Under existing law, a "heritage school" is a school that, among other things, offers education or academic tutoring, or both, in a world language and education on the culture, traditions, or history of a country other than the United States to children who are at least 4 years and 9 months of age and no older than 18 years of age and who attend a public or private full-time day school. Existing law exempts a heritage school from licensure by the State Department of Social Services as a child day care center, as specified. This bill would expand the definition of "heritage school" to also include a school that provides services to children younger than 4 years and 9 months of age who are enrolled in kindergarten, including transitional kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires a heritage school, upon a pupil's enrollment in a heritage school, to provide a notice to the pupil's parent or guardian stating that the heritage school is exempt from childcare licensure and that attendance at a heritage school does not satisfy California's compulsory education requirements. This bill would require a heritage school, upon a pupil's enrollment in a heritage school, to also provide notice that the State Department of Education has no regulatory authority over heritage schools and does not monitor heritage school operations or instruction.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires each planning agency to prepare and the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that contains specified mandatory elements, including an environmental justice element, or related goals, policies, and objectives integrated in other elements, that identifies disadvantaged communities, as defined, within the area covered by the general plan of the city, county, or city and county, if the city, county, or city and county has a disadvantaged community, as specified. The law requires a city, county, or city and county subject to these provisions to adopt or review the environmental justice element, or the environmental justice goals, policies, and objectives in other elements, upon the adoption of the next revision of two or more elements concurrently on or after January 1, 2018. This bill would require a city, county, or city and county to meaningfully involve disadvantaged communities in the development, adoption, and implementation of the environmental justice element, or the related goals, policies, and objectives integrated in other elements, using methods that are designed to effectively involve disadvantaged communities based on local conditions and circumstances, as specified. The bill would require a city, county, or city and county subject to these provisions to adopt or review the environmental justice element, or the environmental justice goals, policies, and objectives in other elements, upon the earliest of the adoption or next revision of two or more elements concurrently on or after January 1, 2018, or June 30, 2031, except as specified. By increasing the duties on local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 2025 (GRP) , which became effective on July 5, 2025, reorganized specified state agencies and departments, including eliminating the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency as of July 1, 2026, and instead establishing the Business and Consumer Services Agency and the California Housing and Homelessness Agency. The GRP, as of July 1, 2026, sets forth the general responsibilities and roles of the California Housing Homelessness Agency, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Housing Development and Finance Committee, and the California Housing Finance Agency in carrying out state housing policies and programs. Existing law establishes programs providing assistance for, among other things, multifamily housing, farmworker housing, and veteran housing. This bill would require the California Housing and Homelessness Agency, the California Housing Finance Agency, the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, and the Housing Development and Finance Committee, no later than July 1, 2027, when administering a multifamily affordable housing program, as specified, to, among other things, review, analyze, and make any changes necessary to their guidelines and regulations to facilitate the production and use of factory-built housing.
Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (council) , which has various goals, including, among other things, to serve as a statewide facilitator, coordinator, and policy development resource on ending homelessness in California. This bill would require the council to, by July 1, 2028, complete a comprehensive statewide study of the coordinated entry system and its role in connecting individuals and families experiencing homelessness to affordable housing, as specified. The bill would require the council, in conducting the study, to meaningfully consult with a geographically representative group of stakeholders, as described, and would require the council, by July 1, 2028, to post the report on its internet website and submit the report to the Legislature and any relevant policy committees.
