BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: AB 208 HEARING: 6/8/11
AUTHOR: Fuentes FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 4/7/11 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Detwiler
SUBDIVISION APPROVALS (URGENCY)
Automatically extends outstanding local subdivision
approvals for two more years.
Background and Existing Law
Under the Subdivision Map Act, cities and counties approve
tentative maps that must be consistent with their general
plans, attaching scores of conditions. Once subdividers
comply with those conditions, local officials must issue
final maps. For smaller subdivisions (lot splits) local
officials usually use parcel maps, but they can require
tentative parcel maps followed by final parcel maps.
In good economic times, an experienced subdivider can
comply with a tentative map's conditions in a few years.
Scarce financing, complex settings, and inexperience can
drag out the time between a tentative map's approval and
the filing of a final map. If a tentative map expires, the
subdivider must start over, complying with any new required
conditions.
Tentative maps can be valid for up to 16 years:
The initial life of a tentative map is two years.
At the option of the city or county, a map's initial
life can be three years.
Local officials can grant extensions for up to six
years.
If the subdivider spends substantial funds and
files phased final maps, the remaining tentative map
is automatically extended by three years, up to a
maximum of ten years.
These deadlines don't apply during development moratoria
(up to five years) or during pending litigation (up to five
years).
AB 208 -- 4/7/11 -- Page 2
In addition, the Legislature has extended the life of
unexpired subdivision approvals, without local review or
approval. Unexpired subdivision maps that were valid on:
September 13, 1993, gained two more years (SB 428,
Thompson, 1993).
May 14, 1996, gained one more year (AB 771, Aguiar,
1996).
July 15, 2008, gained one more year (SB 1185,
Lowenthal, 2008).
July 15, 2009, gained two more years (AB 333,
Fuentes, 2009).
When the Legislature granted the one-year extension in
2008, it also let local officials grant an additional year,
at their discretion (SB 1185, Lowenthal, 2008).
Although few cities and counties track their previous
subdivision approvals, a building industry source reports
that there were 2,491 unexpired subdivision maps involving
325,747 residential units at the end of January 2011.
Because of the continuing poor housing construction market,
some legislators want to extend the life of unexpired
tentative maps for two more years.
Proposed Law
For any tentative map, vesting tentative map, or parcel map
for which a tentative map or tentative vesting map has been
approved and the approval has not expired when this urgency
bill takes effect and would expire before January 1, 2014,
Assembly Bill 208 extends the expiration date by 24 months.
This extension is in addition to six other statutory
extensions. When determining if a tentative map or parcel
map expires before January 1, 2014, AB 208 allows counting
only discretionary extensions approved before the bill's
effective date, but not extensions because of litigation or
moratoria.
For any legislative, administrative, or other approval by a
state agency relating to a development project in a
subdivision affected by AB 208 that has not expired when
the bill takes effect, AB 208 extends the expiration date
by 24 months. This extension is in addition to three other
statutory extensions.
AB 208 -- 4/7/11 -- Page 3
AB 208 reduces, from five years to three years, the period
of time after the approval of a tentative map or
recordation of a parcel map during which a city or county
is prohibited, with exceptions, from imposing specified
conditions on a building permit.
The bill states that the prohibition on conditions being
placed on building permits does not prohibit a city,
county, or city and county from levying a fee or imposing a
condition that requires the payment of a fee upon the
issuance of a building permit or after the issuance,
including a fee as defined in the Mitigation Fee Act.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Subdividers will build fewer
houses and apartments in 2011 than before the construction
industry collapsed. Until the demand for new housing
resumes, subdividers aren't likely to complete the required
conditions of their tentative maps and qualify for final
maps. With statutory time limits looming, some builders
risk losing their earlier approvals and having to start
over again. Similar to the Legislature's earlier responses
during other market slumps, AB 208 preserves subdividers'
ability to complete their conditions for two more years,
waiting for California's economy to pick up again.
2. It's about time . Although most are probably younger,
some unexpired tentative maps could be decades old. One of
the oldest unexpired subdivisions may be Malibu Valley
Farms, approved by Los Angeles County in 1988. Ronald
Reagan was in the White House, Barack Obama was starting
Harvard Law School, and Jerry Brown had just returned from
India. Local extensions, a water district moratorium,
state extensions, litigation, and phased final maps kept
the Malibu Valley Farms' tentative map alive. In the
meantime, local officials have overhauled their general
plans' housing elements two or three times. The
AB 208 -- 4/7/11 -- Page 4
Legislature expanded the contents of local general plans to
include military operating areas (SB 1486, Knight, 2002; SB
926, Knight, 2004), Native American places (SB 18, Burton,
2004), fire hazards (AB 3065, Kehoe, 2004), and flood
hazards (AB 162, Wolk, 2007). Further, the Legislature
imposed tougher development standards: a sufficient water
supply must be available for larger subdivisions (SB 221,
Kuehl, 2001) and local officials must deny subdivisions
threatened by flooding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley
(SB 5, Machado, 2007). Public officials now worry about
how land use decisions affect greenhouse gas emissions (AB
32, Nu�ez, 2006; SB 375, Steinberg, 2008). Extending the
life of the oldest tentative maps may result in putting
houses in places that don't meet current land use
standards. Subdivisions approved in the 1980s may not make
sense in 2011.
3. Consider this alternative ? Instead of another
mandatory statewide bill, the Committee may wish to
consider an alternative that allows local officials to
extend older tentative maps if they still make sense.
Under this alternative, a subdivider with an unexpired
tentative map could ask the city council or county
supervisors to grant an additional one- or two-year
extension, provided that the subdivision is consistent with
the city or county's current general plan. This
alternative gives subdividers more time to complete the
remaining conditions on their older tentative maps, while
leaving substantial discretion in the hands of locally
elected officials.
4. State intervention or local discretion ? The state
government allows local officials to control land use
planning and development, except when they affect statewide
or regional resources. In those cases, the voters and the
Legislature have created commissions to oversee local
decisions: the San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency,
the California Coastal Commission, the Delta Protection
Commission, Airport Land Use Commissions, and Local Agency
Formation Commissions. Except for the four subdivision
extension bills, the state rarely intervenes to approve
projects or extend permits. The Committee may wish to
consider whether the Legislature should directly intervene
in subdivision decisions or instead give local officials
the discretion to give extensions based on local
AB 208 -- 4/7/11 -- Page 5
circumstances. Why not leave subdivision extensions up to
the city councils and county supervisors?
Assembly Actions
Assembly Local Government Committee: 9-0
Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 15-0
Assembly Floor: 73-0
Support and Opposition (6/2/11)
Support : California Building Industry; American Council of
Engineering Companies - California Chapter; American
Planning Association - California Chapter; Apartment
Association of Greater Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San
Diego; California Apartment Association; California
Association of Realtors; California Business Properties
Association; California Chamber of Commerce; California
Mortgage Association; California State Association of
Counties; Engineering Contractors Association; League of
California Cities; Orange County Business Council; Regional
Council of Rural Counties; Western Electrical Contractors
Association; City of Torrance.
Opposition : Unknown.