Board of Supervisors to Consider County’s Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element
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(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) – The Board of Supervisors will consider the County’s Draft Housing Element Update 2023-2031 (Draft HEU) at a hearing on Tuesday, December 5, 2023.
The County received formal notice from the State Housing and Community Development Department (State HCD) on October 16, 2023, that the County is in substantial compliance with State requirements.
The Planning Commission considered the Draft HEU at a public hearing on November 8, 2023, and recommended the Board of Supervisors adopt the Draft HEU.
The purpose of the December 5, 2023, Public Hearing is to consider the analysis, policies and programs in the Draft HEU, and adopt the Draft HEU. The Board will not consider or take any actions on the rezones during this hearing.
The public may participate in this meeting virtually, or in person at the County’s Board Hearing Room in Santa Barbara on the Fourth floor of 105 E. Anapamu Street.
The selection of specific sites to rezone is a later step. Hearings to choose rezone sites will take place early in 2024 after the release of a draft Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) analyzing potential impacts associated with the potential rezones. During the public comment period on the Draft PEIR, the Department will hold two public comment hearings; one in north county and one in south county.
“We are taking a unique approach to rezone sites; our team identified more sites than required so the Board of Supervisors would have a range of options to choose from, and our staff successfully satisfied the State that this approach was sound. We look forward to the upcoming hearing on the Housing Element adoption as well as hearings next year on the rezones,” said Planning and Development Director Lisa Plowman.
The Draft HEU with all revisions tracked can be found at: https://www.countyofsb.org/3177/Housing-Element-Update
An interactive map showing all the potential housing sites can be found at: https://sbcopad.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9375e0705e864eada0ff535c23ba99ac.
The County submitted the draft housing element to the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (State HCD) for review on March 31, 2023. After receiving preliminary comments from the State on June 30, 2023, the County worked with the State to address their questions and comments over the summer. and submitted a formal revised draft on September 22, 2023.
The Housing Element Update is one of the mandated components of a General Plan. It directs local governments to plan for the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community. This is the 6th Housing Element cycle, covering 2023-2031.
For this cycle, State HCD requires that Santa Barbara County identify sites to accommodate 5,664 new housing units in unincorporated portions of Santa Barbara County between 2023 and 2031. This is an 8-fold increase from the last cycle. That housing needs allocation, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), is further broken down to require 4,142 units in the South Coast region and 1,522 units in the North County region.
The State requires the County’s Housing Element to accommodate 2,818 very low, low- and moderate-income units.
