2023 California Housing Laws
The 2021-22 Legislative Session produced several blockbuster housing-related bills that, when combined, create powerful new tools for local governments to increase the state’s housing supply. Below is a list of key bills that will become law on January 1, 2023. Note: Bills marked with an asterisk go into effect at a later date.
Highlight bills include AB 2011 (Wicks), which allows for ministerial, by-right approval for affordable housing on commercial-zoned properties. A similar bill, SB 6 (Caballero), allows residential use on commercially zoned properties without requiring a rezoning if certain conditions are met.
AB 2334 (Wicks) expands Density Bonus Law to allow 100% affordable housing projects to receive unlimited density and height increase of 33 feet in “very low vehicle travel areas” in 17 qualifying counties, and AB 1551 (Santiago) reinstates the ability to seek State Density Bonus Law benefits for commercial projects.
AB 2097 (Friedman) generally prohibits public agencies from imposing parking minimums within a half-mile of public transit.
AB 2234 (Rivas) did not receive as much attention as the above-mentioned bills, but it could lead to significant streamlining of projects by establishing time limits and other procedural streamlining changes for review and approval of post-entitlement permits related to housing development projects.
If you have any questions about the bills listed below, please contact us.
Accessory Dwelling Units
AB 916 (Salas) Zoning: bedroom addition.
Summary: Would prohibit a city or county legislative body from adopting or enforcing an ordinance requiring a public hearing as a condition of reconfiguring existing space to increase the bedroom count within an existing dwelling unit. The bill would apply these provisions only to a permit application for no more than 2 additional bedrooms within an existing dwelling unit. The bill would specify that these provisions are not to be construed to prohibit a local agency from requiring a public hearing for a proposed project that would increase the number of dwelling units within an existing structure. The bill would include findings that ensuring adequate housing is a matter of statewide concern and is not a municipal affair, and that the provision applies to all cities, including charter cities.
AB 2221 (Quirk-Silva) Accessory dwelling units.
Summary: Current law requires a local ordinance to require an accessory dwelling unit to be either attached to, or located within, the proposed or existing primary dwelling, as specified, or detached from the proposed or existing primary dwelling and located on the same lot as the proposed or existing primary dwelling. This bill would specify that an accessory dwelling unit that is detached from the proposed or existing primary dwelling may include a detached garage.
SB 897 (Wieckowski) Accessory dwelling units: junior accessory dwelling units.
Summary: The Planning and Zoning Law authorizes a local agency, by ordinance or ministerial approval, to provide for the creation of accessory dwelling units in areas zoned for residential use, as specified. Current law authorizes a local agency to impose standards on accessory dwelling units that include, but are not limited to, parking, height, setback, landscape, architectural review, and maximum size of a unit. This bill would require that the standards imposed on accessory dwelling units be objective. For purposes of this requirement, the bill would define “objective standard” as a standard that involves no personal or subjective judgment by a public official and is uniformly verifiable, as specified.
Cost Reductions
AB 2536 (Grayson) Development fees: impact fee nexus studies: connection fees and capacity charges.
Summary: The Mitigation Fee Act requires a local agency that establishes, increases, or imposes a fee as a condition of approval of a development project to, among other things, determine a reasonable relationship between the fee’s use and the type of development project on which the fee is imposed. Current law requires a local agency that conducts an impact fee nexus study to follow certain standards and practices, as specified. Current law also requires a local agency to hold at least one open and public meeting prior to levying a new fee or service charge, as specified. This bill would require a local agency, prior to levying a new fee or capacity charge or approving an increase in an existing fee or capacity charge, to evaluate the amount of the fee or capacity charge. The bill would require the evaluation to include evidence to support that the fee or capacity charge does not exceed the estimated reasonable cost of providing service, as specified.
Density
AB 682 (Bloom) Planning and zoning: density bonuses: shared housing buildings.
Summary: The Density Bonus Law requires a city or county to provide a developer that proposes a housing development within the city or county with a density bonus and other incentives or concessions, as specified, if the developer agrees to construct, among other options, 10% of the total units of a housing development for rental or sale to lower income households, as defined; or 5% of the total units for rental or sale to very low income households, as defined; a senior citizen housing development, as defined, or a mobilehome park that limits residency based on age requirements, as specified; or 100% of all units in the development for lower income households, as defined, subject to certain exceptions, and meets other requirements. This bill would provide that a housing development eligible for a density bonus be provide under these provisions includes a shared housing building, as defined, that will contain 10% of the total units for lower income households; contain or 5% of the total units for very low income households; is a senior housing development; or in which 100% of all the units are for lower income households, as described above.
AB 1551 (Santiago) Planning and zoning: development bonuses: mixed-use projects.
