Since its incorporation in 1982, Danville has been a carefully planned community, balancing the desire to preserve its history and open spaces with the need to provide facilities, infrastructure and accommodate projected population growth.

This growth is reflected through the Danville Housing Element, one of the seven mandated elements of the General Plan, which is required to be updated in eight-year cycles. Learn more in our Housing 101 section.

RHNA

The foundation for the Housing Element is the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), in which the State projects each region’s housing needs for all income groups for the upcoming eight years. 

Danville falls within the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) region.  The State has determined that the Bay Area must plan for an additional 441,176 new units, of which Danville is currently expected to provide approximately 2,241 new homes. 

Since the Town does not have a large inventory of vacant land or lands that are primed for redevelopment, accommodating this number of new homes will be a significant challenge.

STATE LAWS

State laws govern how cities review and approve housing and housing plans. As an example, the process and timelines for updating the Housing Element are prescribed by state law. Additionally, the California state legislature has enacted – and continues to propose – new legislation to facilitate housing construction. While all of these laws focus on spurring housing production, they are not necessarily associated with the housing element update. Learn more in our Housing Legislation section.