The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for its physical development, and the development of certain lands outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law requires that the housing element include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable and available for residential development that identifies sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period and that are sufficient to provide for the jurisdiction’s share of the regional housing need for all income levels, as specified.

This bill would require the department to develop and implement a bonus point system for competitive grant and loan programs that are administered by the department and that facilitate the development of housing. The bill would require the department to award bonus points to proponents of housing development projects that meet specified requirements including that the project has received all necessary local agency approvals to begin construction, and the local agency determines that the project will meet or exceed the local agency’s requirement to satisfy the local agency’s share of regional housing need for at least one household income level, as specified. The bill would require the department to award bonus points to an applicant that is the proponent of a housing development project that is located on a site identified in the local agency’s inventory of land suitable and available for residential development, and the project meets or exceeds the local agency’s share of regional housing need at a designated household income level, as specified. The bill would require the bonus point system to also award bonus points to applicants for competitive grants or loans awarded for the purposes of constructing infrastructure necessary for the development of housing that satisfies the local agency’s share of regional housing need.