At its last meeting on July 17, 2019, the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) discussed the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) and the need to synch the General Plan Update schedule to that process since it will impact land use considerations. Accordingly, the analysis of opportunity sites, GPAC meetings, and public outreach will be postponed until the final RHNA numbers are released, which are expected to be in January 2020.
In the meantime, work on drafting policies that are not dependent upon land use and on the existing conditions and community profile tasks will continue.
A revised General Plan Update schedule will be created once there is a clearer understanding of the RHNA timing.
RHNA Update
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) provided their draft allocation for the SCAG region and it is much higher than was anticipated – a total of 1,344,740 housing units. More information can be found here: https://scag.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/r/9D795EA29BC5B2AB2540EF23F30FEDED/A9D9BA74388C564184E5AAD5A6C37FC6
SCAG has issued an objection challenging HCD’s draft allocation. If successful, this may result in a revised allocation from HCD, which would presumably result in a revision to the City’s share of the allocation. http://www.scag.ca.gov/programs/Documents/RHNA/SCAG-Objection-Letter-RHNA-Regional-Determination.pdf
SCAG has offered three optional methodologies to allocate these units to each jurisdiction for public review and feedback. At a future meeting, SCAG will select one option or a modified version. http://www.scag.ca.gov/programs/Documents/RHNA/RHNA-Final-Proposed-Methodology.pdf
As they stand, these methodologies would result in a range of between 944 to 3,520 units that the City of Fountain Valley would need to accommodate. http://www.scag.ca.gov/programs/Documents/RHNA/RHNA-Proposed-Methodology-Estimate-Tool-Options1-3.xlsx (change the city in the yellow box to Fountain Valley)
On September 23, SCAG staff presented the outline of a revised methodology. The details and unit estimator tool have yet to be provided, but should be available by early October. Accordingly, it is not yet known how this will impact Fountain Valley. Please check this link for updates: http://www.scag.ca.gov/programs/Pages/Housing.aspx