SB 1423: Regional planning: standardized spatial planning datasets.

Existing law establishes the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation in the Governors office for the purpose of serving the Governor and the Governors cabinet as staff for long-range planning and research and constituting the comprehensive state planning agency.

This bill would require the office, on or before July 1, 2027, to compile, standardize, maintain, and make publicly available through a centralized consolidated online platform a core set of statewide standardized spatial planning datasets, as defined. The bill would require the datasets to include specified categories of information, including hazardous risk data, natural resource sensitivity data, and agricultural value data, as provided. The bill would also require the office, on or before January 1, 2028, to develop and publish provide guidance for regional planning agencies, as defined, on methods and best practices for incorporating and documenting use of the datasets in regional planning processes. agencies to inform how to use and integrate the datasets in regional planning processes and products. The bill would require the office to update those datasets at least every 3 years, as provided.

This bill would require a regional planning agency that adopts or substantially amends a regional planning document on or after January 1, 2028, to incorporate and use the datasets published by the office when developing specified land use strategies and plans, except as provided. The bill would also require a regional planning agency to take other actions as part of the adoption or amendment of those regional planning documents, including mapping and disclosing how the datasets were used in the development of the planning document, and would require a regional planning agency to apply a planning prioritization approach, as specified. This bill would permit state, regional, and local governments to consider use of the standardized spatial planning datasets published by the office in the development and production of land use and infrastructure plans, as specified. The bill would require the office to provide technical assistance to a regional planning agency, assistance, upon request, to support compliance with these provisions. for use of the data from these provisions. The bill would specify that it does not create new regulatory requirements, regulate land use or zoning, establish land use designations, or preempt the local land use authority of cities and counties. By imposing new duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.