Existing law provides that a housing development project shall be an allowed use as a transit-oriented housing development if specified conditions and requirements are met, including certain requirements pertaining to cities with a population of at least 35,000. Existing law defines various terms for these purposes. Existing law provides that these provisions do not apply to a local agency until January 1, 2026, unless the local agency adopts an ordinance or local transit-oriented development alternative plan, as defined, deemed compliant by the Department of Housing and Community Development before July 1, 2027. Existing law specifies that, beginning on January 1, 2027, a local government that denies a housing development project meeting the requirements referenced above that is located in a high-resource area is presumed to be in violation of specified law and immediately liable for specified penalties.

This bill would delay each of those dates, and certain related dates, by one year. The bill would also increase the population threshold for certain requirements to apply to cities, as described above, from 35,000 to 40,000.

Existing law specifies exclusions from the provisions described above, including that a site is covered by a local transit-oriented development alternative plan adopted by a local government, and a site with a historic resource designated as of January 1, 2025, on a local register. Existing law places specified limitations on the reduction of maximum allowed density for certain individual sites, except for sites that meet certain criteria, including a site with a historic resource designated on a local register, as specified. Under existing law, sites with historic resources excluded under this latter provision may not cumulatively exceed 10% of the eligible area of any transit-oriented development zone.

This bill would define “historic resource” for these purposes to mean a historic resource listed on a local, state, or national historic register. The bill would remove the above-described limitation on the exclusion of sites with a historic resource to 10% of the eligible area of a transit-oriented development zone.