Town files appeal of State Housing Numbers
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.
