California Senate Bill 1534 (SB 1534, Government Code section 65852.2) is a 1982 California statute law which established statewide options for local governments to promote and regulate secondary suites, also known as "accessory dwelling units" (ADUs) in California. Under the law, local governments were allowed the following options:
The bill was drafted by Henry J. Mello, who described it as the "Granny housing bill", signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in January 1983, and came into effect on July 1, 1983. In 1981, Mello drafted another law, SB 1160, which allowed zoning variances in R1 areas for ADUs and was geared toward seniors.
The law, which was passed by the legislature due to the perception that local governments would not resolve the statewide housing shortage on their own, was the first regulation of ADUs in the state for all ages. Due to the low-impact approach taken by the legislature at the time, the law did not have much initial effect upon the housing supply, and has been repeatedly amended since to increase housing supply, especially under Governor Gavin Newsom. [1]
The ADU law was rarely used in California until after the passage of AB 2406, SB 1069 and AB 2299 in 2016. Statewide, the application rate increased from just under 10,000 ADU applications being filed in 2017 to nearly 30,000 being filed in 2021. [18] The total number of permits issued each year increased by 15,334% from 2016 to 2022, with over 83,865 ADUs permitted. In addition, ADUs constituted around 19% of new housing units produced statewide as of 2022. [19]
Of the cities, Los Angeles saw the most dramatic increase of ADU applications within the year following passage of the three bills in 2016, going from only 80 applications in 2016 to 1,980 applications by November 2017 (an increase of 2,375%) to 7,160 applications in 2022 (an increase of 8,850% since 2016). [20] As of 2022, the Greater Los Angeles area remained the most popular site for permitting ADUs, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego County. [21]
The majority of ADUs constructed in California are used for housing, compared to only 8% being used for short-term rentals, according to a survey conducted by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at University of California, Berkeley. [22]
A secondary suite is a self-contained apartment, cottage, or small residential unit that is located on a property that has a separate main, single-family home, duplex, or other residential unit. In some cases, the ADU or in-law is attached to the principal dwelling or is an entirely separate unit, located above a garage, across a carport, or in the backyard on the same property. Reasons for wanting to add a secondary suite to a property may be to receive additional income, provide social and personal support to a family member, or obtain greater security.
Scott Wiener is an American politician who has served in the California State Senate since 2016. A Democrat, he represents the 11th district, encompassing San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County. He is also the co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus.
The Ellis Act is a 1985 California state law that allows landlords to evict residential tenants to "go out of the rental business" in spite of desires by local governments to compel them to continue providing rental housing.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is a department within the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency that develops housing policy and building codes, regulates manufactured homes and mobile home parks, and administers housing finance, economic development and community development programs.
Katy Tang is a former American elected official in San Francisco, California. She served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing Supervisorial District 4.
The Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act ("Costa–Hawkins") is a California state law enacted in 1995, placing limits on municipal rent control ordinances. Costa–Hawkins preempts the field in two major ways. First, it prohibits cities from establishing rent control over certain kinds of residential units, such as single-family dwellings, condominiums, and newly constructed apartment units. Second, it prohibits "vacancy control", also called "strict" rent control. The legislation was sponsored by Democratic Senator Jim Costa and Republican assembly member Phil Hawkins.
Missing middle housing refers to a lack of medium-density housing in the North American context. The term describes an urban planning phenomenon in Canada, the United States, Australia and more recent developments in industrialized and newly industrializing countries due to zoning regulations favoring social and racial separation and car-dependent suburban sprawl.
Starting in the 1990s, the city of San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area have faced a serious housing shortage. The Bay Area's housing shortage is part of the broader California housing shortage.
The Housing Accountability Act (HAA) is a California state law designed to promote infill development by speeding housing approvals. The Act was passed in 1982 in recognition that "the lack of housing, including emergency shelter, is a critical statewide problem," and has also been referred to as "the anti-NIMBY law." It empowers the State of California to limit the ability of local government to restrict the development of new housing, and legalizes the Builder's remedy process to ameliorate violations of the law by local governments. The Act was strengthened by subsequent amendments in 2017 and 2024.
Since about 1970, California has been experiencing an extended and increasing housing shortage, such that by 2018, California ranked 49th among the states of the U.S. in terms of housing units per resident. This shortage has been estimated to be 3-4 million housing units as of 2017. As of 2018, experts said that California needs to double its current rate of housing production to keep up with expected population growth and prevent prices from further increasing, and needs to quadruple the current rate of housing production over the next seven years in order for prices and rents to decline.
