Balancing act: Help us plan for new housing development
The City of Hayward Housing and Climate team has launched a new interactive Housing Sites Simulation to gather feedback and ideas on future housing sites to meet the City’s share of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation.
The Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA, is the amount of new housing each region of the state is required to plan for and revise local zoning to accommodate, and it is updated periodically by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
The new Bay Area RHNA calls on the region to plan for and accommodate construction of 441,176 units of new housing between 2023 and 2031 and distributed across a range of affordability categories—with a total of 4,624 units to be provided for in Hayward.
By participating in the simulation, you will have the opportunity to show the City where you want to see future growth in Hayward. The simulation shows areas where high density development is permitted (Downtown, along Mission Boulevard, or on publicly owned land) and you can choose alternative sites by leaving cross streets and addresses in the comments.
The simulation, which can be reached here, is open through April 30 and is associated with updates currently under way to two important policy documents—the Housing Element of the Hayward General Plan and the Hayward Climate Action Plan. To learn more about these policy updates, go to the special project website at www.haywardhousingandclimateupdate.com.
