Agenda Report
Fullerton City Council
MEETING DATE: JUNE 18, 2024
TO: CITY COUNCIL / SUCCESSOR AGENCY
SUBMITTED BY: sunayana thomas, director of community and economic development PREPARED BY: chris schaefer, aicp, planning manager
SUBJECT: housing element update
SUMMARY
Staff has nearly completed the final draft 2021-2029 City Housing Element for Regional Housing Needs Assessment Cycle 6. Staff plans to release this document for public review and then submit the revised draft Housing Element to HCD for a mandated second check to ensure substantial compliance with state law no later than July 1, 2024.
PROPOSED MOTION
Direct staff to present draft Housing Element document to the Planning Commission.
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
Approve the Proposed Motion
Other options brought by City Council.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the Proposed Motion.
CITY MANAGER REMARKS
This Housing Element study session is to provide an update to the City Council on progress prior to the required submittal to HCD on July 1, 2024. It provides another opportunity for further City Council input into the draft Housing Element.
PRIORITY POLICY STATEMENT
This item matches the following Priority Policy Statements:
Fiscal and Organizational Stability
Infrastructure and City Assets.
FISCAL IMPACT
A variety of sources fund the draft Housing Element document research and preparation as well as the related studies, environmental review and ousing Incentive Overlay Zone preparation including:
Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) Grant - $500,000 (100% allocated) SB-2 Planning Grant Program (PGP) - $310,000 (100% allocated) City General Funds - $146,500 (pending authorization).
Staff anticipates completing remaining Housing Element work the end of 2024 which includes Planning Commission and City Council public hearings. HCD review of the draft document as well as any recommended changes may impact the final cost of document preparation. The state will withhold funding such as the PLHA grant, which totals over $1 million to pay the City portion of the homeless shelter consortium (North County SPA) while Fullerton does not have a certified Housing Element.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Housing Element
The Housing Element is a General Plan component required by California Government Code Section 65302. The General Plan (“Fullerton Plan”) contains the community vision for future City growth while the Housing Element focuses on attaining and preserving housing for City residents of different economic levels and different needs. Government Code Section 65588 requires Housing Element review and revision on a regular basis coinciding with the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) eight-year cycles. The City is in Cycle 6.
State law does not require specific formatting for the Housing Element, however, it does specify that it address the following requirements:
Previous element review
Housing needs assessment
Adequate sites inventory and analysis
Potential governmental and non-governmental constraints analysis Housing policies and programs
Quantified objectives.
The City Draft Housing Element covers all the requirements organized into the following four chapters:
Introduction
Housing Needs Analysis
Resources and Constraints Analysis
Housing Policy Plan.
The Housing Element has six Appendices following Chapter 4 that provide historical context, analysis and a glossary of terms:
Appendix H - A Review of Past Performance
Appendix H - B Residential Land Resources
Appendix H - C Analysis of Housing at Risk of Conversion Appendix H - D Public Participation
Appendix H - E Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Appendix H - F Glossary of Housing Terms.
The four numbered chapters contain information required by the State of California, verified through required HCD staff checks. Chapter input came from various sources including: stakeholders (the “Housing Advocates”), citizen groups, community meetings, surveys, past policies and strategies review supported by various means such as census data and city permit records. The following summarizes each chapter:
Chapter 1: Introduction
The General Plan Housing Element identifies and analyzes existing and projected housing needs and contains official policies for housing preservation, conservation, rehabilitation and production in the City of Fullerton (City). This Housing Element covers the October 2021 through October 2029 Planning Period and includes the following sections:
Housing Needs Assessment
List of Goals and Policies
Housing Element consistency with the Fullerton Plan requirement Housing Element organization
Citizen participation
Community input themes.
