AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 5, 2026
california legislature—2025–26 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 748
Introduced by Assembly Member Harabedian
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Haney and Ward)
February 18, 2025
An act to amend Section 90018 of the Financial Code, relating to financial institutions. An act to add Section 65852.29 to the Government Code, relating to housing.
legislative counsel’s digest
AB 748, as amended, Harabedian. Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation: annual report. Single-family and multifamily housing units: preapproved plans.
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, provides for the adoption and administration of zoning laws, or dinances, rules and r egulations by counties and cities and the implementation of those g eneral plans as may be in ef fect in those counties or cities. In that r egard, existing law r equires eac h local a gency, by J anuary 1, 2025, to de velop a program for the preapproval of accessory dwelling unit plans.
This bill would r equire each local agency, as defined, to de velop a program for the preapproval of single-family and multifamily residential housing plans, wher eby the local a gency accepts single-family and multifamily plan submissions for preapproval and approves or denies the preapproval applications, as specified. The bill would r equire a large jurisdiction, as defined, to develop this program by July 1, 2027, and a small jurisdiction, as defined, to develop a program by January 1, 2029. The bill would r equire the local a gency to post pr eapproved
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single-family or multifamily residential housing plans and the contact information of the applicant on the local agency’s internet website.
This bill would r equire a local a gency to either appr ove or deny ministerially an application for a single-family or multifamily residential housing unit within 30 days if the lot meets certain conditions and the application utilizes specified plans that have been preapproved by the local a gency or that ar e identical to a plan used in an application approved by the local agency. The bill would prohibit the preapproval program fr om applying to single-family or multifamily r esidential housing plans intended for use in certain communities and developments, as specified.
Existing law r equires eac h county and eac h city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term g eneral plan for the physical de velopment of the county or city , and specified land outside its boundaries, that includes, among other specified mandatory elements, a housing element.
That law requires the planning a gency of a city or county to pr ovide by April 1 of each year an annual report to, among other entities, the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. Existing law requires the annual report to include , among other things, the city’ s or county’ s progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs, as specified.
Existing law , the California En vironmental Quality Act (CEQA), requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of , an en vironmental impact r eport on a project that it pr oposes to carry out or appr ove that may have a significant ef fect on the en vironment. CEQA does not apply to the approval of ministerial projects.
To the e xtent that the ministerial r eview process established by the bill would apply to final, discretionary approval of an application for a single-family or multifamily housing unit, the bill would exempt those projects from CEQA.
This bill, be ginning on April 1, 2028, for lar ge jurisdictions and beginning on April 1, 2030, for small jurisdictions, would r equire the local a gency to include in its annual r eport the number of units of residential housing that ar e approved using a pr eapproved housing plan pursuant to this act.
By imposing new duties on local agencies with regard to developing a preapproval program and its annual r eport, the bill would cr eate a state-mandated local program.
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The bill would include findings that c hanges proposed by this bill address a matter of state wide concern rather than a municipal af fair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
The California Constitution r equires the state to r eimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state .
Statutory pr ovisions establish pr ocedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Consumer Financial Protection La w requires the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Inno vation to prepare and publish on the Department of Financial Protection and Inno vation’s internet website an annual report detailing actions taken during the prior year under the la w and requires the report to include information on specified actions, as provided.
This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to these provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no yes. State-mandated local program: no yes.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. Section 65852.29 is added to the Government line 2 Code, to read:
line 3 65852.29. (a) Each local agency shall, by July 1, 2027, develop line 4 a program for the pr eapproval of single-family and multifamily line 5 residential housing plans. The program shall comply with all of line 6 the following:
line 7 (1) The local agency shall accept single-family and multifamily line 8 residential housing plan submissions for preapproval. line 9 (2) (A) The local agency shall approve or deny the application line 10 for preapproval pursuant to the standards established in applicable line 11 state and local housing regulations.
line 12 (B) The local a gency may c harge the applicant the same line 13 permitting fees that the local a gency would charge an applicant line 14 seeking approval for the same-sized single-family or multifamily line 15 residential housing unit in reviewing and approving a preapproved line 16 housing plan submission.
line 17 (C) An application for pr eapproval under this section shall line 18 include a statement by the applicant that the applicant has line 19 sufficient authority, license, or owner ship interest in the plan to 98 AB 748 — 3 —
line 1 submit the plan for preapproval and, if approved, posted pursuant line 2 to clause (i) of subparagraph (A) of paragraph (3). line 3 (3) (A) (i) Single-family and multifamily r esidential housing line 4 plans that are preapproved pursuant to this subdivision shall be line 5 posted on the local agency’s internet website.
