Planning and zoning: housing element: regional housing needs allocation.

Assembly Member Papan, along with Assembly Members Pacheco, Haney, and Wicks, advances a plan to overhaul California’s housing element framework by imposing a standardized, regionally coordinated reporting regime and by shifting key planning timelines earlier in the process. The central change is to require the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a standardized reporting format for programs and actions related to affirmatively furthering fair housing, with the format due by the end of 2026, and to require local governments to use that format for the seventh and all later housing-element revisions. At the same time, the bill restructures when regional housing needs are determined and allocated, and tightens the sequencing of regional, subregional, and local actions to align with the state’s housing goals and climate planning.

Key mechanisms include extending the lead times for regional housing need determinations and allocations: the department would determine existing and projected regional housing needs at least three years before a scheduled revision (with specific exceptions for certain cycles), and the council of governments would adopt final regional housing need plans at least one year before the revision. For seven and subsequent revisions, the bill increases the advance planning window to at least 38 months for consultations and determinations, and it extends the period for forming subregional entities to allocate regional needs from 28 to 34 months, with the council of governments assigning shares to subregions no later than 31 months before the revision. The bill also requires a methodology for distributing the regional housing need to jurisdictions to be developed at least 2½ years before a revision, with jurisdictional surveys to gather data (including fair housing and impediments data) and a public-comment process prior to adoption.

The proposal includes procedural requirements to address noncompliance and to embed the department’s analytical expectations into local plans. If a draft housing element is deemed not in substantial compliance, the department must identify the specific deficiencies and provide the exact analysis or text it expects to be included to remedy those deficiencies, and updates to compliant housing elements must incorporate that text. The act preserves enforcement provisions, including the potential for court-ordered remedies, while noting that it creates a state-mandated local program for local jurisdictions and that no reimbursement is required. The package also coordinates with related statutes and bills to govern operative timing, making several sections contingent on enactment and sequencing with other measures.

Taken together, the changes place greater emphasis on standardized, auditable reporting, earlier and more collaborative regional planning, and formalized mechanisms to address noncompliance. They elevate the role of regional bodies in distributing housing needs, expand the lead times for rezonings and allocations, and require explicit documentation of how data and fair-housing considerations feed into the allocation methodologies. The reforms sit within a broader policy objective of aligning housing planning with regional transportation planning, climate considerations, and fair housing obligations, while preserving a framework for emergency shelters and related zoning standards as part of the housing element.