Hold a public hearing to consider the proposed update of the Housing Element to amend the 2030 Countywide General Plan; approve Resolution adopting the 6th Cycle Housing Element and the associated General Plan Amendment Ordinance that will: address the County's housing needs for all income levels during the 2021-2029 planning period, identify constraints to housing, identify sites to accommodate a variety of housing types, and affirmatively further fair housing to meet the requirements of State law and determine the project is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. (Potential general fund impact) (Echiburu/Trebec)

1. Hold a public hearing to consider the proposed update of the Housing Element to amend the 2030 Countywide General Plan; and
    
2. Approve Resolution (Attachment A) adopting the 6th Cycle Housing Element and the associated General Plan Amendment Ordinance (Attachment B); and
    
3. Determine the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with the provisions of Section 15061(b)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines, known as the 'common sense exemption' (Attachment C).

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The State of California requires cities and counties to update the Housing Element of the General Plan approximately every eight years to ensure that regional housing needs are being met. The updated Yolo County Housing Element covers the planning period from 2021-2029 and establishes the County's goals for the maintenance and development of housing to meet the needs of existing and future residents, establishes policies to guide County decision-making, and sets forth an action program to implement housing goals.

BACKGROUND
The 6^th Cycle Housing Element Update to the Countywide General Plan (Attachment A) is composed of two parts:  the Housing Plan and the Background Report (Exhibit A and Exhibit B of Attachment A). The Background Report provides an analysis of the County’s housing needs in unincorporated Yolo County and the Housing Plan provides goals, policies, and implementation actions to provide for those needs. Altogether, this includes addressing the existing and projected housing needs for people of all incomes (extremely low, very low, low, moderate, and above moderate) and the needs of special populations, including seniors, farm workers, persons with disabilities, single parents, large families, and homeless. The 6^th Cycle Housing Element Update must also show how the County will accommodate its assigned Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) of 57 housing units, which identifies that 14 shall be affordable to very low-income households, 9 shall be affordable to low-income households, and 10 shall be affordable to moderate-income households.

As of January 1, 2019, Assembly Bill 686 proactively applies the obligation to affirmatively further fair housing to all public agencies in California. Public agencies must now examine existing and future policies, plans, programs, rules, practices, and related activities and make proactive changes to promote more inclusive communities. The effort to meet the new state mandate has resulted in extensive staff time and coordination with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) as they determine how the new law is to be implemented in the region-wide 6^th Cycle Housing Element Update.
 
The deadline for approval of the County’s 6^th Cycle Housing Element by HCD is May 15, 2021, which allows for a 120-day “grace period” before the County is placed on a mandatory four-year cycle for two cycles if the Housing Element is not adopted by the Board of Supervisors by September 12, 2021.

HOUSING ELEMENT UPDATE
The updated Housing Element reviews the performance of the previous Housing Element planning cycle (2013-2021) and provides recommendations on changes to existing policies and programs to improve housing options within the unincorporated area of the County. The updated Housing Element identifies the County's current and prospective housing needs, and inventories the resources and constraints relevant to meeting these needs.

The 6th Cycle Housing Element proposes a detailed and robust implementation program, setting forth a schedule of actions the County is/or will be responsible for implementing the policies to achieve the goals of the updated Housing Plan. The majority of the implementation actions are continued from the previous Housing Element as shown on the attached table (Attachment D). Implementation actions are described in the Housing Plan on pages 30-56.
 
Many of the new actions relate to changes and additions to State law, including actions HO-A1 and HO-A2, which address reporting requirements, such as the General Plan Annual Progress Report that documents new housing construction and evaluates the accomplishments of the General Plan's implementation programs related to housing. These actions also require the reporting of County surplus lands, including vacant and underutilized lands, available for residential development. Action HO-A3 provides for protections of residents potentially displaced by new housing construction. Action HO-A7 requires the County’s Zoning Regulations be brought into compliance with new State laws by reducing subjective criteria as they pertain to accessory dwelling units (ADUs), residential care facilities, single-room occupancies, employee and agricultural worker housing, emergency shelters, transitional and supportive housing, and low barrier navigation centers.  The updated housing program also updates the requirements for streamlined residential review and housing density bonuses. The zoning updates are already in process and have been mainly funded by the State SB2 Planning Grant Program. Finally, HO-A8 requires annual review of new legislation and the  implementation of new laws, including requirements toward ‘affirmatively furthering fair housing’.
 
