Streamlined Housing Development:
A Legislative Guide for 2024
Napa Sonoma Collaborative Staff
January 2024
The California State Legislature has passed a series of bills in recent years to streamline the development of a variety of housing types. Streamlining refers to an application process that is completed on a staff level (sometimes referred to as by-right or ministerial review), as opposed to discretionary review that would require public hearing(s) with an elected and/or appointed body. The laws described below establish alternative or supplemental application processes for developers applying to build housing with shorter pre-development timeframes.
Affordable & Mixed-Income Housing - SB 35 & SB 423
Passed in 2017, SB 35 created a voluntary streamlined ministerial approval process for qualifying infill multifamily development projects located in cities, towns or counties that failed to make sufficient progress towards their Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) goals. Under SB 35, the ministerial approval process is limited to no more than 6 months and is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Jurisdictions can be exempt from SB 35 if they permit enough housing to meet their RHNA and maintain a compliant Housing Element. American Canyon, Calistoga, Healdsburg, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, the City of Sonoma, and unincorporated Sonoma County are not subject to SB 35 as of 2023. All other jurisdictions in Napa and Sonoma Counties may receive SB 35 applications for projects with at least 10% affordable units (Cloverdale, Windsor) or 50% affordable units (Cotati, City of Napa, County of Napa, Petaluma, Saint Helena, Santa Rosa, and Yountville).
Within the first five years of implementation, SB 35 was used in development applications for 18,000 homes statewide. SB 35 was amended by SB 423 in 2023 to extend the law’s sunset date and revise implementation provisions established by the original bill.
Education Workforce Housing - AB 2295
AB 2295 goes into effect on January 1, 2024, allowing school districts to develop housing by-right on district-owned land.
UCLA cityLAB: Education Workforce Housing Research Report
UCLA cityLAB Report: “Education Workforce Housing in California: Developing the 21st Century Campus”
UCLA cityLAB Handbook: “Education Workforce Housing in California: The Handbook”
SPUR Webinar: “Housing our Education Workforce: How AB 2295 Will Facilitate Development of School Employee Housing on District Property”
Legal Brief from BBK: “AB 2295: Housing Developments Now Allowable Use on LEA-Owned Properties”
Missing Middle Housing - SB 9, SB 10, & SB 684
Missing middle housing refers to a range of house-scale buildings with multiple units, comparable to detached single-family homes in scale and form. The California State Legislature has passed several bills to both mandate and allow missing middle housing throughout the state.
SB 9 - Duplexes & Lot Splits
SB 9 requires ministerial approval of a housing development with no more than two primary units in a single-family zone, the subdivision of a parcel in a single-family zone into two parcels, or both.
SB 10 - Opt-In Rules for Missing Middle Housing
SB 10 makes it easier for cities to zone for smaller housing developments of up to 10 units. The ordinance is locally customizable (meaning that areas subject to the policy can be selected by the city, town or county), and the implementing ordinance is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
SB 684 - Ministerial Approval of Up to 10 Units on Small Sites
As of July 1, 2024, SB 684 streamlines the approval process for small homeownership developments by granting ministerial approval for projects of up to 10 homes on qualifying lots in multifamily neighborhoods. This bill also streamlines the Subdivision Map Act – a law that, in part, determines how many housing units can be placed on a parcel of land. The intent of this provision is to allow small developments to proceed faster and with fewer constraints to development.
SB 684 projects are allowed on sites under 5 acres, and individual parcels created must be at least 600 square feet each. Jurisdictions are limited from enforcing certain setback, parking, floor area and other limitations as specified in the statute, or density limitations that would preclude a development from being built at “default densities” for affordable housing — generally 20 units/acre throughout Napa and Sonoma, and 30 units/acre in Santa Rosa. The development must also produce units at or under 1,750 square feet per unit, on average. In Napa and Sonoma Counties, the provisions of SB 684 are limited to land within incorporated cities and towns.
SB 684 is unique among housing streamlining policies in that it provides a ministerial, CEQA-exempt approval process for housing without requiring developers to commit to specified labor standards or affordable housing requirements.
ABAG/MTC will develop additional resources for jurisdictions prior to SB 684 taking effect on July 1, 2024.
Housing on Faith-Based Lands & Higher Education Facilities - SB 4
SB 4 creates a by-right, CEQA-exempt, time-limited (90-180 day) approval process closely modeled on SB 35 and AB 2011 for affordable housing projects on land owned by religious organizations and higher education institutions. Such a project can be entitled to approval even if the project is inconsistent with applicable local general plan and zoning requirements. Instead, a project is entitled to a height of one story above applicable local requirements and to specified minimum residential densities on qualifying infill sites.
Projects may including qualifying ground-floor commercial, childcare center and community center uses. SB 4 projects are mostly intended to provide affordable housing to low-income households, but 20% of the units may be designated for moderate-income households, and 5% may serve staff of the religious or educational institution. Projects of more than 10 units are required to pay construction workers a prevailing wage, and projects of 50 or more units are required to support apprenticeship training and healthcare expenditures for the construction workforce.
Permanent Supportive Housing - AB 2162
AB 2162 applies statewide and requires that supportive housing be a use that is permitted by right in zones where multifamily and mixed-use development is permitted, including nonresidential zones permitting multifamily uses.
The ministerial approval process established by AB 2162 applies exclusively to 100% affordable projects that include at least 25% of the units as supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness and/or people with disabilities.
A local government is required to notify the developer whether the application is complete within 30 days of receipt of an application to develop supportive housing. After the application is complete, a local staff must complete their review of the application within 60 days of application submittal for smaller projects (50 or fewer units) and 120 days for larger projects (more than 50 units). Parking minimums are not allowed to be imposed for developments within 1/2 mile of a major transit stop.
Housing in Commercial Zones - AB 2011 & SB 6
AB 2011 and SB 6 are intended to permit residential development on sites currently zoned and designated for commercial or retail uses including office and parking.
AB 2011 creates a CEQA-exempt, ministerial approval process for multifamily housing developments on sites within a zone where office, retail or parking are the principally permitted use. The law provides for slightly different qualifying criteria depending upon whether the project is 100% affordable or a mixed-income project along a commercial corridor, as defined. AB 2011 projects must pay prevailing wages to construction workers, among other labor standards.
SB 6 does not have a standalone provision for streamlined review. However, SB 6 can be used in conjunction with other tools such as SB 35 and SB 330 to streamline application procedures and utilize flexible rules for greater commercial square footage in mixed-use developments (maximum of 50% commercial use under SB 6, compared with 33% under SB 35). SB 6 projects are not automatically exempt from CEQA, do not require a minimum amount of affordable units, and require the use of a skilled-and-trained construction workforce in addition to payment of a prevailing wage.
The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG/MTC) prepared a suite of resources for AB 2011 & SB 6 in June 2023, available here:
DISCLAIMER: This page is intended to provide you with general information regarding housing laws in California. The contents of this page are not intended to provide specific legal advice. If you have any questions about the contents of this document or if you need legal advice as to an issue, please contact your attorney. Because the law in this area is changing rapidly, and insights are not automatically updated, continued accuracy cannot be guaranteed.