After months of local resistance to the rezoning deadlines set by the state’s 2021 Planning and Zoning Law (AB 1398), the California Legislature is set to bend to the demands of the hundreds of cities that have been unwilling to update their housing plans to meet the state’s housing needs. 

The most recent iteration of the Planning and Zoning Law was signed by Governor Newsom on September 28, 2021 and requires local jurisdictions to develop a detailed forecast of their housing needs and set out plans for how they will provide that housing, including plans to remove barriers to new construction such as exclusionary zoning.

Cities had until February 2022 to submit their housing elements for approval to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Those whose plans were approved now have until October to complete the rezoning process. Jurisdictions that fail to meet these deadlines will be ineligible to receive affordable housing grants from the state. Additionally, these cities will be required to submit revised housing elements in four years opposed to the usual eight-year timeline.

At the time of the February due date, some 190 cities had failed to submit their housing elements for approval, including a shocking 90 percent of Southern California municipalities who had missed the deadline. Instead, cities began complaining to the Legislature that the established timeline was unfair and began petitioning the state government to amend the timeline.

It looks as if the state government will cave to these demands and once more kick the housing can down the road. Legislation (AB 197/SB 197) has now been introduced, and is expected to pass, to give local governments until October 2022 to submit their housing elements for approval and until the fall of 2024 to complete their rezoning. This new timeline would not apply to all cities, however. Only the cities that had failed to meet the deadlines would be eligible for this added time.

While it was clear in February that Los Angeles was going to be unable to rezone for the over 250,000 housing units that are required of them by October of this year, the California Legislature has been too lenient with its local governments and has shown that housing is not truly its top priority. Without any consequences for refusing to comply with the state laws, there seems to be little reason for cities to prioritize adding housing units.

It should be noted that the California Legislature has made great progress to start to lessen the housing crisis within this legislative session. The Assembly has successfully passed three bills that are now awaiting approval from the Senate Committee on Appropriations. AB 2221 aims to accelerate the process of approving the development of Accessory Dwelling Units to add much needed density and variety of housing types. AB 2234 was introduced to require local governments to adhere to strict timelines when approving or denying building permits to increase government accountability. AB 2656 would prohibit erroneous claims of California Environmental Quality Act abuses from stopping housing developments. And, of course, last year, the state legalized duplexes statewide.

Still, as Cato’s Project on Poverty and Inequality in California has pointed out, housing reform is essential to any effort to reduce poverty in the Golden State. Simply put, California must build more housing. And that will require widespread zoning reform at both the state and local levels.

As Assembly member Richard Bloom (D‑Santa Monica), author of the Planning and Zoning Law, stated: “As the housing crisis grows in California, it is critical that every local government adopt a plan that meets the requirements of state law, that they do it on time, and that they carry out necessary rezones to make land available for the production of housing, particularly higher-density zoned land that can accommodate housing affordable to lower-income households.”

Without accountability measures in place, California citizens will not be able to access affordable housing. The California Legislature must take a stand against local governments that have resisted expanding their housing inventories.