BILL ANALYSIS
AB 987
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 987 (Ma)
As Amended August 18, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |43-29|(January 27, |SENATE: |21-14|(August 23, |
| | |2010) | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: TRANS.
SUMMARY : Expands the parcels that shall be included in a
transit village development district (TVDD) to all parcels
located within one-half mile of the main entrance of the transit
station.
The Senate amendments :
1)Remove provisions of the measure regarding the deletion of the
vote requirement for the formation of an infrastructure
financing district (IFD).
2)Remove provisions of the measure that are required, if a city,
county, or city and county finances a transit district using
tax increment financing (TIF) collected through an IFD, then
the city, county, or city and county to: a) use at least 20%
of all revenues derived from the TIF to increase, improve, and
preserve the supply of lower- and moderate-income housing
available in the district; and, b) include demonstrable public
benefits regarding housing and provisions for the dedicated
use of bond proceeds to finance certain types of housing.
3)Add chaptering out provisions to avoid conflicts with AB 2509
(Hayashi) if that measure were to become law.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes, under the Transit Village Development Planning Act
of 1994 (Act), a city or county to prepare a TVP for a TVDD
that addresses the following characteristics:
a) A neighborhood centered around a transit station that is
planned and designed so that residents, workers, shoppers,
and others find it convenient and attractive to patronize
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transit;
b) Mix of housing types, including apartments, within not
more than a quarter mile of the exterior boundary of the
parcel on which the transit station is located;
c) Other land uses, including a retail district oriented to
the transit station and civic uses, including day care
centers and libraries;
d) Pedestrian and bicycle access to the transit station,
with attractively designed and landscaped pathways;
e) A transit system that should encourage and facilitate
intermodal service, and access by modes other than single
occupant vehicles;
f) Demonstrable public benefits beyond the increase in
transit usage; and,
g) Sites where a density bonus of at least 25% may be
granted pursuant to specified performance standards.
2)Requires a TVP to include any five public benefits from a list
of 13 specified public benefits.
3)Authorizes cities and counties to create IFDs and issue bonds
to pay for community scale public works: highways, transit,
water systems, sewer projects, flood control, child care
facilities, libraries, parks, and solid waste facilities.
4)Allows an IFD to divert property tax increment revenues from
other local governments, excluding school districts, for up to
30 years, in order to pay back bonds issued by the IFD.
5)Requires that in order to form an IFD a city or county must
develop an infrastructure plan, send copies to every
landowner, consult with other local governments, and hold a
public hearing.
6)Requires that when forming an IFD, local officials must find
that its public facilities are of communitywide significance
and provide significant benefits to an area larger than the
IFD.
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7)Requires that every local agency who will contribute its
property tax increment revenue to the IFD approve the plan.
8)Requires a two-thirds voter approval of the formation of the
IFD and the issuance of bonds.
9)Requires majority voter approval for setting the IFD's
appropriations limits.
10)Specifies that public agencies that own land in a proposed
IFD may not vote on issues regarding the district.
11)Authorizes IFDs to issue a variety of debt instruments,
including bonds, certificates of participation, leases, and
loans.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Expanded the parcels that shall be included in a TVDD to all
parcels located within one-half mile of the main entrance of
the transit station.
2)Specified that an election is not required to form an IFD,
adopt an infrastructure financing plan, or issue bonds.
3)Required, if a city, county, or city and county finances a
transit district using tax increment financing (TIF) collected
through an IFD, then the city, county, or city and county
shall do all of the following:
a) Use at least 20% of all revenues derived from the TIF to
increase, improve, and preserve the supply of lower- and
moderate-income housing available in the district at
affordable housing costs, and occupied by persons and
families of low- or moderate-income, lower- income
households, very low-income households, and extremely
low-income households;
b) Require that the housing units listed above remain
available at affordable housing cost to, and occupied by,
persons and families of low- or moderate-income and
very-low income and extremely-low income households for the
longest feasible time, but not for less than 55 years for
rental units and 45 years for owner-occupied units;
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c) Rehabilitate, develop, or construct, or cause to be
rehabilitated, developed, or constructed, for rental or
sale to persons and families of low- or moderate-income, an
equal number of replacement dwelling units that have an
equal or greater number of bedrooms as the destroyed or
removed units, at affordable housing costs within the
district, and within four years after the destruction or
removal, whenever dwelling units housing persons and
families of low- or moderate-income are destroyed or
removed from the low- and moderate-income housing market as
part of the development of a transit district that is
subject to a written agreement with the city, county, or
city and county, or when financial assistance has been
provided by the city, county, or city and county;
d) Require that the replacement dwelling units be available
at affordable housing cost to and occupied by, persons and
families in the same or a lower-income category as the
persons and families displaced from those destroyed or
removed units;
e) Include in the transit village plan (TVP), as one of the
five demonstrable public benefits, either an increased
stock of affordable housing or live-travel options for
transit-needy groups; and,
f) Include in the TVP provisions on how to implement the
affordable housing requirements added by this measure.
4)Defined "county" to include city and county.
5)Found and declared that TVDDs should be environmentally
conscious and sustainable, and related construction should
meet or exceed the requirements of the California Green
Building Standards Code.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Many local governments and transit agencies
understand the benefits of using transit-oriented development
(TOD) as an urban planning tool to help communities deal with
the possible negative impact of unrestricted growth and sprawl.
Some of these impacts include growing traffic gridlock and
commuting times, the loss of open space, and increased air and
water pollution. Working with local transit agencies, local
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communities are creating strong centralized mixed-use
communities by developing TOD projects that are clustered around
train stations and bus centers. The environment and local
economies are enhanced by TOD, and the publicly supported
transit systems benefit from nearby residents and businesses.
One reason that
communities do not encourage denser, more compact development
around transit stations is the cost of public works needed to
support new residents and businesses. Although this bill does
not create a new funding source for those public works, it
encourages local officials and their planners to take a wider
view of transit village development. By expanding and
redefining the area for transit village planning, this bill
widens the policy horizon.
At the time the Transit Village Development Planning Act was
developed, it was commonly assumed that the maximum distance a
person would walk to access a public transit was a -mile.
However, research published in 2007 by San Jose State
University's Mineta Transportation Institute found that transit
riders walk farther than commonly assumed. Transit riders in
the San Francisco Bay Area walk about -mile to their rail
station. In order to take this in to account this bill expands
the parcels that shall be included in a TVDD to all parcels
located within - mile of the main entrance of the transit
station.
The Legislature has previously passed two measures that were
similar to this one, AB 338 (Ma) of 2009 and AB 1221 (Ma) of
2008). However, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed both of these
measures. He vetoed AB 1221 using the blanket veto message
regarding the delayed Budget and he stated in his veto of AB 338
that he believed that voters should have the right to vote on
the creation of an IFD. This measure however, does not include
any provisions regarding IFDs.
Support arguments: TOD encourages local residents to live near
and use mass transit and helps communities deal with the
potential negative impacts of unrestricted growth and sprawl,
growing traffic gridlock and commuting times. Supporters argue
that expanding the scope of the TVDD allows a broader group of
potential transit riders to be included in the original planning
process.
Opposition arguments: Opposition could say that by expanding
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the scope of the area included in a TVDD this quadruples the
number of acres included and currently officials lack the money
to finance the public works that support a transit village
therefore how will they pay for infrastructure within transit
village planning areas that could be four times larger?
Analysis Prepared by : Katie Kolitsos / L. GOV. / (916)
319-3958
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