Agenda item
SENATE BILL (SB) 79 INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATION
Planning Commission Meeting, item 3, SENATE BILL (SB) 79 INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATION: For Planning Commission to receive the SB 79 presentation. Staff recommendation: receive and file. [Packet, p. 4]
Tier 3 · Human approved · Updated Sep 2, 2026
Escondido's Planning Commission has been asked to sit through a staff presentation on Senate Bill 79, a state measure that has become law and that makes housing built close to transit stops an allowed use on land zoned for residential, mixed or commercial development.
According to the bill's official summary, a project qualifies only if it meets the law's requirements: it must contain at least 5 dwelling units, and the height, density and residential floor area it is allowed depend on how close it sits to what the law calls a transit-oriented development, or TOD, stop, which are sorted into tiers. A qualifying project can be approved through a streamlined, ministerial process, and it has to meet certain affordability rules.
The same summary lists conditions a builder cannot get around. A project has to follow demolition and antidisplacement standards, and it cannot go on a site where housing subject to rent or price controls would have to be torn down, or on a site previously used for that housing. It has to include homes for lower income households and meet standards for height, noise, safety and fire, along with labor standards.
The law leans on cities through the state's Housing Accountability Act. A project that meets these standards, along with the city's own general plan and zoning standards, is treated as consistent with them. If a city turns down a qualifying project in what the law calls a high-resource area, the city is presumed to be breaking the Housing Accountability Act and is immediately liable for penalties, starting January 1, 2027, according to the bill's summary.
The rules do not take hold everywhere at once. The bill's summary says they do not apply to a local agency until July 1, 2026, with exceptions, and do not reach the unincorporated areas of counties until the 7th regional housing needs allocation cycle.
Cities are given some room to shape how it lands. Before one year after the 7th revision of the housing element, the law does not apply to sites a city has excluded by ordinance, including sites covered by a local TOD alternative plan. For the 7th and later housing element revisions, a city may put a local TOD alternative plan in its housing element or adopt one by ordinance, and a city with a compliant plan is exempt from the housing development provisions. A city may also pass an ordinance bringing its zoning code in line with the law, according to the summary, but it must send a draft to the state Department of Housing and Community Development at least 14 days before adopting it and a copy within 60 days of enactment. The department reviews the ordinance, and if a city stays out of compliance the department must notify it in writing and may notify the Attorney General.
The summary also states that the changes are a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair, so they apply to all cities, including charter cities. Because the bill adds duties for local officials and expands the crime of perjury by requiring certification of information about labor standards, it creates a state-mandated local program, but the bill says no reimbursement to local agencies is required.
The item, filed as PL26-140, has no applicant behind it, and city staff recommend the commission simply receive the presentation and file it, meaning no vote on the law itself is being sought.
The record
- Meeting
- Planning Commission Meeting
- Body
- Planning Commission
- Item
- 3
- Request
- For Planning Commission to receive the SB 79 presentation.
- Staff recommendation
- receive and file
- Case or file number
- PL26-140
- Applicant
- N/A
From the document
Every field above was read from one of these passages.
3. PL26-140 – SENATE BILL (SB) 79 INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATION
REQUEST: For Planning Commission to receive the SB 79 presentation.
APPLICANT: N/A
STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Receive and File
What this refers to
-
SB 79 (2025-2026 session)
Housing development: transit-oriented development.
Signed into law. The bill's official summary was written before it passed, so it describes what the bill would do rather than what it already does.
The item cites only the number. Bill numbers repeat every session, and nothing in the item says this is the 2025-2026 one.