(1) Existing law, 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. For the 4th and subsequent revisions of the housing element, existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, in consultation with each council of governments, to determine each region's existing and projected need for housing, and requires the appropriate council of governments, or the department for cities and counties without a council of governments, to adopt a final regional housing plan that allocates a share of the regional housing need to each city, county, or city and county, as provided. Existing law authorizes at least 2 or more cities and a county, or counties, at least 28 months prior to the scheduled housing element revision, to form a subregional entity to allocate the subregion's existing and projected housing need among its members. If the council of governments does not receive a notification of this formation at least 28 months prior to the update, existing law requires the council of governments to implement specified requirements regarding the regional housing need process. Existing law requires the council of governments to determine the share of regional housing need assigned to each delegate subregion at least 25 months prior to the scheduled revision. This bill, except with respect to the 7th housing element cycle for councils of governments with a housing element revision due date during the calendar year 2027, 2028, or 2029, would extend the above-described timeline for cities and counties to form a subregional entity to allocate the subregion's housing need, as provided, from 28 months to 34 months, and the above-described timeline for the council of governments to determine the share of regional housing need assigned to each subregion from 25 months to 31 months, respectively. (2) Existing law, at least 2 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, as specified, requires each council of governments, or delegate subregion as applicable, to develop, in consultation with the department, a proposed methodology for distributing the existing and projected regional housing need to jurisdictions, as specified. Existing law, at least 112 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, as specified, requires each council of governments and delegate subregion, as applicable, to distribute a draft allocation of regional housing needs to each local government in the region or subregion, where applicable, and the department, as specified. This bill, except with respect to the 7th housing element cycle for councils of governments with a housing element revision due date during the calendar year 2027, 2028, or 2029, would instead require that the above-described methodology be developed at least 212 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, and that the distribution of the draft allocation plan be made at least 2 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, respectively. (3) Existing law requires each city, county, and city and county to, among other things, revise its housing element according to a specified schedule. Existing law generally requires local governments within the jurisdiction of certain metropolitan planning organizations or regional transportation planning agencies to update their housing elements 18 months after adoption of every 2nd regional transportation plan update, but not later than 8 years later than the deadline for adoption of the previous 8-year housing element, as specified. For subsequent revisions of the housing element after the 5th revision, existing law requires certain local governments to revise their housing elements at 5-year intervals, as specified. For the 7th revision and subsequent revisions of the housing element, existing law makes subsequent revisions due 24 months after the adoption of the 2nd regional transportation plan update for local governments within the jurisdiction of the Southern California Association of Governments, except as provided. This bill would instead generally require local governments within the above-described metropolitan planning organizations or regional transportation planning agencies to update their housing elements 18 months after the estimated adoption date of every 2nd regional transportation plan update, as specified. The bill would require the 8th revision of the housing elements for the certain local governments previously at 5-year intervals for the 7th revision, to be due by June 30, 2032. The bill would also require, for the 9th and subsequent revisions of the housing elements for those local governments, to be due 18 months after adoption of every 2nd regional transportation plan update, as provided. For the 8th and subsequent revisions, the bill would require a local government within the Southern California Association of Governments to adopt the revised housing no later than 8 years later than the deadline for adoption of the previous 8-year housing element. The housing element law requires a metropolitan planning organization or regional transportation planning agency that has an 8-year revision interval described above to notify the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Transportation in writing of the estimated adoption date for its next regional transportation plan update at least 12 months before the estimated adoption date. This bill would instead require the above-described notification 24 months before the estimated adoption date. (4) 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. (5) By requiring local officials to provide a higher level of service, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law authorizes a borrower who is experiencing financial hardship that prevents the borrower from making timely payments on a specified residential mortgage loan due directly to a specified state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor, or a specified federally declared disaster, to request forbearance on their residential mortgage loan, as prescribed. Existing law requires a mortgage servicer, except as specified, to offer mortgage payment forbearance for an initial 90-day period that may be extended up to a maximum forbearance period of 12 months and prohibits a mortgage servicer from assessing any late fees to the borrower's account or charging a default rate of interest during the forbearance period. This bill would, among other things, similarly authorize a borrower to request forbearance on a residential mortgage loan, as defined, secured by residential