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Trinity County adopts 2025 housing element, clears CEQA exemption after state review
Summary
After receiving a clean review from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the Trinity County Board of Supervisors adopted the county's housing element and an associated CEQA exemption and instructed staff to submit the adopted document to HCD.
The Trinity County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt the county's updated housing element and to approve a related California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption following a consultant presentation and public hearing.
Ryan Lester, the consultant team lead from Minteer Harnish, told the board the housing element had undergone two formal review iterations and that the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) issued a letter finding the draft complied with state law. "HCD's review found that, as drafted and revised, the housing element meets the requirements of state law and had no other comments," Lester said during the presentation. He described new implementation programs added in response to HCD and public input, including efforts on permit streamlining, equitable broadband access, addressing wildfire-related insurance costs, place-based community-investment strategies and support for redevelopment of underutilized commercial sites.
Lester said the county and HCD worked to prioritize programs so the county can focus on the highest-priority items first. He described the permit streamlining and zoning-code compliance items as high priority and said HCD signed off on the prioritization framework.
Interim Planning Director Drew Plobani introduced the presentation and confirmed the adopted housing element will be submitted to HCD for final review. During the public hearing, residents expressed support for targeted housing strategies and asked that implementation include multilingual outreach; one commenter urged attention to tiny-home opportunities for Post Mountain.
Board discussion focused on implementation and tracking. One supervisor requested a summary table ordering implementation programs by priority and suggested integrating progress reporting into the county strategic plan; supervisors discussed the need for adequate planning staffing to implement deliverables.
Action: Motion to adopt the general plan housing element and associated CEQA exemption. Motion: "I move to approve this item as presented." Mover: not specified; Second: not specified. Vote: Supervisor Cox ' Aye; Supervisor Lynn Weiler ' Aye; Supervisor Brownfield ' Aye; Supervisor Gogan ' Aye. Outcome: Approved. Staff will submit the adopted housing element and resolution to HCD for final confirmation.
