(Last Updated: 12/09/16)
General
The sites inventory should demonstrate adequate site capacity to accommodate the regional housing need for all income groups. Where the analysis of a local government’s sites inventory does not demonstrate enough suitable, available, and appropriately zoned sites to accommodate the regional housing need by income level, the housing element must include an adequate-sites program to identify sites that can be developed within the planning period. Sites or zones must be identified to facilitate and encourage the development of a variety of types of housing for people at all income levels, including multifamily rental housing, factory-built housing, mobilehomes, housing for agricultural employees, emergency shelters, and transitional housing.
A jurisdiction’s adequate sites program must accommodate 100 percent of the shortfall of sites necessary to accommodate the remaining housing need for housing for very low- and low-income households during the planning period. These sites must be appropriately zoned early enough in the planning period to provide realistic and viable development opportunities.
The program must:
- Ensure sites are zoned to allow owner-occupied and rental multifamily residential uses “by-right” (only subject to ministerial approval) in which 20 percent or more of the units are affordable to lower income households.
- Permit the development of at least 16 units per site.
- Ensure sites within suburban and metropolitan jurisdictions — as defined by Government Code Section 65583.2(c)(3)(B)(iii) and (iv) — permit a minimum of 20 dwelling units per acre (see III and IV in the table below).
- Ensure sites in incorporated cities within nonmetropolitan counties and nonmetropolitan counties that have micropolitan areas — as defined by Government Code Section 65583.2(d) — permit a minimum of 16 dwelling units per acre (see I and II in the table below).
- Either a) ensure at least 50 percent of the low- and very low-income regional housing need can be accommodated on sites designated for exclusively residential uses, at appropriate densities or b) if accommodating more than 50 percent of the low- and very low-income regional housing need on sites designated for mixed-uses, all sites designated for mixed-uses must allow 100 percent residential use and require residential use to occupy at least 50 percent of the floor area in a mixed–use project.
By-Right Program Minimum Densities Table
| By-Right Program Minimum Densities | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| I Incorporated cities within nonmetropolitan/rural counties and nonmetropolitan counties with *micropolitan areas | II Unincorporated areas in all nonmetropolitan counties not included under I | III Suburban jurisdictions | IV Metropolitan jurisdictions |
| Nonmetropolitan counties with micropolitan areas include: Del Norte Humboldt Inyo Lassen Lake Mendocino Nevada Tehama Tuolumne | Note: Following list excludes those counties with *micropolitan areas as outlined in I Alpine Amador Calaveras Colusa Glenn Mariposa Modoc Mono Plumas Sierra Siskiyou Trinity | Note: Suburban jurisdictions include cities and counties located within a **Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and have a population of less than 2 million. (Cities in a MSA with a population greater than 100,000 are considered metropolitan.) Butte Fresno Imperial Kern Kings Madera Marin** Merced Monterey Napa San Joaquin San Luis Obispo Santa Barbara Santa Cruz Shasta Solano Sonoma Stanislaus Sutter Tulare Ventura Yuba | Note: Metropolitan jurisdictions include cities and counties located within a **Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) with a population of more than 2 million (Cities in a MSA with a population less than 25,000 are considered suburban.) Alameda Contra Costa El Dorado Los Angeles Orange Placer Riverside Sacramento San Benito San Bernardino San Diego San Francisco San Mateo Santa Clara Yolo |
| Density: At least 16 dwelling units/acre | Density: At least 16 dwelling units/acre | Density: At least 20 dwelling units/acre | Density: At least 20 dwelling units/acre |
*Micropolitan: Urban cluster of at least a 10,000 population, but less than a 50,000 population.
**Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA): A city with 50,000 or more inhabitants, or the presence of an Urbanized Area (UA) and a total population of at least 100,000
***Housing Elements Gov. Code Section 65583.2(e)(2)(A)(i): If a county that is in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont California MSA has a population of less than 400,000, that county shall be considered suburban. If this county includes an incorporated city that has a population of less than 100,000, this city shall also be considered suburban. This paragraph shall apply to a housing element revision cycle, as described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (3) of subdivision (e) of Section 65588, that is in effect from July 1, 2014, to December 31, 2028, inclusive.
Sites Used in Previous Planning Periods Housing Elements
If the element includes sites identified to accommodate the low- and very low-income RHNA that was used in prior planning period’s housing element (for non-vacant sites) or two or more consecutive planning periods (for vacant sites), then the element must include a program in the housing element requiring rezoning within three years of the beginning of the planning period to allow residential use by right at specified densities (see Zoning to Accommodate the Development of Housing Affordable to Lower-income Households) for housing developments in which at least 20 percent of the units are affordable to lower income households.
Definition of By-Right
For the purposes of housing element law and in accordance with Chapter 724, by-right shall mean the local government’s review shall not require:
- A conditional-use permit
- A planned unit development permit
- Other discretionary, local-government review or approval that would constitute a “project” as defined in Section 21100 of the Public Resources Code.
This provision does not preclude local planning agencies from imposing design review standards. However, the review and approval process must remain ministerial and the design review must not constitute a “project” as defined in the Section 21100 of the Public Resources Code. For example, a hearing officer (e.g., zoning administrator) or other hearing body (e.g., planning commission) can review the design merits of a project and call for a project proponent to make design-related modifications, but cannot deliberate the project’s merits or exercise judgment to reject or deny the “residential use” itself.
Program and policy requiring replacement of existing affordable units
The housing element must include a program in the housing element and policy independent of the housing element requiring the replacement of units affordable to the same or lower income level as a condition of any development on a nonvacant site consistent with those requirements set forth in Density Bonus Law (Government Code section 65915(c)(3).) Replacement requirements shall be required for sites identified in the inventory that currently have residential uses, or within the past five years have had residential uses that have been vacated or demolished, and:
- Was subject to a recorded covenant, ordinance, or law that restricts rents to levels affordable to persons and families of low or very low-income, or
- Subject to any other form of rent or price control through a public entity’s valid exercise of its police power, or
- Occupied by low or very low-income households
For the purpose of this program “previous five years” is based on the date the application for development was submitted
Adequate-Sites Program Timing
A locality’s ability to accommodate needed housing during the planning period requires designating appropriate zoning as early as possible. The most direct procedure is for the locality to undertake rezoning when the housing element is adopted. The program must make provision for sites that will be available soon enough to reasonably permit development during the planning period. For example, rezoning actions should be completed within the first year to two years.