Planning and Zoning Law: housing leadership designation.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on the exact benefits or incentives for receiving a housing leadership designation.

Designating Housing Leadership Jurisdictions

This law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to publish an annual list of housing leadership designated jurisdictions based on their progress reports and compliance with specific housing production requirements.

What This Bill Does

• Requires the department to publish a list of housing leadership designated jurisdictions online by July 1st each year.
• Qualifies jurisdictions for housing leadership designation if they submit complete annual progress reports for five years and meet specified housing production requirements based on their affordability status.
• Allows jurisdictions with a housing leadership designation to create exemptions or modifications to certain planning laws through local ordinances.
• Exempts designated jurisdictions from including certain analyses in their housing elements.

Who It Names or Affects

• Local governments and cities that submit annual progress reports on housing development.
• The Department of Housing and Community Development which will publish lists of designated jurisdictions.

Terms To Know

Housing Leadership Designation

A recognition given to local jurisdictions by the state for meeting specific requirements related to affordable housing.

Affordability Status

The classification of a jurisdiction as either affordable, unaffordable, or extremely unaffordable based on housing costs and availability.

Limits and Unknowns

• It is unclear how the designation will impact jurisdictions that do not meet the criteria.
• The bill does not specify what happens if a designated jurisdiction fails to maintain compliance in future years.
• The exact benefits or incentives for receiving a housing leadership designation are not detailed.

Official Summary Text

SB 1216, as amended, Cabaldon.
Planning and Zoning Law: housing leadership designation.
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.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF