County’s RHNA housing figures

 

Santa Ynez may be expected to build more housing units than its neighboring cities, according to the latest county Regional Housing Allocation Assessment.

In a public meeting that lasted more than two hours, the Santa Barbara Technical Planning Advisory Committee met with the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments Jan. 23 to discuss its first preliminary figures for the 2007-2014 RHNA housing allocation. The allocation, an affordable housing mandate, is part of the California Housing Element Law, which is updated every five years. It requires the county to zone a predetermined amount of available land for affordable housing. It is designed to supply mixed housing, encourage efficient development and improve the job-housing demand.

 

TPAC is a multi-jurisdictional committee created to make sure all cities in the county get a fair allocation number. One representative from each city in the county is appointed to the committee.

“We’re looking at a variety of different options,” said Michael Powers, deputy director of planning for SBCAG. “We’ve looked at job growth to address short-term change in jobs, so if an area has the potential of having more job growth, it’s allocated more housing.

“These figures are not cemented, they’re just options for now,” he said.

 

Based on the most recent allocation figures, the unincorporated areas of the Santa Ynez Valley, including the township of Santa Ynez, may be required to zone for 861 housing units; Solvang 116 and Buellton 266. The preliminary number also casts much of the county’s housing and job growth in North County areas such as Santa Maria, which may be required to zone for more than 4,000 units. South County areas, including Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, Montecito, Mission Toro Canyon and Summerland, taken together, may be required to zone for 1,796 units.

The figures for the unincorporated areas of the valley are larger than Buellton and Solvang because they are expected to experience more growth, said David Matson, deputy director for the county planning and development department.

 

But, job growth is entirely different. More jobs are expected to be developed in Buellton than in the unincorporated areas. So what the county needs to do is take a good long look at the job-housing relationship because if people are commuting from their homes to their jobs, it will impact traffic and air quality in the surrounding communities, Matson added.  

SBCAG has been holding public workshops since November. From information gathered at various workshops held throughout the county, TPAC requested that SBCAG consider the housing-job relationship, commuting and job availability to help come up with allocation figures for each city.

“It’s still a work in progress and TPAC directed SBCAG to come back with more scenarios,” said Marc Bierdzinski, planning director and TPAC member for the City of Buellton. “The jobs and housing balance is important for all the jurisdictions to have the jobs where the housing is to bring down the commute.”

 

Though the council of governments presented allocation scenarios based on previous direction from TPAC, the technical committee requested that SBCAG come up with additional scenarios and continue comparing other scenarios from other counties such as San Luis Obispo. Some of the additional scenarios TPAC recommended that SBCAG consider when figuring the next round of housing allocations included job growth, household growth and existing jobs, each making up one-third of the component for housing allocation figures.

SBCAG will be holding a public meeting at 1 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Buellton City Hall to present its findings from the additional scenarios requested by the committee. City Hall is located at 140 W. Hwy. 246, behind the post office.

 

The meeting will be open to public comment. It will further discuss the allocation process, including the next steps that will be taken, which could include narrowing the choices to a single scenario.

For more information, visit www.sbcag.org.