Planning and zoning: housing element: extremely low income housing.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development that includes, among other things, a housing element. That law requires the housing element to include an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources and constraints relevant to the meeting of these needs. That law requires this assessment and inventory to include the identification of a zone or zones where emergency shelters are allowed as a permitted use without a conditional use or other discretionary permit, as provided. This bill would authorize a city or county to additionally include in its assessment and inventory the identification of housing for extremely low income households, as defined. If a local government elects to include this identification in its assessment and inventory, the bill would impose certain requirements, including that the identified zone or zones include sufficient capacity to accommodate the need for housing for extremely low income households, that the local government demonstrate that existing or proposed permit processing, development, and management standards are objective and encourage and facilitate the development of housing for extremely low income households, and that housing for extremely low income households generally be subject only to the development and management standards that apply to residential or commercial development within the same zone. The bill would also provide that the development of zones and objective management standards under these provisions would not be discretionary acts within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act.