October 10, 2024

Throughout the 2023-2024 Legislative Session, CSAC has kept you informed about key legislative developments. With Governor Newsom’s final actions now complete, CSAC will be publishing a series of articles highlighting new laws and vetoed bills in each policy area. This week, our focus is on Housing, Land Use and Transportation, covering the impact of newly enacted and vetoed legislation on CEQA, Mitigation Fees, Housing and more.

Housing:

AB 653 (Reyes) Public housing authorities: reports. The bill will require all public housing authorities to report specified data, including their monthly success rates as of the first of each month to the Department of the Housing and Community Development (HCD) beginning on July 1, 2025, and annually thereafter. Additionally, the bill would require HCD to convene a group of housing authorities to discuss factors that impact success rates and recommendations for state and local intervention and require HCD, in consultation with participants in the Housing Choice Voucher program and other stakeholders to publicly publish a report with recommendations for state and local interventions to improve success rates.

AB 2240 (Arambula) Farm labor centers: migratory agricultural workers. The bill will require HCD by January 1, 2026, to engage and solicit feedback from specified stakeholders on the definition of ”migratory agricultural worker” for the purposes of updating the definition. The bill also requires HCD, by January 1, 2027, to submit a report to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and the Senate Housing Committee and publish the report on its web site, which analyzes the feasibility and impact of transitioning housing units at Office of Migrant Services (OMS) centers to year-round availability. 

SB 1077 (Blakespear) Coastal resources: local coastal program: amendments: accessory and junior accessory dwelling units. The bill requires the California Coastal Commission by July 1, 2026, in coordination with HCD to develop and provide guidance for local governments to facilitate the preparation of amendments to a local coastal program (LCP) to clarify and simplify the permitting process for accessory dwelling units (ADU) and junior accessory dwelling units (JADU) in the coastal zone.

RHNA/HE

AB 1886 (Alvarez) Housing Element Law: substantial compliance: Housing Accountability Act.   This bill clarifies that a Housing Element or amendment is not considered substantially compliant with Housing Element Law until the local agency has adopted a Housing Element that HCD has determined is in substantial compliance with Housing Element Law.

AB 1893 (Wicks) Housing Accountability Act: housing disapprovals: required local findings. The bill specifies that a local government may not disapprove a ”Builder’s Remedy project” if the local government’s Housing Element was not in substantial compliance with the HAA on the date the Builder’s Remedy project application was deemed complete.

AB 3093 (Ward) Land use: housing element. The bill creates two new income categories, Acutely Low Income (ALI) and Extremely Low Income (ELI), in the Regional Housing Needs Determination (RHND), Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), and Housing Element Law.

Mitigation Fees

SB 937 (Wiener) Development projects: fees and charges. The bill prohibits the local agency from requiring the payment of development fees or charges until the date the first certificate of occupancy or temporary certificate of occupancy is issued, whichever occurs first.  However, this does not apply if construction on the residential development does not begin within five years of the date the local agency issues the building permit.

AB 1820 (Schiavo) Housing development projects: applications: fees and exactions. The bill establishes a process through which development proponents can request preliminary project fee and exaction estimates when submitting a preliminary application, and receive a final good faith estimate of all fees and exactions related to the project after final approval, within a specified timeframe.

AB 3177 (Carrillo) Mitigation Fee Act: land dedications: mitigating vehicular traffic impacts. This bill prevents local agencies from imposing land dedication requirements on new housing developments in transit priority areas to widen a roadway for vehicular traffic purposes, or for achieving a desired roadway width, with certain exemptions.

Land Use:

General Plans

AB 98 (Carrillo) Planning and zoning: logistics use: truck routes. This new law seeks to limit new warehouses, specifically, commencing January 1, 2026, this bill prohibits cities and counties from approving new or expanded logistics uses unless they meet specified standards, and requires cities and counties to update their circulation elements to include truck routes. The bill establishes the following requirements for buffers:

• Any new logistics use facility (defined as to mean a building in which cargo, goods, or products are moved or stored for later distribution to business or retail customers, or both, that does not predominantly serve retail customers for onsite purchases, and heavy-duty trucks are primarily involved in the movement of the cargo, goods, or products, with specified exceptions) that is within 900 feet of a sensitive receptor (defined as to mean a residence, school, daycare facility, recreational facilities primarily used by children, nursing homes and similar facilities, and hospitals) must include a buffer that fully screens all adjacent sensitive receptors and include a solid decorative wall, landscaped berm and wall, or landscaped berm 10 or more feet in height, drought tolerant natural ground landscaping with proper irrigation, and specified types of trees (excluding palm trees) planted in two rows along the length of the property line with specified spacing.  The buffer must meet the following widths, measured from the property line of all adjacent sensitive receptors:
  • 50 feet if the logistics use is located in an industrial area; or
  • 100 feet if the logistics use is located in a non-industrial area.

AB 1889 (Friedman) Conservation element: wildlife and habitat connectivity. The bill requires the Conservation Element of a local General Plan to consider the impact of development on the movement of wildlife and habitat connectivity. The bill requires a city or county, upon the next revision of one or more General Plan elements on or after January 1, 2028, to update the Conservation Element to, among other things, identify and analyze wildlife passage features to ensure that planned development does not undermine the effectiveness of those features.

