Huntington Beach City Council considers hire for General Plan Housing Element update
The Huntington Beach City Council on Monday night will consider hiring a consultant to assist with preparation of the 2021-2029 General Plan Housing Element Update.
The city would contract with a national company, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., for $581,158. The funding for which would come primarily from a forthcoming $500,000 Department of Housing and Community Development Local Early Action Planning grant, Huntington Beach city manager Oliver Chi said.
Kimley-Horn has previously worked on Housing Element Update projects in several cities throughout the state, including Anaheim, Los Alamitos and Orange.
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State housing allocations proposed by the Southern California Assn. of Governments require that Huntington Beach zone for 13,337 units from October 2021 through October 2029, to meet Regional Housing Needs Allocation standards.
“We’re working on coordinating a response,” Chi said. “Once we get the final RHNA numbers, we’re going to have to come up with a plan to demonstrate compliance. Approval of this contract will let us hire the consultant that will work with us on developing that housing plan.”
If hired, the consultant would start working with city staff on developing compliance pathways, developing zoning code updates to meet the RHNA numbers and achieve certification for the next housing element.
Chi said he’s fairly confident that Huntington Beach, like many Orange County cities, will appeal its RHNA number of more than 13,000 units as too high. Newport Beach authorized an appeal of its proposed RHNA requirement during a meeting Tuesday.
Current draft numbers by the Southern California Assn. of Governments indicate that the city of Newport Beach will need to approve 4,834 housing units over the next decade if those numbers are finalized.
Appeals must be filed by Oct. 26.
Monday’s Huntington Beach City Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. and can be watched on channel HBTV-3 or online at huntingtonbeach.legistar.com. Residents may send comments on agenda items to supplementalcomm@surfcity-hb.org.
Communications received by 2 p.m. Monday will be distributed to the council prior to consideration of agenda-related items.
The council chambers will not be open for in-person attendance to provide public comment due to COVID-19, but residents are encouraged to submit comments via Zoom.
The Webinar ID is 971 5413 0528 and can be reached via the Zoom app or by calling (669) 900-6833 and entering the ID. Individuals will be placed in a holding queue and prompted to speak when the city clerk announces their name or the last three digits of their phone number.
Time for remarks is limited to three minutes.
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