Relating to: exempting persons engaged in certain contract research services from the sales and use tax. (FE)

Note on an inconsistency
- The Bill Information header you provided (title about a sales & use tax exemption for contract research services) does not match the text in the documents you supplied. The documents you supplied are for AB 670 (author: Quirk‑Silva) amending Government Code §65400 to change annual planning/housing element reporting and crediting of converted affordable units. This summary covers the documents you provided (the housing/planning bill), not the unrelated sales‑tax bill title in your header.

AB 670 (Quirk‑Silva) — Summary
Purpose and intent
- Strengthen and standardize annual reporting by local planning agencies on general plan and housing element implementation, with additional tracking of new housing, demolished units, replacement housing, and conversions of existing multifamily units to long‑term affordable housing. Improve state oversight and data used to evaluate local progress toward regional housing goals.

Key provisions and changes
- Amends Government Code §65400 to expand the annual report required of each city/county planning agency.
- Reporting recipients: legislative body, Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, and Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
- Effective reporting timeline: New reporting items required beginning with the report due April 1, 2027.
- New/expanded required data (selected highlights):
- Additional details on units of new housing, units demolished, and a report on replacement housing units (including whether applications are subject to replacement housing or relocation assistance obligations under local, state, or federal law — e.g., §65583.2, §65915, §66300.6).
- Whether each housing development application is subject to ministerial or discretionary approval.
- Expanded breakdowns of units approved/disapproved by income categories (including acutely low, extremely low, very low, lower, moderate, above‑moderate) and by “opportunity area” per the most recent CTCAC/HCD Opportunity Map.
- Authorization to include in the housing‑element report units in existing multifamily buildings that were converted to affordable housing via long‑term affordability covenants (requiring availability to low, very low, extremely low, or acutely low income households at affordable rent/cost for at least 55 years), if certain criteria are met.
- Administrative detail: The housing element portion of the annual report must use standards, forms, and definitions adopted by HCD; such standards/forms are exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act’s Chapter 3.5.
- Conditional text: The bill incorporates additional changes proposed by AB 726 to §65400 only if both AB 670 and AB 726 are enacted and AB 670 is enacted last.

Who is affected
- Local governments and planning agencies: increased data collection and reporting responsibilities.
- Departments and state oversight bodies: HCD and Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation will receive more granular local data for monitoring and enforcement.
- Developers and property owners: applications will be reported with more detail (approval process, replacement/relocation obligations); conversions of multifamily units to long‑term affordable units may be credited in local housing element inventories if they meet the 55‑year affordability standard and other criteria.
- Low‑income households: the bill recognizes conversions that preserve or create deeply affordable units (with a 55‑year covenant) for specified income tiers.

Timeline and procedural status (from provided record)
- Legislative timeline shows committee referrals and floor actions during 2025.
- Governor approved and chaptered: October 13, 2025 (Chapter 701, Statutes of 2025).
- Key implementation date in statute: reporting changes take effect for the annual report due April 1, 2027.
- Fiscal notes: Appropriation: No; Fiscal Committee: Yes (i.e., received fiscal review).

Potential impacts and considerations
- Increased reporting burden and data collection costs for local planning agencies, particularly for tracking income‑tier breakdowns, demolished/replacement units, and long‑term affordability covenants.
- Greater transparency and comparability across jurisdictions for state monitoring of housing element progress and preservation/creation of affordable housing.
- Clarifies conditions under which conversions of existing multifamily units to deed‑restricted affordable units (with long‑term covenants of at least 55 years) can be counted in housing element inventories — potentially incentivizing preservation/conversion strategies that secure long affordability periods.
- Conditional linkage to AB 726 means some changes may be operational only if legislative sequencing conditions are met.

If you want
- I can extract the full list of new report fields added by each subparagraph, or provide a short checklist local planning agencies could use to prepare for the April 1, 2027 reporting changes.