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While San Benito County is on track to meet the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), county officials are concerned about housing issues and lack of infrastructure.
The sixth cycle Housing Element, which covers 2023-2031, will require San Benito County to add 754 units in the county’s unincorporated areas during that eight-year cycle. However most of those units are already planned for, said Bryant De la Torre, an engineering and planning consultant with Kimley-Horn.
San Benito County Supervisor Angela Curro aired frustration about the RHNA requirements for the unincorporated county areas, calling them “outrageous” and claiming that the state wants the county to house Silicon Valley employees.
“That’s what they want. They don’t have any land in the Bay Area,” Curro said. “They want us to build the housing so that Silicon Valley can have some place to live and then they commute on our roads with our infrastructure that we do not have the money to afford and then they spend their money in the Bay Area.”
“You cannot say that we don’t need housing, but we need housing that helps our residents and that’s the part that I’m struggling with,” she said.
The April 30 joint special meeting of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors and San Benito County Planning Commission was led by Kimley-Horn associates De la Torre and Dave Barquist.
De la Torre said the county has met most of the RHNA requirements through active, approved and ongoing projects but still needs to plan for 16 very low income and low income housing units.
To compensate for those unmet requirements, the county will need to increase density by rezoning residential mixed areas to allow 15 to 35 units per acre, De la Torre said.
Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki said the county can look at recruiting nonprofit developers to build low income, mixed-use housing.
“That’s really preferable as far as building a community because you’re actually building a community, you’re not just popping housing down somewhere and sort of randomly hoping it works out,” Kosmicki said.
The RHNA has four income categories: very low income, low income, moderate income and above moderate income.
The income ranges are based on the 2023 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development median income for the county, which is $140,200 for a family of four. The annual income categories are:
- Up to $55,650 for very low income
- $55,651 to $89,050 for low income
- $89,051 to $168,250 for moderate income
- $168,251 and above for above moderate income
The RHNA requires that the county plan 246 units for very low income families; 198 for low income families; 103 units for moderate income and 207 for above moderate income families for a total of 754 units, De la Torre said.
Curro and Planning Commissioner Celeste Toledo-Bocanegra raised concerns about infrastructure.
“One concern that many residents have is the infrastructure off of [Hwy] 25,” Toledo-Bocanegra said, mentioning that commuters spend many hours in traffic. She asked how the state could help with the county’s narrow and over-burdened roads.
De la Torre said that the county can collaborate with elected state officials to advocate for the county’s needs.
Curro said infilling—building within open space that is next to existing infrastructure—is the best option. She agreed that the county lacks infrastructure and has a traffic and road problem, but said the county would need to go to the city for services.
“So, I’m frustrated with this whole process because the reality is, anything we do, it is going to be a challenge to get credit for our RHNA numbers because we rely on the city for services,” she said.
There were no public comments.
The state requires local jurisdictions to update the housing element every eight years, De la Torre said. The last update was for the 2014-2023 housing element cycle. The element is part of the county’s general plan, which serves as the blueprint for growth.
Housing elements are updated to establish a plan to meet current and future housing and growth needs, engage the community in the planning process and attain state grants and other funds, De la Torre said.
A review draft will be posted in May followed by an online community survey for residents. A second joint meeting between the supervisors and the Planning Commission is scheduled for May 21 followed by a community workshop on May 22, De la Torre said.
The county’s sixth cycle housing element will be formally submitted to the state Department of Housing and Community Development in early June, he said.
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