AB 610 · Housing Laws Navigator
Bills · 2025-2026 Regular Session

AB 610

Housing element: governmental constraints: disclosure statement.Ch. 494, Stats. 2025 · chaptered 2025-10-10 · Later amended

Key provisions · Claude summary of the digest, not bill text

Required 7th cycle and later housing elements to include a governmental constraints disclosure statement identifying constraints adopted since the prior housing element was due.

  • Disclosure statement. For the 7th and all subsequent housing element revisions, required a potential and actual governmental constraints disclosure statement in addition to the existing constraints analysis.
  • Content. Required the statement to identify each new or amended potential or actual governmental constraint, or revision increasing a constraint's stringency, adopted after the prior housing element's due date and before submittal of the current draft to HCD.
  • Charter cities. Declared the changes a matter of statewide concern applying to all cities, including charter cities.
  • Coordination. Incorporated additional changes to Government Code Section 65583 proposed by SB 340 and AB 650, operative only if enacted together and this bill was enacted last.

Paraphrased from the Legislative Counsel’s Digest. Check the bill text before relying on it.

ClaudeGreen text is a summary heading written by Claude to help navigate. It is not statute text; the statute text is in black.

Preamble

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) State housing element law requires each housing element to include an analysis of potential and actual constraints upon the development of housing for all income levels. The law defines “potential and actual governmental constraints” as including “land use controls, building codes and their enforcement, site improvements, fees and other exactions required of developers, local processing and permit procedures, and any locally adopted ordinances that directly impact the cost and supply of residential development.” The law also requires the housing element to include a program that sets forth a schedule of actions during the planning period that the local government is undertaking or intends to undertake to implement the policies of the housing element. One of the mandatory components of this program is the requirement to “address and, where appropriate and legally possible, remove governmental and nongovernmental constraints to the maintenance, improvement, and development of housing, including housing for all income levels.”

(b) The Department of Housing and Community Development has published regulatory guidance through its publication of Building Blocks: A Comprehensive Housing-Element Guide. The department’s guidance identifies the statutory requirement to identify, analyze, and remove governmental constraints as a critical part of housing element law and interprets its requirements to include all of the following:

(1) Identify all relevant land-use controls, discuss impacts on the cost and supply of housing, and evaluate the cumulative impacts of standards, including whether development standards impede the ability to achieve maximum allowable densities.

(2) Identify and analyze process impacts, such as application procedures and requirements (e.g. design review, limits of number of permits or size of project, length of approval, discretionary approval, and how the ordinance operates with the rest of the entitlement process, carryovers, and financing of the project).

(3) Identify and analyze permit processing and planning fees, and development and impact fees and exactions and how they have been established relative to the above statutory requirements, including any in-lieu fees.

(4) Identify exactions such as land dedication requirements (e.g. streets, public utility and other rights-of-way, easements, parks, open space, etc.) and other exactions imposed on development.

(5) Describe other sources of public finance used to balance development fees assessed for individual projects. Estimate and analyze total development fees imposed by the city or county by unit type, such as typical single-family and multifamily development and the total cost of fees.

(6) Determine whether local regulatory standards pose an actual constraint.

(7) Identify the specific standards and processes of these constraints and evaluate their impact on the supply and affordability of housing.

(8) Analyze the cumulative effect of development standards on the development of housing or achieving densities after considering how all standards and ordinances relate to each other.

(9) Demonstrate local efforts to remove constraints.

(10) The housing element should not only demonstrate the jurisdiction can accommodate the regional housing needs allocation at minimum, but must also analyze the impact of growth management or controls process and procedure on the cost and affordability of housing. Even if the growth control ordinance allows the community to meet its entire regional housing needs allocation, the ordinance may still be a constraint that requires mitigation because of increased processing costs or timing delays.

(c) The State of California devotes substantial resources to the housing element update process and has enacted numerous laws seeking to ensure that local governments adopt housing elements that are certified by the department as being in substantial compliance with housing law requirements, including provisions relating to the analysis and removal of governmental constraints.

(d) Maintaining the spirit, integrity, and specifics of housing elements that have gone through the rigorous update process and been certified by the department as being in substantial compliance with housing element law is of significant statewide interest.

(e) When local governments adopt new regulations on housing that are potential government constraints during the housing element review process without having disclosed and described the regulation to the department and the public, and without having explicitly considered the regulation in the constraints analysis, neither the department nor the local government or the public are able to ensure that the housing element update substantially complies with the governmental constraints requirements or whether the certification of the housing element is warranted.

SEC. 2In the navigator:§ 65583changes

Section 65583 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 2.1In the navigator:§ 65583changes

Section 65583 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 2.2In the navigator:§ 65583changes

Section 65583 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 2.3In the navigator:§ 65583changes

Section 65583 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 3

The Legislature finds and declares that Section 2 of this act amending Section 65583 of the Government Code addresses a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, Section 2 of this act applies to all cities, including charter cities.

SEC. 4. (a) Section 2.1 of this bill incorporates amendments to Section 65583 of the Government Code proposed by both this bill and Senate Bill 340. That section of this bill shall only become operative if (1) both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2026, (2) each bill amends Section 65583 of the Government Code, (3) Assembly Bill 650 is not enacted or as enacted does not amend that section, and (4) this bill is enacted after Senate Bill 340, in which case Sections 2, 2.2, and 2.3 of this bill shall not become operative.

(b) Section 2.2 of this bill incorporates amendments to Section 65583 of the Government Code proposed by both this bill and Assembly Bill 650. That section of this bill shall only become operative if (1) both bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2026, (2) each bill amends Section 65583 of the Government Code, (3) Senate Bill 340 is not enacted or as enacted does not amend that section, and (4) this bill is enacted after Assembly Bill 650, in which case Sections 2, 2.1, and 2.3 of this bill shall not become operative.

(c) Section 2.3 of this bill incorporates amendments to Section 65583 of the Government Code proposed by this bill, Senate Bill 340, and Assembly Bill 650. That section of this bill shall only become operative if (1) all three bills are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2026, (2) all three bills amend Section 65583 of the Government Code, and (3) this bill is enacted after Senate Bill 340 and Assembly Bill 650, in which case Sections 2, 2.1, and 2.2 of this bill shall not become operative.

SEC. 5

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.

Source: LegiScan API, chaptered text of AB 610 (2025-2026 Regular Session).

Bill text is the chaptered version from LegiScan (California Legislature); spacing is normalized. Code section text in a bill is the text that bill chaptered, not necessarily the law in effect today. Not legal advice.