Escondido planning staff reports modest progress on 2024 housing element goals

Priscilla Boldon, an associate planner for the city of Escondido, told the Planning Commission on March 11 that the city’s 2024 Housing Element Annual Progress Report is being filed with state agencies and that no formal commission action was required.

The presentation matters because state law requires cities to update and report on their housing elements and progress toward the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA, which sets local targets for housing production. Boldon said Escondido’s RHNA allocation for the 2021–2029 cycle is 9,670 units, divided across very low-, low-, moderate- and above-moderate-income categories.

Boldon summarized how units count toward the RHNA target and the three development milestones the city tracks: entitlement approval, construction permit issuance (the stage at which a unit may count toward RHNA), and final building inspection. She said the city issued 249 construction permits in 2021 and cited permits and final inspections in subsequent years that produced several hundred additional units; cumulatively, she reported roughly 1,496 construction permits issued since 2021, which she characterized as about 15% of the RHNA goal. (The transcript text of year-by-year counts was partially garbled; the presenter’s overall percent-complete figure and the 9,670-unit RHNA number were stated in the meeting.)

Staff listed notable 2024 developments that advanced during the reporting year: a 25-unit office-to-residential conversion on Hickory Street; an 86-unit hotel-to-single-room-occupancy conversion on Washington Avenue; a 14-unit single-family development near South Citrus Avenue and Bear Valley; a 145-unit senior housing project (construction-permitted); a 44-unit apartment project on Belvoir and Vermont Avenue; and a 32-unit mixed-use project on the northwest corner of Southwest and Grand Avenue. Boldon also reported projects that completed final building inspections, including 53 units at Palomar Heights, 60 at Warrington, and 21 at Bel Prado.

Boldon described implementation work on Housing Element programs, including preapproved accessory dwelling unit (ADU) plans (ranging from roughly 400 to 1,000 sq. ft.) and short-term grant applications; staff also said it expects to request additional planner positions to support Housing Element implementation and a residential-sector feasibility study. Boldon said staff will present the Housing Element to the City Council by the end of the month and will submit the annual report to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (formerly OPR) and SANDAG.

Commissioners asked for clarification on income-category assignment and program administration. Vice Chair Barber asked how staff determine whether a unit is counted as low, moderate or above-moderate; Boldon said ADU applicants typically provide intended rent or ownership information and that HCD provides a calculator to classify income categories, while larger multifamily projects use recorded covenants or fee-restricted units to define income levels. When Barber asked about the city’s First-Time Homebuyer program, Boldon said that program is administered by the Housing and Neighborhood Services Division and that staff would obtain follow-up information from the housing manager.

Boldon also acknowledged a cleanup item that staff will correct in the report: a Habitat for Humanity homeownership project listed as expected to complete in April 2024 is already complete and occupied.

Staff emphasized that the presentation was for the commission’s information; no vote or other formal action was requested. The commission asked staff to return with additional detail and to forward the Housing Element report and related materials to the City Council and the named state and regional agencies as described by staff.

Looking ahead, Boldon said staff expects to return with the general-plan Annual Progress Report and the Climate Action progress report.