The Housing Accountability Act (HAA) requires local agencies to approve housing projects that meet objective zoning, general plan, subdivision, and design standards unless there is a specific, adverse impact upon public health and safety that cannot be mitigated. AB 1633 allows applicants to sue local agencies that use CEQA delays to effectively disapprove, render financially infeasible, or downsize a project without having actually voted to do so. Specifically, AB 1633 expands what it means to disapprove housing under the HAA to include: (1) when a local agency fails to make a determination of whether the project is exempt from CEQA, or commits an abuse of discretion in that determination; and (2) when a local agency fails to either require further study or adopt a negative declaration or addendum for the project, certify an EIR, or approve another environmental document for the project, or commits an abuse of discretion in doing so.

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