Berkeley residents are about to discover how dysfunctional the latest California Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) has become. The RHNA (pronounced REE-na) process, and the housing elements based on it, have always been bureaucratic, expensive and ineffective. But thanks to the intervention of state Sen. Scott Wiener, RHNA has been twisted into a profit-making tool for his corporate allies. With the city of Berkeley starting to work on its housing element, which will force the city to make drastic revisions to its zoning, residents must struggle to limit the damage.
What Wiener and his allies have managed to accomplish is remarkable. If he had proposed a bill to his fellow legislators that would force many of the state’s cities to rezone for bigger, taller buildings and then would restrict cities to rubber-stamping the new building permits, I don’t think he would have found the votes. Yet he has managed to accomplish the same thing in a piecemeal fashion.
In what follows, I’ll provide my perspective on RHNA and the housing element process, explain how Sacramento has corrupted them, and explore what Berkeley residents can do to protect themselves.
The website of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) states:
“Since 1969, California has required that all local governments (cities and counties) adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community. … In order to create a housing plan (aka housing…
