Regional Housing Needs Plan

Summary

The Regional Housing Needs Plan (RHNP) allocates to SACOG cities and counties their "fair share" of the region's projected housing needs. The SACOG Board of Directors must adopt an update of the plan every five years. Each city and county in the RHNP will receive a Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) of total number of housing units that it must plan for within a 7.5 year time period through their General Plan Housing Elements. Allocations are also distributed within four economic income categories; these four categories must add up to the total overall number a jurisdiction is allocated. On February 21, 2008, the SACOG Board of Directors adopted the 2006-2013 RHNP. Cities and counties have until June 30, 2008 to develop and adopt their Housing Elements that address how they will meet their allocations.

Web Page

This webpage provides SACOG member jurisdictions and other stakeholders information regarding the 2006-2013 Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) and the Regional Housing Needs Plan (RHNP), which is the document that encapsulates the RHNA. This page provides three key features:

Key Approved RHNA Documents

Adopted 2006-2013 SACOG Regional Housing Needs Plan (RHNP) (approved February 21, 2008) (3.81 mb)
Executive Summary Table: All Allocations (approved February 21, 2008)
Table 1: Overall Allocations by Jurisdiction (Approved February 21, 2008)
Table 2: Income Category Allocations by Jurisdiction (approved February 21, 2008)

Online Discussion

Have comments or would like to share ideas with the public anything about the RHNA or the RHNP? If so, please go to our online discussion page.

Frequently Asked Questions

(updated February 26, 2008)

What is the Regional Housing Needs Plan (RHNP) and Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)?

Each city and county in the RHNP receives a Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) of total number of housing units that it must plan for within a 7.5 year time period. Within the total number of units, allocations are also made for the number of units within four economic categories: very low, low, moderate and above moderate incomes.

What is SACOG's role in the RHNP?

California's Housing Element Law (Government Code 65584) mandates that councils of governments develop the RHNP for their service area. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments is lead agency in developing the RHNA and approving the RHNP for the 22 cities and 6 counties that it serves. The SACOG service area encompasses the counties of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba and their 22 cities. The RHNP must also include the Tahoe Basin portions of El Dorado and Placer counties, and the city of South Lake Tahoe; these areas are normally outside of SACOG's service area. It is SACOG's responsibility to coordinate with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to determine the Regional Housing Needs Determination, or overall regional number. Then SACOG is required to develop the methodology to allocate the share each jurisdiction receives.

What are two types of allocations in the RHNA?

The Regional Housing Needs Allocation has two parts as required by state law. Part 1 is an allocation of the total number of housing units to each jurisdiction for which zoning capacity must be provided for the time period January 1, 2006 through June 30, 2013. This part is referred to as the "overall allocation". Part 2 is the distribution of the same total number of units among four income categories; the sum of the housing units within the four categories must add up to the total overall number of units. Part 2 is referred to as the "income category distribution".

What is the overall allocation issued by the State of California? And how was this overall number divided into the four income categories?

The State of California, through the Housing and Community Development Department (HCD), issued a Regional Housing Needs Determination of 118,652 to the six-county region the 7.5 year RHNA planning period. SACOG had originally received a higher allocation, but after the passage of Assembly Bill 1259 (discussed below), HCD issued a revised overall allocation number of 118,652. With the overall number, HCD also provided a breakdown of that allocation into four economic categories:

Very low income (less than 50% median household income [MFI]): 26,613 units or 22.4% of total allocation
Low Income (50 to 80% MFI) 19,966 or 16.8%
Moderate (80 to 120% MFI) 23,086 or 19.5%
Above Moderate (above 120% MFI) 48,987 or 41.3%

What are the four income categories and what do they mean for cities and counties?

The four economic categories must be addressed in a jurisdiction's housing element. Specifically, accommodations must be made to ensure that the jurisdiction zones for enough housing units to allow for sufficient housing to be built by income category. For the Very Low and Low Income categories in particular, jurisdictions must provide zoning that is considered higher density zoning. A jurisdiction can explain to HCD what high density means in its housing element; however, if no explanation is given, then the default for most of the jurisdictions in the region is 20 dwelling units per acre, and 30 units per acre for the city of Sacramento.

One important distinction is the jurisdiction is responsible for providing the zoning for the four economic income categories, but it is NOT responsible for construction of these units. The intent of the Housing Element law is that a jurisdiction not impede the construction of housing in any income category. Other factors, such are market forces, are well beyond a jurisdiction's control and yield considerable influence over whether or not housing units in each income category are actually constructed.

What happens once a jurisdiction receives its housing allocations for the RHNA planning period?

When the 2006-2013 RHNP was adopted by the Board of Directors, jurisdictions were officially allocated their overall and income category allocations. Each jurisdiction must then describe in its Housing Element how it will provide zoning for these units within the plan period. This entails updating the Housing Element, the only chapter of a General Plan that must be reviewed by HCD for compliance to California Housing Element Law. The Housing Element must address how many acres of land within a jurisdiction could be zoned for residential development. It must also address any realistic conditions that may prevent these lands from being zoned for housing within the plan period. All jurisdictions have until June 30, 2008 to update and adopt their Housing Elements to address the allocations from the 2006-2013 RHNP.

