The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for its jurisdiction that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. That law requires that the housing element include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable for residential development, to be used to identify sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period and that are sufficient to provide for the jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need determined pursuant to specified law. This bill, commencing January 1, 2022, would require that at least 25% of a metropolitan jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need for moderate-income housing be allocated to sites with zoning that allows at least 4 units of housing, but no more than 100 units per acre of housing. The bill would require that at least 25% of a metropolitan jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need for above moderate-income housing be allocated to sites with zoning that allows at least 4 units of housing. The bill would exclude unincorporated areas from this prohibition and would include related legislative findings. By imposing additional requirements on the manner in which a city or county may satisfy its regional housing need, 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.
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Existing law authorizes a tenant to terminate a tenancy and to be released from any rent payment obligation under the lease or rental obligation without penalty if the tenant provides to the landlord a notice to terminate the tenancy because the tenant or a household member, as defined, was a victim of an act of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, or abuse of an elder or a dependent adult. Existing law requires the notice to terminate the tenancy to be in writing and that the tenant attach to the notice one of the following: (a) a copy of a temporary restraining order or protective order, (b) a report by a peace officer stating that the tenant or household member has filed a report, or (c) documentation from a qualified third party, as defined, indicating that the tenant or household member is seeking assistance for physical or mental injuries or abuse. This bill, among other things, would expand these provisions to authorize a tenant to terminate their tenancy without penalty because an immediate family member, as defined, was the victim of a crime, and would expand the list of eligible crimes to include, among others, a crime that caused bodily injury or death. The bill would additionally authorize a tenant to attach to the notice any form of documentation that reasonably verifies that the qualifying crime or act occurred. This bill would also require a tenant terminating a tenancy when the immediate family member that is the victim of a qualifying crime or act did not live in the same household as the tenant and the crime or act did not occur within 1,000 feet of the tenant's dwelling unit, to provide a written statement to the landlord, as specified. The bill would prohibit a landlord from keeping the tenant's security deposit or advance rent if the tenant exercises these rights, and would specify that a tenant who terminates a rental agreement pursuant to these provisions shall not be considered to have breached the lease or rental agreement. The bill would prohibit an owner or an owner's agent from refusing to rent a dwelling unit to an otherwise qualified tenant solely on the basis that the tenant has previously exercised the tenant's rights under these provisions.
Existing law establishes the Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program, under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to provide supplemental funding to county offices of education, or a consortium of county offices of education, to coordinate and ensure that local educational agencies within its jurisdiction are providing services to foster youth pupils pursuant to a foster youth services coordinating plan with the purpose of ensuring positive educational outcomes. As part of the program, existing law authorizes a county office of education, or a consortium of county offices of education, to apply to the Superintendent for grant funding to operate an education-based foster youth services coordinating program. As a condition of receiving funds, existing law requires a program to develop and implement a foster youth services plan that includes, among other things, a description of how the local program will facilitate coordination with local postsecondary educational institutions to ensure foster youth pupils meet admission requirements and access programs that support their matriculation needs. This bill would require the plan to also describe how the program will coordinate efforts to ensure, to the extent possible, the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or the California Dream Act Application for foster youth pupils who are in grade 12. Existing law requires the Superintendent, by July 1 of each even-numbered year, to report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature and the Governor on the Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program. Existing law requires the report to include aggregate educational outcome data for each county in which there were at least 15 pupils in foster care who attended school in the county with information on, among other things, the number of participating foster youth pupils who successfully transition to postsecondary education. This bill would require the report to also include the number and percentage of pupils in foster care who successfully complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application while in grade 12.
(1) 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 includes exemptions from its environmental review requirements for numerous categories of projects, including, among others, projects for the institution or increase of passenger or commuter services on rail or highway rights-of-way already in use and projects for the institution or increase of passenger or commuter service on high-occupancy vehicle lanes already in use, as specified. This bill would further exempt from the requirements of CEQA certain projects, including projects for the institution or increase of new bus rapid transit, bus, or light rail services on public rail or highway rights-of-way, as specified, whether or not the right-of-way is in use for public mass transit, as specified, and projects for the designation and conversion of general purpose lanes, high-occupancy toll lanes, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, or highway shoulders, as specified. The bill would additionally exempt transit prioritization projects, projects that improve customer information and wayfinding for transit riders, bicyclists, or pedestrians, projects by a public transit agency to construct or maintain infrastructure to charge or refuel zero-emission transit buses, projects carried out by a city or county to reduce minimum parking requirements, and projects for pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The bill would, except as provided, require those exempt projects to meet additional specified criteria, including that a public agency is carrying out the project and is the lead agency for the project. The bill would, except as provided, require the lead agency to certify that those projects will be carried out by a skilled and trained workforce, except as provided. For those exempted projects exceeding $100,000,000 in 2020 United States dollars, the bill, except as provided, would require the lead agency to complete and consider the results of a project business case and a racial equity analysis, as prescribed, would require the lead agency, before exempting a project from CEQA, to hold at least 3 noticed public meetings in the project area to hear and respond to public comments, would require the lead agency, in at least one of those public meetings, to review the project business case and the racial equity analysis, and would require the lead agency to conduct at least 2 noticed public meetings annually during project construction for the public to provide comments. If the lead agency determines to carry out a project exempt under the above provisions, the bill would require the lead agency to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk of the county in which the project is located. The bill would repeal the above-described exemptions on January 1, 2023. (2) CEQA, until January 1, 2021, exempts from its requirements bicycle transportation plans for an urbanized area for restriping of streets and highways, bicycle parking and storage, signal timing to improve street and highway intersection operations, and related signage for bicycles, pedestrians, and vehicles under certain conditions, including the requirement that the lead agency, before determining that a project is exempt, prepare an assessment of any traffic and safety impacts of the project and include measures in the bicycle transportation plan to mitigate potential vehicular traffic impacts and bicycle and pedestrian safety impacts. This bill would extend the above exemption until January 1, 2030. The bill also would, among other things, remove the above requirement related to traffic and safety impacts and measures.