Chapter 2: Housing Needs Analysis
This section analyzes demographic and housing characteristics that influence housing demand and availability. This analysis forms the foundation for programs and policies that address housing needs identified by income, tenure and special needs groups. This Chapter also examines future housing needs based on the 202 1- 2029 Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). This chapter breaks down the community profile as follows:
Population growth trends
Age characteristics
Employment
Household characteristics
Housing inventory and market conditions
Housing type and vacancy
Tenure
Age of housing stock
Housing conditions
Housing costs and affordability
Housing Needs
Overcrowding
Special Needs Groups
Elderly persons
Large households
Female-headed households
Persons with disabilities
Extremely low-income residents
Homeless population and transitional housing
Farm workers
College and university students.
Chapter 3: Resources and Constraints Analysis
California Government Code Section 65583(a)(3) requires Housing Elements to contain an “inventory of land suitable for residential development, including vacant sites and sites having potential for redevelopment, and an analysis of the relationship of zoning and public facilities and services to these sites.” Draft Housing Element Appendix H - B provides a detailed inventory of residential development.
The analysis found the City land inventory for potential residential development insufficient based on current zoning to accommodate the RHNA in all income categories for this projection period and the City must identify sites for rezoning. Policy Action 1.1 includes a commitment to process zoning amendments for sufficient parcels to fully accommodate the RHNA pursuant to State law (See Chapter 4 in this report).
This chapter goes into greater detail of the following topics:
Financial and Administrative Resources
Community Development Block Grant and HOME Program
City of Fullerton Successor Agency
Residential Energy and Water Conservation
Government Constraints
General plan
Zoning code
Development standards
Permitted uses
Parking standards
Provisions for a Variety of Housing Types
Single-family, multiple-family, manufactured and mobile home housing Housing Incentive Overlay Zone (HIOZ)
Density bonus
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
Senior housing and residential care facilities
Emergency Shelters and Low Barrier Navigation Centers
Emergency Shelter Overlay Zone
Transitional and supportive housing
Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Units
Employee housing and farmworker housing
Housing for persons with disabilities
Environmental Constraints
Infrastructure Constraints
Financial Constraints.
Chapter 4: Housing Policy Plan
This section describes the City of Fullerton Housing Policy Plan for the 2021 - 2029 planning period. The Policy Plan describes the policies and program actions necessary to address present and future housing needs, meet the specific requirements of State law and consider resident and stakeholder input. The City assessed housing needs, evaluated the performance of existing programs and received input from the community through housing workshop participation in developing this Policy Plan.
The Policy Action Plan for Cycle 6 has four core policy action areas:
Housing Production
Conservation and Rehabilitation
Design and Livability
Access to Housing Opportunities.
The plan proposes 18 Policy Actions to encourage housing development and housing preservation, broken down into programs or sub-tasks to complete within specified timeframes. The following lists the eighteen Policy Actions:
Policy Action 1.1: Provision of Adequate Sites for Housing Development Policy Action 1.2: Review and Update the Development Review Process Policy Action 1.3: Facilitate Infill Development
Policy Action 1.4: Support the Development of a Variety of Housing Types Policy Action 1.5: Comprehensive Community Outreach Strategy for Housing Policy Action 1.6: Accessory Dwelling Units
Policy Action 1.7: Support Production of Regulated Affordable Housing for All Income Levels Policy Action 2.1: Preservation of Historic Residential Resources Policy Action 2.2: Housing Rehabilitation
Policy Action 2.3: Affordable Housing Acquisition and Rehabilitation Policy Action 3.1: Support Climate Change Resiliency in Buildings and Neighborhoods Policy Action 4.1: Continued Monitoring and Preservation of Housing Units At-Risk of Converting to Market Rate Policy Action 4.2: Fair Housing Services
Policy Action 4.3: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Policy Action 4.4: Homelessness Prevention and Housing
Policy Action 4.5: Tenant Protections and Support
Policy Action 4.6: Housing for Persons with Special Needs Policy Action 4.7: Support Homeownership Opportunities Appendix H - A Review of Past Performance
Government Code Section 65588(a) requires jurisdictions evaluate existing Housing Element effectiveness, appropriateness of goals, objectives and policies and progress implementing programs for the previous planning period. This appendix summarizes the City review of the housing goals, policies and programs of the previous Housing Element and evaluates the degree to which the City has implemented these programs during the previous planning period.
