Housing Element

Updates on Housing Element

Earlier this year, the Town embarked on updating its Housing Element, a planning framework that is required by State law. Since 1969, California has mandated that all local governments adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community through the adoption of a Housing Element every eight years.

Local governments like our Town create the rules that shape where housing can be built, what types and how much. All of this information lives in the Housing Element document. The core of a Housing Element is the goals, policies, and programs that address the housing needs of all types of households and income levels, both existing and projected ones.

Before a Housing Element is updated, the State provides a target for how many homes to plan for in every local jurisdiction, known as Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). Los Altos Hills’ housing allocation is 489 housing units in various income categories, plus a 15% buffer.

After numerous public hearings, as of December 2021, the Town identified three sites for multi-family units to accommodate its allocation, including part of Foothills College, part of St. Nicholas School and the Twin Oaks subdivision (Arastradero Road), and submitted its first Draft Housing Element to the State for review on October 27, 2022. The State has 90 days to provide comments. The Town is targeting to adopt the Housing Element for 2023-2031 by January 31, 2022.

Please visit the Housing Element page on the Town's website to learn more and get involved in the 2023-2031 Housing Element Update process.