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Provide Adequate Sites for Residential Development

Providing an adequate and diverse supply of housing and housing sites for residential development is a crucial component of the Housing Element. The County of Ventura’s General Plan and implementing zoning ordinances establish where and what types of housing are allowed throughout the unincorporated area. The policies in this section focus on the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, housing types to meet the County’s diverse needs, the infrastructure necessary to support housing development, and other topics.

Table 3-1, below, shows the number of dwelling units in each of the household income categories that the County must be able to accommodate within the 2021-2029 planning period in its housing inventory.

Household Income table
* HCD allows jurisdictions to presume that 50 percent of very low-income households qualify as extremely-low-income households. The County received an allocation of 159 housing units affordable to extremely low-income households and 160 affordable to very low-income households.

Goal: HE-2

Provide suitable sites for housing development that can accommodate a range of housing by type, size, location, price and tenure to meet the requirements of the regional housing need allocation.

The County shall make available through land use planning and zoning, an adequate inventory of vacant and underutilized sites to accommodate the County’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA).

The County shall pursue the following policies in Area Plan updates to increase housing opportunities[3].

  • Identify opportunities to rezone more properties to Residential Planned Development to encourage the development of diverse housing types, such as: duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, courtyard buildings, bungalow courts, cottage housing, townhouses, multiplexes, accessory dwelling units, and live/work buildings that provide affordable housing options
  • Identify opportunity sites for higher density housing near job clusters and transit stops to support housing for the County’s special needs population.
  • Identify County surplus land that can accommodate residential development and consider re-designation, if feasible.
  • Enhance existing residential areas by seeking opportunities and funding sources for public infrastructure improvements such as installing sidewalks and other pedestrian networks, bicycle facilities, neighborhood parks, and planting street trees, with priority given to designated disadvantaged communities[4].

Program “F” in the Land Use Element identifies a schedule for comprehensive Area Plan Updates between 2020-2040.

[3] Additional residential land use policy direction as well as the Comprehensive Area Plan Update Program “F” is described in Chapter 2 of the County General Plan, the Land Use and Community Character Element.

[4] Additional policies related to providing equitable public services in “designated disadvantaged communities” are in Chapter 2, Land Use and Community Character Element.

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The County shall make findings related to the potential impact on the County’s ability to meet its share of the regional housing need when approving discretionary entitlements to rezone residentially designated properties or develop a residential project with fewer units or at a higher income than what is assumed for the site in the Housing Element Sites Inventory, consistent with “no-net-loss” zoning requirements in Government code section 65863.

The County shall collaborate with SCAG to provide accurate land use information and to ensure that updates to the Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy (also referred to as “Connect SoCal”) are based on accurate local data.

The County shall seek to negotiate agreements with any city proposing to annex unincorporated land for residential development to transfer a share of the SCAG RHNA from the unincorporated area to the annexing city.

The County shall incentivize and encourage accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs).

The County shall allow housing developments to be developed by-right on RHD-zoned sites that have been counted in previous housing element cycles, consistent with Government Code section 65583.2(c).

The County shall identify surplus public land appropriate for affordable housing and offer first right of refusal to affordable housing entities in accordance with Government Code Section 54222.

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