# Episode 7: Housing Law You Still Use

Identifies current housing constraints on local discretion and the need to verify changing statutes.

## Sources and attribution

- [Planning Commissioners Academy Session Materials](https://www.calcities.org/planning-commissioners-academy-session-materials) by League of California Cities; published by League of California Cities.
- [California Housing Law Resources](https://abag.ca.gov/technical-assistance/housing) by Association of Bay Area Governments; published by Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Association of Bay Area Governments.
- [California Legislative Information](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) by California Legislature; published by State of California.

This episode is an independent study production based on the sources listed above. Source attribution does not imply affiliation, approval, sponsorship, or endorsement by any author, publisher, or institution.

## License

Copyrighted public materials; original summary and attribution only; No broad open license identified; current public guidance must be verified; Official legal source; verify current law and effective dates

## Production notes

Preparation only. Not legal advice or an official City of Torrance training. The narration is an original synthesis. Verify current law, guidance, course requirements, and source terms before relying on it.

Stable episode ID: `7c3cf56a-c4ca-528f-9644-362be1b112d7`

## Transcript

Since 2017 the Legislature has acted as a second planning department. The through-line is in the Housing Accountability Act, first passed in 1982: local government should not be able to deny, shrink, or make infeasible a housing project that follows the rules. The 2026 academy's practical advice is to stop asking "do we like this building?" and start asking "which statute took this decision away, and what is left?"

If a housing project, including many mixed-use projects, is consistent with objective general plan, zoning, subdivision, and design standards, the city can deny it or cut its density only with written findings, by a preponderance of the evidence, of a specific adverse impact on public health or safety. That impact has to be quantifiable, direct, and based on a written standard that existed when the application was deemed complete, and there has to be no feasible mitigation except denial or a density cut. Neighborhood character does not qualify. Rules adopted after the application was complete do not apply to it. The Housing Crisis Act's five-hearing limit, its preliminary application, and its ban on casually reducing citywide housing capacity are now permanent.
The state density bonus law goes further. A project with as little as five percent affordable housing can qualify. Depending on the share and the income level, the applicant gets extra density, a set number of concessions, unlimited waivers of development standards, and lower parking. A waiver is about physical possibility: the standard has to give way so the bonus units can actually be built. The city bears the burden if it denies one, and the grounds are narrow: a specific adverse health or safety impact, harm to a property on the California Register of Historical Resources, or a conflict with state or federal law. A concession is about cost. It is a break from a standard that makes the affordable units financially infeasible. The city can deny it only if the break does not actually save identifiable money, or it hits the same health, safety, or historic problems with no feasible fix, or it breaks state or federal law. Granting the waiver or the concession does not make the project inconsistent with local rules.

Some projects will never be yours. Accessory dwelling units, urban lot splits and duplexes under Senate Bill 9, certain small subdivisions, and qualifying streamlined apartments under the law still called Senate Bill 35 are ministerial when they meet objective standards. Senate Bill 4 does the same for fully affordable housing on religious and certain college land. Assembly Bill 2011 sets state standards for housing on commercial corridors and near public campuses and makes the approval ministerial. Senate Bill 79, effective July 1, 2026, sets height and density near qualifying transit in a handful of urban transit counties. Los Angeles County is one of them. It does not apply to every bus stop. Ask staff whether any stop in or beside Torrance is a qualifying transit-oriented development stop, and what tier it is. Do not guess from a future rail line.
If the housing element is not in compliance, the builder's remedy can let a qualifying project ignore local density. Amendments effective in 2025 raised the densities those projects can claim, especially in high-opportunity areas, cut the affordability they must include, and told cities to approve the project as proposed within those rules. Torrance's element was certified, then conditioned on rezoning. The Housing Corridor Overlay was the city's main answer, and a late 2025 court ruling against a similar overlay in Redondo Beach is the question to keep on the city attorney's list. The state housing department can also decertify an element for actions that contradict it, and it often starts with a letter of technical advice. Acting against a letter from that department or the Attorney General can mean a fine on the order of ten thousand dollars a unit. Confirm the statute in force before you treat the number as the motion.

What is left is still real. You can review under the environmental law when the project is not exempt, and impose feasible mitigation. You can enforce objective health and safety standards: street design, fire evacuation, water and sewer capacity. You can apply conditions that do not deny the project or cut its density. And you can do the legislative work that matters more than any single hearing: adopt those objective standards, designate historic resources while the record is honest, and keep the housing element's program moving so the builder's remedy never opens.
This episode follows the academy session California Housing Law Updates, taught in March 2026 by Barbara Kautz, Patricia Curtin, and Amara Morrison.