Board accepts 2024 Housing Element annual progress report, staff to submit state filings by April 1

The San Benito County Board of Supervisors accepted the county’s 2024 Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) on March 11 and directed staff to file the report with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and the California Department of Housing and Community Development by the April 1 deadline.

Associate Planner Stephanie Recht reviewed the purpose of the housing element and APR: the APR documents municipal progress toward Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) goals, tracks permits issued and outlines barriers to development. The county’s sixth‑cycle RHNA allocation for unincorporated San Benito County is 754 units (246 very low, 98 low, 103 moderate and 207 above‑moderate). HCD also requires tracking of extremely low‑income units (treated as half the very‑low total in default accounting).

Recht told the board the sixth cycle began on July 1, 2023, and that annual reporting shows the county has exceeded the above‑moderate allotment for the cycle (211 above‑moderate units issued to date) while leaving unmet needs in the lower income categories: 235 remaining very‑low, 98 low and 103 moderate units as of the report. The county also reported 11 extremely low‑income units permitted in 2024 at a migrant housing center.

Board members asked questions about infrastructure constraints (water, wastewater and roads) and how those constraints affect the county’s ability to site and permit housing. Planning staff noted that some candidate sites are in city spheres of influence or city islands and that utilities and annexation issues (including LAFCO processes) are common constraints the county documents in its housing work.

The board voted 5‑0 to accept the 2024 APR and to direct staff to submit the required documents to OPR and HCD by April 1.