line 6 (ii) The posting of a pr eapproved housing plan pur suant to line 7 clause (i) shall not be considered an endorsement of the applicant line 8 or approval of the applicant’ s application for a single-family or line 9 multifamily residential housing unit by the local agency. line 10 (B) (i) The local agency shall also post the contact information line 11 of the applicant of a pr eapproved housing plan, as pr ovided by line 12 the applicant.
line 13 (ii) The local agency shall not be responsible for the accuracy line 14 of the contact information posted pursuant to clause (i). line 15 (C) A local a gency shall remove a preapproved housing plan line 16 from their internet website within 30 days of r eceiving a request line 17 for removal from the applicant.
line 18 (4) (A) A local a gency may also admit plans that have been line 19 developed and preapproved by the local agency for single-family line 20 and multifamily residential housing plans into the program. line 21 (B) This section shall not r equire a local a gency to post a line 22 preapproved single-family or multifamily residential housing plan line 23 that is not submitted by an applicant.
line 24 (5) This section shall not prevent a local agency from voluntarily line 25 accepting or admitting additional plans at higher densities in line 26 additional zoning districts into the pr eapproved housing plan line 27 program, at the local agency’s discretion.
line 28 (b) The pr eapproval pr ogram established pur suant to this line 29 section shall not apply to single-family or multifamily residential line 30 housing plans intended for use in a master-planned community, a line 31 planned unit development, or a similar lar ge-scale development line 32 that includes the subdivision of land for the construction of multiple line 33 new housing units.
line 34 (c) A local agency shall approve or deny an application for a line 35 single-family or multifamily r esidential housing unit that uses a line 36 preapproved housing plan ministerially without discr etionary line 37 review. The local a gency shall either appr ove or deny the line 38 application within 30 days from the date the local agency receives line 39 a completed application, if the lot for whic h the application is line 40 proposed meets the soil conditions, topography, flood zone, zoning 98 — 4 — AB 748
line 1 regulations, and design r eview standar ds for whic h the line 2 preapproved housing plan was designed and the application utilizes line 3 either of the following:
line 4 (1) A plan for a single-family or multifamily residential housing line 5 unit that has been pr eapproved by the local a gency within the line 6 current triennial California Building Standards Code rulemaking line 7 cycle.
line 8 (2) A plan that is identical to a plan used in an application for line 9 a single- or multifamily residential housing unit approved by the line 10 local a gency within the curr ent triennial California Building line 11 Standards Code rulemaking cycle.
line 12 (d) (1) Beginning on April 1, 2028, lar ge jurisdictions shall line 13 include in their annual report required pursuant to Section 65400 line 14 the number of units of residential housing that are approved using line 15 a preapproved housing plan pursuant to this section. line 16 (2) Beginning on April 1, 2030, small jurisdictions shall include line 17 in their annual r eport r equired pur suant to Section 65400 the line 18 number of units of residential housing that are approved using a line 19 preapproved housing plan pursuant to this section. line 20 (e) This section shall not apply to a small jurisdiction until line 21 January 1, 2029.
line 22 (f) For purposes of this section:
line 23 (1) “Large jurisdiction” means a county that is not a small line 24 jurisdiction or any city with a population with 25,000 or more as line 25 of January 1, 2019, within that county.
line 26 (2) “Local agency” means a city, county, or city and county. line 27 (3) “Multifamily r esidential housing” means a b uilding line 28 containing 2 to 10 residential units.
line 29 (4) “Single-family residential housing” has the same meaning line 30 as defined in applicable housing regulations.
line 31 (5) “Small jurisdiction” means a county with a population of line 32 less than 250,000 as of J anuary 1, 2019, any city within that line 33 county, or a city with a population of less than 25,000 as of line 34 January 1, 2019.
line 35 (g) The Legislature finds and declares that the lack of housing line 36 is a matter of state wide concern and is not a municipal af fair as line 37 that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California line 38 Constitution. Therefore, this section applies to all cities, including line 39 charter cities.
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line 1 SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to line 2 Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because line 3 a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service line 4 charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or line 5 level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section line 6 17556 of the Government Code.
line 7 SECTION 1. Section 90018 of the Financial Code is amended line 8 to read:
line 9 90018. (a) The commissioner shall prepare and publish on the line 10 department’s internet website an annual report detailing the actions line 11 taken during the prior year under this law.
line 12 (b) The report described in subdi vision (a) shall include, b ut line 13 not be limited to, information on actions taken with respect to all line 14 of the following:
line 15 (1) Rulemaking, enforcement, oversight, consumer complaints line 16 and resolutions, education, and research.
line 17 (2) The activities of the Financial Technology Innovation Office. line 18 (c) The report may include recommendations, including those line 19 intended to result in improved oversight, greater transparency, or line 20 increased availability of beneficial financial products and services line 21 in the marketplace.
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REVISIONS: line 24
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