The Latest on the RPV Housing Element Update

It’s been over one year since the City of Rancho Palos Verdes began working on its 6^th Cycle Housing Element Update, a state-mandated process that requires the City to develop a tool box to support housing and to identify locations that can be rezoned to accommodate 647 potential new housing units across RPV in various income levels through 2029. This target figure, called a Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation, was assigned to the City by the state.
 
The City would like to share some recent developments and what’s to come with the Housing Element Update process.
 
For some background, after a series of public meetings and outreach conducted last fall, in October 2021, the City released a Draft Housing Element (PDF) and an inventory of potential sites where new housing could be accommodated. A Second Draft Housing Element (PDF) was released in November 2021 with revisions based on feedback from the Planning Commission, the City Council, and residents. It was then submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for review. The City also released an environmental analysis, called an Initial Study/Negative Declaration (IS/ND) (PDF), that evaluated the potential environmental impacts of the Draft Housing Element and determined it will not result in significant impacts. 
 
Like most cities, RPV received extensive comments from HCD, and City staff determined more time was needed to address them in preparing a Final Draft Housing Element. Staff began working with the City’s Housing Element Update consultant to respond to HCD’s comments and expand the housing inventory. And in May, City staff took representatives from HCD on a tour of the City to give them a better understanding of the conditions that complicate new development. Due to the complexity of the 6th Cycle update, most cities in Southern California, including RPV, did not have their Housing Elements approved by HCD by the original October 15, 2021 deadline, which would trigger the need to rezone to accommodate their RHNA allocations by October 15, 2022. To provide relief, a state law (SB 197) passed in late June 2022 now gives these cities additional time to rezone. To seek that extra time and avoid penalties, these cities are now being urged by HCD to adopt their Housing Element Updates by August 15, 2022 for submittal and review by HCD. This means the City now has less time to adopt the Final Draft Housing Element Update in order to get more time to complete required rezoning.
 
Although the City had hoped to have more time to work on the final draft, we will now be releasing the Final Draft Housing Element sooner than anticipated as a result of these developments. The Final Draft Housing Element will be uploaded to the City website at rpvca.gov/housingelement by August 5. The Final Draft and environmental review will go before the Planning Commission on August 9 and then be considered for adoption by the City Council on August 11.
 
Please stayed tuned for meeting information in the coming days or visit rpvca.gov/housingelement to learn more. If you have questions or would like to share your comments, please email them to housingelement@rpvca.gov.
 
Thank you for your interest in the Housing Element Update.