The Housing Element is an element of the City’s General Plan, which provides guiding policy for land use and resource management within the City. Unlike the other General Plan elements, the housing element is subject to detailed statutory requirements and mandatory review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

The State of California requires that local governments adequately plan to meet the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community. The purpose of the housing element is to:

• Identify the community’s current and future housing needs

• To state the community’s goals and objectives with regard to housing production, rehabilitation, and conservation to meet those needs

• Define the policies and programs that the community will implement to achieve the stated goals and objectives

It’s required by State law. The State law also sets the schedule by which housing elements must be updated. Housing elements for most jurisdictions are updated every eight years.

The Galt City Council adopted the existing Housing Element in 2014, which covered an eight-year planning period from 2013-2021. The City is currently working on an update of the Housing Element for the 2021-2029 planning period. Upon adoption, the updated Housing Element will become part of the City’s General Plan.

Since the last housing element was approved, several new State laws have been adopted that create additional requirements that must be addressed as part of this update. These new requirements will affect the 2021-2029 Housing Element in the following topical areas:

• Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)

• Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing

• By-right Transitional and Permanent Supportive Housing

• Emergency and Transitional Housing

• Site Inventory Selection

• Streamlining Affordable Housing

In addition to addressing new State requirements, the City must also meet significantly increased State housing goals for housing unit production. The City’s numeric goal is defined in the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) provided by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. The 2013-2021 Housing Element had to identify residentially zoned parcels to accommodate 679 dwelling units. The 2021-2029 Housing Element must identify enough parcels to accommodate 1,926 new units. This is an increase of 1,247 dwelling units.

The Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA as it is commonly referred to, is a process established by State law to determine existing and projected housing needs. HCD works with a region’s Council of Governments (COG) to determine that need. SACOG is the COG that HCD consults with to determine RHNA for its six-county region (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba) which includes Galt.  SACOG determines each city’s fair share of that regional housing need. The fair share number is then distributed among five income categories (extremely low-income, very low-income, low-income, moderate-income, and above moderate-income). The City of Galt’s Cycle 5 (2013-2021) RHNA is as follows: