Housing 2021: Regional Housing Production Mandates, Constraints and Vehicle Miles Traveled

Holland & Knight West Coast Real Estate Webinar Series
Webinar
November 10, 2020
|
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM PT
Holland & Knight's real estate and land use attorneys Jennifer Hernandez, Ryan Leaderman, Letitia Moore and Paloma Perez-McEvoy give a webinar on practical suggestions for streamlining project approvals (including projects requiring general plan amendments and rezoning) under the new Sixth Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA).

Since 1980, California state law has required cities and counties to update general plan housing elements and zoning codes to accommodate projected future housing and population growth for the next eight years. Given the severity of the state's housing supply shortfall (estimated at 3.5 million units), the new RHNA process is underway. It started with Southern California in 2019 and will be followed by the Bay Area. The process creates major opportunities to upzone properties (especially retail and commercial properties in counties that touch the ocean or San Francisco Bay) to accommodate more residential and mixed-use projects on a "wholesale" entitlement Housing Element update framework. This Sixth Cycle also coincides for the first time with SB 375, which requires regions to plan greenhouse gas reductions to achieve climate change goals while also accommodating projected housing, population and employment growth. Both the SB 375 process and the expansion of CEQA to regulate driving (even in an electric vehicle) as a vehicle mile traveled (VMT) impact to be avoided (or reduced and mitigated) put a premium value on infill and edge development.

More Presentations in this Series

Upcoming Events