No impact to the General Fund. The report on the County's progress in implementing its General Plan is funded 100% from the Land Development Fund, FY 2022/2023.
California Government Code section 65400 requires the planning agency for certain cities and all 58 counties to submit an annual report to their legislative body (city council or board of supervisors, respectively), OPR, and HCD on the status of their General Plan and progress on its implementation. The annual report provides the local legislative body with information regarding the status of its General Plan and gives OPR the opportunity to identify statewide trends in land use decision making, including how local planning and development activities relate to statewide planning goals and policies. Additionally, it enables OPR to track progress on a local jurisdiction's General Plan in terms of its comprehensiveness and consistency with the current OPR General Plan Guidelines and other State mandates.
There is no standardized form or format for preparation of the General Plan Annual Progress Report. OPR allows each jurisdiction to determine which locally-relevant issues are important to include, but does suggest general content to cover within the report. The attached report covering calendar year 2022 follows the general guidance of OPR in terms of content.
Staff notes that under a separate section of the Government Code, all local jurisdictions are required to submit a report to HCD on certain housing-related information, including the jurisdiction's progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs and local efforts to remove
governmental constraints to development of housing. On March 21, 2023, the Board is scheduled to consider accepting the County's General Plan Housing Element Progress Report for 2022. Information in that report is incorporated into the attached General Plan Annual Progress Report.
Staff calls to the Board's attention the County's progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs. Current data indicates that through calendar year 2022, the eighth and final year of the current Housing Element cycle, the County has issued building permits for 194.7 percent of its allocated share of the region's housing needs. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was the lowest year of housing production for the County in this cycle. This year’s production represents a 185.4 percent increase from the County’s 2020 RHNA production. In 2022, the County issued permits for 107 units affordable to moderate-income households and 147 affordable to above-moderate-income households for a grand total of 254 units. This is a significant increase over 2020’s production, where permits were issued for 137 units affordable to above-moderate-income households. While the moderate-income allocation was met through 2022’s unit production, fulfilling the low and very-low allocations did not occur, with 275 outstanding number of very-low-income units and two low-income units. Market factors such as the high cost of land suitable for residential development and high construction costs continue to be the most significant constraints on development of affordable housing in Contra Costa County.
State law requires DCD to submit this report to the Board of Supervisors prior to submitting it to OPR and HCD. The purpose of this report is to provide an update to the Board of Supervisors on implementation of the County General Plan. Negative action would result in the County becoming out of compliance with California Government Code section 65400.