YIMBY Law is Tracking How Cities Implement SB-9

After Senate Bill 9 (SB-9) was passed in California in 2021, a number of cities acted quickly to pass local “implementation” ordinances, in order to limit, or undermine, the effectiveness of the law. Some of these local rules are legal, but many are not. YIMBY Law has been keeping track of cities across the state, and is working closely with the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and the California Attorney General’s Office, to document violations of state law by cities when they attempt to undermine SB-9, and ensure that cities who break the law when they attempt to undermine SB-9, are held accountable.

Below is a table YIMBY Law is using to track cities implementing SB-9 across the state. If you know of a city which should be added to this list, please fill out the form at: https://www.yimbylaw.org/submit-issue.

In October 2021, California governor Gavin Newsom signed SB-9 into law, which effectively eliminated single family zoning across the state by requiring cities to approve duplex, or even four-plex projects on many single-family zoned parcels in the state. Ending single family zoning, a land use policy with a history steeped in race-based exclusion, has remained controversial. While the law went into effect statewide on January 1, 2022, cities are allowed to create their own “objective standards” to implement the law. The law itself places certain limits on what types of local objective standards cities can require developments to have, but cities are still afforded a fair amount of leeway to make local rules for these housing projects. Over 130 cities, mostly in southern California, were opposed to the bill, primarily because it requires cities to approve projects ministerially, or by-right, without a discretionary review that would allow a city to make changes to, or possibly deny a project based on subjective criteria.