Housing law compliance: prohibition on applying for state grants.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. Existing law, the Housing Element Law, prescribes requirements for the preparation of the housing element, including a requirement that a planning agency submit a draft of the element or draft amendment to the element to the Department of Housing and Community Development prior to the adoption of the element or amendment to the element. Existing law requires the department to review the draft and report its written findings, as specified. Existing law also requires the department, in its written findings, to determine whether the draft substantially complies with the Housing Element Law. Existing law also requires the department to review any action or failure to act by the city or county that it determines is inconsistent with an adopted housing element or a specified provision of the Housing Element Law and to issue written findings, as specified, whether the action or failure to act substantially complies with the Housing Element Law. If the department finds that the action or failure to act by the city or county does not substantially comply with the Housing Element Law, and if it has issued findings as described above that an amendment to the housing element substantially complies with the Housing Element Law, existing law authorizes the department, after allowing no more than 30 days for a local agency response, to revoke its findings until it determines that the city or county has come into compliance with the Housing Element Law. Existing law also requires the department to notify the city or county that the city or county is in violation of state law if the department makes certain findings of noncompliance or a violation of specified provisions related to housing. This bill would authorize the city or county to submit evidence that the city or county is no longer in violation of state law to the department and to request the department to issue a finding that the city or county is no longer in violation of state law. If the department finds that the city or county is no longer in violation of state law, the bill would require the department to notify the city or county. The bill would, on or before January 1, 2025, prohibit a city or county found to be in violation of state law, as described above, from applying for a state grant, unless the fund source of the state grant is protected by a specified provision of the California Constitution relating to state taxes and fees on motor vehicles and motor vehicle fuels or the state grant funds, if awarded to the city or county, would assist the city or county in complying with the Housing Element Law.