California Senate Bill (SB) 6 AKA Middle Class Housing Act of 2022
California Senate Bill (SB) 6 AKA Middle Class Housing Act of 2022
In 2022, the California Legislature passed the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022, known as Senate Bill (SB) 6, this piece of legislation directed to address California's housing crisis by clearing the way for residential development on sites currently zoned for commercial or retail uses.
This bill took effect on July 1, 2023. Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 6, titled the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022, and The Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, known as Assembly Bill (AB) 2011 at the same time. The approch SB 6 takes allows residential development on commercially zoned property without requiring compliance with local rezoning procedures. This allows project applicants to invoke the Housing Accountability Act to limit local planning discretion. SB 6 also requires the payment of prevailing wages and employment of a “skilled and trained workforce” (which is waived the instance that fewer than two bidders are competing for a contract). SB 6 does not contain any Below-Market-Rate (BMR) requirements and has fewer exclusions than AB 2011, this points to the fact that it will likely be utilized more often in lower-cost areas of the state and on parcels that do not qualify for AB 2011.
Simplifying the approval process and curtailing the conditions local governments can levy on qualifying multifamily housing projects, the laws will allow many parcels that would have previously been undevelopable, either because of local opposition to multifamily housing, because of their current commercial zoning, or because of the financial barrier when undertaking residential projects in commercial areas. This is a move to combat the housing ciris and create more affordable housing for the residents of California.
