Cal. Gov't Code § 65913.4
(a) Except as provided in subdivision (r), a development proponent may submit an application for a development that is subject to the streamlined, ministerial approval process provided by subdivision (c) and is not subject to a conditional use permit or any other nonlegislative discretionary approval if the development complies with subdivision (b) and satisfies all of the following objective planning standards:
(2) The development and the site on which it is located satisfy all of the following:
(C)
(i) A site that meets the requirements of clause (ii) and satisfies any of the following:
(3)
(A) The development proponent has committed to record, prior to the issuance of the first building permit, a land use restriction or covenant providing that any lower or moderate-income housing units required pursuant to subparagraph (B) of paragraph (4) shall remain available at affordable housing costs or rent to persons and families of lower or moderate income for no less than the following periods of time:
(4) The development satisfies clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (A) and satisfies subparagraph (B) below:
(A)
(i) For a development located in a locality that is in its sixth or earlier housing element cycle, the development is located in either of the following:
(B) The development is subject to a requirement mandating a minimum percentage of below market rate housing based on one of the following:
(i) The locality did not adopt a housing element pursuant to Section 65588 that has been found in substantial compliance with the housing element law (Article 10.6 (commencing with Section 65580) of Chapter 3) by the department, did not submit its latest production report to the department by the time period required by Section 65400, or that production report submitted to the department reflects that there were fewer units of above moderate-income housing issued building permits than were required for the regional housing needs assessment cycle for that reporting period. In addition, if the project contains more than 10 units of housing, the project does one of the following:
(ii)
(ib) The project application was submitted prior to January 1, 2019, and the project includes at least 500 units of housing, the project seeking approval or seeking a modification to a prior approval dedicates 20 percent of the total number of units, before calculating any density bonus, as affordable units, with at least 9 percent affordable to households making at or below 50 percent of the area median income and the remainder affordable to households making at or below 80 percent of the area median income.
(II) Notwithstanding the conditions described in sub-subclauses (ia) and (ib) of subclause (I), if the locality has adopted a local ordinance that requires that greater than 50 percent, or greater than 20 percent as applicable, of the units be dedicated to housing affordable to households making at or below 80 percent of the area median income, that local ordinance applies.
(C)
(5) The development, excluding any additional density or any other concessions, incentives, or waivers of development standards for which the development is eligible pursuant to the Density Bonus Law in Section 65915, is consistent with objective zoning standards, objective subdivision standards, and objective design review standards in effect at the time that the development is submitted to the local government pursuant to this section, or at the time a notice of intent is submitted pursuant to subdivision (b), whichever occurs earlier. For purposes of this paragraph, “objective zoning standards,” “objective subdivision standards,” and “objective design review standards” mean standards that involve no personal or subjective judgment by a public official and are 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 before submittal. These standards may be embodied in alternative objective land use specifications adopted by a city or county, and may include, but are not limited to, housing overlay zones, specific plans, inclusionary zoning ordinances, and density bonus ordinances, subject to the following:
(6) The development is not located on a site that is any of the following:
(A)
(v) In a parcel in the coastal zone and located on either of the following:
(D) Within a very high fire hazard severity zone, as determined by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection pursuant to Section 51178, or within the state responsibility area, as defined in Section 4102 of the Public Resources Code. This subparagraph does not apply to sites that have adopted fire hazard mitigation measures pursuant to existing building standards or state fire mitigation measures applicable to the development, including, but not limited to, standards established under all of the following or their successor provisions:
(E) A hazardous waste site that is listed pursuant to Section 65962.5 or a hazardous waste site designated by the Department of Toxic Substances Control pursuant to Section 25356 of the Health and Safety Code, unless either of the following apply:
(G) Within a special flood hazard area subject to inundation by the 1 percent annual chance flood (100-year flood) as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in any official maps published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If a development proponent is able to satisfy all applicable federal qualifying criteria in order to provide that the site satisfies this subparagraph and is otherwise eligible for streamlined approval under this section, a local government shall not deny the application on the basis that the development proponent did not comply with any additional permit requirement, standard, or action adopted by that local government that is applicable to that site. A development may be located on a site described in this subparagraph if either of the following are met:
(7) The development is not located on a site where any of the following apply:
(A) The development would require the demolition of the following types of housing:
(8) Except as provided in paragraph (9), a proponent of a development project approved by a local government pursuant to this section shall require in contracts with construction contractors, and shall certify to the local government, that the following standards specified in this paragraph will be met in project construction, as applicable:
(A) A development that is not in its entirety a public work for purposes of Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1720) of Part 7 of Division 2 of the Labor Code and approved by a local government pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 65912.110) or Article 3 (commencing with Section 65912.120) shall be subject to all of the following:
(iii) All contractors and subcontractors for those portions of the development that are not a public work shall comply with all of the following:
(B)
(i) The obligation of the contractors and subcontractors to pay prevailing wages pursuant to this paragraph may be enforced by any of the following:
(E) A development of 50 or more housing units approved by a local government pursuant to this section shall meet all of the following labor standards:
(iv)
(F) For any project over 85 feet in height above grade, the following skilled and trained workforce provisions apply:
(i) Except as provided in clause (ii), the developer shall enter into construction contracts with prime contractors only if all of the following are satisfied:
(ii)
(iii) If the skilled and trained workforce requirements of this subparagraph apply, the prime contractor shall require subcontractors to provide, and subcontractors on the project shall provide, the following to the prime contractor:
(iv) Upon issuing any invitation or bid solicitation for the project, but no less than seven days before the bid is due, the developer shall send a notice of the invitation or solicitation that describes the project to the following entities within the jurisdiction of the proposed project site:
(v) The developer or prime contractor shall, within three business days of a request by a joint labor-management cooperation committee established pursuant to the federal Labor Management Cooperation Act of 1978 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 175a), provide all of the following:
(vi)
(9) Notwithstanding paragraph (8), a development that is subject to approval pursuant to this section is exempt from any requirement to pay prevailing wages, use a workforce participating in an apprenticeship, or provide health care expenditures if it satisfies both of the following:
(b)
(1)
(A)
(iii) The timeline for noticing and commencing a scoping consultation in accordance with this subdivision shall be as follows:
(ic) An invitation to engage in a scoping consultation in accordance with this subdivision.
