4. What is “RHNA”?
A state-mandated
process to determine
how many housing
units of ALL types
each community must
plan and zone for in
its General Plan
Housing Elements.
5. The RHNA Process
Future Housing Determined
The State, with input from regional agencies, determines the amount of future housing
needed for all income groups in the entire region (187,990 for Bay Area 2014-2022)
Household Growth, Moves and Size
Need is based primarily on natural increase (births-deaths, migration and household
formation rates)
Jurisdictions Receive Allocation
Regions then must develop an equitable method that meets specific state requirements -
-and allocate the housing need to each jurisdiction within the region.
6. RHNA and the Napa Subregion
Current law allows 2 or more cities and
a county to form a subregion
Napa County and its 5 cities and town
have formed a subregion
The subregion provides for local voices
through the Napa County
Transportation and Planning Agency
7. RHNA and the Napa Subregion
The Napa Subregion will get a
countywide and jurisdiction total
numbers from the region but has
more flexibility in allocating that
need among its jurisdictions.
8. Sustainable Communities Strategy
State mandated land use plan that is part of the Regional
Transportation Plan (RTP)
Identifies locations and a transportation network to handle
forecasted growth, with specific housing, employment, and
environmental goals
The RHNA has to be consistent with the development pattern
included in the SCS
The results of this regional land use strategy are to locate most
forecasted development in large and midsize cities along major
transit lines in the inner bay, and less in the rural outlying
counties
10. What are RHNA State Requirements?
Allocation Process must meet Four Objectives:
Increase Supply & Mix
• Increase the housing supply and mix of housing types, tenure and
affordability in all cities and counties , resulting in each jurisdiction
receiving an allocation of units for low and very low income households.
Infill/Equity/Environment
• Promote infill development, socioeconomic equity, protection of
environmental and agricultural resources, efficient development patterns.
Improve Jobs/ Housing Relationship
• Promote an improved intraregional jobs/housing relationship.
Improve Income Distribution
• Improve income distribution across the region.
12. What are the Factors?
Opportunities and Federal and State – Policies to protect
Market demand
constraints to protected open prime agricultural
for housing
housing space land
High cost housing
burdens for service Housing needs of
Jobs growth Household growth
workers and farmworkers
others
Agreements to Infill locations near
Loss of assisted Schools as a
direct growth to services, jobs,
housing measure of quality
cities transit
Past performance
Community in constructing
Character housing to meet
needs
13. Napa Subregion a success
Process has proven to be successful – participation and
engagement by all jurisdictions
Greater RHNA understanding and education amongst staff
and the public
The subregion has allowed a collective voice when dealing
with ABAG
Successful in engaging the public – workshops, stakeholder
meetings, online survey
14. Napa Subregion Activities
Formed March 2011
Formed Technical Working Group and Policy
Group
Participated in Regional Housing Committee
June-July 2011: Public Engagement through
workshops, stakeholder meetings, online survey to
gain input on local priority factors
15. Local Priority Factors
1. Opportunities and constraints to development
2. Policies to protect Agriculture land
3. Protections of open space and environmentally
sensitive lands
4. Infill locations near jobs, services
5. Local agreements to direct growth to direct growth
towards incorporated areas
6. Community Character
16. Draft Method
Recommended method is to use the ABAG draft
methodology as the baseline and allow for adjustments
among willing jurisdictions in the subregion
Method states adjustments may be made to correct
technical errors and/or better address local priority
factors
17. Sustainable Community Strategy
Starting Point
Almost all
(70%) future PDA’s are
housing growth higher density, Small
in the region is mixed use number and
in locally- areas near size of PDAs
identified transit stations in Napa
“Priority or transit Subregion
Development corridors
Areas” (PDAs)
18. Impact of the SCS Approach on
Housing Needs Allocation
30% of future growth is outside of PDA’s, reflecting
other projected growth in the Bay Area.
In developing the SCS, some communities are also
designated “Priority Conservation Areas” – Napa County
has many of these.
The SCS tends to locate growth away from agricultural
and dedicated open space areas.
