In the last evening of the last legislative session of his governorship, California Governor Jerry Brown signed two bills directed at increasing housing availability in the State. He signed each September 30, 2018 with no instructive message.
Senate Bill 828, proposed by San Francisco Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, requires local governments to report more data to the State in order to determine local housing needs pursuant to the Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) law, including percentages of people spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. The bill sets a minimum target vacancy rate of 5 percent as “healthy.” Areas that fail to meet this goal will need to zone for more housing.
Localities will also be required to zone for housing based on both projected needs and current shortages. Previously, the law only required local governments to zone for projected needs and, therefore, allowed shortages already prevalent in the community to be overlooked. As originally proposed, the bill required localities to zone for 200 percent of projected housing needs in order to boost housing production statewide. However, this figure was reduced to 100 percent in committee review and floor debates.
Developers around the State could see more dense residential zoning in cities that previously had few development opportunities. Opponents of the bill argued that the bill transfers too much planning power away from local governments and into the hands of the State.
Assembly Bill 1771, proposed by Santa Monica Democratic Assemblymember Richard Bloom, amends RHNA requirements by focusing more on job-housing balance metrics. RHNA previously required local governments to plan for an increase of the overall housing supply in a way that includes a mix of housing types and affordability across the region “in an equitable manner.” AB 1771 added that this must be done to “avoid displacement,” increase access of “high opportunity” jobs for low-income residents, and “affirmatively further fair housing.”
Proponents of the bill see it as forcing affluent municipalities to build their fair share of affordable housing. Specifically, the bill represents an effort to force wealthy cities like Beverly Hills and those surrounding San Francisco to plan for additional affordable housing so that existing low-income communities are not solely saddled with the burden of producing more housing.
Both bills support the Legislature’s recent push to use housing supply laws to make it harder for cities to say no to projects that would help alleviate the housing crisis in California.
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Other housing bills that the governor signed include the following
SB 1227 – Provides density bonuses for developments to be occupied by college students
AB 829 — Prohibits any letter of acknowledge requirement for state-assisted projects
AB 2238—Requires LAFCOs to consider regional housing need, fire hazard and other emergencies in project proposals
AB 2372—Allows city or county to award floor area ratio bonus by ordinance, upon developer request
AB 2753 –Requires city or county provide project applicant determination of density and parking bonus
AB 2797— Provides density, parking, and other bonuses be permitted in a manner consistent with the Coastal Act
AB 2923 –BART required to adopt transit oriented development (TOD) standards for each station