Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER RATIFYING THE DIRECTOR'S APPROVAL OF MODIFICATIONS TO THE SUBSEQUENT DRAFT REVISION TO THE CITY'S 6TH CYCLE (2021-2029) HOUSING ELEMENT AS ADOPTED BY CITY COUNCIL ON SEPTEMBER 6, 2022, GPA NO. 22-01 (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
On September 6, 2022, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 22-193, approving a Subsequent Draft Revision of City's 6th Cycle (2021-2029) Housing Element (the "Sept. 6 HE"). The Sept. 6 HE was submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development ("HCD") for review for the required determination of substantial compliance with State Housing Element Law shortly thereafter.
HCD requested a meeting with City staff, which was held on October 11, 2022. In the meeting, HCD provided comments regarding requested changes to the Sept. 6 HE that were not brought to staff's attention in earlier reviews. HCD's comments were largely based on its interpretation that the requested changes were needed to fulfill the City's obligations regarding the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing ("AFFH") requirement, which is a new set of laws administered by HCD that cities must now adhere to in addition to the other requirements of the Housing Element Law to achieve HCD approval of their housing elements for the 6th Cycle. During this meeting, HCD indicated that they needed the revisions submitted back to HCD by end of the day on October 12, 2022. HCD indicated that they would attempt to review the revisions submitted by the City, but did not guarantee a substantial compliance determination by the October 15th deadline (discussed in the background section below).
On October 12, 2022, staff prepared revisions to the Sept. 6 HE in response to HCD's comments and submitted them to HCD. Section 4 of Resolution No. 22-193 authorizes the Community Development Director (Director) to "make minor modifications to the [Sept. 6 HE] and associated doc...
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