real property that has become uninhabitable as a direct result of a disaster, which the bill would define to mean the conditions described in a declaration of a disaster issued by the federal government. The bill would require the borrower to affirm that as a direct result of a disaster, a residential unit is uninhabitable. Because the bill would expand the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would, except as specified, require a mortgage servicer to offer mortgage payment forbearance of a period of up to an initial 180 days, to be extended at the request of the borrower in 90-day increments, up to a maximum forbearance period of 12 months. The bill would provide that the forbearance period includes any period of forbearance related to the disaster that a mortgage servicer has provided to a borrower before the date upon which a declaration of a disaster was issued. The bill would also prohibit a mortgage servicer from assessing any late fees to the borrower's account or charging a default rate of interest during the forbearance period. This bill would require a mortgage servicer to report the credit obligations of borrowers under a disaster-related forbearance plan in compliance with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. For an account granted disaster-related mortgage payment relief, the bill would prohibit a mortgage servicer from furnishing information during the forbearance period indicating that the payments are in forbearance and would require the mortgage servicer to report the credit obligation or account as current. This bill would authorize a civil action to enforce these provisions to be brought by the Attorney General, a district attorney, or a county counsel. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, contains various provisions requiring a local government that receives an application for certain types of qualified housing developments to review the application under a streamlined, ministerial approval process, depending on the type of housing development, as specified. Existing law, the Subdivision Map Act, vests the authority to regulate and control the design and improvement of subdivisions in the legislative body of a local agency and sets forth procedures governing the local agency's processing, approval, conditional approval or disapproval, and filing of tentative, final, and parcel maps, and the modification thereof. The act generally requires a subdivider to file a tentative map or vesting tentative map with the local agency, as specified, and the local agency, in turn, to approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove the map within a specified time period. Existing law, known as the Starter Home Revitalization Act of 2021, among other things, requires a local agency to ministerially consider, without discretionary review or a hearing, a parcel map or a tentative and final map for a housing development project that meets certain requirements, including that the housing development project on the lot proposed to be subdivided will contain 10 or fewer residential units, except as provided. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA does not apply to the approval of ministerial projects. This bill, the Missing Middle Townhome Ownership Act, would authorize a development proponent to submit an application for a townhome development project that is subject to a prescribed ministerial approval process if the development complies with certain procedural requirements and satisfies specified objective planning standards. The bill would also require a local agency to ministerially consider, without discretionary review or a hearing, a tentative and final map for a townhome development project that meets specified requirements, including that the proposed subdivision complies with the requirements established by the bill for ministerial approval of a townhome development project, as described in the preceding sentence, and that the newly created parcels are no smaller than 600 square feet. The act would define "townhome" for these purposes to mean a single-family dwelling unit that is less than or equal to 3 stories of occupiable square footage and either shares a common wall, as specified, or is separated from one or more neighboring units by no more than a specified fire separation distance, and would define "townhome development project" to mean a housing development project that consists entirely of residential units that satisfy this definition of townhome and meets prescribed density requirements, size requirements, and unit limits. The bill would authorize a local agency to disapprove a townhome development project, or deny the issuance of a tentative map or a final map for a townhome development project, allowed under the bill's provisions if it makes written findings based upon a preponderance of the evidence that the proposed townhome development project would have a specific, adverse impact, as provided in specified law, upon public health and safety and for which there is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid the specific, adverse impact. The bill would authorize a local agency to adopt an ordinance to implement its provisions and would provide that the adoption of such an ordinance is not a project under CEQA. By establishing new ministerial approval processes relating to townhome development projects, as described above, this bill would expand the scope of the exemption from CEQA for ministerial projects. Further, by adding to the duties of local officials with respect to the review and approval of townhome development projects, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would exempt the City and County of San Francisco from its provisions. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City and County of San Francisco. 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, except as provided. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
