Item 37 - General Plan Amendment No. 2021-01 - 6th Cycle Housing Element Update

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General Plan Amendment No. 2021-01 July 19, 2022 Page 3 2 8 1 4 Goals, objectives, policies, and implementation programs The proposed Housing Element updates the prior 2013-2021 element to better reflect the City’s demographics, housing conditions, local needs, and community priorities. The updated Housing Element covers all of the State mandated components and includes an introduction, policy framework, housing plan, and six appendices. The appendices provide detailed information to address housing needs, housing constraints, housing resources, program evaluation, assessment of fair housing, and public outreach. Relationship of the Housing Element to the General Plan The Housing Element is one of twelve elements of the City’s General Plan, a document that provides the long-range vision and guidance for future development in Santa Ana. City Council adopted a comprehensive General Plan update, Golden City Beyond, in April 2022. For the General Plan to provide effective guidance on land use issues, the goals, policies, and programs of each element must be internally consistent with other elements. The Housing Element builds upon the adopted General Plan and is consistent with its goals and policies. Additionally, the 6th Cycle Housing Element will not require a rezone program or any other amendments to the General Plan to ensure consistency across planning documents. Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), in consultation with HCD, is required to determine the existing and projected housing needs for the SCAG region pursuant to Government Code Section 65584, et seq. by way of preparing a RHNA. For the 6th planning cycle, HCD allocated 1,344,740 units to the Southern California region. SCAG then developed methodology to distribute the regional determination to each member jurisdiction in Southern California. The City of Santa Ana has a total RHNA of 3,137 housing units for the 2021–2029 planning period, as detailed in the following table. Table 1: City of Santa Ana Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) Income Group SCAG RHNA Units Transfer RHNA Units ** Total RHNA Units Very Low (0-50% AMI*)586 20 606 Low (51-80% AMI)362 0 362 Moderate (81-120% AMI)523 22 545 Above Moderate (120%+ AMI)1,624 0 1,624 TOTAL 3,095 42 3,137 *AMI means: Area Median Income; **Transfer of RHNA from County of Orange as a result of joint development of Crossroads at Washington project. The Housing Element is required to include an analysis of potential housing sites in the City to accommodate the development of new housing units to meet the RHNA target. However, housing projects that have been approved, permitted, or received a certificate of occupancy after June 30, 2021 (pipeline) may be counted towards the 6th planning cycle. In total, there are presently 6,914 pipeline housing units. Of those, 443 housing