Applicability of Local Standards — Housing Accountability Act Technical Assistance Advisory

In addition to limiting the conditions for which a housing development project can be denied, the HAA also sets parameters around aspects of the approval process. Specifically, it defines:

The type of development standards, conditions, and policies with which a housing development or emergency shelter can be required to comply
Parameters for fees and exactions that can be imposed
Standards that can be applied once an application is deemed complete
Actions by a local government that would constitute a denial of a project or impose development conditions

These requirements are intended to provide developers with greater transparency and clarity in the entitlement process.

Objective Development Standards, Conditions, Policies, Fees, and Exactions Government Code, § 65589.5, subdivision (f)

Local governments are not prohibited from requiring a housing development project or emergency shelter to comply with objective, quantifiable, written development standards, conditions, and policies (subject to the vesting provisions of the HAA and other applicable laws). However, those standards, conditions, and policies must meet the following criteria:

Be appropriate to, and consistent with, meeting the local government’s share of the RHNA or meeting the local government’s need for emergency shelters as identified in the housing element of the general plan.
Be applied to facilitate and accommodate development at the density permitted on the site and proposed by the development or to facilitate and accommodate the development of the emergency shelter project.
Meet the definition of “objective”. Objective standards are those that involve no personal or subjective judgment by a public official and being uniformly verifiable by reference to an external and uniform benchmark or criterion available and knowable by both the development applicant or proponent and the public official.

The intent of these provisions of the HAA is that developers are given certainty in what standards, conditions, and policies apply to their project and how those standards can be met. Local governments that deny a project due to a failure to meet subjective standards (those standards that are not objective as defined) could be in violation of the HAA. In addition, objective standards that do apply should make it feasible for a developer to build to the density allowed by the zoning and not constrain a local government’s ability to achieve its RHNA housing targets.

Nothing in the statute generally prohibits a local government from imposing fees and other exactions otherwise authorized by law that are essential to provide necessary public services and facilities to the housing development project or emergency shelter. However, the HAA does impose limitations on the fees and exactions that can be imposed on a specific housing development project once a preliminary application is submitted (see Appendix C).

Housing Accountability Act Technical Assistance Advisory

Key Provisions of the Housing Accountability Act