The Housing Element is one of the mandatory elements that must be included in a city’s General Plan. The Housing Element provides goals, polices, and actions that help the City of Lake Elsinore plan for existing and future housing needs for all segments of its population and expresses community goals about housing in Lake Elsinore.

The City Council adopted the 2014-2021 Housing Element on August 27, 2013 by Resolution No. 2013-057. Through policies, procedures, and incentives, it provides an action plan for maintaining and expanding the housing supply in the City of Lake Elsinore. On September 16, 2003, HCD issued a letter of certification for the adopted Housing Element.

The Housing Element must cover the following topics:

• An evaluation of a city’s demographic and housing characteristics and trends including an analysis of existing and projected housing needs, the number of people living in overcrowded housing, residents paying more for their homes than they can sustainably afford, people with special housing needs and affordable units at risk of converting to market rate;
• A review of potential market, governmental, and environmental constraints to meet a city’s identified housing need;
• An evaluation of land, administrative, and financial resources available to address the housing goals (developed by the Southern California Association of Governments, SCAG);
• A review of a city’s past accomplishments under the previous Housing Element; and,
• A Housing Plan including goals, policies, and programs that the City will adopt to assist the development of housing for different income and special needs groups, ensure equal housing opportunity, and preserve and improve the existing housing stock.

Every Housing Element must make an "adequate provision for the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community."  The adopted 2021-2029 RHNA for Lake Elsinore is 6,681 units divided into four different income affordability categories. Despite the wording, the RHNA is a "distribution of housing development capacity" that each city must zone for in a planning period. A community is not actually obligated to provide housing to all in need but it must plan for it.

The Housing Element is a required chapter of the City’s General Plan. The General Plan is a city’s constitution for future development.  The general and specific policies of the General Plan serve as the basis for the City’s land use decisions and provides to both the interested public and the decision-makers a practical and implementable policy vision for the future.

The City’s current General Plan adopted December 11, 2011 has a 2030 planning horizon.  In July 2020, the Lake Elsinore City Council adopted the Dream Extreme 2040 Plan as the City’s FIRST long-term strategic plan to assist the City in its pursuit of achieving its vision and to provide a framework to guide all decision making over the next 20 years by identifying key Anchors, Aspirations, and Strategies.  The City has started a review and update of the General Plan to extend its planning horizon to 2040 and to reflect the Dream Extreme 2040 Plan’s vision. 

State law requires that the General Plan contain a consistent set of goals and policies. Therefore, the Housing Element will be consistent with the policies contained in other elements of the General Plan. In addition to the preparation of the 2021-2029 Housing Element, the City is required to review and update as necessary the General Plan’s Safety Element to address fire risk and other hazards and to adopt an Environmental Justice Element.  The Safety Element review and update and the Environmental Justice Element will be incorporated into the 2040 General Plan.

California law requires an update of the Housing Element every eight years in order to remain relevant and reflective of the community’s changing housing needs. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) must approve the updated Housing Element.

Over the years, California has steadily increased the penalties for not having a legally compliant Housing Element, and this trend is expected to continue. A non-compliant Housing Element can affect the City negatively in the following ways:

• More frequent Housing Element updates. When a city does not adopt its Housing Element within the established timeframe, subsequent updates must be completed on a 4-year schedule rather than an 8-year schedule. A 4-year update requirement would create an ongoing administrative and cost burden to the City.
• Carryover of unfilled housing allocation. If the City does not demonstrate the availability of adequate sites to accommodate its Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation, the shortfall is carried over and added to the RHNA for the next planning period. This creates an additional burden to the City in regard to the number/types of housing that must be planned for in the City.
• Reduced availability of grant funds. Some state grant funds are contingent upon Housing Element certification or give priority to those jurisdictions with a certified Housing Element. Therefore, without an approved Housing Element the City could miss out on additional funding opportunities.

The City of Lake Elsinore prepares the Housing Element, and the Housing Element must be certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). This certification creates a presumption that the Element complies with State law.

The City will be conducting outreach activities during the Housing Element update. Due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City is working to identify safe and effective forms of public input. Visit the Let’s Talk Housing, Lake Elsinore webpage at www.lake-elsinore.org/housing to find out how you can provide comments and feedback.

For more information of the Housing Element update, to submit comments, or to request notification of upcoming events, please contact Richard J. MacHott, Planning Manager, rmachott@lake-elsinore.org, 951.674.3124, Ext. 209

Para obtener información adicional sobre la actualización del Elemento de Vivienda,un capítulo importante del Plan General de la ciudad, favor de contactar a Richard J. MacHott, Gerente de Planificación al rmachott@lake-elsinore.org, 951.674.3124, Ext. 209

Yes. The Housing Element Survey results for the 6th cycle are available and can be viewed here.

Yes. The workshop presentation and video recording is available. Click here to watch the live recording of the workshop or you can view the presentation slides here.

You can also click here to view comments from the workshop.