Summary: Current law, commonly referred to as the Density Bonus Law, requires a city or county to provide a developer that proposes a housing development within the city or county with a density bonus and other incentives or concessions, as specified, if the developer agrees to construct specified percentages of units for lower income, very low income, or senior citizen housing, among other things, and meets other requirements. Previously existing law, until January 1, 2022, required a city, county, or city and county to grant a commercial developer a development bonus, as specified, when an applicant for approval of a commercial development had entered into an agreement for partnered housing with an affordable housing developer to contribute affordable housing through a joint project or 2 separate projects encompassing affordable housing. This bill would reenact the above-described provisions regarding the granting of development bonuses to certain projects. The bill would require a city or county to annually submit to the Department of Housing and Community Development information describing an approved commercial development bonus.
AB 2334 (Wicks) Density Bonus Law: affordability: incentives or concessions in very low vehicle travel areas: parking standards: definitions.
Summary: The Density Bonus Law requires a city or county to provide a developer that proposes a housing development within the city or county with a density bonus and other incentives or concessions, as specified, if the developer agrees to construct specified percentages of units for lower income, very low income, or senior citizen housing, among other things, and meets other requirements. Current law requires that an applicant agree to, and the city, county, or city and county ensure, the continued affordability of all very low and low-income rental units that qualified the applicant for a density bonus, as provided. Current law, for developments where 100% of all units are for lower income households, except as provided, requires that rent for 20% of the units be set at an affordable rent and that rent for the remaining units be at an amount consistent with the maximum rent levels for a housing development that receives an allocation of state or federal low-income housing tax credits from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC). Current law, with respect to a for-sale unit that qualified the applicant for a density bonus, also requires that the local government enforce an equity sharing agreement, as provided, unless it is in conflict with the requirements of another public funding source or law. This bill, with respect to the affordability requirements applicable to 100% lower income developments, would instead require the rent for the remaining units in the development be set at an amount consistent with the maximum rent levels for lower income households, as those rents and incomes are determined by CTCAC.
Parking Reform
AB 2097 (Friedman) Residential, commercial, or other development types: parking requirements.
Summary: The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for its physical development, and the development of certain lands outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a land use element, and a conservation element. Current law also authorizes the legislative body of a city or a county to adopt ordinances establishing requirements for parking, and permits variances to be granted from the parking requirements of a zoning ordinance for nonresidential development if the variance will be an incentive to the development and the variance will facilitate access to the development by patrons of public transit facilities. This bill would prohibit a public agency from imposing any minimum automobile parking requirement on any residential, commercial, or other development project, as defined, that is located within 1/2 mile of public transit, as defined. The bill, notwithstanding the above-described prohibition, would authorize a city, county, or city and county to impose or enforce minimum automobile parking requirements on a housing development project if the public agency makes written findings, within 30 days of the receipt of a completed application, that not imposing or enforcing minimum automobile parking requirements on the development would have a substantially negative impact, supported by a preponderance of the evidence in the record, on the public agency’s ability to meet its share of specified housing needs or existing residential or commercial parking within 1/2 mile of the housing development.
Planning, Equity, Lower Income
AB 2094 (Rivas) General plan: annual report: extremely low-income housing.
Summary: The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. Current law requires the planning agency of a city or county to provide an annual report to certain specified entities by April 1 of each year that includes, among other information, the city or county’s progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs and local efforts to remove governmental constraints to the maintenance, improvement, and development of housing, as specified. This bill would additionally require a city or county’s annual report to include the locality’s progress in meeting the housing needs of extremely low income households, as specified.
AB 2339 (Bloom) Housing element: emergency shelters: regional housing need.
Summary: The Planning and Zoning Law requires the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city that includes a housing element. Current law requires that the housing element identify adequate sites for housing, including rental housing, factory-built housing, mobilehomes, and emergency shelters, and make adequate provision for the existing and projected needs of all economic segments of a community. Current law also requires that the housing element include an analysis of potential and actual governmental constraints upon the maintenance, improvement, or development of housing for all income levels. This bill would revise the requirements of the housing element, as described above, in connection with zoning designations that allow residential use, including mixed use, where emergency shelters are allowed as a permitted use without a conditional use or other discretionary permit. The bill would delete language regarding emergency shelter standards structured in relation to residential and commercial developments and instead require that emergency shelters only be subject to specified written, objective standards.
AB 2653 (Santiago) Planning and Zoning Law: housing elements.
