Guadalupe council directs staff to circulate draft housing element and negative declaration for 30-day review

At its March 20, 2025 meeting the Guadalupe City Council voted unanimously to direct staff to circulate an initial study and draft negative declaration and to proceed with the public review of the city's sixth-cycle housing element.

The housing element is the policy document required by the state to show how the city will meet its regional housing needs. Larry (city staff) told the council the city's sixth-cycle draft (version 6) received preliminary acceptance from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and that the council must now circulate the CEQA initial study/negative declaration for a 30-day review before returning for final adoption and submittal to HCD.

Larry said the state "basically, you don't have a choice" about many of the required changes and that the city and consultant had worked to keep changes to a minimum as they responded to HCD comments. The consultant's presentation traced the document's review history, described edits made to conform to recent state law changes and summarized the next steps for CEQA clearance and certification by HCD.

Why it matters: certification by HCD is a prerequisite for many state planning and construction grants. The council and consultant…