WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.276
Since 2017 the Legislature has acted as a second planning department.

2
00:00:04.276 --> 00:00:16.049
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.

3
00:00:16.049 --> 00:00:25.778
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?"

4
00:00:25.778 --> 00:00:43.460
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.

5
00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:55.424
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.

6
00:00:55.424 --> 00:00:57.758
Neighborhood character does not qualify.

7
00:00:57.758 --> 00:01:01.726
Rules adopted after the application was complete do not apply to it.

8
00:01:01.726 --> 00:01:10.539
The Housing Crisis Act's five-hearing limit, its preliminary application, and its ban on casually reducing citywide housing capacity are now permanent.

9
00:01:10.539 --> 00:01:12.931
The state density bonus law goes further.

10
00:01:12.931 --> 00:01:17.133
A project with as little as five percent affordable housing can qualify.

11
00:01:17.133 --> 00:01:27.054
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.

12
00:01:27.054 --> 00:01:33.473
A waiver is about physical possibility: the standard has to give way so the bonus units can actually be built.

13
00:01:33.473 --> 00:01:46.720
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.

14
00:01:46.720 --> 00:01:48.296
A concession is about cost.

15
00:01:48.296 --> 00:01:53.257
It is a break from a standard that makes the affordable units financially infeasible.

16
00:01:53.257 --> 00:02:04.636
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.

17
00:02:04.636 --> 00:02:10.122
Granting the waiver or the concession does not make the project inconsistent with local rules.

18
00:02:10.122 --> 00:02:12.161
Some projects will never be yours.

19
00:02:12.161 --> 00:02:26.318
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.

20
00:02:26.318 --> 00:02:32.016
Senate Bill 4 does the same for fully affordable housing on religious and certain college land.

21
00:02:32.016 --> 00:02:40.174
Assembly Bill 2011 sets state standards for housing on commercial corridors and near public campuses and makes the approval ministerial.

22
00:02:40.174 --> 00:02:47.792
Senate Bill 79, effective July 1, 2026, sets height and density near qualifying transit in a handful of urban transit counties.

23
00:02:47.792 --> 00:02:49.831
Los Angeles County is one of them.

24
00:02:49.831 --> 00:02:51.991
It does not apply to every bus stop.

25
00:02:51.991 --> 00:02:59.189
Ask staff whether any stop in or beside Torrance is a qualifying transit-oriented development stop, and what tier it is.

26
00:02:59.189 --> 00:03:01.408
Do not guess from a future rail line.

27
00:03:01.408 --> 00:03:08.366
If the housing element is not in compliance, the builder's remedy can let a qualifying project ignore local density.

28
00:03:08.366 --> 00:03:21.863
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.

29
00:03:21.863 --> 00:03:25.642
Torrance's element was certified, then conditioned on rezoning.

30
00:03:25.642 --> 00:03:36.499
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.

31
00:03:36.499 --> 00:03:45.196
The state housing department can also decertify an element for actions that contradict it, and it often starts with a letter of technical advice.

32
00:03:45.196 --> 00:03:52.934
Acting against a letter from that department or the Attorney General can mean a fine on the order of ten thousand dollars a unit.

33
00:03:52.934 --> 00:03:57.193
Confirm the statute in force before you treat the number as the motion.

34
00:03:57.193 --> 00:03:58.720
What is left is still real.

35
00:03:58.720 --> 00:04:04.714
You can review under the environmental law when the project is not exempt, and impose feasible mitigation.

36
00:04:04.714 --> 00:04:11.048
You can enforce objective health and safety standards: street design, fire evacuation, water and sewer capacity.

37
00:04:11.048 --> 00:04:15.176
You can apply conditions that do not deny the project or cut its density.

38
00:04:15.176 --> 00:04:29.370
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.

39
00:04:29.370 --> 00:04:37.739
This episode follows the academy session California Housing Law Updates, taught in March 2026 by Barbara Kautz, Patricia Curtin, and Amara Morrison.