The Housing Element is a mandatory element of the Seal Beach General Plan. The City's General Plan Housing Element provides an overview and guides housing programs development, emphasizing affordable and special needs housing, removal of governmental constraints to housing development, and equal access to housing. The General Plan Housing Element is required by law to be updated every 8 years.
The City Council adopted the 2021-2029 Housing Element on February 7, 2022, but the document was not certified by the State Department of Housing and Community Development. Staff continues to refine the Element. The adopted Housing Element can be found here.
UPDATED APR 11, 2024 — In response to comments received from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the Housing Element has been reorganized and further revised. Housing Element certification remains a critical goal of the City in order to be in compliance with State law, retain eligibility for grant funds, and support housing opportunities. The draft below is available in track change and clean form for public review. The City welcomes your input and comments on the Housing Element. Please send written comments to Alexa Smittle, Community Development Director, at asmittle@sealbeachca.gov.
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A Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Notice of Public Scoping Meeting have been posted and are available through the following link. The Public Review period is November 16, 2023 to December 15, 2023. The Public Scoping Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 6, 2023 at 6pm in the City Council Chambers, 211 Eight Street. More details can be found through the link below.
The City is in the process of updating its Housing Element, a required chapter of the City’s General Plan. State Law requires that all cities in California designate sites and create policies to accommodate their share of the regional housing need for households of all income levels.
Housing Elements are a mandatory part of the General Plan because providing housing for all Californians is of vital statewide importance. In particular, the State legislature has made housing production a priority in recent years, adopting dozens of new laws that have made this Housing Element update substantially more challenging than in previous cycles.
The Regional Housing Needs Assessment or RHNA, is a state mandate set by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) which determines the total number of new housing units needed for each region in California. The City of Seal Beach is a member of the six-county Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) region. SCAG, as the regional planning body, is responsible for distributing the RHNA among its member cities and counties. Seal Beach’s RHNA allocation is 1,243 units at varying income levels.
To meet the State mandate, the City needs to designate sites where housing can be developed without additional approvals from the Planning Commission or the City Council. The City calls these “housing opportunity sites” and there are 11 such sites throughout Seal Beach. Any opportunity site not currently zoned to allow housing must be re-zoned.
No. It is the property owner’s choice whether to build housing. Any property owner wishing to build must present a development application to the City.
No. The private market is responsible for any development that occurs.
It is unknown if any property owners will choose to develop or redevelop their property. The State mandate requires only that the City allow for residential development at the opportunity sites if a project proposed by the property owner.
For additional information, please view our Frequently Asked Questions document.
The City does not offer Section 8 vouchers or manage affordable housing programs, please contact the OC Housing Authority for assistance.
Email: asmittle@sealbeachca.gov Phone: 562.431.2527 x1313