Governor Gavin Newsom signed 27 housing bills into law on September 28, 2021. With the addition of the four housing bills he signed on September 16 (SB 8, 9, and 10 and AB 1174), that makes a total of 31 new housing laws set to take effect January 1, 2022 unless otherwise noted below. Here are the highlights:
Bills Signed on September 29
SB 290 – Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) – Expands California’s density bonus law, which allows developers to build projects with a greater number of units, provided the project includes affordable units, to include housing for college students. Specifically, SB 290 requires cities and counties to grant a density bonus to housing projects when at least 20% of the total units are set aside for lower-income students and requires cities and counties to grant at least one concession/incentive for this type of housing project.
AB 1029 – Assembly member Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco) – Seeks to preserve the state’s expiring supply of rental affordability agreements by offering additional points in the scoring of programming applications for housing and infrastructure programs to cities that negotiate extensions with property owners. The types of pro-housing local policies include policies that encourage the planning, approval and construction of housing including financial incentives, reduced parking requirements and the adoption of by-right zoning ordinances. It’s estimated that 30,000 units currently under so-called affordability covenants will expire over the next decade. This bill takes effect immediately.
