AB 906: Planning and zoning: housing elements: affirmatively furthering fair housing.

Official summary

Legislative Counsel’s Digest (official, as of the latest version). Written by nonpartisan legislative staff; reproduced verbatim.

(1)The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development that includes, among other things, a housing element. Existing law requires the housing element to include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable and available for residential development, including specified sites, an analysis of the relationship of zoning and public facilities and services to these sites (first analysis), and an analysis of the relationship of the sites identified in the land inventory to the jurisdiction’s duty to affirmatively further fair housing (2nd analysis).

This bill would remove the requirement on cities and counties to include the 2nd analysis in their housing elements.

(2)Existing law requires a housing element to include a program that sets forth a schedule of actions during the planning period, each with a timeline for implementation such that there will be beneficial impacts of the programs within the planning period, that the local government is undertaking or intends to undertake to implement the policies and achieve the goals and objectives of the housing element through specified actions. Existing law requires this program to, among other things, identify actions that will be taken to make sites available, as provided, to accommodate that portion of the city’s or county’s share of the regional housing need for all income levels that could not be accommodated on sites identified in the inventory of sites without rezoning, and to comply with the certain zoning and rezoning requirements. If the inventory of sites does not identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of all household income levels, as provided, existing law requires that the local government rezone those sites within specified time periods and requires the local government housing element program to identify sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period, as specified. Existing law also requires this program to affirmatively further fair housing and include an assessment that consists of specified components, including an analysis of available federal, state, and local data and knowledge to identify integration and segregation patterns and trends, racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty and affluence, disparities in access to opportunity, and disproportionate housing needs, including displacement risk. Under the above-described program, existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a standardized reporting format for certain programs and actions taken, and requires the standardized reporting format to enable the reporting of all of the assessment components and certain fields, including timelines for implementation.

This bill would additionally require the above-described program to identify actions that will be taken to make sites available to ensure that the distribution of sites across the jurisdiction affirmatively furthers fair housing. The bill would require those sites, after any required rezoning and among other things, to be distributed throughout the jurisdiction in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing, as specified. The bill would additionally require the local government to rezone the sites within specified time periods, as described above, and identify sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period, as described above, if the inventory of sites does not affirmatively further fair housing, as specified. For those additionally identified sites, the bill would require the jurisdiction to demonstrate that those sites will affirmatively further fair housing, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local entities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

This bill would revise and recast the requirement that the program affirmatively further fair housing. The bill would require that program to include an assessment of fair housing that includes, among other things, an analysis of available federal, state, and local data and knowledge to identify and examine certain patterns, trends, areas, disparities, and needs, as specified. The bill would also require each city or county to make the draft assessment publicly available and solicit public comments for a period of at least 90 days. The bill would require the city or county to include, among other things, in its first draft revision of the housing element, the assessment, including any revisions made in response to the public comments, and specified strategies and actions to implement the jurisdiction’s fair housing priorities and goals. By imposing additional duties on local entities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

This bill would instead require the department to develop a standardized format for describing those strategies and actions to be taken, and would require the standardized reporting format to address all of the assessment components and, in addition to the above-described certain fields, a field for which fair housing priority the program is intended to address, the intended impacts, and how the strategies and actions will result in those impacts.

Sponsors

Sponsors by party (alphabetical): Democratic 1

“Support” is shown only as formal sponsorship recorded by the legislature. Roll-call votes are available on the official bill page.

Recent official actions

1. August 13, 2026In committee: Held under submission.
2. August 10, 2026In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file.
3. July 14, 2025In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
4. July 2, 2025From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 2.) (July 1). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
5. June 23, 2025From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HOUSING.
6. June 18, 2025Referred to Com. on HOUSING.
7. June 4, 2025In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.
8. June 3, 2025Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 56. Noes 13. Page 1984.)
9. May 27, 2025Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
10. May 23, 2025From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 11. Noes 2.) (May 23).
11. May 21, 2025Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended. (Page 1627.)
12. May 21, 2025In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.