Sets fines for cities that break housing laws

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 Planning and Zoning Law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to determine whether the housing element is in substantial compliance with specified provisions of that law. The Planning and Zoning Law requires HCD to notify a city, county, or city and county, and authorizes HCD to notify the office of the Attorney General, that the city, county, or city and county is in violation of state law if the local government has taken action in violation of specified provisions of law. The Planning and Zoning Law also requires, among other things, that an application for a housing development be subject to a specified streamlined, ministerial approval process if the development satisfies certain objective planning standards. The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to bring its general plan into substantial compliance with provisions regulating general plans and specifies timelines under which the city or county is required to bring its zoning ordinance into consistency if the court finds in favor of a plaintiff in an action challenging the validity of a general plan, or any mandatory element thereof, as specified.

This bill, in any action brought by the Attorney General or HCD to enforce the adoption of housing element revisions, as specified, or to enforce any state law that requires a city, county, or local agency to ministerially approve any planning or permitting application related to a housing development project, as specified, would subject the city, county, or local agency to specified remedies, including a civil penalty of, at minimum, $10,000 per month, and not exceeding $50,000 per month, for each violation, as specified. The bill would require that the penalties set forth in its provisions only apply when the local agency’s acts or omissions, as described, are arbitrary, capricious, or entirely lacking in evidentiary support, contrary to established public policy, unlawful, or procedurally unfair. The bill would require a court to modify certain of its prior orders, including an order directing a city or county to substantially comply with provisions regulating general plans and to bring its zoning ordinance into consistency, to impose, among other things, the maximum penalty specified in these provisions, as provided. The bill would require these civil penalties, as specified, to be deposited into the Building Homes and Jobs Trust Fund for the sole purpose of supporting the development of affordable housing located in the affected jurisdiction, except as provided, and would require that expenditure of any penalty moneys deposited into the fund under these provisions be subject to appropriation by the Legislature. In the event a city, county, or local agency fails to pay civil penalties imposed by the court, the bill would authorize the court to require the Controller to intercept any available state and local funds and direct those funds to the Building Homes and Jobs Trust Fund to correct the jurisdiction’s failure to pay, as specified.

The bill would make a related statement of legislative findings and declarations.

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.