The Ripon City Council recently gave the go-ahead to pursue the San Joaquin Council of Governments for Regional Early Action Planning Grant or REAP.

If approved, the City of Ripon anticipates using the funds as part of the ongoing planning effort to implement housing goals and policies to further increase housing capacity and production, Planning Director Ken Zuidervaart said in staff report for the Aug. 10 meeting.

No discussion among elected leaders was necessary.

Ripon, if awarded, could receive $45,713 from this grant program.

The background of the grant, according to Zuidervaart, is Assembly Bill 101, which established the Local Government Planning Support Grants Program to provide regions and jurisdictions with one-time funding to support the housing planning along with accelerating housing production.

That’s one of the two funding channels.

The second is the regional program is the aforementioned REAP.

Through this channel, about $2.4 million is being provided to SJCOG to allocate across the region towards housing programs.

Zuidervaart noted that SJCOG has decided that a portion of funds – about $1.5 million – will be made available per municipalities “on a formula basis to member jurisdiction,” with Ripon being eligible for the estimated $45,000 under this method.

The City is anticipating of using the REAP funds for technology upgrades. This would include the Geographic Information System software along with the building permitting and plan-checking software.

“The proposed planning projects demonstrate a nexus with increased housing production and are consisted with SJCOG’s established priorities by streamlining the development process and improving planning and coordination for a regional housing pipeline,” Zuidervaart said.

The City, in addition, anticipates using a portion of REAP funds to assist with the development of the 6th cycle Housing Element which, Zuidervaart added, must be completed, adopted, and certified in compliance with the State Housing Law by Dec. 31, 2023.

The current housing element in Ripon is the 5th cycle, consisting of assessments from 2015 through 2023 while addressing housing needs, constraints, resources, and opportunities coupled with housing goals, policies and quantified objectives.

The grant funds would be used to reimbursed the City for direct and indirect expenses related to updating the City’s GIS system not to mention the preparation of the 2023 Housing Element.