City of Irvine General Plan Update, Zoning Amendment, and Environmental Review

Harris & Associates prepared the 6th Cycle Housing Element providing the City with a Housing Element Update that met the State’s level of scrutiny while addressing local concerns and priorities. Harris worked with City staff to identify sites for a planned total of more than 60,000 sites, providing additional buffers for lower-income site requirements to comply with the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). In addition, Harris conducted the research and analysis necessary to demonstrate that the City’s Housing Element address fair housing concerns, contained policies to address new State laws, and identification of commercial and mixed-use sites, all while balancing local goals and priorities. Following multiple rounds of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) review, Harris helped the City to achieve full Housing Element compliance on May 24, 2022.

In addition to the Housing Element Update, Harris conducted an inclusionary housing study to determine how a proposed increased inclusionary housing requirement would affect the feasibility of market-rate residential development. Harris conducted outreach meetings with developers and analyzed market demand for residential and affordable housing, including a review of units permitted during the City’s 5th Housing Element Cycle, regional employment and income trends, and rents and sale prices. Harris evaluated six prototypes, estimating development costs, rents/sales, developer profit, and residual land value for each of the prototypes, and concluded all prototypes were feasible under the proposed inclusionary housing framework.

Harris also led the Irvine 2045 General Plan Update, which included updates to several critical elements:

• Land Use: Alignment with the updated Housing Element.
• Safety: Modernized to incorporate resilience to climate change impacts and disaster preparedness.
• Circulation: Enhanced to reflect sustainable transportation priorities.
• Noise: Refined to address evolving urban needs and regulations.
• Environmental Protection and Climate Action: A new element addressing sustainability goals and environmental justice concerns.

The project also involved the development of a strategic implementation plan, amendments to the City’s Zoning Ordinance, and preparation of a Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and technical studies in accordance with CEQA. An extensive community outreach plan was implemented with efforts targeted at engaging community members throughout the General Plan Update process.

Hitta Mosesman, Harris’ lead on the project, has an extensive history of providing on-call housing services to the City of Irvine. These services included:

• Preparation of an Amended Affordable Housing Strategy and Implementation Plan (a component of the Housing Element).
• Preparation of the Annual Progress Report on the Housing Element.
• Creating a first of its kind automated and streamlined housing compliance monitoring database for over 80 affordable housing projects within the City. Data points included affordability/income requirements, applicable rents, covenant and developer agreement terms, number of units, income information (residents) and compliance determination.
• Managing and directing a citywide property and building conditions assessment of every housing unit in the City built after 1980 (as an update to the survey completed for the 2011 Housing Element). Providing results of the assessment that measured various building and property conditions and recommendations for low-cost methods for housing stock maintenance in report format.