Danville Appeal Of Housing Mandate To Be Decided Next Week

DANVILLE, CA — Danville will officially learn in one week whether it will succeed in its efforts to lower the number of housing units it must plan for in the years to come.

The odds do not appear to be in the town's favor.

Danville was one of 27 local governments to appeal their Regional Housing Needs Allocation to the Association of Bay Area Governments, a planning agency that focuses on finding regional solutions to issues such as housing, water or environmental matters.

The state asked regions to draw up plans for additional housing units, including affordable housing, to meet expected need. It tasked the Association of Bay Area Governments with figuring out how many units should be built in various local towns and cities.

The association's administrative committee recommended on Sept. 24 that Danville's appeal be rejected. The committee is slated on Nov. 12 to ratify its final decisions on each appeal.

The committee similarly recommended rejection of appeals by other Tri-Valley cities, including San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton.

Critics argued that economic hubs should receive a larger share of new housing units and that suburban areas would be forced to grapple with traffic or water distribution issues if they took in more residents who worked elsewhere.

"The likelihood of success for any RHNA appeal is very low due to two main factors: the narrowly defined legal grounds for an appeal and because any reduction in one city's RHNA means it must be offset with increases to other cities," Danville said in a statement.

If the committee officially rejects the town's appeal, Danville will be responsible for planning for another 2,240 housing units. That's four times higher than the 560 units for which the town was responsible for planning in the current cycle.

The state does not require local governments to ensure that the units get built.

The state determined that local governments in the Bay Area must make way for more than 441,000 new housing units, with 26 percent for people who are considered very low income, 15 percent for people who have low incomes, 17 percent for people with moderate incomes, and 43 percent for people who have incomes above moderate.

The Association of Bay Area Governments has heard all appeals in the matter and was expected to adopt a final plan at its Dec. 16 meeting.