Housing: Infill Incentive Grant Program of 2007.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires each city, county, or city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan for its jurisdiction that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. One part of the housing element is an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of land suitable for residential development. Existing law sets forth various classifications and definitions for purposes of determining a city's or county's inventory. Existing law establishes the Infill Incentive Grant Program of 2007, administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, a competitive grant program to facilitate the development of qualifying infill residential projects. This bill would, notwithstanding a specified provision of law, authorize a city meeting certain population criteria to petition the department for an exception to the classification of its jurisdiction under a specified provision of the Planning and Zoning Law, if that city believes it is unable to meet threshold density requirements for the Infill Incentive Grant Program of 2007. The bill would authorize the department to grant the petition. The bill would establish procedures for the exception request and make these provisions inoperative on January 1, 2015.