Housing Element Update

2022 Housing Element Update page header featuring Dublin homes landscape.

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On November 18, 2022, Staff submitted the Adopted 2023-2031 Housing Element to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for review and certification.  On January 17,2023, HCD issued a letter to the City indicating that additional revisions were needed to fully comply with State Housing Element Law.  The revised draft is available for public review here and will be resubmitted to HCD for review on March 7, 2023

On November 15, 2022, City Council adopted Resolutions to: 1) adopt an Initial Study/Negative Declaration; 2) approve the 2023-2031 Housing Element and authorize Staff to submit the Housing Element to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for certification; 3) approve associated amendments to the General Plan, Eastern Dublin Specific Plan, Downtown Dublin Specific Plan; 4) approve  amendments to the Planned Development Zoning for sites D-2 and E-2 at the Dublin Transit Center and Hacienda Crossings shopping center.  The City Council agenda and staff report may be viewed here.


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 as further described below.

The City's recently Adopted Housing Element for the 2023-2031 planning period must comply with State law to ensure that Dublin's policies and programs can accommodate estimated housing growth needs, also known as RHNA.  The 2023-2031 Adopted Housing Element is currently pending certification by HCD.





























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.  

On December 16, 2021, the ABAG Executive Board adopted the Final Regional Housing Needs Allocation Plan: San Francisco Bay Area, 2023-2031, which is the final step in ABAG's RHNA process that began in October 2019. The plan allocates 3,719 units of housing to the City of Dublin.  The table below shows the final distribution of housing units to Dublin by household income category. 

FINAL RHNA 
Very Low IncomeLow IncomeModerate IncomeAbove Moderate IncomeTotal Units
 1,085 625 5601,4493,719


Each local government in the Bay Area, including the City of Dublin, must now update the Housing Element of its General Plan to demonstrate how it can accommodate its RHNA. The Housing Element Updates must be adopted by the City Council and submitted to HCD for certification by January 31, 2023.