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Monterey County cities are in the midst of updating their housing plans—here’s how to participate.
Good afternoon.
Last September, I recommended that if you’re interested in the future of housing in Monterey County and what your community will look like in the future, now is the time to get involved. Pam Marino here, with a reminder that this year the 12 city governments, and the County of Monterey, are required by the state to update their housing plans, known as housing elements.
Over the last several months, jurisdictions have been holding town halls to educate residents about updating their housing elements in light of a new round of what’s called Regional Housing Needs Allotment, or RHNA. The California Department of Housing and Community Development is requiring that cities and counties plan for a certain number of housing units between now and 2031. In Monterey County’s case, the total number of units that must be planned is 20,300.
If you haven’t been able to participate yet, it’s not too late. The cities and the county are working on sharing with HCD draft site inventories—that is, areas within a city or the county where planners believe more units could be constructed by developers. They must present draft housing elements to HCD by the hard deadline of Dec. 15. (They’ll have another year to finalize them.)
Along the way, planners must run those drafts by planning commissions and city councils in public hearings, which means residents get to weigh in at those hearings.
Some examples of current opportunities to participate: the Carmel City Council is holding a public workshop tomorrow, May 24, at 5:30pm related to its RHNA plans; Greenfield is hosting an informational housing meeting at 6pm, Thursday, May 25; the County of Monterey is holding a virtual housing element meeting in English and Spanish at 6:30pm, Thursday, June 1; Sand City’s draft housing element is available for review and public comment through June 5; the cities of Gonzales and Marina offer online surveys in English and Spanish.
Stay tuned for an update on the progress of all 12 cities and the county on their housing elements that I’m working on for an upcoming edition of the Weekly. In the meantime, if you want to know more about the basics of RHNA, check out the story I wrote last September.
If you’ve got an idea or concern about your community’s efforts to plan for more housing in the future, drop me a line.
-Pam Marino, staff writer, pam@mcweekly.com
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