Housing Element

Town staff presented to the Chamber of Commerce.

On July 9, 2021, The Town of Danville submitted an appeal for a revision of its share of the regional housing need for the 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) to the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). On Friday, September 24, 2021, Danville presented its case to the ABAG Administrative Committee. Of the seven local cities presenting cases on Friday, none were successful in adjusting their allocations.

The likelihood of success for any RHNA appeal is very low due to two main factors: the narrowly defined legal grounds for an appeal and because any reduction in one city's RHNA means it must be offset with increases to other cities. Community members wishing to find out more about the appeal process can visit: https://abag.ca.gov/our-work/housing/rhna-regional-housing-needs-allocation/2023-2031-rhna-appeals-process.

While the appeal process was underway, Danville continued to move forward with its Housing Element Update as a parallel process. Danville is currently expected to provide a minimum housing target of 2,241 units, a four-fold increase from the assignment of 557 units in the current housing element cycle. Although the Town of Danville is not required to build housing, it is the responsibility of local governments to plan for housing by ensuring that there are sufficient lands to accommodate the housing assignment. This is accomplished by updating the Housing Element to identify the parcels where housing could be built. The next phase of community outreach will include an additional tool on the DanvilleTownTalks.org engagement platform that will engage residents to solicit input on housing opportunity sites.

How can the community find out more and get involved?

The Town is encouraging community participation and input so that the final plan balances the mandate to accommodate growth while preserving Danville's history and character.

To find about more about Danville's Housing Element Update and sign up for updates, or add your comments and feedback, please visit www.DanvilleTownTalks.org

To learn more about the Town's Legislative Advocacy, visit https://www.danville.ca.gov/738/Legislative-Advocacy

You can also email questions to talkhousing@danville.ca.gov

For additional information, contact Public Information Officer Nicola Shihab at (925) 314-3336 or nshihab@danville.ca.gov.

On September 16, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 9, aimed at streamlining housing approval and loosening zoning restrictions in an effort to spur housing construction in California.

SB9, by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, will have a significant impact on lots with single-family zoning. SB 9 now allows for;

• A property owner to add a second unit on a parcel zoned for single-family in the form of a duplex.
• A property owner to subdivide a single-family lot into two lots of equal size, so potentially four units could be built on a single-family lot where one now stands.

An application to do either or both must be approved by local governments, provided the project meets certain requirements.

The state’s objective is to unlock land for development. The Department of Housing and Community Development estimates that 65% of zoning in California is single-family. The state is focused on solving the housing crisis by creating density infill, spurring housing development, and driving down home prices to create affordability.

To read the bill, go to the California State Legislative information page and search under bill number SB9 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billSearchClient.xhtml

For more information, contact Deputy Town Manager Diane Friedmann at dfriedmann@danville.ca.gov.

On July 20, 2021, the Town of Danville submitted a comment letter on the Plan Bay Area 2050 (PBA 2050) Draft EIR. For those who may be unfamiliar, PBA 2050 is the Bay Area’s Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy rolled into one. Our interest in the PBA 2050 effort is rooted in the fact that its processes generates the land use patterns used as the ‘baseline model’ for the RHNA allocation.

Check out the comment letter by clicking the link below.

Danville PBA 2050 Draft EIR Comment Letter

On July 9, 2021, the Town of Danville submitted an appeal to its assigned “fair share” of a state-mandated housing target – currently proposed to be a minimum of 2,241 housing units. The appeal focuses on the methodology used by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to generate that housing number.

The process of determining each community’s share of the region’s housing needs is called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), stemming from the State Housing Element Law enacted in 1969. RHNA is a complex 3-step process involving three levels of government.

The first step began in June 2020, when the California Department of Housing and Community Development determined that the San Francisco Bay Area region must accommodate a target of 441,176 housing units in a planning period that spans 2023-2031.

The second step involved ABAG developing and adopting a method of distributing the region’s 441,176 housing target to its cities and counties that focuses on placing housing near ‘high resource areas’ rather than near job centers (www.abag.ca.gov). Danville joined with other Tri-Valley cities and Contra Costa County in objecting to that method.

The final step requires each local government – including Danville - to update its Housing Element to identify the land, policies and programs to accommodate its assigned housing target. Due to the strict statutory timelines involved, Danville has begun its Housing Element Update at the same time as its challenge to the RHNA allocation.

The Government Code allows any local jurisdiction within the ABAG region to file an appeal to modify its Draft RHNA Allocation based on narrowly defined paraments. Danville filed its appeal on July 9, 2021.

Danville RHNA Appeal Packet