BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1975
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1975 (Fong)
As Amended April 7, 2010
Majority vote
WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 13-0
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|Ayes:|Huffman, Fuller, Bill |
| |Berryhill, Arambula, Tom |
| |Berryhill, Blumenfield, |
| |Caballero, Ruskin, |
| |Fletcher, Bonnie |
| |Lowenthal, Salas, Yamada, |
| |Fong |
| | |
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SUMMARY : Requires water submetering on multiunit structures.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires multiunit residential structures or mixed use
residential and commercial structures that are permitted after
January 1, 2011, to add, as a condition of new service, water
meters or submeters that measure the water supplied to each
individual unit.
2)Requires the owner or operator of a multiunit residential
structure to charge tenants for water and sewer based on
actual water usage.
3)Limits the amount of administrative fees and late payment fees
the landowner may charge for reading meters or submeters and
collecting water and sewer service payments.
4)Creates an exception to the metering requirement where
individual unit metering is infeasible.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires urban water suppliers that do not get water from the
federal Central Valley Project to install water meters on all
municipal and industrial service connections and to charge
each customer based on actual volume of water delivered.
AB 1975
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2)Each water corporation with 500 or more service connections
that is not already subject to water metering requirements
under the existing Water Measurement Law must currently
install a water meter on each new service connection and must
retrofit each unmetered service connection by January 1, 2025.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : As California attempts to manage its scarce water
supplies, the installation of water meters on multiunit
residential and mixed use commercial buildings will encourage
increased conservation by making homeowners, business owners, or
renters aware of the amount of water they are utilizing.
Charging based on actual usage will reward those who conserve.
This legislation is modeled on a draft ordinance which was
subsequently adopted by the City of San Diego on April 5, 2010.
A report by the City of San Diego's Office of the Independent
Budget Analyst found that multifamily units currently comprise
44% of the total housing in San Diego and that the trend was
increasing. The report also cited studies showing a 15% to 39%
water savings in submetered multifamily properties.
One environmental justice group who supports this bill's goals
opposes its language empowering landlords to submeter and bill
tenants fearing this would lead to abuses. They state that
over-charging, failing to maintain systems, and denying access
to records are just a few of the problems currently being
experienced as a result of landlords taking on the role of
utilities in mobilehome parks, many of which are submetered.
They suggest amending the bill to require submetered tenants to
be the direct customers of the water utilities just as
single-family homeowners are.
One county advises this bill would likely encourage water
conservation and efficiency but opposes the provision requiring
submetering to be a condition of new water service to the
property. This county wants to eliminate water purveyor
responsibility for ensuring submetering and shift the
requirement to a construction permit condition of approval.
Analysis Prepared by: Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096
AB 1975
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FN: 0003902