BILL ANALYSIS 1
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| SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER |
| Senator Darrell Steinberg, Chair |
| 2007-2008 Regular Session |
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BILL NO: AB 1252 HEARING DATE: July 10, 2007
AUTHOR: Caballero and Garcia URGENCY: No
VERSION: July 9, 2007 CONSULTANT: Marie Liu
FISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Housing-Related Parks Program
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
In November 2006, the voters approved the Housing and Emergency
Shelter Trust Fund Act (Proposition 1C), which authorized the
sale of $200 million in general obligation bonds, to be
deposited in the Housing Urban-Suburban-and-Rural Parks Account.
Funds in this account are to be used to provide housing-related
parks in urban, suburban, and rural areas, subject to the
conditions and direction provided by the Legislature in statute.
Article 10.6 (commencing with Section 65580) of Chapter 3 of
Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code, establishes the
development of a housing element in local land use planning. The
purpose of the housing element is to assure that cities and
counties will recognize their responsibilities in helping the
state reach its housing goal, and thus will prepare and
implement housing element accordingly. In preparing its housing
element, Section 65585 requires each local jurisdiction to
consider the guidelines adopted by the Department of Housing and
Community Development (HCD).
PROPOSED LAW
This bill would establish the Housing-Related Park Program for
the purpose of providing incentive grants to park-deficient
communities that have issued building permits for very-low and
low-income affordable housing. Specifically, this bill would:
Require HCD, in conjunction with the Department of Parks and
Recreation (DPR) to provide a grant to any city, county, or
city and county that:
o Is a park-deficient community according to
criteria established by DPR.
o Has adopted an HCD-approved housing element
and has submitted its annual progress report within
the previous 12 months.
o Has issued a building permit for a housing
development that consists of newly constructed units
that are affordable to low- or very low income
households within a designated time period and will be
kept as an affordable unit for at least 55 years if it
is a rental property and 20 years if it is ownership
housing.
Require that HCD issue a Notice of Funding Availability for
each year that funds are available.
Require that grant amounts be determined as a per-bedroom
incentive with a higher incentive rate for very-low income
units compared to low-income units.
Allow HCD to give bonus funds to qualifying jurisdictions
that:
o Have a high need for park renovation or park
acreage, as determined by DPR.
o Permit the affordable households in infill
housing projects.
o Have met or exceeded housing production
thresholds.
Define infill as a project
located within an urbanized area or a vacant site where at
least two adjoining sides of the project site are developed
for urban use.
Require that grants be used
to create, develop, or rehabilitate community or neighborhood
parks that meet minimum park standards established by DPR.
Exempt the development of
this program's guidelines from the Office of Administrative
Law's review and approval process.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
According to the author, "AB 1252 seeks to reward
parks-deficient communities that are stepping up and providing
the affordable housing that California so desperately needs. The
bill provides these communities with the funds they need to
expand access to parks while also rewarding them for taking
seriously their obligation to provide housing for all economic
segments of the community."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received.
COMMENTS
Modeled after the Workforce Housing Reward Program: Under the
last housing bond, Proposition 46 of 2002, HCD administered a
program known as the Workforce Housing Reward Program (WHRP)
which provided infrastructure grants to cities and counties that
issued building permits for the new construction of affordable
housing units. While local governments could use the grants for
any capital expenditure, roughly 25% of the funds were used for
park improvements. This program no longer has funding available.
The program established by this bill is almost identical to the
WHRP but has a few differences. First, grant funds may only be
used for park improvements. Second, local governments may
receive bonus awards if they have a high need for a park and if
the affordable housing is built in an infill location. Third,
HCD and DPR are co-administrators.
Designated time period? To be eligible for the incentive grants
under this program, the jurisdiction must have issued permits
for the building of low- and very low income households within
the "designated time period." However, the bill does not define
the designated time period. The committee may wish to have the
author clarify the intent of this phrase.
Infill provisions : This bill uses a definition of infill that
includes developments where only two sides of the project are
developed for urban uses, which may allow the developments on
the edge of an urban area to be considered "infill."
Additionally, since this program is to distribute grant funds to
urban, suburban, and rural areas, so it may be inappropriate to
offer a bonus for a criterion that only is appropriate for urban
and suburban jurisdictions. The committee should consider
deleting the bonus funds for infill development. (see amendment
1)
How will HCD and DPR coordinate their efforts?: This bill allows
HCD to enter into an interagency agreement with DPR to assist in
the administration of the program. Because it is important to
both the housing community and the parks community that the
Proposition 1C money be spent in a manner that is equally
responsive to affordable housing and park needs, the committee
should consider moving the lead responsibility of this program
away from HCD and DPR individually and instead place the
responsibility with an interagency council, at least between the
Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency and the Resources
Agency. Councils, when operated in a manner that actively
involves high-level agency leadership, such as in the Ocean
Protection Council, have successfully resulted in interagency
cooperation and communication.
Repetitive criteria for park needs : In order to be eligible for
an incentive grant under this bill, the applicant must be a
park-deficient community. However, this bill also gives bonus
funds to jurisdictions with a high need for park renovation or
park acreage. It is unclear why a jurisdiction should receive
bonus funds for meeting an eligibility requirement. The
committee should consider deleting the bonus funds for
jurisdictions with high park needs. (see amendment 2)
Definition of park-deficient? : In competitive programs, the
Legislature has given DPR some discretion in how to define
whether a community is park deficient. However, because this
program is not competitive, DPR does not have the ability to use
other applications as a point of reference in determining park
deficiencies. Thus, given that this bill creates an incentive,
rather than a competitive program, the committee should consider
directing the author to establish a more detailed definition of
a "park-deficient community," possibly with a definition that
was used in a past park program.
Minimum park standards : Because this program would award a
qualifying jurisdiction money to build a park in a
park-deficient neighborhood of its choice, the committee should
consider whether it would be appropriate for this bill to
specify more guidelines regarding minimum park standards to
ensure the development of quality parks.
Related legislation : Earlier this year, this committee passed
Senate Bill 732 (Steinberg). SB 732 also aims to allocate the
$200 million made available in Proposition 1C's
urban-suburban-rural account. The guidelines for distributing
these funds on a competitive basis would be made by an
inter-agency council called the Sustainable Communities Council.
While both SB 732 and this bill take different approaches in
awarding Proposition 1C funds, both authors recognize that the
allocating grant program must meet both the needs of affordable
housing and parks. Should the committee choose to move this bill
forward, Senator Steinberg and Assemblymember Caballero have
agreed to work together to create one program that equally
supports affordable housing and parks.
The committee may wish to direct Steinberg and Caballero to
develop more detailed park criteria during these negotiations.
SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS
AMENDMENT 1
In section 50702(c), delete (B) and delete the following
phrase "For the purposes of this program, a qualifying
infill project shall be located within an urbanized
area?For the purposes of this program, an urbanized area or
an urban cluster is as defined by the United States Census
Bureau."
AMENDMENT 2
In section 50702(c), delete (A) inclusively.
SUPPORT
California Association of Councils of Governments
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
County of Los Angeles
Department of Housing and Community Development
Western Center on Law and Poverty
OPPOSITION
None Received