Official Summary Text
SB1216, as amended,
Cabaldon
Laird
.
Planning and Zoning Law: housing leadership designation.
Budget Act of 2026.
The Budget Act of 2026 would make appropriations for the support of state government for the 2026–27 fiscal year.
This bill would amend the Budget Act of 2026 by amending a section relating to appropriations.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a Budget Bill.
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive,
long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that
includes, among other specified mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and
Community Development to determine whether the housing element is in substantial compliance with those provisions, as provided.
Existing law requires the department to designate jurisdictions as prohousing pursuant to emergency regulations adopted by
the department, as prescribed, and requires that jurisdictions that are prohousing and that are in substantial compliance
with specified provisions be awarded additional points or preference in the scoring of applications for specified state programs.
This
bill would require the department, on or before July 1 of each year, to publish a list of housing leadership designated
jurisdictions on its internet website. To qualify for a housing leadership designation, the bill would require that the jurisdiction
have submitted a complete annual progress report for the preceding 5 years and, as applicable, that it meet specified requirements
relating to housing production that vary based on whether the jurisdiction is an affordable jurisdiction, an unaffordable
jurisdiction, or an extremely unaffordable jurisdiction, as those terms are defined. The bill would also require the department
to publish a list of the affordability designation for each jurisdiction that has submitted a complete annual progress report,
as provided. The bill would authorize a jurisdiction with a housing leadership designation to take prescribed actions, including
to establish by ordinance an exemption or modification of specified provisions of the Planning and Zoning Law.
The bill would require that a housing element or amendment be considered in substantial compliance when the local agency
adopts the housing element or amendment for the current planning period, and a jurisdiction adopts a housing element under
these provisions and the department had not issued contrary written findings within 30 days of receiving notice of the legislative
body’s resolution. The bill would also exempt a jurisdiction with a housing leadership designation from requirements to include
specified analyses in the housing element. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter
of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.