(II) Each California Native American tribe that receives a formal notice pursuant to this clause shall have 30 days from the receipt of that notice to accept the invitation to engage in a scoping consultation.
(C) The parties to a scoping consultation conducted pursuant to this subdivision shall be the local government and any California Native American tribe traditionally and culturally affiliated with the geographic area of the proposed development. More than one California Native American tribe traditionally and culturally affiliated with the geographic area of the proposed development may participate in the scoping consultation. However, the local government, upon the request of any California Native American tribe traditionally and culturally affiliated with the geographic area of the proposed development, shall engage in a separate scoping consultation with that California Native American tribe. The development proponent and its consultants may participate in a scoping consultation process conducted pursuant to this subdivision if all of the following conditions are met:
(D) The participants to a scoping consultation pursuant to this subdivision shall comply with all of the following confidentiality requirements:
(2)
(D) For purposes of this paragraph, a scoping consultation shall be deemed to be concluded if either of the following occur:
(3) A local government may only accept an application for streamlined, ministerial approval pursuant to this section if one of the following applies:
(4) A project shall not be eligible for the streamlined, ministerial process described in subdivision (c) if any of the following apply:
(5)
(A) If, after a scoping consultation conducted pursuant to this subdivision, a project is not eligible for the streamlined, ministerial approval process described in subdivision (c) for any or all of the following reasons, the local government shall provide written documentation of that fact, and an explanation of the reason for which the project is not eligible, to the development proponent and to any California Native American tribe that is a party to that scoping consultation:
(7) For purposes of this subdivision:
(c)
(1) Notwithstanding any local law, if a local government’s planning director or equivalent position determines that a development submitted pursuant to this section is consistent with the objective planning standards specified in subdivision (a) and pursuant to paragraph (3) of this subdivision, the local government shall approve the development. Upon a determination that a development submitted pursuant to this section is in conflict with any of the objective planning standards specified in subdivision (a), the local government staff or relevant local planning and permitting department that made the determination shall provide the development proponent written documentation of which standard or standards the development conflicts with, and an explanation for the reason or reasons the development conflicts with that standard or standards, as follows:
(d)
(1) Any design review of the development may be conducted by the local government’s planning commission or any equivalent board or commission responsible for design review. That design review shall be objective and be strictly focused on assessing compliance with criteria required for streamlined projects, as well as any reasonable objective design standards published and adopted by ordinance or resolution by a local jurisdiction before submission of a development application, and shall be broadly applicable to development within the jurisdiction. That design review shall be completed, and if the development is consistent with all objective standards, the local government shall approve the development as follows and shall not in any way inhibit, chill, or preclude the ministerial approval provided by this section or its effect, as applicable:
(2) An application for a subdivision pursuant to the Subdivision Map Act (Division 2 (commencing with Section 66410)) shall be exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code) and shall be subject to the public oversight timelines set forth in paragraph (1) if the development is consistent with the requirements of this section, including, but not limited to, paragraph (8) of subdivision (a), and all objective subdivision standards in the local subdivision ordinance, and meets at least one of the following requirements:
(B) The development is located on a legal parcel or parcels within either of the following:
(iii) For purposes of this subparagraph, the following definitions apply:
(e)
(1) Notwithstanding any other law, a local government, whether or not it has adopted an ordinance governing automobile parking requirements in multifamily developments, shall not impose automobile parking standards for a streamlined development that was approved pursuant to this section in any of the following instances:
(f) Notwithstanding any law, a local government shall not require any of the following prior to approving a development that meets the requirements of this section:
(2)
(g)
(1) If a local government approves a development pursuant to this section, then, notwithstanding any other law, that approval shall not expire if the project satisfies both of the following requirements:
(2)
(A) If a local government approves a development pursuant to this section, and the project does not satisfy the requirements of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (1), that approval shall remain valid for three years from the date of the final action establishing that approval, or if litigation is filed challenging that approval, from the date of the final judgment upholding that approval. Approval shall remain valid for a project provided construction activity, including demolition and grading activity, on the development site that has begun pursuant to a permit issued by the local jurisdiction and is in progress. For purposes of this subdivision, “in progress” means one of the following:
(h)
(1)
(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the local government may apply objective planning standards adopted after the development application was first submitted to the requested modification in any of the following instances:
(C)
(i)
(2)
(3)
(B) If an application for a public improvement described in subparagraph (A) is submitted to a local government, the local government shall do all of the following:
(C) If an application for a public improvement described in subparagraph (A) is submitted to a local government, the local government shall not do either of the following:
(j)
(k) The California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code) does not apply to actions taken by a state agency, local government, or the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District to:
(l) For purposes of establishing the total number of units in a development under this chapter, a development or development project includes both of the following:
(m) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(2)
(12)
(A) “Reporting period” means either of the following:
(q)
(r)
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “qualified site” means a site that meets the following requirements:
(t)