Several new actions relate to the State’s requirements for affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH), including HO-A31, which calls for proactively increasing staff awareness of fair housing and sets a protocol for receiving fair housing complaints; HO-A32 seeks to implement County strategic goals related to broadband equity for the unincorporated County; HO-A33 improves fee and rate transparency; and, HO-A34 calls for identifying affordable housing opportunities in the higher resource areas of the County. A discussion of the Regional Opportunity Index (ROI) occurs in the AFFH chapter of the Background Report starting on page 192. The highest opportunity areas occur around Davis and West Sacramento with high opportunity areas in Esparto and the Capay Valley and around Woodland and Winters.
 
An important action not fully completed last cycle and carried over into this planning cycle is action HO-A20, which establishes a housing coordinator, or, more specifically, promotes the role of a dedicated housing planner. Given the crisis levels of California’s housing needs and constantly changing State housing policies and requirements, funding a housing planner position will establish and ensure more effective coordination with housing advocacy and agency partners, developers, and other stakeholders, as well as create the capacity to proactively seek grants and funding opportunities. Staffing a dedicated housing planner would prevent delays in annual reporting, such as the General Plan Annual Progress Report, and fill a critical role for seeking outside funding opportunities, engaging with stakeholders, and guiding affordable housing projects through the planning and permitting process.

Currently, the Department of Community Services dedicates approximately 25 to 30 percent of one full-time Senior Planner position to this effort. However, this is not enough to fulfill the required work of this unfunded mandate, possibly resulting in missed opportunities to seek and acquire additional grant funding, assist in the process for providing much needed affordable housing in the unincorporated area of the County, and collaborate with housing partners, including Yolo County Housing and city staff.  Therefore, the Department of Community Services will be requesting an additional full-time Senior Planner position to fulfill these requirements when the Board considers the final budget for FY 2021-2022 on September 28, 2021. 

DRAFT HOUSING ELEMENT UPDATE AND PUBLIC REVIEW
The Draft Housing Element has received public comment and required HCD review. The County released the Draft Housing Element for public review on June 10, 2021, for a 30-day review and comment period with a public workshop held with the Planning Commission on July 8, 2021. Comments and inquiries received during the public workshop include the following (a brief staff response under each item is provided in italics):

• Clarify the importance of senior housing

Discussion of senior housing is included on pages 16-17 in the Background Report. The Housing Plan identifies Policy HO-4.2, which specially encourages development of housing for seniors.

• Clarify farm worker housing information

Updated information related to farm worker housing is included on pages 23-25 of the Background Report.

• Sustainable housing

Sustainable housing is broadly discussed under Goal HO-6 in the Housing Plan. Reduction of residential energy use is more fully addressed in the Yolo County Climate Action Plan.

• Self-help housing

Implementation action HOA-15 in the Housing Plan has been modified to include self-help housing as a means to assist first time homebuyers.

• Further fair housing through infrastructure and opportunity

Extensive revision of Section V. AFFH, beginning on page 167 of the Housing Plan. Additionally, programs like HO-A19 prioritize infrastructure in disadvantaged areas.

Public comments, including survey results, Citizen Advisory Committee comments, and written comments received from Legal Services of Northern California and the Delta Protection Commission, are discussed in the Housing Element Housing Plan on pages 12-22.

The Draft Housing Element was concurrently submitted to HCD for review. County staff and De Novo Planning Group had an initial meeting with HCD on July 14, with revisions submitted on July 26.  HCD subsequently provided a formal review letter to the County on August 9, 2021 (Attachment E). The comments provided by HCD asked for more specificity with respect to the Housing Plan actions, clarification of outreach efforts, and a more thorough discussion of implementing new State requirements for affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH).  Together with their consultant, County staff have continued to work with HCD to respond to these comments to ensure a compliant and effective Housing Element. Revisions made to date have been appended to the Housing Element Background Report in Exhibit B of Attachment A.  Attachment E also includes a summary of revisions for ease of reference.

