Every eight years, the City of Agoura Hills General Plan Housing Element (Housing Element) is updated to incorporate and address the City’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation. For this Sixth Cycle, the City’s RHNA allocation included a total of 318 units, including 199 lower income housing units. Updating the Housing Element triggers the need for additional General Plan Element updates. Specifically, the Community Conservation and Development, Community Safety, Infrastructure and Community Services, and Natural Resources Elements have been amended to ensure internal consistency and comply with state law.

To meet state housing mandates and as part of the 2022 General Plan Update (GPU), the City rezoned 20 properties with an Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO), allowing increased density and ministerial permit processing (permits involving no discretion) for affordable housing projects on those sites. To ensure that all housing projects meet the City’s desired architectural and zoning standards, two sets of standards were developed:

1. Affordable Housing Overlay standards, which ensures that all projects developing under the AHO meet objective zoning requirements
2. Objective Design Standards, which ensures that ALL multi-family and mixed-use projects’ design elements are evaluated based on the City’s objective design standards, which focus primarily on architectural detailing.

Affordable Housing Overlay District Standards

Objective Design Standards

The GPU also prompted the City to prepare a Subsequent Program Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) in order to identify and analyze potential impacts from the GPU. The SEIR identifies the potential environmental impacts, including project specific and cumulative effects, of the GPU. Cumulative impacts, which consider other projects within the City, are discussed in each resource area analysis section of the SEIR. Concerns were also identified based on comment letters/emails received in response to the Notice of Preparation and scoping meeting.

Subsequent Environmental Impact Report

During the General Plan Update process, the City provided the public with opportunities to review draft documents and proposed goals and policies, and to provide recommendations to decision-makers. Notices of all public meetings were made available on the City’s website in advance of each meeting, and meeting notices were also sent by direct mail to interested parties.

Stakeholders and the public were encouraged to review the draft Housing Element and related updates, as well as provide recommendations during public meetings. The City offered special assistance to persons with disabilities who requested assistance to facilitate participation in all meetings.