One of the challenges in building new affordable homes is acquiring land suitable for housing. In 2019, Governor Newsom took several actions to make state and local public lands available for affordable housing development including:
- An executive order to make excess state land available for affordable housing (Executive Order N-06-19)
- Connecting affordable housing developers to local surplus land and strengthening enforcement of the Surplus Lands Act (AB 1486, Ting, 2019)
- Requiring cities and counties to inventory and report surplus and excess local public lands to include in a statewide inventory (AB 1255, Robert Rivas, 2019)
Excess State Land for Affordable Housing
On January 15, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-06-19 that ordered the California Department of General Services (DGS) and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to identify and prioritize excess state-owned property and aggressively pursue sustainable, innovative, cost-effective housing projects. Learn more.
Surplus Local Land for Affordable Housing
Assembly Bill 1486 (Ting, 2019) aims to connect developers who are interested in building more affordable homes on surplus local public land that is both available and suitable for housing development.
Local agencies (cities, counties, special districts, and certain other entities) must send notices about available, surplus local public land to all of the following:
- HCD
- Any local public entity within the jurisdiction where the surplus local land is located
- Developers who have notified HCD of their interest in developing affordable housing on surplus local public land
Prior to agreeing to terms to dispose of surplus property, local agencies (cities, counties, and special districts) must send a description of notices of availability sent, and negotiations conducted, in addition to a copy of any restrictions to be recorded against the property, to HCD for review using HCD forms.