Taft council adopts 2023–31 housing element, council finds update exempt from CEQA

The Taft City Council on Aug. 19 adopted Resolution approving General Plan Amendment No. 2023-01 to adopt the sixth-cycle housing element for 2023–2031 and found the update exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under Guideline 15061(b)(3).

Jenna Chilingarian, senior planner with Precision Civil Engineering, presented the update at the start of the public hearing and said the document was prepared through an extended process of state and local review, community outreach and revisions. She told the council the city’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the period is 538 housing units and that the sites inventory the city compiled shows capacity that exceeds that number across income categories.

The housing element, Chilingarian said, analyzes future housing needs, identifies adequate sites to meet RHNA, assesses governmental and other constraints, addresses Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) requirements, and lists programs to achieve housing goals and objectives. She said the update contains 52 programs across 10 program areas, including adequate sites, housing rehabilitation, ADUs, tenant protections, fair-housing services and homelessness prevention. Chilingarian also told the council a clerical error in Appendix A has been corrected and does not constitute a substantive change.

Among…