and Executive Summary.
The City’s 2023-2031 Housing Element analysis shows that the City has the capacity to accommodate its share of the Regional Housing Needs Allocation without the need to rezone parcels for higher density.
Mayor Randy Rowse commented, “I am pleased to be part of the unanimous council vote to approve our updated Housing Element. This document is the product of an exemplary effort by our planning staff and represents our desire to participate in alleviating the housing shortage that exists statewide. Staff had to balance an extraordinary workload while executing the Housing element, due to a very active development atmosphere in Santa Barbara. We look forward to a cooperative future in implementing our housing development goals.”
Prior to Council action on December 12, the Planning Commission reviewed and recommended adoption of the Housing Element on November 16 and the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) informed the City that the proposed 2023-2031 Housing Element met all statutory requirements to comply with State Housing Law.
The final adopted Housing Element can be viewed on the Housing Element Update page. Public review is open until December 20, 2023 and then the Housing Element will then be submitted to HCD for final approval and certification. The City looks forward to implementing the essential programs to meet the community’s housing needs throughout this cycle of the Housing Element.
January 27th 2020, HCD sent a letter to the SBCAG providing the final regional housing need determination- The letter included the minimum regional housing need determination of 24,856 total
units across four income categories for SBCAG to distribute amongst the region’s local
governments. SBCAG is made up the County BOS and a representative from each of the 9 jurisdictions.( all the Cities). All local agencies were informed of the housing need requirements in Jan 2020. Each Jurisdiction were given till Feb 2023 to adopt its own Housing element. This 2023 deadline is with a 1 year extension grace period each is allowed to engage in. After Fed Deadline they would be out of compliance.
The letter also states :”Increasing the availability of affordable homes, ending homelessness, and meeting other housing goals continues to be a priority for the State of California. To support these goals, the 2019-20 Budget Act allocated $250 million for all regions and jurisdictions for planning activities through the Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) and Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) Grant programs. SBCAG is part of the Central Coast Multi-agency Working Group that is eligible for $7,931,311 through the REAP program.”
The HCD site provides access to see the status of Grant applications and awards- SBCAG did not apply for the REAP grant program.
The SBCAG notified all 9 jurisdictions of the HCD housing need determination but all 9 jurisdictions failed to submit its housing element by the required date of Feb 2023. In fact the only jurisdiction that is currently IN compliance is Buellton as of Dec 17,2023 when the Housing compliance report was viewed. Buellton submitted its Housing element on June 2, 2023 and approved complete on Aug 1, 2023. It was still 4 months late from the 1 year extension deadline.
All remaining 8 jurisdiction remain OUT of compliance with 7 in review.
3 years(or more) of having this housing element requirement numbers along with millions of grant funds to make it happen, how is it that all 9 missed the Feb 2023 deadline?
https://www.hcd.ca.gov/planning-and-community-development/housing-open-data-tools/housing-element-review-and-compliance-report