SB 341: Housing development.

Existing law, 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. The law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to determine whether the housing element is in substantial compliance with specified provisions of that law. Existing law requires the department to designate jurisdictions as prohousing pursuant to emergency regulations adopted by the department, as prescribed. Existing law awards jurisdictions that are in substantial compliance with specified provisions and that are prohousing additional points or preference in the scoring of applications for specified state programs, including, among others, the Infill Incentive Grant Program of 2007. Existing law authorizes additional bonus points to be awarded to other state programs when already allowable under state law.

Existing law establishes the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, which requires the department, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to establish and administer a grant program to allocate those funds to eligible applicants, as defined, to fund capital improvement projects that are an integral part of, or necessary to facilitate the development of, a qualifying infill project, qualifying infill area, or catalytic qualifying infill area pursuant to specified requirements. Existing law requires the department, in its review and ranking of applications for the award of capital improvement project grants, to rank affected qualifying infill areas based on specified priorities.

This bill, with respect to the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, would specify that only the qualifying infill area portion of that program must be awarded additional points or preference. This bill would add the qualifying infill area and catalytic qualifying infill area portions of the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019 as one of the specified state programs for which additional points or preference is awarded. This bill would also make technical changes to the provisions of the programs.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65589.9 of the Government Code proposed by AB 529 to be operative only if this bill and AB 529 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 53559 of the Health and Safety Code proposed by AB 1764 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1764 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.