City attorney outlines California changes on development fees, density bonus rules; few new effects for Sierra Madre

The Sierra Madre City planning commission heard a state legislative update Feb. 20 from the city attorney, who said the 2025 legislative session focused largely on fees and reporting requirements for housing development and made a handful of technical changes to density-bonus rules.

"This year, they really focused on fees," the city attorney said, summarizing a package of bills that require cities and utilities to post fee schedules and to provide preliminary fee estimates to applicants. He said the changes generally increase transparency about water and sewer connection charges and other exactions developers face.

The update matters, the attorney said, because it gives property owners earlier cost certainty and in some cases pushes payment of certain development-impact fees to a later stage in the…