Freeman Park Neighborhood Association
July 24, 2022
Dear Mill Valley City Council:
Thank you for accepting comments on the 8-year Housing Element (2023-2031), which is required by the state Housing and Community Development (HCD) agency.
The Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) used to be a collaborative planning tool. Now is a blunt cudgel.
For example, in the last RHNA cycle, Mill Valley was assigned 129 new housing units. In this cycle, the number is 865 new units; at a time when California's population is declining, water supply is dwindling, and fire risk is increasing. Most everyone--City Council members, staff, and community leaders--agree the RHNA numbers are inflated, unreliable, and unattainable. What’s the evidence?
Inflated: The Embarcadero Institute published a report called, Double Counting the Latest Housing Needs Assessment. Prior to that, they discredited the wild claim that CA needed 3.5 million new housing units. A new study shows California needs fewer than 1M new housing units. HCD’s numbers are consistently inflated. Why? Who benefits?
Unreliable: The State Audit Department, reporting on an audit of HCD's Regional Housing Needs Assessments, concluded The Department of HCD Must Improve Its Processes to Ensure that Communities Can Adequately Plan for Housing.
Unattainable: Mill Valley staff appealed to our regional agency (Association of Bay Area Governments) requesting a lower, realistic number based on specific health and safety issues such as lack of water and risks of zoning for housing in fire zones and flood planes. Six other Marin cities and the county filed appeals. All were denied.
The City Council is caught between a rock and a hard place. The state twists our collective arms to get compliance with their unreliable and harmful quotas which fail to meet the need for housing that is affordable to people who depend on wages.
Meanwhile, the CA Attorney General formed a "strike force" and threatens legal suits and attorney fees, loss of permitting authority, financial penalties and even court receivership if cities don't meet the RHNA numbers.
You—our City Council and staff—are not the bad guys here. The pressure comes from legislators who craft legislation that "pencils out" to provide profit for special interest developers and investors but leaves the city to pay the bills with dwindling resources.
Here’s our request. Comply with state law and submit the housing element, but don't stop there. Take action to challenge the reckless and irresponsible state mandates. For example:
- Join the statewide lawsuits filed for both charter and general law cities re: SB9.
- Join the lawsuit re: the Audit of HCD and RHNA methodology.
- Encourage the county to take the lead in standing up to state bullying and join the lawsuits.
- Encourage other cities to join the lawsuits.As more cities join, the cost is reduced.
- Encourage Marin's reps to ABAG/MTC (Pat Eklund and Damon Connolly) to take the lead to remove consequences of non-compliance to unreliable numbers and methodology until the findings of the state audit are addressed with truth and transparency.
For more reasons to challenge the RHNA numbers of the Mill Valley Housing Element, refer to the letter submitted by Amy Kalish, writing for Citizen Marin.
Finally, if you'd like to hear what people from around the state are saying about HCD, RHNA quotas, and the state lawsuits, mark your calendar for a four-part Town Hall Zoom series hosted by Catalysts for Local Control. The series starts Wednesday, August 10 at 5 pm and continues every other Wednesday through September 21. Watch for details. Pam Lee, attorney for both the SB9 and the RHNA Audit litigation, is our first guest.
Thank you for your service to Mill Valley.
Sincerely,
Freeman Park Neighborhood Association
Board of Directors: Catherine Cook, Vanessa Justice, Susan Kirsch, Liz Specht, and Judy Thier