(1) Existing law, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, governs the management and operation of common interest developments. Existing law places various limits and prohibitions on the governing documents, as defined, relative to an owner's separate interest within those developments. This bill would declare void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in a common interest development, or provision of a governing document that effectively prohibits or restricts the owner of a separate interest from completing a residential window replacement project or impose any requirements on California Energy Code-compliant windows, as specified. The bill's provisions would not apply to certain provisions that impose reasonable installation restrictions on a residential window replacement project that do not significantly increase the cost of a residential window replacement project or significantly decrease the energy efficiency of a residential window replacement project, except as specified. This bill would prohibit an association from subjecting a residential window replacement project to design review or any other form of approval if the association's governing documents do not place reasonable restrictions on a residential window replacement project. This bill, for specified residential window replacement projects that propose the replacement of windows, would require an association to impose certain conditions on the project, including a requirement that the owner obtain approval from the association. The bill would require an association to approve a project if the owner agrees to certain requirements in writing, including that the owner comply with the association's governing documents, engage a licensed contractor for the installation, obtain any required local or state permits required for the project, and pay for the costs associated with the installation. (2) The Planning and Zoning Law authorizes the legislative body of any county or city to adopt ordinances that regulate the use of buildings, structures, and land as between industry, business, residences, open space, and other purposes. This bill would require a city, county, or city and county to administratively approve an application for a residential window replacement project. The bill would prohibit a city, county, or city and county from requiring discretionary review or a hearing for a residential window replacement project. The bill would also prohibit a city, county, or city and county from denying an application for a residential window replacement project and a local government that is both a city and county from imposing any conditions on certain windows proposed in a housing development project, except as specified. The bill would limit the application of these provisions under certain circumstances, including if a residential building is individually designated on the California Register of Historical Resources prior to the date the application for a residential window replacement project is submitted. By adding to the duties of local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) The bill would make its provisions severable. (4) 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. (5) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City and County of San Francisco. (6) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the direction of the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation. Existing law makes the department responsible for administering various laws relating to financial institutions, including the Banking Law, the California Credit Union Law (CCUL) , and the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act (CRMLA) , a willful violation of which is punishable as a misdemeanor. The CRMLA requires, as often as the commissioner deems necessary and appropriate, but at least once every 48 months, the commissioner to examine the affairs of each residential mortgage lender and servicer licensee for compliance with the CRMLA. The CRMLA authorizes the commissioner to examine the licensee's officers, directors, employees, or agents under oath regarding the licensee's operations. The CRMLA requires the commissioner to provide a written statement, the disclosure of which is subject to certain restrictions, of the findings of the examination, issue a copy of that statement to each licensee's principals, officers, or directors, and take appropriate steps to ensure correction of any violations of the CRMLA. This bill, the California Fair Lending Examination Act, would require, under the Banking Law and the CCUL, the commissioner to, at least once every 4 years, examine, as prescribed, the books and records of certain entities subject to the commissioner's examination authority under those laws for compliance with any nondiscrimination law applicable to mortgage lending, as specified, and would require the commissioner to provide a written statement of the findings of that examination, issue a copy of that statement to the subject's principals, officers, or directors, and take appropriate steps to ensure correction of any violations of applicable nondiscrimination laws. The bill would prohibit disclosure of that statement to anyone other than the subject entity, law enforcement officials, or other state or federal regulatory agencies for further investigation and enforcement. This bill would, as part of the above-described examination required by the CRMLA, require the commissioner to additionally examine the licensee for compliance with any nondiscrimination law applicable to mortgage lending, as prescribed. This bill would make a violation of an applicable nondiscrimination law a violation of the Banking Law, the CCUL, or the CRMLA, as applicable, and would authorize, under the Banking Law and the CCUL, the commissioner to examine the applicable entity's officers, directors, employees, or agents under oath regarding the entity's operations. By expanding the scope of the crimes of perjury and of violating the CRMLA, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The Housing Authorities Law establishes a housing authority within each county and city and authorizes the authority to, among other things, prepare, carry out, acquire, lease, and operate housing projects and housing developments for persons of low income, as provided. This bill would, unless required by federal law, and except as specified, prohibit a housing authority or other covered housing provider, as defined, from establishing or implementing any rules, policies, or procedures that impose term limits or work requirements, as defined, as a condition of eligibility for any covered housing or that impact the amount of the rent subsidy or assistance provided to covered housing tenants. The bill would, however, permit a covered housing provider to establish or implement a voluntary employment or job training program if specified conditions apply. The bill would provide that its provisions do not limit or alter the operation of specified federal housing programs and requirements.
