The county Board of Supervisors will hold two hearings to select rezone sites and county-owned sites to satisfy the county’s State Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) obligations.
The hearings will be Tuesday, April 30, in the Santa Maria Betteravia Center hearing room, 511 E. Lakeside Pkwy., Santa Maria; and Friday, May 3 in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara.
Staff will present the countywide project at the April 30 hearing in Santa Maria, then walk through the North County potential rezone sites. The South County potential rezone sites will be presented by staff at the May 3 hearing in Santa Barbara.
Both hearings will be streamed live. To watch the hearings, view the agenda and/or participate virtually, visit the Board of Supervisor’s Hearing Process webpage. View the agenda for instructions.
The County Planning Commission made rezone recommendations at both a North and South county meeting earlier this year.
In the North County, it considered 18 potential rezone sites and recommended to rezone eight sites including one pending project site.
In the South County, the Planning Commission recommended rezoning 16 of 18 potential rezone sites. The Planning Commission also recommended selecting nine county-owned sites in South County to meet State RHNA requirements.
The supervisors will consider the Planning Commission’s recommendations, but they do not need to adhere to the recommendations. A summary of the Planning Commission recommendations is in the Board Letter, which will be available on the County’s website on Thursday, April 25.
The board will also consider certifying the Final Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the 2023-31 Housing Element Update (HEU) at the May 3 hearing.
The Program EIR analyzes the potential impacts associated with the implementation of the HEU’s goals, policies and programs, including the potential rezone program.
The Final Program EIR was released March 19 after a seven-week public comment period (Dec. 20, 2023-Feb. 9, 2024) on the Draft Program EIR. The county received over 100 comments via email and during public hearings.
The final document, comments received, and the county’s responses are available on the County Planning and Development website.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (State HCD) found the county’s adopted housing element in substantial compliance with State Housing Element Law on Jan. 22.
For this cycle, State HCD requires that Santa Barbara County identify sites to accommodate 5,664 new housing units in unincorporated portions of Santa Barbara County between 2023 and 2031. This is an eight-fold increase from the last cycle.
The RHNA, is further broken down to require 4,142 units in the South Coast region and 1,522 units in the North County region. The breakdown attempts to address the current jobs-housing imbalance.
The state requires the county’s Housing Element to accommodate 2,818 very low, low- and moderate-income units. The Adopted HEU can be found at: https://www.countyofsb.org/3177/Housing-Element-Update.
The Housing Element Update is one of the mandated components of a General Plan. It directs local governments to plan for the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community.
This is the sixth Housing Element cycle, covering 2023-31.