Alameda County Housing Element Update 2023-2031

Final Draft of Housing Element Now Available! Ya está disponible el Borrador Final del Elemento Vivienda!

Planning staff are in the process of updating the Alameda County Housing Element for 2023 to 2031. The Housing Element considers current and future need for all unincorporated areas of the county. This includes the communities of Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, Hayward Acres, and San Lorenzo in the urbanized unincorporated areas as well as Sunol, unincorporated Livermore, unincorporated Pleasanton, and unincorporated Dublin in East County.

A Housing Element is how local jurisdictions plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community. At its core, a Housing Element is an opportunity to have a community conversation about how to address local housing challenges and find solutions.

The state of California requires every jurisdiction to make a new Housing Element every 8 years. The current Housing Element, for years 2015 to 2022, can be accessed here.

Housing Element Update Timeline

Below is a timeline of Housing Element work completed by the Alameda County Planning Department. To stay up to date, please join our email listserv! For questions and comments, please reach out to Planning staff at housing.element@acgov.org.

June 2022	Project Kickoff!
Beginning Summer 2022	CDA staff and consulting team begin work: Technical Studies, the Sites Inventory, and the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Analysis (described in more detail here)
Late Summer 2022	Project overview presented to Board Unincorporated Services Committee, Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC), Eden Area MAC, Fairview MAC, Sunol Citizen's Advisory Committee, Planning Commission, & Agricultural Advisory Committee
Fall 2022	Outreach and engagement opportunities begin. Survey results can be found here.
Winter 2022/2023	Update Presentations to MACs, Planning Commission, Unincorporated Services Committee, Agricultural Advisory Committee, Board of Supervisors. For record of these presentations, scroll towards the bottom of this page.
Spring and Summer 2023	Staff and consultants work to write Housing Element
August 3, 2023	Release of Public Review Draft of the Housing Element and beginning of first comment period. Comments are available here.
August and September 2023	Meetings on Public Review of Draft Housing Element. For record of these presentations, see the middle of this page.
October 6, 2023	Submitted Draft Housing Element to California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Note: HCD has 90 days to review the first draft of the Housing Element.
January 4, 2024	CDA staff and consultant team receive comments from the state. Staff begin revision of the first draft of the Housing Element to address HCD's comments. This includes updating the sites inventory.
March 21, 2024	Staff host an all-MAC meeting to discuss sites inventory changes. View the slides.
April 19, 2024	Staff published the second full draft of the Housing Element. There was a 2 week comment period.
May 3, 2024	The comment period on the Second Housing Element Draft closed. After reviewing and responding to all comments, staff resubmitted the Second Housing Element Draft.
July 9, 2024	CDA staff and consultant team received comments from the state on 2nd Draft. Staff began revision of the second draft of the Housing Element to address HCD's comments.
Summer 2024	CDA staff corresponded with and met with state HCD reviewers through July and August to confirm revisions will meet state requirements.
August 16 - September 23, 2024	Staff published the third full draft of the Housing Element. There was a 39 day comment period. Staff presented at the Castro Valley MAC, the Eden Area MAC, and the Fairview MAC. Staff also presented to the Planning Commission twice during the comment period.
November 7, 2024	CDA staff and consultant team received letter from the state noting that it meets statutory requirements.
November 2024	Planning staff presented the Final Housing Element Draft, environmental analysis documents, and proposed zoning and plan changes to the Fairview (November 7), Castro Valley (November 12) , and Eden Area (November 12) MACs. All voted not to recommend adoption. Planning staff presented the same documents to the Planning Commission on Nov 18. 4 commissioners voted not to recommend adoption of the Housing Element to the Board of Supervisors, and 3 commissioners voted to recommend adoption.
December 2024	CDA staff will present the Final Housing Element Draft, environmental analysis documents, and proposed zoning and plan changes to the Board of Supervisors' Transportation/Planning subcommittee on December 2. CDA staff and consultants will present to the Board of Supervisors at the December 12th Planning Meeting and December 17th Regular Meeting.

Contact us: Please reach out with questions, comments, ideas, and concerns to housingelement@acgov.org

Póngase en contacto con nosotros: Por favor, envíe sus preguntas, comentarios, ideas e inquietudes a housingelement@acgov.org