General plan housing element: regional housing need.

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. That law requires the housing element to, among other things, include an inventory of land suitable for residential development and make adequate provision for the existing and projected needs of all economic segments of the community. That law prescribes the densities appropriate to accommodate housing for lower income households and varies those densities depending upon how an area is classified, whether as metropolitan, suburban, or in another category. A city, county, or city and county is required to submit a draft housing element or draft amendment to its housing element to the Department of Housing and Community Development for a determination of whether the draft substantially complies with state law governing housing elements. This bill would require, until December 31, 2023, a county that is in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont California Metropolitan Statistical Area and that has a population of less than 400,000 to be considered suburban for purposes of determining the densities appropriate to accommodate housing for lower income households. The bill would require these counties to utilize the sums existing in their housing trust funds as of June 30, 2013, for affordable housing, as specified. The bill would, for that same purpose, also require a city that has a population of less than 100,000 and is incorporated within that county to be considered suburban. The bill would require a county or city so classified to make 2 reports, as specified, to the Legislature and the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would apply housing density requirements in place on June 30, 2014, within 12 mile of a Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit station. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65583.2 of the Government Code proposed by AB 1690 that would become operative if this bill and AB 1690 are both enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for certain areas of the state.