On July 13, 2021, the Board of Supervisors received an update on the Draft Housing Element update and directed staff to address the following specific topics:

1. The County should be more ambitious than the number of units of affordable housing required by RHNA.
The County’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) numbers are set by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments in consideration of Yolo County’s constraints to development, including commitments to preserving agricultural resources, lack of infrastructure, and flood hazard areas.  However, the RHNA numbers can be considered a floor to the amount of affordable housing the County could make available over the next 8-year cycle. Thus, the Housing Element is required to show how the RHNA numbers will be met, and, with an emphasis on affordable housing in recent years, County staff have ensured that currently approved projects already nearly account for the State's minimum RHNA requirements for this planning cycle. Updated implementation actions in the Housing Element will help facilitate the County's efforts to exceed this number.

Specifically, implementation actions HO-A2, HO-A7, and HO-A28 would have a direct effect on affordable housing by highlighting land available for affordable housing projects, streamlining the review and approval process, and implementing the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance in the most efficient and practical manner. Other than public housing constructed by Yolo County Housing and nonprofit organizations, the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance is the primary tool with which the County can encourage deed-restricted affordable housing. Staff continues to work with residential developers to maximize the number of affordable units provided for County residents through the Inclusionary Housing and Housing Density Bonus Ordinances. A dedicated housing planner could further this effort.

2. The County should further reduce permitting fees for residential projects.
The County has several programs in place to reduce permitting fees. Facility and Services Authorization (FSA) fees are already waived for affordable housing projects per County Code Section. 3-14.04(h). FSA fees are collected for residential projects to address County facility needs and associated costs directly related to population growth. On June 7, 2011, the Board of Supervisors amended the County’s Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual to include a revised “Policy on Cost Recovery and Fees”. Although the policy requires departments to seek to recover the full cost of the services they provide, it allows the Board of Supervisors to reduce or waive these fees should specific findings be made on a case by case basis. These fees are still much less than the combined utility, fire, and school fees paid for a residential project, however.

A greater burden for developers of residential subdivisions is the cost of mitigation associated with their development entitlements. These costs can total hundreds of thousands of dollars for agricultural and habitat compensation even though the projects occur within community growth boundaries designated for residential development in the General Plan. One option the Board may want to consider as a way to effectuate more affordable housing is to reduce or waive the requirement to compensate for the loss of agricultural (or habitat) resources for residential projects proposed within a General Plan community growth boundary on property designated for growth. Such considerations, of course, could be discretionary based on the level of commitment to provide affordable housing units.

3. The County should invest more in housing,
Local governments rely on private and non-profit developers to construct housing in exchange for providing adequately designated and zoned land, and by removing constraints and subjective permitting requirements. Typically, the State and federal governments provide funding for construction of public housing. County staff continue to work closely with Yolo County Housing to pursue and use these funds to construct affordable housing for the County. Implementation action HO-A19 prioritizes infrastructure development within unincorporated communities to increase opportunity for existing residents and reduces constraints for a greater amount and variety of housing. Additionally, funding implementation action HO-A20 establishes a County Housing Planner, which would enable staff to coordinate funding and construction of projects as well as guide affordable housing projects through the permitting and planning process.

4. The County should collaborate with Cities to provide more housing
Although the RHNA numbers are determined regionally, and each jurisdiction, i.e., the cities of Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, and Davis,  is solely responsible for their allocation of housing, the County can certainly collaborate with the cities to increase the opportunity for more housing. There is no mechanism for the County to receive RHNA credit for housing built inside a city's jurisdiction, but the housing would nonetheless provide relief for regional homelessness as well as much needed employee housing in areas with the infrastructure to better accommodate residential development.

Implementation action HO-A34 calls for new affordable, mixed-income, multifamily, and special needs housing to be targeted in more affluent or higher resource areas such as Davis, Winters, and Woodland. One such area to be considered under this action could be the Covell/Pole Line Specific Plan in unincorporated Yolo County north of and immediately adjacent to the City of Davis (Attachment F). The currently undeveloped site lies within an area with the highest levels of resources and opportunity for residents.

On August 19, 2021, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended that the Board of Supervisors approve the resolution adopting the 6^th Cycle Housing Element and associated General Plan Amendment. The Planning Commission staff report and presentation are included in Attachments G and H, respectively.

County staff worked with De Novo Planning Group as a consultant through a Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) Grant provided by the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) provided data and additional support. California Department of Housing and Community Development provided review of the Housing Element.

Staff also conducted outreach to various stake holders and public interest groups, including the County Citizens Advisory Committees, and through use of an online survey to solicit comments.