(1) Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. Existing law requires that the housing element consist of an identification and analysis of existing and projected housing needs and a statement of goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of housing, as specified. Existing law requires that the housing element include, among other things, an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources and constraints that are relevant to the meeting of these needs, including an inventory of land suitable for residential development, as provided. Existing law, for the 4th and subsequent revisions of the housing element, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to determine the existing and projected need for housing for each region, as specified, and requires the appropriate council of local governments, or the department for cities and counties without a council of governments, to adopt a final regional housing need plan that allocates a share of the regional housing need to each locality in the region. Existing law requires the inventory of land to be used to identify sites throughout the community that can be developed for housing within the planning period and that are sufficient to provide for the jurisdiction’s share of the regional housing need. Existing law requires each local government to revise its housing element in accordance with a specified schedule.Existing law, the Housing Accountability Act, among other things, requires a local agency that proposes to disapprove a housing development project, as defined, or to impose a condition that the project be developed at a lower density to base its decision on written findings supported by a preponderance of the evidence that specified conditions exist if that project complies with applicable, objective general plan, zoning, and subdivision standards and criteria in effect at the time that the application was deemed complete. The act authorizes the applicant, a person who would be eligible to apply for residency in the housing development project or emergency shelter, or a housing organization to bring an action to enforce the act’s provisions, as provided, and provides for penalties if the court finds that the local agency is in violation of specified provisions of the act.This bill would require that a housing development project, as defined, within a specified distance of a transit-oriented development (TOD) stop, as defined, be an allowed use as a transit-oriented housing development on any site zoned for residential, mixed, or commercial development, if the development complies with applicable requirements, as specified. Among these requirements, the bill would require a project to include at least 5 dwelling units and establish requirements concerning height limits, density, and residential floor area ratio in accordance with a development’s proximity to specified tiers of TOD stops, as provided. The bill would require that, for the purposes of the Housing Accountability Act, a proposed development consistent with the applicable standards of these provisions as well as applicable local objective general plan and zoning standards be deemed consistent, compliant, and in conformity with prescribed requirements, as specified. The bill would provide that a local government that denies a project meeting the requirements of these provisions located in a high-resource area, as defined, would be presumed in violation of the Housing Accountability Act, as specified, and immediately liable for penalties, beginning on January 1, 2027, as provided. These provisions would not apply to a local agency until July 1, 2026, except as specified, or within unincorporated areas of counties until the 7th regional housing needs allocation cycle. The bill would specify that a development proposed pursuant to these provisions is eligible for streamlined, ministerial approval pursuant to specified law, except that the bill would exempt a project under these provisions from specified requirements, and would specify that the project is required to comply with certain affordability requirements, under that law.This bill would require a proposed development to comply with specified demolition and antidisplacement standards; to not be located on sites where the development would require demolition of housing, or that was previously used for housing, that is subject to rent or price controls; to include housing for lower income households, as specified; be consistent with specified height, noise, safety, and fire standards; and meet specified labor standards, as provided. The bill would also authorize a transit agency’s board of directors to adopt agency TOD zoning standards for district-owned real property located in a TOD zone, which establish minimum zoning requirements for an agency TOD project, as specified.Prior to one year following the adoption of the 7th revision of the housing element, this bill would not apply the provisions relating to a housing development project to specified sites for which a local government has adopted an ordinance indicating the site’s exclusion, as specified, including a site that is covered by a local TOD alternative plan, as defined, adopted by a local government. For the 7th and subsequent revisions of the housing element, the bill would authorize a local government to include a local TOD alternative plan in its housing element or adopt an alternative plan by ordinance, as specified. The bill would exempt a jurisdiction that has adopted a compliant local TOD alternative plan from the provisions relating to a housing development, as specified.This bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to oversee compliance with the bill’s provisions and would require the department to promulgate standards on how to allow for capacity pursuant to these provisions to be counted in the inventory of land included within a county’s or city’s housing element, as specified. The bill would authorize each metropolitan planning organization to create a map of designated TOD stops and zones within its region by tier in accordance with these standards, which would have a rebuttable presumption of validity. The bill would authorize a local government to enact an ordinance to make its zoning code consistent with these provisions, as provided. The bill would require the local government to submit a draft of this ordinance to the department for review, at least 14 days prior to adoption of the ordinance. The bill would require the local government to submit a copy of this ordinance to the department within 60 days of enactment and would require the department to review the ordinance for compliance, as specified. If at any time the department finds an ordinance is out of compliance, and the local government does not take specified steps to address compliance, the bill would require the department to notify the local government in writing and authorize the department to notify the Attorney General, as provided.This bill would define various terms for its purposes and make related findings and declarations.This bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.By increasing the duties of local officials, and by expanding the crime of perjury by requiring the certification of certain information related to labor standards, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.(2) This bill would provide that its provisions are severable.(3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.