The City of Yorba Linda was actively involved in the 6th cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) preparation process with the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). Former Yorba Linda Councilwoman Peggy Huang served as the Chair of SCAG’s RHNA Subcommittee in 2019, which is the committee responsible for providing detailed analysis and recommendations to SCAG’s Regional Council on the RHNA methodology. Unfortunately, the RHNA Subcommittee’s recommendation for an equitable housing solution, which was unanimously supported by SCAG’s Community, Economic and Human Development Committee, was overturned through a last-minute decision by its Regional Council to redistribute significantly more housing into Orange County and Los Angeles County than was initially recommended by the Committee. This resulted in Yorba Linda’s draft RHNA allocation increasing from 200 to 2,415 units.

Despite numerous letters from City staff, the Mayor, the City Council and numerous individual residents (see below), the City’s efforts to lower its RHNA obligation have been ignored by SCAG and by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

The City put together the above video for the RHNA Appeals Board outlining many of the same concerns that the City is hearing from the community about why it did not make sense to add 2,415 additional housing units into Yorba Linda.