State Law | Permits and CEQA

CEQA, Permit Deadlines and the Builder's Remedy for 2 to 10 Homes in California

California law sets deadlines on many of the steps a city takes on a housing application. This page covers the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state environmental review law, and the 2025 exemption from it for qualifying infill housing. It also covers the Permit Streamlining Act deadlines, the five-hearing limit and preliminary application from SB 330, and the builder's remedy for cities whose housing plans are out of compliance with state law.

Ministerial Projects Skip the Hearing

The fastest approvals in California are ministerial: city staff compare your plans with fixed written rules and must approve them if they comply. SB 9 (2021), state accessory dwelling unit (ADU) law and SB 684 all use ministerial approval. For SB 9, Government Code 65852.21 also states that "CEQA does not apply to the decision to grant an application for a housing development or a lot split, or both," and the SB 9 Fact Sheet of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) says the same.

Projects that need a discretionary approval, where officials use judgment, can face CEQA review and hearings. The rest of this page is about those projects and about the deadlines that apply to every project.

The AB 130 Infill Exemption

AB 130 (Chapter 22, Statutes of 2025) and SB 131 (Chapter 24, Statutes of 2025) are 2025 budget bills. Both were approved on June 30, 2025 and took effect immediately. AB 130 added Public Resources Code 21080.66, which says CEQA "does not apply to any aspect of a housing development project" that meets a list of conditions. A "housing development project" includes a single home. The section was last amended by SB 158 (Chapter 650, Statutes of 2025), effective October 11, 2025.

On a small project, check the density condition first. The state default densities in Government Code 65583.2 are 30 units per acre in a metropolitan county, so the AB 130 minimum there is 15 units per acre. A 5,000 square foot lot is 0.1148 acre: two homes on it equal 17.4 units per acre and pass. Two homes on a 10,000 square foot lot equal 8.7 units per acre and fall short. Do this arithmetic before you count on the exemption.

Tribal consultation is built in. The city must notify affiliated California Native American tribes within 14 days after the application is complete. Each tribe has 60 days to accept, and consultation ends within 45 days, with one 15-day extension.

SB 131 added two more rules. It exempts from CEQA a rezoning that carries out an approved housing element. And when a project misses a statutory or categorical exemption by "a single condition," SB 131 limits CEQA review to "the effects upon the environment that are caused solely by that single condition."

Permit Deadlines That Apply to You

The Permit Streamlining Act sets the general deadlines. Under Government Code 65943, the agency has 30 calendar days to determine in writing whether your application is complete, and if it misses the deadline the application is deemed complete. An incomplete notice must give an "exhaustive list" of what is missing, and later reviews cannot ask for items that were not on it. Government Code 65950 then sets the decision deadlines. SB 9, ADU and SB 684 law add their own.

EIR means environmental impact report. A negative declaration is a finding that a project has no significant environmental effect.

SB 330: Five Hearings and the Preliminary Application

SB 330, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, gave housing applicants two protections that matter for small projects. The first is the five-hearing limit in Government Code 65905.5: if a housing project meets objective general plan and zoning standards, the city "shall not conduct more than five hearings" after the application is complete, and a continued hearing "shall count as one of the five hearings." The section defines a housing development project to include a single home.

The second is the preliminary application in Government Code 65941.1. When you submit the listed information and pay the fee, the project is locked to the ordinances and standards in effect that day, so a later rule change by the city does not apply to it. You must file the full application within 180 calendar days. If the number of homes or the square footage changes by 20 percent or more, not counting extra homes from a density bonus, you lose that protection.

Both protections are now permanent under current law. AB 130 removed the January 1, 2034 repeal date on the five-hearing limit and on the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, removed the January 1, 2030 dates on preliminary-application vesting, and repealed Government Code 66301, the section that ended the chapter. In the bill's words, the change extends the act "indefinitely."

A preliminary application also lets you ask for a fee estimate. Under AB 1820 (Chapter 358, Statutes of 2024), the city must give a preliminary fee and exaction estimate within 30 business days. The impact fees page covers fees in full.

The Builder's Remedy

Every California city must keep a housing element, its state-approved housing plan. Under the Housing Accountability Act, Government Code 65589.5, if a city did not have a housing element in substantial compliance on the date your application was deemed complete, a qualifying project with lower- or moderate-income homes can exceed local zoning. That is the builder's remedy. AB 1893 (Chapter 268, Statutes of 2024, signed September 19, 2024) wrote the current version.

The project may reach the greatest of three densities: 50 percent above the state default density, three times the density the local plan or zoning allows, or the density in the housing element. It may add 35 more units per acre near major transit, in very low vehicle travel areas, or in high-resource census tracts.

One rule is written for small projects. The "mixed-income" definition includes "a housing development project in which there are 10 or fewer total units" on a site smaller than one acre at a minimum density of 10 units per acre, with no affordable set-aside required. Larger projects need 7 percent extremely low income, 10 percent very low income, or 13 percent lower income homes. A city cannot charge higher fees or add inclusionary rules because a project uses the builder's remedy, and a local inclusionary rule cannot require more than 20 percent affordable homes on a mixed-income builder's remedy project.

Before you rely on it, confirm your city's housing element status with HCD on the date you expect the application to be complete. VanPlex did not check how many cities are out of compliance today.

Which Process Fits Your Project

Two homes on a single-family lot. Use SB 9 (2021). Approval is ministerial, CEQA does not apply, and the city has 60 days to decide a complete application. In the coastal zone, the city does not have to hold a hearing on the coastal permit.

One to three ADUs. Use state ADU law. The city has 15 business days to call the application complete and 60 days to decide it when a home already stands on the lot. An appeal must be decided within 60 business days.

Three to ten homes on small lots. Use SB 684 on multifamily-zoned land, or SB 1123 on a vacant single-family lot. The map and the housing application each have a 60-day deadline.

Five or more homes near a major stop. In seven counties, SB 79 projects may use the streamlined staff-approval process in Government Code 65913.4, except in very high fire hazard severity zones, or normal review under the Housing Accountability Act. From January 1, 2027, a city that denies a qualifying SB 79 project in a high-resource area is presumed to violate that act. See the SB 79 page.

Anything else. File an SB 330 preliminary application to lock the rules, check the AB 130 infill exemption, use the 30-day completeness rule and the five-hearing limit, and check the city's housing element status for the builder's remedy.

A Sample Timeline Under These Rules

Here is the order of the deadlines for a discretionary project that uses the AB 130 exemption. Day 0: you file a preliminary application, and the rules in effect that day apply to the project. Within 180 calendar days you file the full application. The city then has 30 calendar days to say whether it is complete. Within 14 days of completeness, it notifies tribes, who have 60 days to accept consultation; consultation then has 45 days, plus one 15-day extension. The decision is due 30 days after the later of the listed dates. If hearings are held, the city can hold five at most. Every one of these dates is set by statute, so keep a written log of each filing and each city response.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the California multiplex guide overview and the California SB 9 comparison page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)