El Cajon, CA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Density Bonus Law (2026)

El Cajon Municipal Code Sec. " The chapter's stated purpose ties directly to state law: the city provides incentives to developers building housing affordable to lower income households, moderate-income households, and senior citizens, tracking the framework Sacramento set for density bonus projects statewide. What El Cajon adds locally is a streamlined path for a specific category of project. The code states the approval process for a density bonus project is ordinarily "the same as non-density bonus project with the same number of units," meaning it goes through the standard discretionary review track for a project of that size.

The exception carved out locally is significant: housing developments where 20 percent of the units are affordable to lower income households, built on sites used during the fourth, fifth, and sixth housing element cycles, "shall be approved by-right with a building permit," skipping discretionary hearings entirely. This by-right pathway reflects the city aligning with the state's push, backed by recent amendments to the Government Code density bonus statute, to remove discretionary approval barriers for qualifying affordable projects. 220 is a single, short section; the detailed mechanics of bonus percentages, incentive concessions, and parking reductions for a given project are governed directly by Government Code Sections 65915 through 65918 rather than restated in a longer local ordinance, so an applicant calculating its specific bonus percentage works from the state statute referenced in Sec. 010.