City planner outlines dozens of new state housing and land-use laws that will change Fullerton review processes

Chris Schafer, city planner for the City of Fullerton, told the Planning Commission on Jan. 28 that state lawmakers have passed roughly 300 new laws affecting housing, land use and CEQA and that staff are identifying about 30–40 they expect will be most relevant to the city. "As the years have progressed, the state has gotten more aggressive in allowing housing to be developed, and laws have been approved that are now limiting CEQA and actually limiting the city's ability to restrict housing development," Schafer said.

Schafer laid out several bills he said staff will examine closely. He said AB39 requires cities to begin general-plan updates after Jan. 1, 2027 and complete them by Jan. 1, 2030, adding mandated policies to support zero-emission vehicles and related infrastructure. "So this is the staff knows we have to do the general plan update... it kind of forces the start of the process in 2027," he said. The planner warned the timeline will add work for staff and require policy development on electrification…