2021-2029 Housing Element Update

Please click here to view the Adopted 6^th Cycle Housing Element 2021-2029 (Adopted 3/15/2022)

What is the Housing Element?

The Housing Element identifies the City’s housing needs and conditions and establishes goals, objectives, and policies that form the basis of the City’s vision and strategy for enhancing and preserving the community’s character and expanding housing opportunities for all Placentia’s community members. The element also contains in-depth analysis and evaluation of the City’s population, economics, household size, housing stock, housing programs, and regulations. 

State Law establishes that each city accommodates its fair share of affordable housing as an approach to distributing housing needs throughout the state. State Housing Element law also recognizes that in order for the private sector to address housing needs and demand, local governments must adopt land-use plans and implement regulations that provide opportunities for, and do not unduly constrain, a housing development by the private sector. State housing laws regarding Housing Elements are found in the California Government Code Sections 65580-65589. The housing element is required to be updated every eight years. It is also subject to detailed statutory requirements and mandatory review and approval by the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

According to State law, the Housing Element must:

• Provide goals, policies, quantified objectives, and scheduled programs to preserve, improve and develop housing;
• Identify and analyze existing and projected housing needs for all economic segments of the community;
• Identify adequate sites that are zoned and available within the 8-year housing cycle to meet the city’s fair share of regional housing needs at all income levels;
• Be certified (approved) by the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) as complying with state law; and,
• Be internally consistent with other parts of the General Plan (and meeting this requirement is critical to having a legally adequate General Plan).

                                       English                                                                                  Spanish

What are the Benefits of Updating a Housing Element?

The City of Placentia has started the process of updating the Housing Element of the City’s General Plan to ensure we are prepared to meet Placentia’s future housing needs. Your input will help the City develop a plan that best reflects the community’s needs, values, and priorities, related to housing. Under State law, every city and county is required to update its Housing Element to address specific requirements and submit the updated Housing Element to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The Housing Element Update will build upon, and revise, as appropriate, the goals, policies, and programs of the Housing Element, to ensure that the City can meet the housing needs of all Placentia residents from 2021 through 2029.

Maintaining a State-compliant Housing Element ensures that Placentia is eligible for critical state and federal funds that require a certified Housing Element by HCD. Jurisdictions that do not maintain a compliant Housing Element are at risk of significant repercussions, including:

• Potential loss of local land use control;
• Carryover of unaddressed allocations, increasing the total number of housing units that the City is responsible for accommodating;
• Ineligibility for various State-administered funds, including infrastructure, parks, housing, and planning funds: and,
• The City’s entire General Plan becomes vulnerable to legal challenges.

Public Involvement

As part of the Housing Element Update, we are asking for the community to provide input regarding housing priorities. Participation from our residents and stakeholders is vital to ensure that our community’s values are identified and articulated in the Housing Element and that the City’s approach provides the best fit for our community’s goals, values, and priorities.

The City hosted two community workshops on August 24th at 6:00 pm at Whitten Community Center and September 16th at 6:00 pm at the Senior Center/Powell Building. 

For another way to participate, the City invites you to complete a short online survey that will provide input towards creating our community housing strategy for the next eight years. The survey is available below in English and Spanish and can be accessed by clicking on the links below.

Relevant Meetings and Presentations

Planning Commission

On September 14, 2021, the Planning Commission received a second presentation from Staff and the City's consultant regarding the ongoing 2021 update to the Housing Element of the General Plan. To view the agenda packet for the September 14, 2021 Planning Commission Meeting, please click here. You can also click here to view the PowerPoint presentation.

On Tuesday, October 12, 2021, staff will present the 2021 Draft Housing Element Update to the Planning Commission for review and will then forward the draft to the City Council for review on October 19th and subsequent submission to the State for review. Click here to view the agenda. To participate in the meeting via zoom, click here.

City Council

On March 15, 2022, the City Council received a presentation from Staff and the City's consultant regarding the ongoing 2021 update to the Housing Element of the General Plan. To view the agenda packet for the March 15, 2022 City Council Meeting, please click here. 

At the March 15, 2022 meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the the 6th Cycle 2021-2029 Housing Element of the City of Placentia and adopt a "Common Sense" exemption for General Plan Amendment No. GPA 2021-02, finding that GPA 2021-02 is exempt from CEQA. Please click here for a copy of the Notice of Exemption. The Housing Element has since been submitted to the State for review.

Informational Video and Presentation

Want to know more about housing? Please view the below videos from the Orange County Council of Governments (videos in both English and Spanish).

English:

Español:

Recent State Housing Legislation

The 2019 California Legislative Session ended with over 30 new bills in response to the state’s worsening housing crisis. Several of these bills are designed to increase housing production by easing development regulations, compelling jurisdictions to make fee and land information readily available to potential developers, and impose new ongoing reporting and inventory requirements for local jurisdictions. The following table displays the bills discussed in the update and includes links to the corresponding bill text:

What is RHNA?

The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) is mandated by State law to quantify the need for housing throughout the State. This informs the local planning process to address existing and future housing need resulting from projected state-wide growth in population, employment, and households. The Housing Element Update must address the housing needs identified by the RHNA prepared by SCAG for Placentia. 

As the Council of Governments (or regional planning agency), SCAG is responsible for overseeing the RHNA process for the Southern California region, which encompasses six counties (Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura) and 191 cities in an area covering more than 38,000 square miles. SCAG is currently overseeing the 6th cycle RHNA for the 2021-2029 planning period. 

Placentia has a final RHNA allocation for 4,374 units to accommodate an estimated growth need at various income levels. The Housing Element must provide sites to accommodate this estimated growth at each income level. The final RHNA allocation for Placentia is as follows:

6th Cycle RHNA - Placentia, Orange County, and SCAG Region

6th RHNA by Income Category - Placentia

Frequently Asked Questions

Please click on the following link to view a list of frequently asked questions.

FAQs