BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1096
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 16, 2007
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Loni Hancock, Chair
AB 1096 (DeVore) - As Amended: March 27, 2007
SUBJECT : California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA):
agricultural, affordable and urban infill housing projects.
SUMMARY : Exempts from CEQA, until 2013, any agricultural
housing, affordable housing, or urban infill housing.
EXISTING LAW :
1)CEQA requires lead agencies with the principal responsibility
for carrying out or approving a proposed project to prepare a
negative declaration, mitigated declaration, or environmental
impact report (EIR) for this action, unless the project is
exempt from CEQA (CEQA includes various statutory exemptions,
as well as categorical exemptions in the CEQA guidelines).
(AB 889 (Knox), Chapter 154, Statutes of 1972, as amended)
2)Exempts specified residential housing projects which meet
extensive criteria established to ensure the project does not
have a significant effect on the environment. The exemption
is available to:
a. affordable agricultural housing projects not more
than 45 units within a city, or 20 units within an
agricultural zone, on a site not more than five acres in
size;
b. affordable urban housing projects not more than 100
units on a site not more than five acres in size; and,
c. urban infill housing projects not more than 100
units on a site not more than four acres in size which is
within one-half mile of a major transit stop.
(SB 1925 (Sher), Chapter 1039, Statutes of 2002)
3)Requires local agencies to file notice of the SB 1925
exemptions with the Office of Planning and Research (OPR),
however, failure to file this notice does not affect the
validity of the project. (AB 677 (Firebaugh), Chapter 677,
Statutes of 2003)
THIS BILL exempts from CEQA, until 2013, any agricultural
housing, affordable housing, or urban infill housing.
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FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Background - General
CEQA provides a process for evaluating the environmental
effects of applicable projects undertaken or approved by
public agencies. If a project is not exempt from CEQA, an
initial study is prepared to determine whether the project may
have a significant effect on the environment. If the initial
study shows that there would not be a significant effect on
the environment, the lead agency must prepare a negative
declaration. If the initial study shows that the project may
have a significant effect on the environment, the lead agency
must prepare an EIR.
Generally, an EIR must accurately describe the proposed
project, identify and analyze each significant environmental
impact expected to result from the proposed project, identify
mitigation measures to reduce those impacts to the extent
feasible, and evaluate a range of reasonable alternatives to
the proposed project. Prior to approving any project that has
received environmental review, an agency must make certain
findings. If mitigation measures are required or incorporated
into a project, the agency must adopt a reporting or
monitoring program to ensure compliance with those measures.
If a mitigation measure would cause one or more significant
effects in addition to those that would be caused by the
proposed project, the effects of the mitigation measure must
be discussed but in less detail than the significant effects
of the proposed project.
2)Background - Specific
SB 1925, enacted in 2002, exempts from CEQA certain
residential projects providing affordable urban or
agricultural housing, or located on an infill site within an
urbanized area, and meeting specified unit and acreage
criteria. The stated intent of the Legislature in enacting
those provisions included "creating a streamlined procedure
for agricultural employee housing, affordable housing, and
urban infill housing projects that do not have an adverse
AB 1096
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effect on the environment."
AB 677, enacted in 2003, requires a local agency or specified
person, when the local agency determines that a project is
exempt from CEQA for certain reasons, and it approves or
determines to carry out the project, to file notice of the
determination with the OPR. According to OPR, it has received
just one notice of exemption pursuant to the SB 1925
provisions as of January 2007. However, this does not provide
a complete picture of the use of exemptions, either under SB
1925 or existing categorical exemptions, for at least two
reasons. First, failure to file a notice of exemption with
OPR does not affect the validity of the project, so there's
little incentive to file and, perhaps, a lack of recognition
of the need to file. Second, notices of exemptions obtained
under other provisions of CEQA don't need to be filed with OPR
unless a state agency permit is required. Purely local
projects file only with the appropriate County Clerk.
3)Need for the Bill
According to the author, "capital for the construction of much
needed agricultural employee housing and urban infill housing
projects should be expended on construction, rather than on
items that do not result in shelter. For this reason, and
given the results of AB 677 have shown that?SB 1925 has not,
in fact, resulted in the appreciable construction of shelter,
it is the intent of the Legislature to declare a 'CEQA
holiday' (per this bill). Nothing in this bill would prohibit
or impede the regular zoning and construction approval
authority of local permitting authorities."
4)A More Modest Proposal?
The author and the committee may wish to consider amending
this bill to eliminate the new CEQA exemption and instead
require OPR to study and report on the conditions in
affordable housing development affecting the use of the
existing SB 1925 exemptions.
5)Prior Legislation
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SB 832 (Perata, 2005) proposed to expand the SB 1925 urban
infill exemption from 100 units/four acres to 200-300 units/10
acres in a city over 200,000, if approved by the city council
(otherwise applicable minimum city size is 100,000). SB 832
was held on the Assembly Floor and later amended to address an
unrelated subject.
6)Related Legislation
AB 872 (Davis), pending in this committee, exempts "urban infill
affordable housing" projects less than 300 units from CEQA.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Apartment Association
Opposition
Sierra Club California
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092