June 23, 2016

General Plans
SB 1000 (Leyva) – Support
As Amended on June 20, 2016

CSAC took a support position on SB 1000 this week after the author agreed to accept our proposed amendments. The bill now requires the incorporation of either an environmental justice element or related policies upon the next General Plan update (adoption or revision of two or more elements) on or after January 1, 2018. Previously, each county would have had to adopt an entirely new environmental justice element upon the revision of their housing element. The recent amendments also clarify that a county with existing policies that substantially comply with SB 1000’s criteria can use those policies to comply with the new mandate. Finally, the author also accepted amendments that more clearly define the communities that must be covered by the environmental justice element or related policies. 

Second Unit Bills
SB 1069 (Wieckowski) – Oppose Unless Amended
AB 2299 (Bloom) – Oppose Unless Amended

CSAC has continued to negotiate with proponents of two separate bills that would recast state law related to the permitting of second units on residentially zoned land. CSAC is advocating for continuing the current framework, which requires counties to ministerially approve second unit applications consistent with the standards in state law when they do not have an ordinance. AB 2299 would discard this and require every city or county to adopt a second unit ordinance. Both of the bills include overly-broad prohibitions on local parking standards. CSAC is advocating for precluding off-street parking requirements only when a development is close to high-quality transit. CSAC also opposes two key provisions of SB 1069- problematic timeframes for the review of second unit applications and local fee restrictions that could impose unfunded costs of sewer and water providers. CSAC will continue to push on the issues as the authors work to combine their bills, both of which the Governor endorsed in his May budget revision.   

Density Bonus
AB 2501 (Bloom) – Pending
As proposed to be amended

CSAC may be able to remove its opposition on AB 2501, which is related to density bonus law for housing projects that include affordable units, if pending amendments are accepted by the author. The bill previously would have given developers an upper hand by unreasonably limiting the information a county could request about the concessions requested for a project eligible for density bonus. As originally introduced, the bill appeared to have made it difficult or impossible for a county to deny any concession that resulted in cost savings to the developer. The amendments specify that a county can request reasonable documentation related to an incentive or concession and maintain a link between the value of a concession in reducing the cost of development  to provide for the costs of including affordable housing.