Title
Receive a preliminary response to Referral Number 2024.17 (Church) regarding the establishment of a structured approach to assessing the economic impacts on housing before adopting new County ordinances.
Body
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors receive a report and provide direction to staff to incorporate a qualitative summary of the impacts of new or modified land use regulations on housing development in staff reports.
SUMMARY:
On November 14, 2024, Supervisor Church submitted a referral (Referral No. 2024.17) requesting the establishment of a structured approach for assessing the economic impacts of new ordinances on housing.
Local land use regulations play a significant role in new housing development. The costs/affordability of housing is more complex. For example, lack of housing supply has been a significant factor in current housing costs, but costs are also significantly impacted by location, inflation, mortgage rates, house size, homeowner association fees, insurance, and other market forces. Some factors are in the control of local governments and others are not.
Housing and Community Development (HCD) staff are currently working on a Housing Element update with one of the mandated components of this update being a review of “constraints to housing” and “identification of programs and policies to remove these constraints.” In the Housing Element, analysis of constraints is addressed in terms of “governmental constraints” and “non-governmental constraints” following the logic discussed in the paragraph above. Some of the most often cited governmental constraints to housing development are listed below.
1. Zoning: Zoning dictates how land can be used (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) and can influence the density of housing. Strict zoning regulations may limit housing development by prohibiting certain types of housing or restricting where they can be built. Zoning regulations also establish what lan...
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