What’s next for Petaluma’s Housing Element

Every eight years, California cities are required to update what is called their “Housing Element” – an analysis of the city’s housing needs for residents of all income levels and a plan to increase housing equity and inventory in the next cycle.

Petaluma is no different, and a draft of the city’s next Housing Element is now in the review stage.

According to Community Development Director Brian Oh, the California State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is currently reviewing Petaluma’s draft plan, and once the review is complete, staff will start the public hearing process on a final draft plan for the City Council to consider adopting in Spring 2023.

Once adopted, the Housing Element will lay out a set of policies and programs the city will use to accomplish housing goals through 2031.

The latest Housing Element comes on the heels of 2019 legislation, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, creating incentives for local governments to maximize housing production. In a stated effort to curb the ongoing statewide housing shortage and homelessness crisis, Newsom even vowed to fine or withhold funds from cities if they fail to create new and affordable housing projects.

Under that law, the Association of Bay Area Governments has assigned Petaluma to plan for the development of at least 1,910 new housing units in the next eight years, “accommodating not only future needs but also factoring in the unmet demand of the previous cycles.”

“It’s also important that the community understands where the opportunities and challenges are in achieving a successful plan,” Oh said.

The 1,910 units would include 499 units in the “very low income” category, 288 “low income” units, 313 “moderate” income units and 810 “above moderate” units.

Right now Petaluma reports total possible capacity for available housing at 3,404 units, according to a draft housing sites inventory report published on Aug. 10. That includes 1,632 “opportunity sites” composed of more than 1,000 underutilized sites, 383 vacant sites and 242 shopping center parking lot spaces that have potential for housing uses.

In the coming year, Petaluma is expected to make updates and adjustments to zoning and design standards for residential and mixed-use developments. In its draft Housing Element plan, the city lays out goals that it plans to achieve by December 2023, including the adjustment of mixed-use development requirements and addressing zoning code constraints to “support adaptive reuse of nonresidential spaces,” adopt live/work development standards to make way for a larger variety of housing types, and “update onsite parking regulations to reduce barriers to housing development and to support the city's affordable housing development and climate goals.”

As California continues to experience drought conditions, residents have raised concerns that new housing development would only further strain the city’s water supply. However, city officials and staff plan to incorporate a number of strategies to ensure its increased housing inventory would have minimal related impacts.

According to the draft report, the city would increase water efficiency strategies such as the expansion of its recycled water and water conservation rebate programs, the development of municipal groundwater wells, and the use of an “Aquifer Storage and Recovery Plan” to assist in “taking surplus drinking water from the Russian River system during wet winter years and storing it in the deep underground aquifer in the Petaluma groundwater basin” for use in case of an emergency.

A full list of available housing, a locator map, and the full draft Housing Element can be found at planpetaluma.org/housingelementdraft. There, residents can also see the list of priorities and policy goals in the city’s housing plans for the next eight years.

Amelia Parreira is a staff writer for the Argus-Courier. She can be reached at amelia.parreira@arguscourier.com or 707-521-5208.