RHNA Appeal Denied

The ABAG Executive Board adopted the regionwide Draft RHNA allocations in late May and the City filed its appeal on July 8. The City presented its appeal to the ABAG Administrative Committee (acting as the appeals hearing body) on September 24th (Day 1 of the appeal hearings) along with six other jurisdictions in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The Administrative Committee took preliminary action to deny all seven appeals. Final action will come at the end of the six days of appeal hearings scheduled to be Friday, October 29th.

ABAG staff’s response to Lafayette’s appeal included that “Throughout the region, it is essentially impossible to avoid all hazards when siting new development, but jurisdictions can think critically about which areas in the community have the highest hazard risk” and that “ABAG acknowledges the difficulties that fire risk and other hazards pose for jurisdictions throughout the region, and ABAG staff is committed to working with local jurisdictions to ensure that hazard mitigation and other resiliency measures are effectively incorporated in all housing planning.”

At the conclusion of deliberations ABAG President Jesse Arreguin, Mayor of Berkeley, noted that he would support the staff recommendation to deny the appeal, in part, because Lafayette is required to upzone the BART station land by state law and noted that “If BART wants to have development at this location then they need to make an investment to protect the housing and the people of Lafayette through various fire mitigation efforts. They need to harden the station and the parking lot against fire. If it is going to be in a high fire hazard zone they need to take the steps to protect the community as well.”

You can watch the video recording of the proceedings and find Lafayette’s appeal materials and ABAG staff response materials are linked here. Lafayette’s appeal begins at timestamp 3:50:20 of the meeting.

The Administrative Committee “will hold a final vote on all appeals at a meeting anticipated to be held on Friday, November 12th, after the close of the public hearing, to ensure uniform decision-making. ABAG will then issue final allocation[s] that incorporate any adjustments needed as a result of appeals, with a public hearing in adoption of the Final RHNA plan, scheduled for December, 2021, before the ABAG Executive Board.”