republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-970.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Planning and zoning: electric vehicle charging stations: permit application: approval."
description: "Existing law requires a city, county, or city and county to administratively approve an application to install an electric vehicle charging station through the issuance of a building permit or similar nondiscretionary permit subject to a limited review by the building official of that city, county, or city and county. Existing law allows the building official to require the applicant to apply for a use permit if the official finds that the station could have a specific adverse impact upon the public health or safety and prohibits the city, county, or city and county from denying the application for a use permit to install an electric vehicle charging station unless it makes written findings that the proposed installation would have a specific, adverse impact upon the public health or safety, and there is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid the specific, adverse impact."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 970"
citation: "California AB 970 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Planning and zoning: electric vehicle charging stations: permit application: approval."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["McCarty"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 19
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2021-02-18"
last_action: "2021-10-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4a7bdacf-1496-4d6c-9a73-287e602f4d65"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970"
source_hash: "334b371ab1883e2c2172962fe3c9c88e02a9f1295bc3a3f3754a8fa4cfe5f4bf"
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 970 (20212022) — Planning and zoning: electric vehicle charging stations: permit application: approval.

Existing law requires a city, county, or city and county to administratively approve an application to install an electric vehicle charging station through the issuance of a building permit or similar nondiscretionary permit subject to a limited review by the building official of that city, county, or city and county. Existing law allows the building official to require the applicant to apply for a use permit if the official finds that the station could have a specific adverse impact upon the public health or safety and prohibits the city, county, or city and county from denying the application for a use permit to install an electric vehicle charging station unless it makes written findings that the proposed installation would have a specific, adverse impact upon the public health or safety, and there is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid the specific, adverse impact.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/18/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970&version=20210AB97099INT)
2. **04/27/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970&version=20210AB97098AMD)
3. **05/10/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970&version=20210AB97097AMD)
4. **07/13/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970&version=20210AB97096AMD)
5. **10/08/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970&version=20210AB97094CHP)
6. **AB970** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970)
7. **09/09/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB970&version=20210AB97095ENR)

## Votes

- AB 970 McCarty Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **59–11** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB970 McCarty et al. By Gonzalez — **30–9** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended — **4–1** (pass) · upper
- AB 970 McCarty Assembly Third Reading — **66–8** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **8–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- McCarty — primary (person)
- Chiu — author (person)
- Ting — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2021-03-04** Referred to Com. on L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-27** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-28** Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-06** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (May 5). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2021-05-10** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-06-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 66. Noes 8. Page 1711.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-06-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-06-16** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2021-07-12** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (July 8). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2021-07-13** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 30. Noes 9. Page 2359.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-02** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 4 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2021-09-07** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 59. Noes 11. Page 2832.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2021-10-08** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-10-08** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 710, 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/4a7bdacf-1496-4d6c-9a73-287e602f4d65`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).