Frequently Asked Questions

Also available in Adobe PDF under Important Links - last updated September 26, 2022


What is the General Plan and who uses it?

The General Plan is the roadmap for the future of Monterey, guiding land development and conservation in our community. It is a long-term planning document consisting of written text and diagrams that expresses how the community should develop over time. It specifies locations for various land uses, transportation improvements, new parks and open spaces, and other public infrastructure. The plan is a basis for land use decision-making used by policymakers such as the Planning Commission and the City Council. All cities and counties in California are required by law to have a general plan.

What goes into the General Plan?

For cities like Monterey, the required State-mandated "elements," or topics, of a general plan include: Land Use, Circulation, Housing, Conservation, Open Space, Noise, and Safety. General plans may also address other topics that are important to the community. Monterey's General Plan includes optional chapters addressing urban design, economic development, historic preservation, and social programs and services. View our current General Plan.

What is a Housing Element?

The Housing Element is a required element of the General Plan. It is essentially the City's plan for addressing local housing needs. Unlike other elements of the General Plan, the Housing Element must be updated every eight years to address changing demographics and market conditions and to plan for housing needs over the next 8-year cycle. The Housing Element also has a more detailed list of statutorily required contents than other elements and it must be certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) with every update. For these reasons, the Housing Element is typically published under a separate cover than the rest of the General Plan. View our current Housing Element.

What's in our Housing Element?

One of the key components of the Housing Element is the inventory of sites available for housing, presented in a table showing the location, size and zoning applicable to each site together with a projection of the number of housing units that could realistically be accommodated on the parcel in view of past trends and local conditions. A map of the sites is also included.

By law, the Housing Element must also include an assessment of local housing needs, potential constraints to housing production, and fair housing issues - which means any factors that impede access to housing for disadvantaged groups like the disabled, the elderly, or racial and linguistic minorities. In view of that assessment, the Housing Element must include a program of actions to address identified needs, constraints, and fair housing issues.

The City's current Housing Element covers the 8-year period from 2015 through 2023. The inventory in the current element identifies 31 sites available for housing with a combined capacity for 715 new homes. View our current Housing Element.

Why do we need to update the Housing, Land Use, and Safety Elements?

Like other communities in the Monterey Bay Area, the City is required to update the Housing Element of our General Plan by December 15, 2023 to address demographic trends, market conditions, and new State laws. Amid the ongoing housing shortage in California, Monterey is required to plan for 3,654 new homes over the next 8 years to accommodate this projected need. As a built-out community, nestled between the California coast and the Santa Lucia Mountains, integrating new housing into the fabric of the community will require a thoughtful approach to land use and community character. Ensuring consistency of the Land Use Element with the newly adopted Monterey Regional Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan is also required. At the same time, State law triggers requirements to incorporate new data on natural hazards and climate change into the Safety Element along with actions to strengthen community resilience and emergency evacuation capacity.

What is Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)?

A term that is central to the Housing Element process is RHNA, which stands for Regional Housing Needs Allocation. It is the total number of new housing units that the City must plan to accommodate in the upcoming cycle. RHNA is split into four categories representing different levels of affordability, based on median income level in the county.

The affordability categories are as follows:

  • Very Low Income - Households making less than 50 percent of the area median income (AMI)
  • Low Income - Households making 50-80 percent of AMI
  • Moderate Income - Households making 80-120 percent of AMI
  • Above Moderate Income - Households making more than 120 percent of AMI

Since housing production is driven largely by market forces, the City is not required to build new housing to meet its RHNA. The mandate in State law is that the City ensure that local zoning has sufficient capacity to meet RHNA for all income categories throughout the 8-year planning cycle. Additionally, HCD will be reviewing the Housing Element to ensure it includes policies and programs to facilitate accommodating the RHNA.

Where does RHNA come from?

The State determines the estimated need for new housing in each region of California for the upcoming cycle, based on population projections and other factors including rates of vacancy, overcrowding, and cost-burden. Each regional planning agency then allocates a target to each city or town within its jurisdiction, considering factors such as access to jobs, good schools, and healthy environmental conditions. For the Monterey Bay Area, the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG) developed and refined a methodology for RHNA allocations with input from local jurisdictions in between August 2021 and October 2022.


For the period from December 15, 2023 through December 15, 2031, the City's RHNA allocation is provided below. The City is required to ensure that local zoning has sufficient capacity to meet RHNA at all income levels throughout the period.

Monterey is a built-out community, how can we accommodate our RHNA?

Meeting RHNA obligations will require a thoughtful strategy that satisfies the legal requirements while also preserving Monterey's distinctive community character. There are few vacant sites available for new development, so a range of options will need to be explored, including increased residential development downtown; higher density infill development along commercial corridors such as Lighthouse Avenue, North Fremont Street, and Del Monte Avenue; and on-campus student and workforce housing. New State laws that seek to promote development of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and smaller scale housing can help Monterey accommodate its RHNA. ADUs - sometimes called caretaker or second units - are built on single-family residential properties, either as standalone structures or incorporated into the main house. They can be more affordable due to their smaller size and offer opportunities for lower income households, including seniors, students, teachers, and other public service workers.

