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City of San Leandro Housing Element Update (2015-2023) Project Initial Study and Environmental Checklist C. EXISTING SETTING The proposed Project includes an update to the current (2007-2014) Housing Element. The Housing Ele- ment is one of seven State -mandated elements of the City's General Plan. Housing Element law requires local jurisdictions to plan for and allow the construction of a share of the region's projected housing needs. This share is called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). State law mandates that each jurisdiction provide sufficient land to accommodate a variety of housing opportunities for all economic segments of the community, so as to meet or exceed the RHNA. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), as the regional planning agency, calculates the RHNA for individual jurisdictions within Alameda County, including San Leandro. In April 2010, the City of San Leandro adopted its Housing Element through the 2014 planning period and approved the environmental review pursuant to CEQA for the City of San Leandro Housing Element Up- date. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) certified the Housing Element on February 11, 2011. The current Housing Element demonstrated that the City had adequate capacity to meet the RHNA require- ments for the 2007-2014 planning period, which was a total of 1,630 units. The City made significant achievements in improving the quality and standards of housing in San Leandro and implementing programs to facilitate residential development affordable to households at a range of income levels. The next Housing Element cycle is for the planning period 2015-2023. The City of San Leandro's allocation for the 2014-2022 RHNA period3 is 2,287 dwelling units. The Housing Element for the 2015-2023 planning period is required to be adopted by January 31, 2015. Local governments that adopt their Housing Element on time will not have to adopt another housing element for eight years, instead of every four years. 1. Existing Land Use Generally, San Leandro has been considered "built out" since the early 1960s. The City is comprised of resi- dential neighborhoods forming a crescent around Downtown San Leandro and extending east into the hills, south to Ashland and San Lorenzo, and west to the San Leandro Marina. Neighborhoods to the north and east of downtown contain most of San Leandro's pre -1940s housing stock and are built on a traditional grid pattern. Most of the neighborhoods located to the south and west of Downtown include single-family resi- dential dating back to the 1940s and 50s. Along the western edge of the city, the Marina -Mulford Gardens area contains a mix of older country -style homes and as well more multi -family residential units. At its eastern edge, the Bay -O -Vista neighborhood includes view -oriented single-family homes on large lots. Generally, business districts and corridors can be generally found in the center of the city and west of most of the residential neighborhoods, with open space and recreation areas located along the San Francisco Bay. Fur- ther, the city has a mixed-use corridor along East 14th Street from stretching from the northern city limit to the southern city limit. 2. Surrounding Land Use As mentioned above, the City of San Leandro is generally bounded by the City of Oakland to the north, east bay hills to the east, Ashland and San Lorenzo to the south, and San Francisco to the west. As such, land uses 3 The RHNA period is 2014-2022 but the planning period" is 2015-2023. Thus, cities are expected to meet their 2014-2022 needs during a time period that includes 2014 and extends until January 31, 2023. X16