republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20132014/ab-1537.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "General plan housing element: regional housing need."
description: "The Planning and Zoning Law requires each city, county, or city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan for its jurisdiction that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. That law requires the housing element to, among other things, include an inventory of land suitable for residential development and make adequate provision for the existing and projected needs of all economic segments of the community. That law prescribes the densities appropriate to accommodate housing for lower income households and varies those densities depending upon how an area is classified, whether as metropolitan, suburban, or in another category. A city, county, or city and county is required to submit a draft housing element or draft amendment to its housing element to the Department of Housing and Community Development for a determination of whether the draft substantially complies with state law governing housing elements."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20132014"
identifier: "AB 1537"
citation: "California AB 1537 (20132014)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["General plan housing element: regional housing need."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Levine"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 28
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2014-01-22"
last_action: "2014-09-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d498ddbd-2a17-4d9d-a19b-4e80ca7fa5f4"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537"
source_hash: "c8e198ea40831890d66a81a308dbcad24b9c2b352a37d735b2a24cf89c06016f"
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 1537 (20132014) — General plan housing element: regional housing need.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires each city, county, or city and county to prepare and adopt a general plan for its jurisdiction that contains certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. That law requires the housing element to, among other things, include an inventory of land suitable for residential development and make adequate provision for the existing and projected needs of all economic segments of the community. That law prescribes the densities appropriate to accommodate housing for lower income households and varies those densities depending upon how an area is classified, whether as metropolitan, suburban, or in another category. A city, county, or city and county is required to submit a draft housing element or draft amendment to its housing element to the Department of Housing and Community Development for a determination of whether the draft substantially complies with state law governing housing elements.

## Version chain

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

1. **01/22/14 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537&version=20130AB153799INT)
2. **04/21/14 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537&version=20130AB153798AMD)
3. **08/12/14 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537&version=20130AB153797AMD)
4. **08/19/14 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537&version=20130AB153796AMD)
5. **09/30/14 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537&version=20130AB153794CHP)
6. **AB1537** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537)
7. **08/26/14 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1537&version=20130AB153795ENR)

## Votes

- AB 1537 LEVINE Assembly Third Reading — **62–4** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **8–1** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB1537 Levine By Evans — **29–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1537 LEVINE Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **69–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Local Government. — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Levine — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2014-01-22** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2014-01-23** From printer. May be heard in committee February 22.
- **2014-01-30** Referred to Coms. on H. & C.D. and L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2014-04-09** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2014-04-21** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-04-22** Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2014-04-24** Assembly Rule 56 suspended. (Page 4575.)
- **2014-04-24** (pending re-referral to the Com. on L. GOV.)
- **2014-04-30** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on L. GOV. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 30). Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. `committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2014-05-01** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (April 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2014-05-14** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 14). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2014-05-15** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-05-19** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 62. Noes 4. Page 5009.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2014-05-19** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2014-05-28** Referred to Com. on T. & H. `referral-committee`
- **2014-06-25** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 1.) (June 24). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2014-08-04** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2014-08-11** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and be amended. `committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2014-08-12** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2014-08-19** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2014-08-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-08-21** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 29. Noes 1. Page 4712.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2014-08-21** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 23 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2014-08-22** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 6347.)
- **2014-08-22** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 69. Noes 0. Page 6348.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2014-09-05** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2014-09-30** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2014-09-30** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 875, Statutes of 2014.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d498ddbd-2a17-4d9d-a19b-4e80ca7fa5f4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).