The City evaluated success of the Fullerton Housing Element programs and objectives during the previous RHNA cycle (Cycle 5, 2013-2021). The City organized these programs into four main areas and then broke down into thirty objectives (i.e., sub-areas) including:
Program 1 – New rental and for sale housing production opportunities in Fullerton – Conservation and rehabilitation of existing housing resources in Fullerton Program 3 – Efficient use of energy resources in residential development Program 4 – Continued monitoring and preservation of housing units at-risk of converting to market rate.
The RHNA numbers depicted the City success in encouraging housing of all the programs evaluated for success. Fullerton met the following numbers of units for new construction at the end of Cycle 5:
RHNA Cycle 5
State Mandate
Permitted Units
2013 - 2021
1,841
1,653
Fullerton fell short of meeting the Cycle 5 RHNA by 188 units. The state did not assess penalties against Fullerton for not meeting this goal.
Appendix H - B Residential Land Resources
California Housing Element Law requires cities to demonstrate they have adequate sites to meet their share of regional housing needs determined through the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process. This appendix includes an evaluation of potential sites suitable for future housing development based upon factors including zoning, development standards and availability of public services and facilities to accommodate a variety of housing types and incomes.
Section B.1 discusses the current Regional Housing Needs Assessment managed by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The following shows the current RHNA numbers:
RHNA Cycle 6
State Mandate
Permitted Units (to date)
2021 - 2029
13,209
592
Section B.2 discusses the methodology to meet the 13,209 units RHNA number. The City, uses the Housing Element to plan for development of units through various means including the following:
Approved projects (not yet under construction – see following table) Pending projects (in review / not entitled yet)
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
Surplus land (developed with units)
Housing Incentive Overlay Zone (HIOZ) units to construct.
The following lists entitled projects that have not started construction:
Project Name
Location
Number of Units
Casa Bella
Highland / Valencia
20 Streetlights
Orangethorpe / Lemon
329
The Pines
Euclid / Rosecrans
113
Pathways of Hope
Amerige Avenue
20 The Tracks at Fullerton
Santa Fe / Pomona
141
-
State College Boulevard
25 Pointe Common
Commonwealth Avenue
65 Coyote Hills West
Coyote Hills
760
TOTAL
1,473
Another four projects under staff review could result in 657 units, however, these have not gone to Planning Commission or City Council for entitlement.
Units obtained through other methods comprise a small percentage of the requirement for Cycle 6. For instance, Staff expects ADUs to provide about 60 units per year based on historical data. Staff expects units generated from surplus land sites under City control to generate about 150 units. Staff proposes generating most units through a Housing Incentive Overlay Zone (HIOZ). Staff attached the draft HIOZ development standards to this report. The Planning Commission will evaluate the draft HIOZ soon.
Appendix H - C Housing at Risk of Conversion Analysis
California Housing Element Law requires jurisdictions to analyze government-assisted housing eligible for conversion from lower-income to market rate housing over the next 10 years. State law identifies housing assistance as a rental subsidy, mortgage subsidy or mortgage insurance to an assisted housing development. Government assisted housing converts to market rate housing for many reasons including expiring subsidies, mortgage repayments or affordability restrictions expiration.
Appendix H - D Public Participation
Combined efforts of City staff, consultants, community stakeholders, the Planning Commission and City Council developed the Housing Element. This section provies realated information.
Appendix H - E Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) The California Legislature passed Assembly Bill (AB) 686 in 2018 to expand upon the fair housing requirements and protections outlined in the federal Fair Employment and Housing Act. The law requires all state and local public agencies to facilitate deliberate action to explicitly address, combat and relieve disparities resulting from past patterns of segregation to foster more inclusive communities. AB 686 created new requirements that apply to all housing elements due for revision on or after January 1, 2021. AB 686 ensures that California Cities affirmatively further fair housing.