AB 2684 (Bryan) Safety element: extreme heat. The bill requires a city or county to update the Safety Element of its General Plan to address the hazard of extreme heat upon the next revision of one or more elements of the General Plan on or after January 1, 2028.

Zoning & Allowed Uses

AB 2371 (Carrillo) Electrified security fences. This bill generally prohibits, until January 1, 2028, cities and counties from prohibiting the installation and operation of an electrified security fence on specified industrial, manufacturing, or specified commercial property, or from requiring a permit or approval for such fences when the fence is compliant with specified requirements for electrified security fences, except that a city or county may require an administrative permit confirming that the electrified security fence meets statutory standards when the fence is on a property that abuts a property in residential use, or is within 300 feet of a public park, childcare facility, recreation center, community center, or school facility.

AB 2427 (McCarty) Electric vehicle charging stations: permitting: curbside charging. The bill requires local agencies to undertake specified actions regarding the permitting of electric vehicle charging stations in the public right-of-way, and adds specified information to the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Permitting Guidebook developed by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). Specifically, the bill requires GO-Biz to develop a model permitting checklist, model zoning ordinances, and best practices for permit costs and permit review timelines to help local governments permit curbside charging stations as part of the office’s development of the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Permitting Guidebook or any subsequent updates. The bill would also require the office to consult with local governments, electric vehicle service providers, and utilities while developing the above-described materials.

AB 2632 (Wilson) Planning and zoning: thrift retail stores. The bill prohibits local agencies, which is defined to include cities, charter cities, and counties, from treating a thrift retail store differently from a non-thrift retail store. Specifically, the bill:

• Provides that local agencies cannot treat thrift stores differently for purposes of zoning, development standards, including, but not limited to, height, size, parking requirements, or setbacks from adjacent uses or permitting. A local agency may require thrift retail stores meet certain aesthetic or design standards, including design review approval, provided those standards or design review, or both, are also required of non-thrift retail stores; and
• Prohibits local agencies from prohibiting thrift retail store from receiving used and donated items for sale in the store or other thrift retail stores, or reuse or recycling, or both reuse or recycling through other means.

AB 2904 (Quirk-Silva) Zoning ordinances: notice. The bill requires local governments to provide at least a 20 days notice before the required public hearing on a proposed zoning ordinance or amendment to the zoning ordinance, if the proposed ordinance or amendment affects the permitted uses of real property.

SB 1418 (Archuleta) Hydrogen-fueling stations: expedited review. The bill requires every city and county to adopt an ordinance that creates an expedited, streamlined permitting process for hydrogen-fueling stations, in consultation with the local fire department or district and the utility director, if the city or county operates a utility. This requirement applies only to the hydrogen-fueling stations that are eligible for nondiscretionary permitting under existing law.  In developing this ordinance, the city or county must refer to the recommendations contained in the permitting guidebooks produced by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), and may modify them based on unique climate, geological, seismological, or topographical conditions.

CEQA

AB 2199 (Berman) California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: residential or mixed-use housing projects. The bill extends the January 1, 2025, sunset on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption for multi-family residential and mixed-use housing projects on infill sites in unincorporated areas until January 1, 2032, and excludes projects that may cause a substantial adverse impact to tribal cultural resources.

AB 3057 (Wilson) California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: junior accessory dwelling units ordinances. The bill expands an existing California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption for city or county adoption of an ordinance to facilitate accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to also include adoption of an ordinance facilitating junior ADUs (JADUs).

SB 1395 (Becker) Shelter crisis: Low Barrier Navigation Center: use by right: building standards. The bill extends the sunset on authorized emergency housing under the Shelter Crisis Act (SCA) to January 1, 2036. The bill allows actions related to contracting for services for a homeless shelter under the SCA to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), eliminates the sunset for by-right approval of low barrier navigation centers and exempts from CEQA certain actions by local agencies related to low barrier navigation centers, and clarifies that state programs subject to “Housing First” includes programs that fund emergency shelters and interim housing.

Transportation

SB 768 (Caballero) California Environmental Quality Act: Department of Housing and Community Development: vehicle miles traveled: study. The bill tasks HCD, in consultation with local governments and other interested parties to conduct a study on how vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is used as a metric for measuring transportation impacts of housing projects pursuant to CEQA.  

SB 960 (Wiener) Transportation: planning: complete streets facilities: transit priority facilities. This bill requires Caltrans to include complete streets assets in its asset management plan, system highway management plan, and in the plain language performance report for the state highway operation and protection program (SHOPP). This bill also requires Caltrans to develop and adopt transit priority policy and guidelines, and requires them to commit to specific 4-year targets to incorporate complete streets facilities in the SHOPP.

Public Works

 AB 1957 (Wilson) Public contracts: best value construction contracting for counties. This bill extends best value contracting to allow all counties to attract a more qualified and stronger contractor bidding pool, reduce bad actors during the contractor selection process, and increase the percentage of skilled craftworkers on county construction projects while reducing the otherwise contentious relationships fostered under the traditional low-bid process. This bill gives counties the ability to select the contractor with skill sets directly applicable to the requirements of the project.