General Plans are a physical statement of a community’s vision (principally in physical terms) and consist of policies governing land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise and safety. Each city is required to have an adopted General Plan and new developments must be consistent with the General Plan or they may not be approved.

A city’s Housing Element is a highly detailed component of a city’s General Plan, designed to ensure that each city recognizes its responsibility in contributing to the attainment of state housing goals. A Housing Element must consider economic, environmental, and fiscal factors as well as community goals in establishing a housing program and must contain all of the features required by the statute to be found by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to conform with state law. This is required because the legislature has declared that designating and maintaining a supply of land and adequate sites suitable, feasible, and available for the development of housing sufficient to meet the locality's housing need for all income levels is essential to achieving the state's housing goals.

Each city is required to update its Housing Element every 8 years. In adopting that Housing Element, the City Council determined that it substantially complied with all applicable regulatory requirements. HCD did not certify the City’s Housing Element because HCD did not think it did enough to identify adequate sites with appropriate zoning to accommodate the City’s assigned share of regional growth for lower-income households.

Housing Elements have been in the news recently as the new governor has made it a priority for all cities to receive HCD approval of their Housing Elements. Diane McCall, the Mayor of the City of Fillmore, will be attending a meeting with Governor Newsom and the HCD on Thursday February 28th to discuss the status of the City’s non-compliant housing element. The City recognizes the importance of affordable housing and has been working with the HCD for several months to obtain HCD certification of our Housing Element.

To achieve HCD certification for our Housing Element the City has proposed the following:

Proposed Affordable Housing Project

The Housing Element will include a discussion of a proposed affordable housing project currently under review. An application has been submitted by the developer and we anticipate that this project will be presented to the City Council by mid-2019.

Accessory Dwelling Units

The Housing Element will be revised to add discussion to the effect the City complies with the State ADU law and that the City Council will be considering an ADU ordinance in March 2019.

15 % Affordability Requirement in Former RDA Areas

The Housing Element will be revised to include a description of previously-approved housing projects in the City that have been required to provide 15% affordable housing units. This includes all projects in former RDA areas, which encompasses approximately 90% of the City.

Current Projects and Ongoing Efforts to Approve Housing

The Housing Element will be revised to add a list of housing projects that are currently being reviewed that are near the approval stage. The intent of this discussion is to demonstrate the significant efforts the City has made in the last 4-5 years to increase the City’s housing stock for all income levels.

Density Bonus Ordinance

The Housing Element will be revised to add discussion referencing the City’s adoption of a Density Bonus Ordinance as required by State law.

Emergency Shelters/Transitional Housing/Supporting Housing Ordinance

The Housing Element will be revised to add discussion referencing the City’s adoption of an ordinance that authorizes these housing choices within certain zones of the City as required by State law.

Staff will submit this updated Housing Element to the HCD by the end of February.

Let’s work together to keep Fillmore the “Best Last Small Town.”