All Roll Calls
Yes: 138 • No: 43
CaliforniaSB 8382025-2026 Regular SessionSenateWALLET
City or county general plan: groundwater sustainability plan: groundwater management plan.
Sponsored By: Maria Elena Durazo (Democratic)
Signed by Governor
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
13 provisions identified: 9 benefits, 0 costs, 4 mixed.
Fewer local hurdles for builder's remedy
Cities and counties cannot add extra rules or fees just because a project uses the builder's remedy. Agencies may apply only clear, measurable standards that would apply on a site already zoned for the same homes. They cannot stack standards that make the project financially or physically impossible. The agency must prove any applied standards do not make the project infeasible.
Harder to block affordable housing
Local agencies cannot deny or add conditions that make affordable housing or emergency shelters impossible. To reject, they must issue written findings backed by evidence. If a housing plan lists a site for very low-, low-, or moderate-income homes and the project matches the listed density, zoning conflicts cannot be used to block it. If a city failed to zone for shelters as required, it cannot rely on that failure to reject qualifying shelters.
Courts can approve projects and fine cities
Applicants, people who could live in the homes, and qualifying housing groups can sue. Courts must order compliance within 60 days and may vacate the city’s decision and approve the project. If a city disobeys, the court fines at least $10,000 per housing unit; bad faith multiplies fines by five, and repeat violations add more. Fines must go to a local housing trust fund and be spent within five years on new homes for extremely low‑, very low‑, or low‑income households; unspent money goes to the state fund. Housing groups that commented can recover attorney fees, and courts weigh public‑benefit factors in fee motions until January 1, 2031.
Only objective reasons to deny housing
Cities must use clear, written, measurable rules to review housing. They can charge only lawful, essential fees and must allow the density the plan permits. Denials are limited to narrow cases: serious, proven health or safety harms with no feasible fix; when a specific state or federal law leaves no other option; on protected farm/resource lands or where water or wastewater service is not adequate; or when a compliant city shows the project conflicts with both zoning and the general plan. Affordable projects can be denied for “met need” only if the city has a compliant housing plan and has met its housing targets for that exact income level. These rules apply to charter cities too.
Some cities keep stricter affordability rules
If a city had stronger affordability rules on January 1, 2024, it can keep the same percent or deeper income level for mixed-income projects. The city cannot add other parts of its old rules beyond that percent or level. This keeps more homes affordable for lower-income renters in those places.
Builder’s remedy: more incentives and relief
Builder’s remedy projects get two extra incentives or concessions on top of density‑bonus law. Cities must count all affordable and moderate units when granting bonuses and use the density figures set by the statute. Cities cannot force plan or zoning changes just because a project uses builder’s remedy; compliant projects are treated as consistent. Sites listed in a housing element for lower‑income homes get added protections even if current zoning or the plan does not match.
Pre-2025 projects get rule choices
If your application was deemed complete before January 1, 2025, you can choose the rules that applied when you filed. If your project qualifies as a builder’s remedy, you may instead opt into the rules as of January 1, 2025. You can also revise to become a builder’s remedy project without refiling a preliminary application, even if units or square feet change by 20% or more.
Rules lock in after you file
Once you file a qualifying preliminary application, your project follows the local rules in place that day. Exceptions are narrow: fee bumps tied to a published index, proven health or safety fixes, CEQA mitigation, no start within 2.5 years (3.5 years for affordable), or changes of 20% or more in units or square feet. Your application is deemed complete when you file the required preliminary application, or a complete application if you did not file a preliminary one. The city must prove an application is not complete.
Stops slow denials and sets timelines
Actions that effectively block a project count as a denial. If you send notice, the city must post it in five working days, pause decisions for 60 days, and within 90 days stop or explain and tell you how to fix it. If the city calls an application incomplete for items not on its checklist or adds new asks later, it must prove that call; after two resubmittals it must show the call is not an effective denial. You must file enforcement cases within 90 days; the agency must prepare the record in 30 days; appellate petitions are due in 20 days; and cities that appeal must post a bond when the applicant is the plaintiff.
