Streamlined housing approvals.

Senator Umberg's proposal to streamline approvals for smaller single-family homes would create a new ministerial review process for housing developments where units do not exceed 1,600 square feet. The measure extends California's existing streamlined approval framework, which currently applies only to qualifying multifamily projects, to include certain single-family developments that meet objective planning and design standards.

The bill establishes a ministerial approval pathway that exempts eligible single-family housing projects from discretionary review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Local agencies would process these applications through an administrative review focused solely on compliance with objective development criteria. While the measure adds responsibilities for local jurisdictions to implement the streamlined process, it allows them to offset associated costs through existing fee authority rather than requiring state reimbursement.

This expansion of ministerial review builds upon California's current two-track system for housing approvals - a discretionary path requiring environmental review and public hearings, and a ministerial path limited to projects meeting specific objective standards. The bill maintains the requirement that developments adhere to local planning and design requirements while creating an additional avenue for expedited processing of smaller single-family homes.