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Western Riverside Council of Governments May 8, 2000 John Holmes, City Manager City of Riverside 3900 Main St 7th F1 Riverside, CA 92522 Dear Mr. Holmes, Distribution: Mayor . City Council~/ MA)f I I ~OOO OFFICE OF THE CiTY CLER~ At their meeting of 1 May 2000, the WRCOG Executive Committee unanimously adopted the attached Resolution, objecting to SCAG's Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process. We are forwarding the resolution to you with the hope that it receives your serious attention and action. As you know, the Legislature recently reactivated the requirement for local jurisdictions to update the Housing Element of their General Plans. This process requires each COG (council of governments) throughout the state to initiate a Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), which identifies the number of homes needed to be constructed over the 5-year planning period in order to meet the demands of projected growth. It is through this mechanism that each jurisdiction receives a RI-INA allocation that then becomes the basis for their respective Housing Element update. The SCAG region is just now completing this RHNA process. For the first time, subregions were also allowed the opportunity to more directly participate in the RHNA process. WRCOG elected to undertake this 'delegate' role on behalf of its fifteen member jurisdictions, and we have been active participants in the RHNA for the SCAG region. It is throu~mh our experience in this capacity that we have identified several serious flaws and problems with the RHNA process as currently structured, and these concerns are encapsulated in the attached WRCOG Resolution. We believe these flaws must be corrected if we are to be successful in our mutual efforts to produce affordable housing for all Californians. I have enclosed a short synopsis of key RHNA issue points summarized from a more extensive white paper prepared on this subject by Dr. John Husing, a well-respected local economist with extensive experience in the Inland Empire. The key issue summary and Resolution provide an overview of the problems we have experienced and encountered throughout the RI-INA process. On May 4 th, the WRCOG delegation to SCAG's governing board successfully joined with other Inland Empire members in blocking the organization's PJ-INA targets and process. The SCAG H:XShare~hCh~s'w~oLTtLwpd 3880 Lemon Street, Suite 300 · Riverside, CA 92501 · (909) 787-7985 · Fax (909) 787-7991