State housing rules cover charter cities
The Housing Accountability Act now applies to charter cities. These cities face the same limits on denying housing and the same duty to issue written, evidence-based findings. This expands statewide enforcement of housing approvals.
Affordable‑unit cap and parity rules
Cities cannot make mixed‑income projects set aside more than 20% of homes as affordable. For that 20%, cities cannot demand income levels deeper than the state “lower income” level. A city must put findings in writing that its requirement will not make the project infeasible; stricter local rules from January 1, 2024 only apply within these caps. Affordable units must match market units by bedrooms and baths, and qualifying units count toward both state and local requirements. These parity and counting rules also apply in builder’s remedy projects.
Some changes depend on AB 1308
Section 1.5 takes effect only if both this law and AB 1308 are in effect by January 1, 2026, both change the same code section, and this law was enacted after AB 1308. If that happens, Section 1 does not take effect.
Some environmental review rules end 2031
Certain environmental review timing rules in this section become inoperative on January 1, 2031. Those listed clauses are temporary and lapse on that date.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Maria Elena Durazo
Democratic • Senate
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 9/12/2025
Item 100 — Senate SFLOOR
Yes: 26 • No: 9
House vote • 9/11/2025
Item 69 — Assembly AFLOOR
Yes: 58 • No: 17
legislature vote • 7/16/2025
Vote in CX15
Yes: 9 • No: 1
legislature vote • 7/16/2025
Vote in CX10
Yes: 8 • No: 2
Senate vote • 6/2/2025
Item 54 — Senate SFLOOR
Yes: 23 • No: 11
legislature vote • 5/7/2025
Vote in CS82
Yes: 5 • No: 1
legislature vote • 4/22/2025
Vote in CS75
Yes: 9 • No: 2
Actions Timeline
Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 789, Statutes of 2025.
10/13/2025SenateApproved by the Governor.
10/13/2025legislatureEnrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
9/23/2025legislatureAssembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 26. Noes 9. Page 2988.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
9/12/2025SenateIn Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
9/12/2025SenateRead third time. Passed. (Ayes 58. Noes 17. Page 3273.) Ordered to the Senate.
9/11/2025HouseOrdered to third reading.
9/5/2025HouseRead third time and amended.
9/5/2025HouseAssembly Rule 69(b)(1) suspended.
9/5/2025HouseOrdered to third reading.
9/3/2025HouseRead third time and amended.
9/3/2025HouseRead second time. Ordered to third reading.
8/18/2025HouseRead second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.
7/17/2025HouseFrom committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 9. Noes 1.) (July 16).
7/17/2025HouseAssembly Rule 63 suspended. (Ayes 49. Noes 15. Page 2578.)
7/17/2025HouseFrom committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. (Ayes 8. Noes 2.) (July 16). Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV.
7/16/2025HouseAssembly Rule 56 suspended.
7/7/2025HouseJuly 2 hearing postponed by committee.
6/30/2025HouseReferred to Coms. on H. & C.D. and L. GOV.
6/9/2025HouseIn Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.
6/3/2025HouseRead third time. Passed. (Ayes 23. Noes 11. Page 1386.) Ordered to the Assembly.
6/2/2025SenateRead second time. Ordered to third reading.
5/8/2025SenateFrom committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 1. Page 1039.) (May 7).
5/7/2025SenateFrom committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV.
5/1/2025SenateFrom committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. (Ayes 9. Noes 2. Page 832.) (April 22). Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV.
4/23/2025Senate
Bill Text
Chaptered
10/13/2025
Enrolled
9/18/2025
Amended Assembly
9/5/2025
Amended Assembly
9/3/2025
Amended Assembly
7/17/2025
Amended Senate
5/1/2025
Amended Senate
3/26/2025
Introduced
2/21/2025