(1) Existing law authorized the County of Napa, until June 30, 2007, to meet up to 15 percent of its existing share of the regional housing need for lower income households in a specified manner.

This bill would repeal this expired authority.

(2) 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, which includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. That law requires each city, county, and city and county to revise its housing element as appropriate in accordance with a specific schedule. For subsequent revisions of the housing element after the 5th revision, that law requires certain local governments to revise their housing elements at 5-year intervals, as specified.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires all local governments within the regional jurisdiction of a metropolitan planning organization or a regional transportation planning agency that is both subject to the 5-year revision interval and that makes a specified election, as provided, to adopt their next housing element revision no later than 18 months after adoption of the first regional transportation plan update following the election. That law also requires subsequent revisions for those local governments to be due 18 months after adoption of every 2nd regional transportation plan update, as provided.

This bill would remove those provisions.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires the owner of land on which an assisted housing development is located, at least 12 months prior to an anticipated date of termination of a subsidy contract, an expiration of rental restrictions, or a prepayment on an assisted housing development, to provide notice of the proposed change to each affected tenant household residing in the assisted housing development at the time the notice is provided and to the affected public entities. If the owner decides to terminate a subsidy contract or prepay the mortgage pursuant to these provisions, or if the owner has an assisted housing development in which there will be the expiration of rental restrictions, existing law requires the owner to first give notice of the opportunity to specified entities. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to monitor compliance with these provisions and provide a report to the Legislature, as prescribed, containing specified information. Existing law defines various terms for these purposes.

This bill would additionally require the owner to provide that notice to affected public entities, as defined. The bill would prescribe the process for serving the notice on a city, county, or city and county in which the assisted housing development is located, to the appropriate local public housing authority, if any, and the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would remove some of the information required to be in the report from the department described above. The bill would also make technical changes to these provisions.

(3) The Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, until January 1, 2033, authorizes a development proponent to submit an application for a mixed-income housing development along a commercial corridor that satisfies specified site criteria, affordability criteria, and objective development standards, and deems a housing development that meets those requirements a use by right and subject to streamlined, ministerial review. The act includes allowable residential density in those objective development standards and allows a greater residential density for sites within a very low vehicle travel area, within one-half mile of a major transit stop, or within a campus development zone.

This bill would make a technical change relative to the objective standards and to the definition of “very low vehicle travel area” for purposes of the above-described provision.

(4) The Housing Crisis Act of 2019 prohibits an affected county or affected city, as defined, from enacting a development policy, standard, or condition that would change the general plan land use designation, specific plan land use designation, or zoning of a parcel or parcels of property to a less intensive use below what was allowed under the land use designation and zoning ordinances of the affected county or affected city in effect on January 1, 2018. However, the act authorized the City of San Jose, until the date that the City of San Jose’s housing element update for the 6th cycle was due, to proactively change a zoning ordinance to a more intensive use and use the added capacity to subsequently change a zoning ordinance applicable to an eligible parcel, as defined, to a less intensive use as long as there is no net loss in residential capacity.

This bill would remove that expired authority.

(5) Existing law establishes a low-income housing tax credit program pursuant to which the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee provides procedures and requirements for the allocation, in modified conformity with federal law, of state insurance, personal income, and corporation tax credit amounts to qualified low-income housing projects that have been allocated, or qualify for, a federal low-income housing tax credit and farmworker housing. Existing law defines “agricultural worker” or “farmworker” for these purposes to have the same meaning as “agricultural employee,” which is defined to mean one engaged in agriculture, as defined, and to exclude, among other persons, any person other than those employees excluded from the coverage under specified provisions of federal law.

This bill would revise the definition of “agricultural worker” or “farmworker” to mean an individual who derives, or prior to retirement or disability derived, a substantial portion of their income as an agricultural employee, as specified. The bill would also conform state tax law to changes relating to low-income housing tax credits for buildings financed by tax-exempt bonds subject to volume cap made by the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The bill would specify the amount of credit to the taxpayer for each year, as prescribed. The bill would also make technical changes and correct cross-references in these provisions.

(6) Existing law designates the Department of Housing and Community Development as the state agency responsible for administering funds received by the state from the federal Housing Trust Fund pursuant to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, and requires the department to submit an allocation plan for the distribution of those funds, as specified, to the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development and the Senate Transportation and Housing Committees.

This bill would update the name of the Senate Housing Committee within these provisions.

Existing law requires the department to submit an annual report to the Governor and both houses of the Legislature on the operations and accomplishments during the previous fiscal year of the housing programs administered by the department, as specified. Existing law requires that report to include an evaluation of any program established by the department to meet the legal requirements of the federal Housing Trust Fund program guidelines.

This bill would remove the requirement to include that evaluation in the report.

Existing law generally governs the state’s implementation of the federal State Community Development Block Grant Program.

This bill would make nonsubstantive, technical changes to those provisions.

(7) 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.