HCD’s overview of the requirements and their purpose provides that the housing element must identify and analyze potential and actual governmental constraints to the maintenance, improvement, or development of housing for all income levels, including housing for people with disabilities. The analysis should identify the specific standards and processes of these constraints and evaluate their impact on the supply and affordability of housing. The analysis should determine whether local, regulatory standards pose an actual constraint and must also demonstrate local efforts to remove constraints that hinder a jurisdiction from meeting its housing needs.
The analysis of potential governmental constraints could describe past or current efforts to remove governmental constraints. Where the analyses identifies that constraints exist, the element must include programmatic responses to mitigate the effects of the constraint. Each analysis should use specific objective data, quantified where possible. Additionally, where applicable, the constraints analysis may also include information about inclusionary zoning (including economic impacts and feasibility studies, incentives, alternatives, and the approval process), State Density Bonus Law (SDBL), growth control, historic preservation, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
It is also important to note that the housing element must implement the requirements of Assembly Bill 610 (AB 610), Chapter 494 (2025) (Gov. Code §65583). AB 610 states that the housing element must not only include the above-described analysis, but also a disclosure statement that contains, among other things, an identification of each new or amended potential or actual governmental constraint, or revision increasing the stringency of a governmental constraint, that was adopted after the due date of the previous housing element and before submittal of the current draft housing element to HCD for 7th cycle adoption and all subsequent revisions of the housing element.