Streamlining Pathways for Housing and Agriculture

PDS2025-POD-25-003, PDS2025-ER-25-00-002

Project Description

The primary goals of the project are to advance regulatory changes that support housing streamlining and to identify opportunities to support permit streamlining for agriculture while maintaining protections for sensitive resources. The project would implement previous Board direction to identify processes to allow streamlined and by-right housing within certain areas of the county and to pursue amendments to the Grading Ordinance that facilitate streamlining for both housing and agriculture. Potential amendments to the RPO are included as part of the project scope, primarily to consider how the RPO could be amended to support housing streamlining while ensuring protections for sensitive resources remain strong.

Project Public Scoping Meeting

Consistent with CEQA (California Public Resources Code, Section 21083.9), a public scoping meeting will be held to solicit comments regarding the scope and analysis of the EIR. The scoping meeting will be for information gathering; it is not a public hearing, and no public testimony will be taken. No decisions about the project will be made at the public scoping meeting. This meeting will be held virtually, and the meeting date and time are as follows:

Date: March 24, 2026

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Please register to attend the meeting!

Please direct any questions or formal comments to the project contact information below.

Project Contact: Makenna Welsch | Makenna.Welsch@sdcounty.ca.gov | (858) 505-6677

PDS2025-POD-25-003, PDS2025-ER-25-00-002

The primary goals of the project are to advance regulatory changes that support housing streamlining and to identify opportunities to support permit streamlining for agriculture while maintaining protections for sensitive resources. The project would implement previous Board direction to identify processes to allow streamlined and by-right housing within certain areas of the county and to pursue amendments to the Grading Ordinance that facilitate streamlining for both housing and agriculture. Potential amendments to the RPO are included as part of the project scope, primarily to consider how the RPO could be amended to support housing streamlining while ensuring protections for sensitive resources remain strong.

The project would develop new streamlined pathways for housing through development of rules and objective standards that support compliance with emerging state housing laws (e.g., AB 1397 and AB 2162). This effort intends to streamline housing development within appropriate areas of the county. The project would include the development of criteria to determine a process by which projects may qualify for a streamlined or by-right process. Areas that may be considered for streamlining or by-right processing include but are not limited to land with a history of disturbance or prior development characterized by infill areas, vehicle miles traveled-efficient areas, urban areas (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau), and Villages identified in the 2011 General Plan. The project would define the objective criteria that must be met for a housing project to qualify for streamlining, ensuring protections for environmental resources remain in place. To maximize opportunities for housing streamlining, the project may identify mechanisms to reduce the number of discretionary permits required for housing, such as site plan permits triggered by certain design review requirements. The project may develop objective design standards for communities that do not have existing standards in place that could function as a replacement for the discretionary design review process for certain qualifying projects. To implement streamlining, the project may consider mechanisms such as checklists, codification of typical conditions of approval (e.g., biological and cultural resources monitoring requirements, pre-construction nesting surveys), implementation of process improvements, and updates to the County’s Grading Ordinance and RPO. As part of establishing new streamlining pathways, the project would analyze and incorporate project elements to ensure development on Housing Element sites can occur by-right, ensuring effective implementation of AB 1397 and increasing the transparency of requirements associated with building housing on Housing Element sites.

The project would amend the Grading Ordinance to streamline and simplify the rules that apply to grading and clearing for land development and agricultural projects throughout the unincorporated areas of the county. Proposed changes may include developing new, streamlined permit processes for residential grading and agricultural clearing to reduce time and cost for permitting and compliance. The project may also adjust permit thresholds that trigger grading and clearing permits and identify opportunities that allow common activities to be processed ministerially. Additionally, the project would consider amending the current requirement that existing agricultural land must have been in production for at least 1 of the prior 4 years.

To support effective implementation of housing and agricultural streamlining, the project would consider whether amendments to the RPO could facilitate permit streamlining while ensuring sensitive environmental resources remain protected. For example, avoidance of environmentally sensitive lands (County Code of Regulatory Ordinances, Section 86.602) as defined by the RPO could be referenced as one of the requirements to qualify for streamlining. Updates to the RPO are intended to support clear and transparent requirements to facilitate streamlining while retaining environmental protections and local standards. Updates to the RPO could include revising definitions where appropriate, modifying applicability provisions, and proposing ordinance revisions needed to meet the project’s objectives (i.e., simplify requirements, facilitate more objective approvals for housing while protecting sensitive environmental resources). The project aims to identify an approach to standardize and codify objective requirements that can support impact avoidance (e.g., biological, archaeological, and Native American monitoring) to allow more projects to qualify for streamlined processing. Changes to RPO are not intended to reduce or remove existing environmental resource protections.

The project would establish a clear, objective, streamlined process for approving certain housing projects that qualify. Additionally, the By-Right Housing Program would establish a by-right pathway for projects complying with state law. These pathways for projects on eligible sites means replacing the current requirements the County has for discretionary review (and subsequent CEQA review) and substituting with an objective and standardized approach that does not rely on project merits or staff discretion. On the application and entitlement side, this could affect the Site Plan Review process, resulting in an existing discretionary process becoming ministerial in certain situations. A streamlined process would be defined to secure entitlements, allowing qualifying projects to proceed to obtain building, grading, engineering, and other necessary permits for construction without further discretionary review. For projects subject to the Subdivision Map Act, the project would aim to maximize streamlining opportunities, recognizing the map process is discretionary.

Submitting Comments

At this time, the County is soliciting comments on the NOP regarding your views on how the project may affect the environment. This information will be considered when preparing the EIR’s discussion of environmental topics, significant effects, mitigation measures, and alternatives. Because of time limits mandated by state law, comments should be provided no later than April 9, 2026 (the end of the 30‑day comment period, which starts on March 10, 2026).

Comments on the NOP must be sent to the County Planning & Development Services via email or to the address listed below and should reference the project name (County of San Diego Streamlining Pathways for Housing and Agriculture).

Comment letters may be submitted electronically via email at Makenna.Welsch@sdcounty.ca.gov. The County requests that all comments be provided electronically. If a hard copy submittal is necessary, it may be submitted to:

County of San Diego

Planning & Development Services

Attention: Makenna Welsch

Project Manager

5510 Overland Avenue, Suite 310

San Diego, California 92123