2006-2014 Housing Element Update

The Final Draft 2006-2014 Housing Element was approved and adopted at the joint City Council/Housing Authority January 27, 2009 meeting, effective 30 days after the date of adoption.

The Housing Element was last comprehensively updated in 2000; it was amended recently as part of the adoption of the Downtown Specific Plan. State law requires that Housing Elements be updated regularly, and the State currently requires that all Housing Elements in the Southern California region be updated by June 30, 2008.

This August 2008 draft was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission on August 20, 2008. It included revisions in response to comments received from the public and from the State Department of Housing and Community Development.

The Initial Draft of the 2006-2014 Housing Element and environmental review (below) are available for public review and comment. The Proposed Negative Declaration Comment Period was from April 10, 2008 to May 10, 2008. The document is divided into 6 chapters:

• The Draft Element (entire document)
  
• Cover and Table of Contents
  
• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Goals, Policies and the Eight-Year Action Plan
• Chapter 3 - Review of Goals and Policies from the Previous Element
• Chapter 4 - Housing Needs Assessment
• Chapter 5 - Resource Inventory
• Chapter 6 - Constraints on Housing
• Appendix A - Available Sites
• Appendix B - Glossary
• Proposed Negative Declaration
• Notice of Intent to Adopt a Negative Declaration

In evaluating housing capacity, the State now requires a listing of all the addresses in the City where housing could be built. To that end, Staff prepared draft maps showing the location of sites that have the potential to add additional dwelling units in the multi-family zones of the City.

The Planning Department is completing the process of updating the Element. We convened a meeting of the Housing Element Task Force on December 3, 2007, and discussed the update process with that group. Members of the Task Force include representatives from key city departments, affordable housing advocates and developers, homeowners, the Housing Authority, representatives for the homeless, and members of the real estate and development community. We described the nature of the Element, the update process, and presented the draft set of Housing Element Goals and Policies for review by the Task Force.

The Task Force convened again on January 14, 2008, to review comments received since the initial meeting. On February 13, 2008, the Department hosted an open house to release the Initial Draft 2006-2014 Housing Element to the public. On February 20, 2008, the Planning Commission reviewed the initial draft and on February 26, 2008, the City Council and Housing Authority directed staff to send the initial draft Housing Element to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for review and comments.

In May 2008, HCD, Public Counsel, Inc. and Shelter Partnership, Inc. provided comments on the draft Housing Element. On May 21, 2008, the Planning Commission received an update on the status of the Housing Element and on May 29, 2008 the Housing Element Task Force held a meeting to discuss the comments received on the initial draft. Staff responded to the comments from HCD in a revised draft Housing Element released for public review in July 2008. On August 4, 2008 the Housing Task Force met and reviewed the July 2008 revised draft Housing Element. On August 20, 2008, the Planning Commission recommended that the revised draft Housing Element be sent to HCD for review and recommended that the City Council adopt the Housing Element. Following the Planning Commission meeting, the revised draft was sent to HCD for review.

Comments on the revised draft Housing Element were received from HCD and from Shelter Partnership, Inc, in early November, 2008. These comments were limited to items needing clarification including the following: zoning for a variety of housing types including definitions for single room occupancy (SRO), transitional and supportive housing; removal of the distance requirements for permitted emergency shelters in the IND zone; and, identification of small site lot consolidation opportunities for affordable housing. Program 5f and 5g in the revised draft Housing Element, discussion of lot consolidation opportunities and realistic densities, clarification on housing-type definitions, and Appendix 4 demonstrating potential for lot consolidation were modified or added based on HCD comments. The final step in the update process is consideration of the Housing Element 2006-2014 by the joint City Council and Housing Authority on January 27, 2008 and its adoption by the City Council. Following adoption, the Housing Element will be submitted to HCD for certification.

The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) is prepared by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). The RHNA is the housing production goal for the City during the 2006-2014 planning period of the new Element. The RHNA is generated based on projections of future population growth, job creation, and other factors, and relies on a variety of data sources. The RHNA for Glendale for 2006-2013 is:

Very Low Income	Low Income	Moderate Income	Above Moderate	Total
767	491	534	1,340	3,131

Each of the four income groups is defined under State law as follows:

• Very Low: <50% of County Median Household Income;
• Low: 50-80% of County Median Household Income;
• Moderate: 80-120% of County Median Household Income;
• Above Moderate: >120% of County Median Household Income.

The existing Housing Element can be viewed or downloaded by clicking on the following links: Cover and Table of Contents (1 mb)

Chapter 1 - Introduction (204 kb)

Chapter 2 - Goals, Policies and the 7-Year Housing Plan (1.3 mb)

Chapter 3 - Review of Goals and Policies from the Previous Element (822 kb)

Chapter 4 - Housing Needs Assessment (7.1 mb)

Chapter 5 - Resource Inventory (680 kb)

Chapter 6 - Constraints on Housing (1.8 mb)

Appendix A (Services to the Homeless), Glossary and References (841 kb)

Amendments to the Housing Element

Amendment GPA 2005-01 (557 kb)

Amendment GPA 2006-05 (596 kb)

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