California Senate Bill 50 was a proposed California bill that would have preempted local government control of land zoning near public transit stations and jobs centers. The bill would have also required, at minimum, four-plex residential zoning statewide. The bill was the successor to a similar bill introduced by state senator Scott Wiener in January 2018 as Senate Bill 827 ; both would have applied to areas within one-half-mile (0.8 km) of frequent transit corridors, including rail stations and bus routes. The bills were sponsored by California YIMBY, a pro-housing lobbying group while they were opposed by local governments, anti-gentrification activists, and suburban homeowners. The bills were written in response to an ongoing housing affordability crisis in California's largest urban areas.
California Senate Bill 35 is a statute streamlining housing construction in California counties and cities that fail to build enough housing to meet state mandated housing construction requirements, and exempts construction under the law from California Environmental Quality Act review. The bill was introduced to the California State Assembly by State Senator Scott Wiener (D-SF) on December 15, 2016. SB 35 aims to address the California housing shortage by increasing housing supply. The bill was signed into law on September 29, 2017 by Governor Jerry Brown as part of California’s 2017 Housing Package – a set of 15 bills that provide “an injection of new regulatory and financial resources” for cities.
Single-family zoning is a type of planning restriction applied to certain residential zones in the United States and Canada in order to restrict development to only allow single-family detached homes. It disallows townhomes, duplexes, and multifamily housing (apartments) from being built on any plot of land with this zoning designation.
The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) is the California state-mandated process within the housing element of its General Plan, to determine how much housing must be planned for each jurisdiction according to Housing Element Law to meet 'projected and existing' housing needs at a variety of affordability levels. Based on demographic data, the state calculates housing need in coordination with each region's planning body, known as a Council of Governments (COG). Once the state and the COG agree, the COG is responsible for the allocation among all jurisdictions within that region through a RNHA Plan. Housing elements are then reviewed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and must be adopted by the jurisdiction which is then responsible for ensuring there are enough sites and proper zoning to accommodate its RHNA allocation. The cycle repeats every eight years. Jurisdictions which fail to adequately accommodate projected growth as determined by HCD are subject to fines from $10,000 per month to $600,000 per month.
2021 California Senate Bill 9 , titled the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency (HOME) Act, is a 2021 California state law which creates a legal process by which owners of certain single-family homes in single-family zoned areas may build or split homes on their property, and prohibits all cities and counties from directly interfering with those who wish to build such homes.
California Assembly Bill 2097 is a 2022 California statute which prohibits California cities and other public agencies from mandating parking for most development projects within 0.5 miles (0.8 km) of a major transit stop. The law also establishes a "substantial hardship exception" which allows a public agency to impose a parking mandate within 0.5 miles of a major transit stop if the agency submits an application with evidence of a negative impact upon either the agency's ability to meet its RHNA obligations for low and very low income residents, disabled and elderly residents, or existing residential or commercial parking within 0.5 miles of a housing development project.
California Senate Bill 684 is a 2023 California statute which requires cities to ministerially allow property owners to subdivide multifamily lots to create subdivisions with up to 10 houses, townhouses or condos in multi-family-zoned areas. The law amended the 1974 Subdivision Map Act to streamline approvals for more housing on a single parcel of land. The law also amended the Planning and Zoning Law as well as the Starter Home Revitalization Act. The law requires that eligible housing projects must protect existing housing that:
The Affordable Housing on Faith and Higher Education Lands Act is a 2023 California statute which makes it legal for faith-based institutions and non-profit colleges to build affordable, multi-family homes on lands they own by streamlining the permitting process and overriding local zoning restrictions.
California Assembly Bill 72 is a 2017 California statute which amends the Planning and Zoning Law to grant the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) enforcement authority with respect to four statutes: the HAA, State Density Bonus Law, fair housing law and the "no net loss" requirements for replacing housing element sites that are not developed as projected. The law requires the department to notify both a local government and the Attorney General of the local government's specified violation of the aforementioned laws as well as need for enforcement, and for the attorney general to sue the offending government in state court.
The California Social Housing Act is a proposed California bill to establish an independent statewide housing authority, known as the California Housing Authority, to acquire land for, develop, own and maintain public housing. The bill is authored by Alex Lee and was first introduced to the 2021–