Housing Element Update

​Background


The State of California requires that the City Council adopt a comprehensive, long-term General Plan for the physical development of the City.  The Housing Element is one of seven mandated elements of the General Plan and must be updated every eight years to address existing and projected housing needs for all economic segments of the City.  Housing need is determined through the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process.

The City's current Housing Element was adopted by the City Council on November 18, 2014, and was certified by the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) on January 21, 2015.  The current Housing Element covers the planning period of 2014-2022.  

The City is currently in the process of updating its General Plan Housing Element for the 2023-2031 planning period.  To comply with State Law, the City's Housing Element must be updated to ensure that Dublin's policies and programs can accommodate estimated housing growth needs, also known as RHNA.

Regional Housing Needs Allocation


The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determines the Regional Housing Needs Determination (RHND) for the nine-county Bay Area.  The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is tasked with creating a methodology for distributing the RHND across the Bay Area jurisdictions.  The RHND for the Bay Area is 441,176 units.  

Distribution of the RHND results in each jurisdiction's RHNA, which is the total number of housing units by income category (i.e., very-low, low, moderate, and above-moderate income), that the jurisdiction must plan for in the next Housing Element.  State law provides a series of statutory objectives that must be met in the RHNA methodology, including increasing affordability in an equitable manner; improving the balance between low-wage jobs and lower-income housing (jobs-housing fit); and addressing equity and fair housing.  The statute also requires "consistency" between the RHNA and regional plans, such as Plan Bay Area (PBA).

ABAG established the Housing Methodology Committee (HMC) as an advisory committee tasked with developing a method to determine each local jurisdiction's RHNA.  On September 18, 2020, after nearly a year of meetings, the HMC recommended a Proposed RHNA Methodology, which was subsequently presented and approved by the ABAG Regional Planning Committee and ABAG Executive Board.  On January 21, 2021, the ABAG Executive Board adopted the Draft RHNA Methodology and submitted the Draft Methodology to HCD for review.  On May 20, 2021, the ABAG Executive Board approved the Final RHNA Methodology and Draft Allocations, following the finding in April 2021 by HCD that ABAG's Draft Methodology furthered the RHNA objectives.  The Draft Allocation assigns 3,719 units of housing to the City of Dublin.  The table below shows the draft distribution of housing units by household income category. 

Draft RHNA
Very
Low
Income
 Low
Income		 Moderate
Income		 Above
Moderate
Income 		 Total
Units
 1,085  625  560 1,449 3,719


Each jurisdiction's Draft Allocation is shown in the Draft RHNA Plan: San Francisco Bay Area, 2023-2031.  On July 9, 2021, the City of Dublin appealed our Draft Allocation of 3,719 units. The City’s appeal may be viewed on the ABAG website.

The following outlines the remaining steps in the RHNA process:  
         
  • September and/or October 2021:  ABAG Administrative Committee considers appeals (including public hearing) on six dates in September and October 2021. The City of Dublin's appeal is scheduled to be heard by the ABAG Administrative Committee on September 24, 2021 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.  
  • October or November 2021:  ABAG ratifies written final determination of each appeal and issues Final Allocations that include adjustments from successful appeals.  If the total of successfully appealed units is less than 7% of the Regional Housing Needs Determination (RHND) (30,882 units), then ABAG shall redistribute the units proportionately.  If the successfully appealed units is more than 7% of the RHND, then ABAG may develop its own methodology to redistribute the units.  
  • November or December 2021:  ABAG Executive Board will conduct a public hearing and adopt a Final RHNA Plan.  
  • January 2023:  Housing Element updates are due to HCD.  
The ABAG website provides more information about the appeals process, including a template presentation for local government staff to use in communicating about the Final RHNA Methodology and appeals process.  The ABAG 2023-2031 RHNA Appeals Procedures include details about the statutory requirements for the appeals process and how ABAG will conduct the public hearing to consider appeals.

Resources


For more information on the RHNA process, please visit ABAG's website.

Subscribe to email notifications for upcoming City meetings and workshops for the Housing Element Update.  

Please check back to this webpage periodically for updates on RHNA, progress on updating the City's Housing Element, and ways to get involved.  

Documents


Next Steps


Following are the City's next steps of the Housing Element Update:
Next Step Date
1.  RHNA Appeal Hearing with ABAG Administrative Committee September 24, 2021
2.  City Council Check-In Meeting #2 - Review Adequate Sites Analysis  November 2, 2021