What was the general timeline in the development of the 2006-2013 RHNP?

State law required that SACOG perform a number of steps before the SACOG Board of Directors could adopt the RHNP. The most significant steps in the development of the RHNP were:

the SACOG Board adopted the RHNA methodology on July 20, 2007, which was the culmination of several months of discussions with the SACOG Planning Committee on different methodological approaches;
Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law Assembly Bill 1259 on October 19, 2007, allowing the California Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) to issue a revised Regional Housing Needs Determination (RHND) to the SACOG region;
the SACOG Board publicly approved the release of the associated allocations based on the revised overall regional allocation on October, 29, 2007;
no jurisdiction formally appealed its draft allocations by the December 14, 2007 deadline, as per state statute; and
the SACOG Board of Directors approved the 2006-2013 RHNP on February 21, 2008.

Assembly Bill 1259 was passed into law by the State legislature. What was included in the bill and how did it affect the 2006-2013 RHNA?

SACOG originally received a higher Regional Housing Needs Determination, or overall regional allocation, of 169,476 units. While SACOG was developing its RHNA, the California Department of Finance updated and publicly released new projections throughout the state showing much lower growth projections. AB 1259 was proposed, which sought a one-time re-issuance of the RHND based on updated data. In September, 2007, both houses of the state legislature approved AB 1259, and the Governor signed it into law on October 19. The new RHND was re-issued to SACOG with 118,652 units.

One of the key concessions of the bill was that the SACOG region would not receive an extension on the timeline for housing elements. Local jurisdictions' housing elements must still be adopted by June 30, 2008. This provision was essential in getting bi-partisan approval in both houses of the legislature. The SACOG Board made it clear that the highest priority was getting the overall allocation reduced.

The methodology and the allocations are considered the key features of the RHNP. Describe how the RHNA methodology calculates the overall allocation to each jurisdiction.

Step 1, or the Overall Allocation, starts with the projection that SACOG and local jurisdictions developed for the draft 2035 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). SACOG worked in cooperation with each jurisdiction to develop a growth forecast for the period from 2005 to 2013 for use in the 2035 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). SACOG calculated each jurisdiction's percentage share of the growth forecasted within the region for the period 2005 to 2013. That percentage was multiplied by the region's projected growth during the RHNA period. The California Department of Housing and Community Development determined that the region's project growth (plus the Tahoe Basin) for the RHNA period is 118,652.

For example, if a jurisdiction's projected growth for the 2005-2013 MTP planning period is x%, then that jurisdiction's overall allocation for the RHNA is x% times the regional RHNA growth allocation (118,652 minus the Tahoe Basin allocation).

How does the methodology allocate units by income category?

The distribution of the overall unit allocation into the income categories is based on a trend line from 2000 to 2050. At the starting point of the trend line, the year 2000 Census shows the percentage of households that a jurisdiction has in each income category. And the endpoint of the trend line, year 2050 shows the regional average percentage of households in each income category. The trend line that connects these two points is intersected at the year 2013. That intersection is the jurisdiction's 2013 allocation for that income category. The 2013 allocation for each income category moves the jurisdiction towards the regional average household income distribution over time. The trend line to move all jurisdictions towards the regional average is consistent with the intent of the state's Housing Element law.

How is the Tahoe Basin treated in the RHNA?

The basin is subject to federal law and a bi-state (with Nevada) compact on growth allocations. There are three local jurisdictions in the Tahoe Basin that are within the six-county RHNA area - the city of South Lake Tahoe, and portions of unincorporated Placer and El Dorado Counties. Thus, the overall allocations for these three jurisdictions were determined by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and consultation with the three local governments on historic growth rates. However, the same income category distribution methodology was applied to these jurisdictions as to the 28 SACOG jurisdictions.

Some concerns were raised regarding the methodology's income distribution recommendation. What were those concerns and how are they resolved in the RHNP?

To recap, the adopted methodology has all jurisdictions trending over 50 years towards the regional average in each income category. The 2000-07 RHNA cycle used a 30-year trend line. In addition, the methodology placed a 4% floor and a 30% ceiling on the number of units a jurisdiction could be allocated in the low and very low income categories.

Because of the 50 year trend line, and the 4% floor and 30% ceiling, some jurisdictions are receiving more low and very low income units than had those features not been in place. Exactly 321 of the 118,652 units were redistributed as a result. The RHNP provides for an incentive of $2000 per built unit for those jurisdictions that received these "redistributed" units. The incentive would be paid in the form of credit towards a federal aid eligible transportation project. More details are provided in Appendix B of the adopted RHNP.

The RHNA addressed planned units, and the MTP has built units. What's the difference?

The Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) must represent the best estimate of what will actually be built in the region between 2005 and 2035. Within the forecast, there are interim years that lead up to 2035. Each forecast year shows the placement of the number of units that are projected to be built by the end of that year. These estimates are based on local governments' General Plans and Specific Plans, and their anticipated changes to those plans in response to the Blueprint Vision.

HCD requires cities and counties to show through their Housing Elements how they can accommodate a projected housing allocation by planning and zoning enough residential land. The RHNA does not necessarily mean that these zoned residential lands will be built by end of the RHNP period.