---
type: "Bill"
title: "Planning and zoning: general plan: safety element."
description: "The Planning and Zoning Law requires the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city and of any land outside its boundaries that bears a relation to its planning. Existing law requires the general plan to include a safety element that addresses, among other things, evacuation routes related to identified fire and geologic hazards. Existing law, upon the next revision of a local hazard mitigation plan on or after January 1, 2022, or beginning on or before January 1, 2022, if a local jurisdiction has not adopted a local hazard mitigation plan, requires the safety element to be reviewed and updated as necessary to identify evacuation routes and their capacity, safety, and viability under a range of emergency scenarios."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 1409"
citation: "California AB 1409 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Planning and zoning: general plan: safety element."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Levine"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 22
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-19"
last_action: "2021-10-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/30c80d5f-2475-43fc-910e-38935bb10eb9"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1409"
source_hash: "ca823f36529bcef8cfff41887478785885ab4933845a057c30bfd53164b780a0"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1409 (20212022) — Planning and zoning: general plan: safety element.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city and of any land outside its boundaries that bears a relation to its planning. Existing law requires the general plan to include a safety element that addresses, among other things, evacuation routes related to identified fire and geologic hazards. Existing law, upon the next revision of a local hazard mitigation plan on or after January 1, 2022, or beginning on or before January 1, 2022, if a local jurisdiction has not adopted a local hazard mitigation plan, requires the safety element to be reviewed and updated as necessary to identify evacuation routes and their capacity, safety, and viability under a range of emergency scenarios.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/19/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1409&version=20210AB140999INT)
2. **10/04/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1409&version=20210AB140997CHP)
3. **AB1409** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1409)
4. **09/01/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1409&version=20210AB140998ENR)

## Votes

- AB 1409 Levine Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Emergency Management] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar AB1409 — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Levine — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-02-19** Introduced. To print. `introduction`
- **2021-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2021-02-22** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2021-03-11** Referred to Coms. on L. GOV. and E.M. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on E.M. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 14). Re-referred to Com. on E.M. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-20** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (April 19). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-21** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-21** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. pursuant to Joint Rule 10.5. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-28** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 28). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-29** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-06** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1338.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-06** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-19** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-17** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 17). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-30** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2021-07-15** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2021-08-16** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-08-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 2239.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-08-31** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2021-09-07** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2021-10-04** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-10-04** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 481, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/30c80d5f-2475-43fc-910e-38935bb10eb9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).