The SCS as expected has substantially reduced the
housing allocations to the Napa Subregion
19. Remaining 30% of Future Housing
Applies to areas not in PDAs
All communities must house a portion of their
projected household growth “minimum housing floor”
Fair share factors adjustments include:
1. Past performance in building low income housing
2. Jobs
3. Transit frequency and coverage
20. Income Distribution
Preliminary Allocation based on method
Napa County Very Low Low Moderat Above Total
0-50% 51-80% e 81-120% Moderate
120%+
American Canyon 125 60 62 146 394
Calistoga 7 2 4 14 27
Napa 215 117 152 383 866
St. Helena 8 5 5 12 31
Yountville 5 2 3 7 17
Napa County 57 34 35 62 189
Unincorporated
TOTALS 417 221 261 625 1524
Source: ABAG-MTC May 17, 2012 Executive Board Agenda
22. RHNA Steps & Timeline
June-July • Public Comment on draft methodology
• Subregion adopt final methodology and issues
July 18th 2012 draft allocations
• Local jurisdiction may request revisions to
July-Sept. 2012 subregion
• Subregion responds to requests for revisions if
October 2012 necessary
• Napa Subregion adopts final allocations/hold
December 12, 2012 public hearing
• Deadline for Subregion to submit final allocation
February 1, 2013 to ABAG
• Local Governments Adopt Housing Element
October 2014 Revision
The jurisdictions will get the countywide total and individual numbers
Coordinates land use and transportation planning Provides for healthy economic and housing development while maximizing use of existing public transportation and transportation infrastructure Reduces future energy use and emissions
-Growth areas indentified self identified by local jurisdictions around the Bay Area – Priority Development Areas -The regional method places most projected housing and jobs in locally identified PDAs as part of the SCS -PDAs are higher density, mixed used areas that include transportation choices, particularly transit
-subregion has been successful in communicating with ABAG as a collective unit when -The Technical Body met over 13 times to discuss each revision the sustainable communities strategy or the proposed RHNA methodology
-technical working group made up of planning staff from each jurisdiction -policy group made up of one elected official from each jurisdiction -Napa subregion has members on the HMC which is the ABAG committee that recommends to ABAG executive board what methodology to use -Subregion held 2 public workshops last July to describe how the RHNA process works, and to gain input on the methodolgy-The state requires certain factors to be considered and we asked the community members to prioirtize
-Participants ranked the following factors as being very important to consider in allocating housing
-Working off local community input, the technical working group reviewed several different methods, including the method being developed on the regional level -Ultimately they found none more equitable to our jurisdictions than the regional methodology, and recommending using this method for the local baseline -Agreed the local method should allow for adjustments to be made between jurisdictions either to correct errors or to help achieve local high priority goals
-The regional method places most projected housing an jobs in locally identified “priority development areas” PDAs that were identified in the Sustainable Communities Strategy -In general PDAs are higher density, mixed use areas that include transportation choices, particularly transit -The regional method allocates 70% of future housing for the next housing element planning cycle to PDAs -The Napa subregion has only one adopted PDA, in American Canyon, the City of Napa also recently applied for PDAs along Soscol Corridor and in Downtwon, as these areas are being considered “PDA like” places by ABAG -Because our PDAs are small in number and size we received only a small allocation based on this approach
The SCS places housing in mixed used communities with good and frequent transit
-The method distributes the remaining 30% of future housing in the region through a “fair share” process to all jurisdictions -The method sets an upper limit to the amount of housing a PDA can receive – if growth in a City’s PDA exceeds 110% of that city’s household growth needs, the city is not assigned added growth based on fair share factors Fair Share Factors: Minimum Housing Floor – Each city/town is assigned housing units to meet at least 40% of its household formation growth, which is housing needed largely generated by the people within the jurisdiction Community’s past performance in actually building lower income housing to meet its needs. Communities that did not build such housing were given higher adjustment factor or vice versa Is a community has a higher number of forecasted jobs outside PDAs, hey receive a higher adjustment factor Transit frequency and coverage – communities with excellent transit receive a higher adjustment factor
-Lastly, once overall units are allocated, they must, to meet state law, also be allocated by income levels, so that each community receives some very low and low income units, as well as moderate and above moderate income units. Ex: If Oakland has a high level of low income housing they are going to get a lower % of low income housing units in allocation and vice versa
-2007-2014 in blue and 2014-2022 allocations in red -The regional method has resulted in much lower housing unit allocations to the Napa subregion than the last cycle and has aligned closely with local priorities indentified in our public workshops
-The SCS has brought lower RHNA numbers to Napa County -Because this method results in lower number of units to plan for in each jurisdiction of the subregion, and because the economy has built fewer housing units over the past several years, all local communities that have certified housing elements have essentially already identified and planned in their general plans for housing needed in the next cycle -It is important to remember this is a housing floor and it does not prohibit a jurisdiction planning for more -Local jurisdictions still have to go through the housing element process, so there will be opportunity for the public to provide input on local housing programs and policies in the coming years