Summary: The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. Current law requires the planning agency of a city or county to provide an annual report to the Department of Housing and Community Development by April 1 of each year that includes, among other information, a housing element portion that includes, as provided, the city or county’s progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs and local efforts to remove governmental constraints on the maintenance, improvement, and development of housing, as specified; the net number of new units of housing; and data from a sample of projects, selected by the planning agency, that were approved to receive a density bonus from the city or county. This bill would require the planning agency to additionally include in its annual report the number of all new housing units, the number of housing units demolished, and data from all projects approved to receive a density bonus from the city or county, as specified. The bill would authorize the Department of Housing and Community Development to request corrections to the housing element portion of an annual report, as specified.
AB 2873 (Jones-Sawyer) California Tax Credit Allocation Committee: low-income housing credit: women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises.
Summary: The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee administers the federal and state low-income housing tax credit programs. Current law requires the committee to allocate the housing credit on a specified regular basis, and to only allocate credits to a project if the housing sponsor enters into a specified regulatory agreement. Current law authorizes the committee to make any allocation or reservation of the state’s housing credit ceiling to a housing credit applicant subject to specified terms and conditions. This bill would require a housing sponsor that receives a credit allocation on or after January 1, 2024, and that has completed 5 or more housing projects by January 1, 2023, or that has received an annual low-income housing tax credit allocation of $1,000,000 or more, to annually submit a report to the committee, in a form and at the time designated by the committee, that includes, among other things, a detailed and verifiable supplier and contractor plan for increasing procurement from women, minority, disabled veteran, and LGBT business enterprises, as defined, and short- and long-term diversity goals and timetables. The bill would require a housing sponsor that has not completed 5 or more housing projects by January 1 2023, or has not received an annual low-income housing tax credit allocation of $1,000,000 or more to comply with the plan and reporting requirements in the year following the commencement of construction on their 5th housing project for which the housing sponsor has received public money or in the year following the receipt of an annual low-income housing tax credit allocation of $1,000,000 or more.
SCA 2 (Allen) Public housing projects.
Summary: The California Constitution prohibits the development, construction, or acquisition of a low-rent housing project, as defined, in any manner by any state public body until a majority of the qualified electors of the city, town, or county in which the development, construction, or acquisition of the low-rent housing project is proposed approve the project by voting in favor at an election, as specified. This measure would repeal these provisions.
Streamlining
*AB 2011 (Wicks) Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022.
Summary: Would create the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, which would authorize a development proponent to submit an application for a housing development that meets specified objective standards and affordability and site criteria, including being located within a zone where office, retail, or parking are a principally permitted use, and would make the development a use by right and subject to one of 2 streamlined, ministerial review processes. The bill would require a development proponent for a housing development project approved pursuant to the streamlined, ministerial review process to require, in contracts with construction contractors, that certain wage and labor standards will be met, including a requirement that all construction workers be paid at least the general prevailing rate of wages, as specified. The bill would require a development proponent to certify to the local government that those standards will be met in project construction.
AB 2234 (Rivas) Planning and zoning: housing: postentitlement phase permits.
Summary: The Housing Accountability Act, among other things, prohibits a local agency from disapproving, or conditioning approval in a manner that renders infeasible, specified housing development projects, including projects for very low, low, or moderate-income households and projects for emergency shelters, that comply with applicable, objective general plan, zoning, and subdivision standards and criteria in effect at the time the application for the project is deemed complete, unless the local agency makes specified written findings supported by a preponderance of the evidence in the record. The act authorizes a project applicant, a person who would be eligible to apply for residency in the housing development or emergency shelter, or a housing organization to bring a lawsuit to enforce its provisions. This bill would require a local agency to compile a list of information needed to approve or deny a postentitlement phase permit, as defined, to post an example of a complete, approved application and an example of a complete set of postentitlement phase permits for at least 5 types of housing development projects, as defined, in the jurisdiction, as specified, and to make those items available to all applicants for these permits no later than January 1, 2024. The bill would define “local agency” for these purposes to mean a city, county, or city and county.
*AB 2295 (Bloom) Local educational agencies: housing development projects.
Summary: Would deem a housing development project an allowable use on any real property owned by a local educational agency, as defined, if the housing development satisfies certain conditions, including other local objective zoning standards, objective subdivision standards, and objective design review standards, as described. The bill would deem a housing development that meets these requirements consistent, compliant, and in conformity with local development standards, zoning codes or maps, and the general plan. The bill, among other things, would authorize the land used for the development of the housing development to be jointly used or jointly occupied by the local educational agency and any other party, subject to specified requirements. The bill would exempt a housing development project subject to these provisions from various requirements regarding the disposal of surplus land. The bill would make these provisions effective on January 1, 2024, except that the bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide a specified notice to the planning agency of each county and city on or before January 31, 2023. The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2033.
