General Plan Policy Document (Adopted 7-11 ... - City of Wheatland

HOUSING, Chapter 4Responsibility:Time Frame:City Staff2005 and ongoing thereafterSECTION II:ADEQUATE SITESThe following section provides an analysis of the land available forresidential development and compares this to Wheatland’sassigned need for new housing. This includes both sites that areavailable within incorporated City of Wheatland boundaries and inunincorporated areas that will be annexed within the HousingElement planning period. The Housing Element BackgroundReport provides a full discussion of this issue. The key informationfrom the Background Report is summarized and presented here.The inventory of vacant land includes potential development sitesthat were in the discussion or approval stages at the time of theinventory. Additionally, the capacity for second units on existingor new single-family lots was not calculated.Table 4.1 below (identical to Table 27 in the Background Report)provides a summary of residential holding capacity in Wheatlandcompared to Wheatland’s assigned housing need. The figures forthe total Regional Housing Needs Plan (RHNP) allocation, unitsbuilt, and net allocation to be met are from Table 20 in theBackground Report. The figures for holding capacity on vacantland are from Tables 25 and 26 of the Background Report. Asshown in Table 4.1, Wheatland has a total residential capacity ofunits in excess of its net allocation to be met (total need of 702 unitscompared to the holding capacity of 1,796 units).Because the capacity for housing production exceeds Wheatland’snet need for new housing during the Housing Element planningperiod, a primary objective for the City over the Housing Elementplanning period will be to provide adequate sites to accommodatethe housing needs of very low–, low-, and moderate-incomehouseholds. The California Department of Housing andCommunity Development (HCD) assumes, in general, that thehigher the density, the more affordable the housing. It is HCD’sposition that local jurisdictions can facilitate and encourageaffordable housing development by allowing development athigher densities, which helps to reduce per unit land costs.As shown in Table 4.1, after taking into account building permitsissued from January 1, 2000, through April 30, 2004, Wheatland hasa net allocation to be met of 436 moderate-income and below units.Wheatland has a capacity for 368 moderate-income and belowunits, for a deficit in capacity of 68 units, including 65 very lowandlow-income units and 3 moderate-income units. The 368 unitcapacity for moderate-income and below units could be increased,Wheatland General Plan Policy Document, Part II 4-13July 11, 2006