Pending State Housing Laws: State Housing Element Law Amendments and New Developer Protections

Various state housing bills are currently making their way through the California State Legislature that are expected to benefit mixed-income multifamily housing developers. The following summaries reflect the status of the pending legislation as of June 6, 2025. Future amendments are expected. Important upcoming dates in the legislative process include: 

• September 12, 2025 – final date for the Legislature to pass bills.
• October 12, 2025 – final date for the Governor to sign or veto passed bills.
• January 1, 2026 – default effective date for approved bills (unless otherwise specified).

SENATE BILL 786: STATE HOUSING ELEMENT LAW AMENDMENTS

SB 786 (Arreguin) would amend the State Housing Element Law to provide clarity for local governments, project applicants, and courts.

As currently proposed, SB 786 would:

• Specify that if there are conflicting “quantified development standards” in different elements of a local general plan, the provisions of the most recently adopted element shall supersede. “Quantified development standard” is defined to mean a site’s maximum density or requirements for a height limit, setback, maximum or minimum unit size, lot coverage, or floor area ratio.
• Provide that if a local agency has established a deadline to amend local ordinance, development standard, condition, or policy applicable to housing development projects and the local agency has failed to make that amendment by the specified deadline, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) shall undertake review of the local agency’s compliance with the State Housing Element Law.
• Extend the court-supervised compliance period from 60 days to 120 days for a local agency that must: (i) correct an action that was inconsistent with its Housing Element; or (ii) complete its rezoning. If HCD review is required as part of a court order and is not timely completed, the court may grant a reasonable extension for the local agency to comply with the court order to bring its Housing Element into compliance.
• Authorize the reviewing court to: (i) grant a continuance for an action challenging the validity of a general plan, including but not limited to the Housing Element, on its own motion; and (ii) limit the time period for the continuance to 60 days. The reviewing court shall grant initial or continued temporary relief in such action as necessary.
• Establish that an order or judgment issued in any action brought to challenge the validity of a general plan or any mandatory element, including the Housing Element, is immediately appealable regardless of whether a final judgement has been issued.
• Specify that remedies associated with a finding of invalidity of a local agency’s general plan or mandatory element, including the Housing Element, are not stayed during the pendency of an appeal unless the court decides, upon a showing that the local agency would suffer irreparable harm, that a stay is necessary.
• Specify that during the pendency of any action challenging the validity of a general plan or any mandatory element, including the Housing Element, a request for temporary relief shall be granted upon a showing of probable success on the merits. A request for temporary relief must be heard no later than 30 days after the filing of a request for such relief, unless the hearing is continued (maximum one 30-day continuation permitted). If the court does not hear the motion by the applicable deadline, the petitioner may file an ex parte application requesting temporary relief on the 61st day after the initial filing of the request.

SB 786 was passed by the Senate on May 29, 2025, and has been ordered to the Assembly.

ASSEMBLY BILL 610: GOVERNMENTAL CONSTRAINTS DISCLOSURES

AB 610 (Alvarez) would ensure transparency with respect to the governmental circumstances that impede new development and ensure that a local agency does not create additional obstacles prior to the next Housing Element cycle.

As currently proposed, AB 610 would require the Housing Element to include a governmental constraints disclosure statement and prohibit the adoption of any new or more stringent government constraint, unless the government constraint was included in the governmental constraints disclosure statement and the local agency has completed specified commitments to eliminate or mitigate previously identified constraints.

“Covered governmental constraints” are defined broadly to include fees, exactions, affordability requirements, development policies or standards that would have the effect of reducing the intensity of land use for residential development or would increase procedural burdens or narrow or otherwise restrict potential benefits under the State Density Bonus Law, and new or more stringent historic district designations affecting sites within a city’s Housing Element sites inventory.

AB 610 was passed by the Assembly on June 5, 2025, and has been ordered to the Senate.

ASSEMBLY BILL 712: NEW DEVELOPER PROTECTIONS

AB 712 (Wicks) would provide additional developer protections, namely attorneys’ fees, where a local agency violates any “housing reform law” intended to incentivize housing development, which is defined to include “any law or regulation, or provision of any law or regulation that establishes or facilitates rights, safeguards, streamlining benefits, time limitations, or other protections for the benefit of applicants for housing development projects, or restricts, proscribes, prohibits, or otherwise imposes any procedural or substantive limitation on a public agency for the benefit of a housing development project. . . . ”

As currently proposed, AB 712 would:

• Expand the remedies for a developer or nonprofit housing corporation that prevails in a lawsuit to enforce a housing reform law against a local agency to include reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of suit (under existing law, only reasonable costs may be awarded).
• Require a court to impose fines on the local agency under specified circumstances.
• Prohibit a local agency from requiring a developer to indemnify, depend, or hold harmless the agency in any action relating to a violation of the developer’s rights or a deprivation of certain benefits or protections under any housing reform law.

AB 712 was passed by the Assembly on May 12, 2025, and has been ordered to the Senate.