AB 686 defined “affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH)” to mean “taking meaningful actions, in addition to combat discrimination, that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity.” AB 686 added to the Housing Element requirements an assessment of fair housing which includes the following components:
Summary of fair housing issues and assessment of City fair housing enforcement and outreach capacity Analysis of segregation patterns and disparities in access to opportunities Assessment of contributing factors
Identification of fair housing goals and actions.
The analysis identified patterns of racial and economic segregation between the neighborhoods in northern Fullerton and southern Fullerton, as well as concerns over displacement, fair housing enforcement and access to public transportation and resources. This chapter identified actions to address these issues such as promoting integration and development in areas with high resources and tools to combat displacement and discrimination.
Appendix H - F: Glossary of Housing Terms
This section defines terms in the Housing Element document.
Housing Incentive Overlay Zone (HIOZ)
The Housing Incentive Overlay Zone would create opportunities for new housing development on non-residential zoned parcels. The current amount of housing developed for Cycle 6 will not meet state expectation such as those currently under construction or those that entitled and have not commenced construction yet. Other non-entitled housing production, such as ADUs and new single-family residences only amount to about 70 units per year. Therefore, staff developed the HIOZ to make up the shortfall.
The selected HIOZ parcels are commercial and industrial zoned properties and picked through a rigorous screening process. The screening criteria for parcel selection included viability and likelihood of the property redevelopment with housing, located within an opportunity area, not located within a hazard zone and in close proximity to amenities such as stores, schools and parks. The initial screening created a list of 1,253 parcels (July 2021). Revisions to the list occurred after City Council, public, consultant and staff input and reduced the list of parcels to 779 parcels (June 2023) and then to 759 parcels (October 2023). At Staff determined the number parcels would cover the City RHNA obligation with an approximate ten percent buffer (Attachment 6).
Staff created new HIOZ development standards which incorporate some new standards for mixed use development (Attachment 7). These zoning code revisions incorporate “objective development standards” meaning that they specify standards by measurable terms and do not leave the standards open to interpretation. The standards do not use terms such as “consistent with the neighborhood” or “in harmony with” as these terms do not have defined meanings and any person could have a different interpretation as to what those subjective terms might mean.
Staff prepared a draft Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) per the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to evaluate and mitigate impacts upon HIOZ adoption. Staff placed the report on the City website under Planning and Zoning. This process began in July 2023 and included a Scoping Meeting in September 2023. Staff received comments from six public agencies or individuals and incorporated into the CEQA analysis as part of that process. Assembly Bill 52 and Senate Bill 18 require notices sent to local Native American tribes asking if they wanted desired consultation. No tribes requested consultation.
Staff completed the draft PEIR and made available to the public for a 45-day review period, which ends on July 15, 2024. Staff published the Notice of Availability (NOA) in the Fullerton Observer and posted to the City website as required by state and City regulations. Staff also mailed NOAs via certified mail to individuals and public agencies, posted to the State Clearinghouse and emailed to approximately 400 individuals on the Planning Department notification list. Staff also prepared social media posts. Staff posted the draft PEIR for review on the City website (see Attachment 8), on the State Clearinghouse website and placed paper copies at the Planning Department counter and at the Fullerton Public Library public documents section.
Next Steps
The next steps in the overall process include public hearings to adopt the Housing Element, the Housing Incentive Overlay Zone map and development standards and completing related Fullerton Municipal Code and General Plan updates. Staff intends late summer or early fall 2024 for adoption. The City must complete all rezoning, municipal code amendments and General Plan amendments by December 2024 to meet stipulated agreement requirements. Major changes or revisions to any of the documents may affect the timeline.
Attachments:
Attachment 1 - PowerPoint Presentation Rincon
Attachment 2 - PowerPoint Presentation Dudek
Attachment 3 - HCD Letter Dated May 9, 2024
Attachment 4 - Draft Housing Element Dated June 2024
Attachment 5 - Fullerton Housing Element Update Timeline Summary Attachment 6 - Draft HIOZ Map
Attachment 7 - Draft HIOZ Development Standards
cc: City Manager Eric J. Levitt
Housing Element Update
June 18, 2024 - Page 2