Planning and zoning: housing element: enforcement.

Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. The Planning and Zoning Law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to determine whether the housing element is in substantial compliance with specified provisions of that law. The Planning and Zoning Law requires HCD to notify a city, county, or city and county, and authorizes HCD to notify the office of the Attorney General, that the city, county, or city and county is in violation of state law if the local government has taken action in violation of specified provisions of law. The Planning and Zoning Law also requires, among other things, that an application for a housing development be subject to a specified streamlined, ministerial approval process if the development satisfies certain objective planning standards. The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to bring its general plan into substantial compliance with provisions regulating general plans and specifies timelines under which the city or county is required to bring its zoning ordinance…