AB 2668 (Grayson) Planning and zoning.
Summary: The Planning and Zoning Law, until January 1, 2026, authorizes a development proponent to submit an application for a multifamily housing development that is subject to a streamlined, ministerial approval process, as provided, and not subject to a conditional use permit, if the development satisfies specified objective planning standards. Current law specifies that a development is consistent with the objective planning standards if there is substantial evidence that would allow a reasonable person to conclude that the development is consistent with the objective planning standards. This bill would clarify that a development subject to these provisions is subject to a streamlined, ministerial approval process, and not subject to a conditional use permit or any other nonlegislative discretionary approval. The bill would specify that a local government is required to approve a development if it determines that the development is consistent with objective planning standards, as specified.
*SB 6 (Caballero) Local Planning: housing: commercial zones.
Summary: The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for its physical development, and the development of certain lands outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Current law requires that the housing element include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable and available for residential development. If the inventory of sites does not identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of all households pursuant to specified law, current law requires the local government to rezone sites within specified time periods and that this rezoning accommodate 100% of the need for housing for very low and low-income households on sites that will be zoned to permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily residential use by right for specified developments. This bill, the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022, would deem a housing development project, as defined, an allowable use on a parcel that is within a zone where office, retail, or parking are a principally permitted use, if specified conditions are met, including requirements relating to density, public notice, comment, hearing, or other procedures, site location and size, consistency with sustainable community strategy or alternative plans, prevailing wage, and a skilled and trained workforce.
SB 886 (Wiener) California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: public universities: university housing development projects.
Summary: Would, until January 1, 2030, exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) a university housing development project, as defined, carried out by a public university, as defined, on real property owned by the public university if the project meets certain requirements, including that each building within the project is certified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum or better by the United States Green Building Council, that the project’s construction impacts are fully mitigated, and that the project is not located, in whole or in part, on certain types of sites, including a site that is within a special flood hazard area subject to inundation by a 1% annual chance flood or within a regulatory floodway as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as provided. The bill, with respect to a site that is within a special flood hazard area subject to inundation by a 1% annual chance flood or within a regulatory floodway, would prohibit a local government from denying an application on the basis that a public university did not comply with any additional permit requirement, standard, or action adopted by that local government applicable to the site if the public university is able to satisfy all applicable federal qualifying criteria in order to demonstrate that the site meets these criteria and is otherwise eligible to be exempt from CEQA pursuant to the above requirements. By imposing additional duties on local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Surplus Property
AB 2233 (Quirk-Silva) Excess state land: development of affordable housing.
Summary: Specifically, Executive Order No. N-06-19 (E.O. N-06-19) required the Department of General Services (DGS) to create a digitized inventory of excess state land no later than April 30, 2019, and required the DGS, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), and the California Housing Finance Agency to collaborate to develop 2 new screening tools for prioritizing affordable housing development on excess state land no later than March 29, 2019. This bill would require the DGS to develop, in consultation with the HCD, no later than September 1, 2023, a set of criteria to consistently evaluate state-owned parcels for suitability as affordable housing sites. The bill would also require, on or before July 1, 2024, and every 4 years thereafter, the DGS to, among other things, conduct a review of all state-owned property and identify state-owned parcels that are potentially viable for affordable housing based on those criteria. The bill would require the DGS to update the digitized inventory created pursuant to E.O. N-06-19 of all excess state land, as defined, suitable for affordable housing identified by its review. The bill would require the DGS and the HCD to evaluate and update the 2 screening tools created pursuant to E.O. N-06-19.
AB 2592 (McCarty) Housing: underutilized state buildings.
Summary: Current law requires the Department of General Services to create a database of information on lands identified by a local government as suitable and available for residential development and information regarding the state lands determined or declared excess, as specified. Current law requires the department to report to the Legislature annually the land declared excess and to request authorization to dispose of the land by sale or otherwise. Current law authorizes the department to dispose of real property declared surplus by the Legislature, as specified. This bill would require, by January 1, 2024, the department to prepare and report to the Legislature a streamlined plan to transition underutilized multistory state buildings into housing for the purpose of expanding affordable housing development and adaptive reuse opportunities.
SB 561 (Dodd) State surplus property: digital inventory: affordable housing.
Summary: Would require the Department of General Services to, by September 1, 2023, develop criteria to evaluate the suitability of state-owned parcels to be used for affordable housing, in consultation with the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would require the Department of General Services to conduct a comprehensive survey of all state-owned parcels using that criteria by July 1, 2024, and every 4 years thereafter. The bill would require the department to update its digitized inventory of all state-owned parcels that are in excess of the state’s foreseeable needs and suitable for affordable housing development, as specified.