The City of Ripon will again update its Housing Element.

This is part of the General Plan that calls for cities to adequately prepare for growth, including affordable housing.

Enacted in 1969, the Housing Element law requires cities to meet the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community.

“I was surprised to see that Ripon has an extremely low income population,” Chairman George Saljian said at the March 14 Planning Commission meeting.

Updating the Housing Element is conducted in cycles.

“This is now the Fifth Cycle,” said Planning Director Ken Zuidervaart.

He pointed out that the Fifth Cycle is for nine years and is good through 2023. Ripon will already have a plan in place to provide adequate sites to account for 1,357 housing units, Zuidervaart added.

The Housing Element update did receive the OK from the commissioners, in turn, paving the way for a public hearing at April 12 City Council meeting.

Zuidervaart indicated that the Fourth Cycle was recently adopted, requiring the City to provide for 1,178 housing sites.

“With the Fourth Cycle, the City rezoned property to provide to provide 35 acres of high density, some which is in the North Pointe Specific Plan,” he said.

North Pointe is the major project that’s currently in the planning stages of development in northeast Ripon.

To contact reporter Vince Rembulat, e-mail vrembulat@mantecabulletin.com.