MCLE SELF-STUDY ARTICLE PUBLIC POLICIES AND LEGISLATION FOSTERING HOUSING IN CALIFORNIA

Written by John Hanna and David Van Atta^*

The California State Legislature has recently, particularly in the past five years, made many statutory attempts to resolve what has been characterized as a "housing crisis" in the State. In this article, we review several of those statutes we determined to be the most relevant to the creation and operation of common interest developments. Notably, as of this writing there are also several bills pending in the Legislature that are designed to further increase the amount of housing in the State.¹

The statutes we review are as follows: I. Housing Accountability Act; II. Planning and Zoning Laws; III. Senate Bill (SB) 35; IV. Government Code section 65913.5—Transit Rich or Urban Infill Sites; V. Accessory Dwelling Units; VI. SB 9—Certain Lot Splits; VII. Affordable Units in Multifamily Structures; VIII. Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022; IX. Mixed-Income Housing Developments Along Commercial Corridors; X. The Middle Class Housing Act of 2022 (SB 9); XI. Workforce Housing; XII. Limitations on Requiring Parking; and XIII. Environmental Review of Housing.

I. HOUSING ACCOUNTABILITY ACT