|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Danville town officials will host the next of their Housing Element 101 Workshops this weekend, prior to presenting an appeal outlining challenges facing the community in light of a state mandate to accommodate thousands of additional housing units.
The next in the series, set for Saturday (Sept. 18), comes in the wake of six previous workshops. The series functions as part of the town’s efforts to educate and involve community members in how to contend with the need to find room, within the town’s carefully planned and distinctive community, for additional affordable housing.
Under California’s regional housing needs allocation (RHNA) mandate, Danville is tasked with identifying suitable areas in which to build an additional 2,241 new homes. The town submitted an appeal to the Associated of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) on July 9, challenging this mandate. The case is set to be presented to the ABAG on Sept. 24. The appeal can be read here.
A major factor in the town’s appeal, in the midst of community input, is the argument that the ABAG failed to account for the particularly limited availability of suitable land for additional development in Danville. The appeal also points to the fact that jobs in Danville are not projected to grow at the same rate housing is.
The motivation for Danville’s community outreach efforts on the matter has been that, while the relatively small community has little say over the state mandate of additional housing, it does have a say over where this housing can and cannot be developed, according to town officials.
The workshop series has been one of several ways the town has sought to get the hands of all community members on deck, as it grapples with how to expand its housing opportunities with limited available land.
These efforts have also included the launch of a community website, educational opportunities and online surveys aimed at gauging the community’s needs and interests while providing information about what the RHNA and the state’s housing crisis mean for Danville in particular.
Interested community members can register here for this Saturday’s workshop, set to be held virtually at 10 a.m. Videos of previous housing workshops, and other information on the Housing Element update are available here.
