The Prohousing Designation is growing, with the first Bay Area jurisdictions to be added to the list of cities awarded for accelerating the approval and construction of housing. The designation, which gives cities & counties prioritization for competitive state housing and infrastructure grants, has been awarded to 9 additional cities and counties since the new year. These include the Southern California cities of San Diego and Fontana as well as the Northern California Cities of Oakland and El Cerrito. Designations are awarded for innovative changes to policy including eliminating planning and design commission public hearings to all projects of 150+ dwelling units, creating objective infill housing design standards, and reducing development impact fees for new affordable dwelling units.
Generation Housing is working with jurisdictions in Sonoma County to increase their score on the application through innovative policy reform. Unlike the Housing Element standards, which jurisdictions can meet by adding a specific distribution of houses regardless of changes to zoning or approval processes, earning the Designation requires revision of policies that directly influence input costs and land use allowances. The designations are awarded out of 64 points, but lower scores may become more costly as more jurisdictions win the award and compete for grants.
- Healdsburg, the first city in the County to submit an application, is under review by HCD at present.
- Rohnert Park is aiming to join the list of designated cities through an application in the coming month, working in conjunction with 4Leaf, Inc. consultants.
- Santa Rosa’s City Council authorized an application to pursue the designation in January.
Driving the increase in applications is the addition of new eligible grants including the Prohousing Incentive Pilot (PIP), a new program from HCD to accelerate affordable housing production and preservation exclusively for jurisdictions with the Designation. Higher scores on the Prohousing Designation entitle applicants to bonus funding pools up to $500,000.
As we learn more about HCD’s priorities, we are advocating for greater specificity and commitment with the policies proposed – working with our partners at 4Leaf to get proposed policies codified under the Housing Element while there is still time. Non-codified policies (or what HCD designates “proposed” policies as opposed to “enacted” policies) may be submitted but only if the applicant provides key milestones and dates associated with the enactment of those policies. This requires commitment and coordination between City Councils and Planning Departments. Likewise, enacted policies must be demonstrated by providing the passed ordinance as well as evidence of implementation or repeated success.