​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 October 15, 2020, the ABAG Executive Board voted to support the HMC's recommended RHNA methodology and is currently taking public comments on the proposed methodology (refer to the Resources section below for information on how to submit comments).  The proposed methodology would result in a RHNA of 3,630 units for Dublin.  The ABAG Executive Board is scheduled to authorize the proposed methodology to be submitted to HCD for review at their meeting on January 21, 2021.

In Spring 2021, after HCD has approved the methodology, ABAG will adopt the final methodology and release the draft RHNA to jurisdictions.  Appeals of the draft RHNA can be submitted until Summer 2021, and ABAG will render decisions on appeals and issue the final RHNA by the end of 2021.  Jurisdictions will then have until January 2023 to update their Housing Element to include an inventory of specific sites or parcels that are available for residential development to meet the RHNA and receive HCD certification.  

Resources

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

Written comments regarding the RHNA methodology may be submitted to ABAG until 12:00 p.m., on Friday, November 27, 2020.  Submit your comments to the Association of Bay Area Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission's (ABAG-MTC) Public Information Office via e-mail to RHNA@bayareametro.gov or via USPS at 375 Beale Street, Suite 800, San Francisco, CA  94105.  Please include "Proposed RHNA Methodology and Subregional Shares" in the subject line.  

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

• City Council Staff Report - October 6, 2020: Report and Status on the Housing Element Update and Regional Housing Needs Allocation
• City Council Staff Report - February 18, 2020: Informational Report on Regional Housing Needs Allocation and Housing Element Update