(Becker D) Housing development.

Current Text: Introduced: 2/7/2023 

Status:
10/11/2023-Approved by the Governor. Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 777, Statutes of 2023.
4/11/2023-Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

Summary: Existing law, 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. The law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to determine whether the housing element is in substantial compliance with specified provisions of that law. Existing law requires the department to designate jurisdictions as prohousing pursuant to emergency regulations adopted by the department, as prescribed. Existing law awards jurisdictions that are in substantial compliance with specified provisions and that are prohousing additional points or preference in the scoring of applications for specified state programs, including, among others, the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program and the Infill Incentive Grant Program of 2007. Existing law authorizes additional bonus points to be awarded to other state programs when already allowable under state law. Existing law establishes the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, which requires the department, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and administer a grant program to allocate those funds to eligible applicants, as defined, to fund capital improvement projects that are an integral part of, or necessary to facilitate the development of, a qualifying infill project, qualifying infill area, or catalytic qualifying infill area, as those terms are defined, pursuant to specified requirements. Existing law requires the department, in its review and ranking of applications for the award of capital improvement project grants, to rank affected qualifying infill projects and qualifying infill areas based on specified priorities.

This bill would remove the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program from the list of specified state programs for which additional points or preference is awarded. This bill, with respect to the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, would specify that only the qualifying infill area portion of that program must be awarded additional points or preference. This bill would add the qualifying infill area and catalytic qualifying infill area portions of the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019 as one of the specified state programs for which additional points or preference is awarded. This bill would specify that additional bonus points may be awarded to other state programs for which local governments are the sole or primary applicants when already allowable under state law. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.