In October, Governor Newsom signed
AB 1486 (Ting, 2019), which expands Surplus Land Act
requirements for local agencies. As noted in a recent
bulletin article on new laws impacting counties, AB 1486
requires local governments to include specified information
relating to surplus lands in their housing elements and annual
progress reports and requires the California Department of
Housing and Community Development (HCD) to establish a database
of surplus lands.
Effective January 1, 2020 local agencies must send notices of
availability to publiclands@hcd.ca.gov for
listing on HCD’s website. Developers interested in purchasing or
leasing surplus land for affordable housing development should
notify HCD of their interest by completing HCD’s
Developer Interest – Local Agency Surplus Land survey.
HCD will post the list of interested developers on the HCD website and will
update the list as more developers express interest beginning
January 1, 2020.
In 2020, HCD will kick off technical assistance, education, and
outreach to develop uniform standards (including guidelines and
other materials) to ensure that local agencies comply with state
law when disposing of surplus land.
HCD will start implementing AB 1486 beginning January 1, 2021 and
will release finalized guidelines and notify the Attorney General
of violations of the Surplus Lands Act as needed.
