Morgan Miller Blair

In a bit of good news for a struggling industry, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1185 (Lowenthal) into law late Tuesday extending expiring tentative subdivision and parcel maps for one year.  The bill is an “urgency” measure, meaning it became law and took effect immediately.  As a result, the duration of all tentative or vesting tentative subdivision or parcel maps that have not expired by July 15, 2008, and that will expire before January 1, 2011, are automatically extended by one year.  In addition, SB 1185 gives local governments the discretion to extend such maps by another full year, increasing the total length of such agencies’ discretionary extensions from five to six years.

The bill was widely supported by the homebuilding industry as a measure to extend the life of approved projects that otherwise would have lost entitlements due to the downturn in the construction industry and the inability to secure financing that has put such projects in peril.  The Legislature passed similar bills extending the life of subdivision and parcel maps in 1993 and 1996, but those extensions would be unlikely to help maps currently facing expiration.  Subdivision maps that expired prior to July 15, 2008, are not extended, or brought back to life, by the new law.  In such circumstances, a new map would need to be approved by the local agency.

The Subdivision Map Act (Government Code sections 66410 et seq.) provides for the expiration of tentative maps after specified periods of time, but allows for a local agency to grant certain discretionary extensions.  The new extension provided by SB 1185 is in addition to existing extensions.  The statutory language granting the new one-year extension is contained at Government Code section 66452.21.  SB 1185 also provides that any legislative, administrative, or other approval by any state agency that pertains to a development project included in a map extended by the new law shall be concurrently extended by 12 months.  Gov’t Code § 66452.21(c).