Napa Subregional Regional Housing Needs Allocation (sub-RHNA) Process
Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is a state mandated process for determining how many housing units, including affordable units, each community must plan to accommodate. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determine the total housing need for a region, and it is the Association of Bay Area Government’s (ABAG) responsibility to distribute this need to local governments. Working with local governments, ABAG develops an allocation methodology for assigning units, by income category, to each city and county in the nine-county Bay Area. This allocation of need shows local governments the total number of housing units, by affordability, for which they must plan in their Housing Elements for the next eight year period.
The planning process for the fifth round (2012-2022) of Regional Housing Needs Allocations (RHNA) began in January of 2011. As in the last cycle, local governments have the opportunity to form “subregions”. The County of Napa and all of the cities and town within the County have adopted resolutions to participate as a “Subregion” in the RHNA Process and are herein members of the Napa Subregion. The Napa Valley Transportation Authority (NVTA) is the countywide representative for the Subegion. According to state law, at least two or more cities and a county, or counties, may form a subregional entity for the purpose of allocating the subregion's existing and projected housing need for housing among its members.
Creating a subregion in Napa County to administer the allocation process can increase local control. Members of the subregion have more flexibility to negotiate with other members for adjustments to their allocations. The Association of Bay Area Government’s (ABAG) approach to RHNA does not always take into consideration the uniqueness of each community. With the formation of a subregion there can be better engagement by all jurisdictions and better flexibility in the RHNA process. To learn more about the RHNA process please visit http://www.onebayarea.org/plan_bay_area/housing.htm
At their July18th Board Meeting the NVTA Board approved the Napa Subregion final RHNA methodology and authorized NVTA to release the draft housing allocations to the subregion. Final allocations will be approved by the NVTA Board at their December 12th meeting.