What about water supply?

Availability of water supply is a significant constraint to housing development in Monterey and other communities in the region. Since 1995, the City has been impacted by a Cease and Desist order imposed by the State Water Resources Control Board on California American Water (Cal Am) for diversion of water from the Carmel River without rights. While the illegal diversions have ceased, the order remains in effect until a new water supply is operational for multiple years. Regionally, two water supply projects have the potential to provide a reliable and sustainable local water supply for years to come. Pure Water Monterey is an advanced water recycling project, jointly developed by two public agencies – Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and Monterey One Water (M1W) that provides both purified potable water for domestic use, as well as a supply for irrigating the Salinas Valley. The Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project is pursuing a three-pronged strategy to resolve the long-standing water crisis that includes a desalination facility, aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells, and recycled water purchased from the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency (MRWPCA).

The Monterey 2031 project is proceeding in parallel to these separate efforts with a view to ensuring the Housing, Land Use and Safety Elements of the General Plan are fully compliant with State law and responsive to community needs in the coming years. The availability of a dependable supply of fresh water is a critical constraint that must be recognized through the process, but the constraint does not absolve Monterey of its legal obligations to plan for local housing needs.

The inability of Monterey to produce new housing units exacerbates the existing housing crisis. Although the demand for housing is increasing, the lack of available water means that Monterey is unable to increase the supply of housing to meet the new demand. The City is advocating to various regional and state agencies that the State Water Resources Control Board immediately lift the Cease and Desist (CDO) order since the illegal diversions have ceased. If the CDO is lifted, developers could set new water meters and work within the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District credit system. See advocacy letters.

What happens if the City does not update the Housing Element?

There are also penalties for jurisdictions that fail to adopt a certified Housing Element, including suspension of local authority to issue building permits or grant zoning changes, variances, or subdivision map approvals; court-imposed fines of up to $100,000 per month, which if not paid can be multiplied by a factor of six; or receivership, whereby a court-appointed agent is empowered to remedy identified Housing Element deficiencies and bring the Housing Element into substantial compliance with State law.

What will be in our Safety Element?

With its location beside the bay and a backdrop of forested hills to the south, Monterey faces the risk of hazards associated with coastal flooding, sea level rise, tsunamis, and wildfire. These risks are addressed in the current Safety Element of the General Plan; however, since 2005 when the Safety Element was prepared, several new requirements for the Safety Element have come into force, including requirements to delineate areas at risk of flooding and wildfire and incorporate policies to address the risks; requirements to assess vulnerability to climate change and incorporate climate adaptation and resiliency strategies (SB379); requirements to assess emergency evacuation capacity under multi-hazard scenarios and incorporate strategies to mitigate associated risks (SB99 and AB747); and requirement to address airport-related hazards consistent with the 2019 Monterey Regional Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan.

While the 2005 Safety Element was updated to incorporate new information on flooding and wildfire subsequent to adoption, more current information is included in the 2022 County of Monterey Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP), which contains a jurisdiction-specific hazard risk assessment for the City of Monterey. The MJHMP also includes a climate vulnerability assessment and an evaluation of emergency evacuation capacity. Additionally, in January 2021 the City prepared a study assessing the impact of sea level rise on its transportation system, Adapting a Threatened Transportation Network to Sea Level Rise. Information and analysis from these recent documents will be referenced and reflected in the Safety Element to help satisfy the statutory requirements. New strategies for emergency evacuation and response will be developed with community input and incorporated into the Safety Element.

What will community engagement look like?

Community engagement will be a vital component of the project and there will be many opportunities to have your say throughout the process. Key community outreach objectives will be to engage a broad cross-section of community members and provide a variety of forums and channels for community input that meaningfully shapes outcomes. Activities will include bilingual English-Spanish “go-to” outreach at events and popular locations around town; an interactive map-based online survey; neighborhood listening sessions; community meetings; and a youth-led survey on climate adaptation and resilience. To learn more about opportunities to participate and stay in the know, click on the icon above subscribe to the project mailing list.

Who is the project team?

Through a public procurement process, the City Council has engaged an experienced team of planning consultants to assist City staff with the project. The consultant team, identified below, has extensive experience on similar projects throughout the state.

What is the project timeline?

The graphic below shows project phasing and key milestones. By law there are certain defined timeframes that must be respected and that have been programmed into the schedule. These include a 30-day public review period before the Draft Housing Element is sent to HCD for review and a 90-day review period for HCD. Additionally, an environmental impact report (EIR) will likely be required for the project and there is a mandatory 45-day public comment period for the Draft EIR.

Under State law, the statutory deadline for adoption of the Housing Element is December 15, 2023. The Monterey 2031 project timeline envisions completion by this date.

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