Local planning: housing elements: water and sewer services.

(1) The Planning and Zoning Law requires each city, county, or city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan for its jurisdiction that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. Existing law requires a housing element to include an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources and constraints relevant to meeting those needs. That law also requires that the housing element adopted by the legislative body of the city, county, or city and county and any amendments made to that element be delivered to all public agencies or private entities that provide water or sewer services, as described, within the territory of the legislative body. Existing law requires each public agency or private entity providing water or sewer services to grant a priority for the provision of these services to proposed developments that include housing units affordable to lower income households. Existing law also requires a public agency or private entity providing water or sewer services to adopt written policies and procedures not later than July 1, 2006, and at least once every 5 years thereafter, with specific objective standards for provision of services, as described. This bill would instead require each public agency or private entity providing water or sewer services to grant a priority for the provision of these services to proposed housing developments, which the bill would define for these purposes to include both housing developments that include units sold or rented to lower income households, as provided in existing law as described above, and housing developments constructed pursuant to specified laws providing for ministerial approval of certain housing developments or subdivision maps. The bill would also update the compliance date to adopt written policies and procedures to July 1, 2025, and continue to require the adoption of those written policies and procedures at least once every 5 years thereafter. (2) The Urban Water Management Planning Act requires urban water suppliers to prepare and adopt urban water management plans that, among other things, identify and quantify the existing and planned sources of water available to the water supplier's service area based on specified factors. That act requires the water use projections required by these provisions to include the projected water use for single‑family and multifamily residential housing for lower income households as identified in the housing element of any city, county, or city and county in the service area of the supplier. This bill would instead require the water use projections to include projected water use for single-family and multifamily residential housing for proposed housing developments, defined as described above, as identified in the housing element of any city, county, or city and county in the service area of the supplier. (3) This bill would make conforming changes. (4) By imposing additional duties on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.