Preliminary Application

This form serves as a preliminary application for housing development projects seeking vesting rights pursuant to SB 330. Although this Preliminary Application is not required, the County must accept it if submitted. The preliminary application must be accompanied by the permit processing fee for the land use entitlement required for the project.

• SB330 Preliminary Application Form
• Permit Fees & Types | County of Monterey, CA

Full Application

After submitting a Preliminary Application to the local agency, an applicant has 180 days to submit a full application or the Preliminary Application will expire. The application checklist with materials required for a full application, the County’s development application forms, are available at the link below.

• Forms and Applications
• Land Use Permit Fees

Submit your SB330 Project

• Time to submit your SB330 Project to HCD Permit Center for review! To submit plans and other required forms, please visit the Online Permit Information page and apply via Accela Citizen’s Access, or visit our permit counter at 1441 Schilling Place, 2nd Floor, Salinas. Once the preliminary application is submitted, the full housing development application package (Checklist, forms, materials, plans, etc.) may be submitted to: PlanningPermits@CountyofMonterey.gov, PlanningPermits@CountyofMonterey.gov.

The builder’s remedy is available in cities and counties that have not “adopted a revised housing element” that is in “substantial compliance” with state law (Gov. Code § 65589.5(d)(5)).  In September 2024, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 1886, which states that a housing element is only in “substantial compliance” if the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) or a court makes that determination.

Builder’s remedy applications can no longer be submitted once a city or county adopts its revised housing element that substantially complies with state law, as determined by HCD when it certifies the housing element or by a court. However, builder’s remedy projects that vest before the housing element is deemed substantially compliant must still be processed.

Prior to the enactment of Assembly Bill (AB) 1893 in September 2024, at least 20 percent of a builder’s remedy project’s housing units were required to be sold or rented to low- or very low-income households, or 100 percent of housing units were required to be sold or rented to moderate-income households, to meet the affordability requirements in the builder’s remedy law (Gov. Code § 65589.5(h)(3)).  AB 1893 removed the minimum affordability requirement for certain projects with 10 or fewer units sited on less than one acre, and changed the affordability requirement for all other projects to at least 7 percent extremely low-income units, 10 percent very low-income units, 13 percent low-income units, or 100 percent moderate-income units:

*Additionally, under AB 1893, there is no affordability requirement for a project with 10 or fewer total units that is on a site that is smaller than one acre, and that is proposed for development at a minimum density of 10 units per acre.

Although AB 1893 is effective as of January 1, 2025, it provides that developers with vested builder’s remedy applications as of January 1, 2025 may choose to proceed under the rules and regulations in place at the time their application vested, or may choose to be subject to some or all of the provisions of AB 1893, including the revised affordability requirements.

AB 1893 confirmed that cities or counties can also require builder’s remedy projects to comply with generally applicable inclusionary housing ordinances that mandate a particular percentage or level of affordability, up to 20 percent of the total units, if the city or county can make certain written findings.

AB 1893 provides that affordable units “shall be subject to a recorded deed restriction for a period of 55 years for rental units and 45 years for owner-occupied units.”

Cities and counties may apply only the “objective, quantifiable, written development standards” in effect when a preliminary application was submitted (or when the complete application was submitted, if no preliminary application was filed or subsequently expired) (Gov. Code § 65589.5(f)(1)).

A city or county may deny a builder’s remedy project or impose conditions that render the project infeasible if it can show that the denial or conditions (i) are required by state or federal law, (ii) are required to avoid a significant, adverse impact to public health and safety that is based on objective, written standards that existed on the date the application vested, or (iii) the project is “proposed on land zoned for agriculture or resource preservation that is surrounded on at least two sides by land being used for agricultural or resource preservation purposes, or which does not have adequate water or wastewater facilities to serve the project.”

Yes. Builder’s Remedy contains no exemptions from the California Environmental Quality Act. SB330 states specifically that nothing relieves the local agency from making the required CEQA findings and otherwise complying with CEQA. (Section 65589.5(e).) A project may be exempt from CEQA under other provisions of CEQA, other state laws, or the CEQA Guidelines.

Yes. SB 330 states that nothing in it alleviates local agencies from complying the California Coastal Act. The County has a Local Coastal Program implementing the California Coastal Act. The Land Use Plans and Coastal Implementation Plan regulations that form the County’s Local Coastal Program can found here.

Builder’s remedy projects may be subject to public hearings depending on the city or county’s general requirements for the type of project proposed (e.g., residential subdivision, mixed-use project), including any hearings required to comply with CEQA.  Members of the public should receive notice at least 10 days in advance of the hearing by publication in a newspaper of general circulation and/or mailed notice to property owners within 300 feet of the project and an opportunity to comment on builder’s remedy projects at these hearings.