(1) The Trial Jury Selection and Management Act requires all persons be selected for jury service at random and from sources inclusive of a representative cross section of the population of the area served by the court. The act specifies that the list of registered voters and list of licensed drivers and identification cardholders who are resident within the area served by the court are appropriate source lists for the selection of jurors, and further specifies that these 2 source lists, when substantially purged of duplicate names, are considered inclusive of a representative cross section of the population. This bill would deem the list of resident state tax filers as an appropriate source list for selection of jurors, and beginning on January 1, 2022, would deem the list of resident state tax filers, when substantially purged of duplicate names, to be considered inclusive of a representative cross section of the population, along with the two source lists described above. This bill would require the Franchise Tax Board to annually furnish the jury commissioner of each county with a list of resident state tax filers for their county in consultation with the Judicial Council. The bill would also require the Franchise Tax Board to revise the California resident income tax return to include a space for the taxpayer's address of their principal residence and their county of principal residence. (2) Existing law generally makes it a misdemeanor for specified persons, including, among others, officers or employees of the state or its political subdivisions, to disclose information set forth or disclosed in returns, reports, or documents required to be filed under the franchise and income tax laws. This bill would expressly state that this misdemeanor is applicable to jury commissioners who disclose that information.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, and requires the department to administer various housing programs throughout the state, including programs that address the needs of homeless individuals and families, and to review local ordinances for the design, development, and operation of homeless shelters in cities and counties that have declared a shelter crisis. Existing law also requires a state agency or department that funds, implements, or administers a state program that provides housing or housing-related services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness to revise or adopt guidelines and regulations to incorporate the core components of Housing First, an evidence-based model that uses housing as a tool, rather than a reward, for recovery. This bill would declare that it is the policy of the state that every individual has the right to safe, decent, and affordable housing, and would require the policy to consider homelessness prevention, emergency accommodations, and permanent housing, as specified. The bill would, among other things, require all relevant state agencies and departments, including, but not limited to, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the State Department of Social Services, and the Office of Emergency Services to consider that state policy when revising, adopting, or establishing policies, regulations, and grant criteria when those policies, regulations, and criteria are pertinent to advancing the guidelines listed as core components of Housing First. The bill would make these provisions operative on January 1, 2026, and would make implementation of these provisions subject to an appropriation of funds in the annual Budget Act for these purposes.
Federal Executive Order 13888 generally prohibits a refugee from being resettled in a state or locality if the state or locality has not consented, in writing, to the resettlement of refugees. The Executive Order requires the United States Secretary of State and the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement a process to determine if a state or locality consents. The bill would prohibit a refugee from being denied resettlement in California based on any criterion, method of administration, or practice that has the purpose or effect of discriminating on the basis of specified protected characteristics.
Existing law establishes the state prisons under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Existing law authorizes a person sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison or a county jail for a felony to be, during the period of confinement, deprived of those rights, and only those rights, as is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. This bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to, during initial intake and classification, and in a private setting, ask each individual entering into the custody of the department to specify the individual's gender identity whether the individual identifies as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex, and their gender pronoun and honorific. The bill would prohibit the department from disciplining a person for refusing to answer or not disclosing complete information in response to these questions. The bill would authorize a person under the jurisdiction of the department to update this information. The bill would prohibit staff, contractors, and volunteers of the department from failing to consistently use the gender pronoun and honorific an individual has specified in verbal and written communications with or regarding that individual that involve the use of a pronoun or honorific. The bill would require the department, for a person who is transgender, nonbinary, or intersex to only conduct a search of that person according to the search policy for their gender identity or according to the gender designation of the facility where they are housed, based on the individual's search preference. The bill would additionally require the department to house the person in a correctional facility designated for men or women based on the individual's preference, except as specified.
Existing law establishes an Office of Health Equity in the State Department of Public Health for purposes of aligning state resources, decisionmaking, and programs to accomplish certain goals related to health equity and protecting vulnerable communities. Existing law requires the office to develop department-wide plans to close the gaps in health status and access to care among the state's diverse racial and ethnic communities, women, persons with disabilities, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning communities, as specified. This bill would establish the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund, under the administration of the office, for the purpose of funding grants, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to organizations serving people that identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, or intersex (TGI) , to create or fund TGI-specific housing programs and partnerships with hospitals, health care clinics, and other medical providers to provide TGI-focused health care, as defined, and related education programs for health care providers.
(1) Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to establish a list of reportable communicable and noncommunicable diseases and conditions and to specify the requirements for a health officer, as defined, to report each listed disease and condition. Existing law requires a health officer to report the listed diseases and conditions and to take other specified measures to prevent the spread of disease. A violation of these requirements imposed on a health officer is a crime. This bill would require any electronic tool used by a health officer, as defined, for the purpose of reporting cases of communicable diseases to the department, as specified, to include the capacity to collect and report data relating to sexual orientation and gender identity, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require a health care provider, as defined, that knows of or is in attendance on a case or suspected case of specified communicable diseases to report to the health officer for the jurisdiction in which the patient resides the patient's sexual orientation and gender identity, if known. Because a violation of these requirements by a health care provider or a health officer would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated-local program. (2) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.