BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 679
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 679 (Allen)
As Amended May 2, 2011
Majority vote
HOUSING 4-0 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 6-0
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|Ayes:|Torres, Hueso, Jeffries, |Ayes:|Smyth, Campos, Gordon, |
| |Miller | |Hueso, Knight, Norby |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Allows the County of Napa (County), through October
31, 2022, to meet up to 15% of its share of the regional housing
need for lower-income households by committing funds for the
construction of affordable housing units within one or more
cities within the county, if various conditions are met.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : Every local government in California is required to
prepare and adopt a housing element as part of its general plan.
The housing element process starts when the Department of
Housing and Community Development (HCD) determines the number of
new housing units a region is projected to need at all income
levels (very low-, low-, moderate-, and above-moderate income)
over the course of the next housing element planning period to
accommodate population growth and address existing deficiencies
in the housing supply. This number is often referred to as the
regional housing needs assessment (RHNA) number. The council of
government (COG) for the region, or HCD for areas with no COG,
then assigns every city and county in the region its fair share
of the RHNA based on a variety of factors. The law requires
that every jurisdiction receive a share of the RHNA for low- and
very low-income households.
In preparing its housing element, a city or county must show how
it plans to accommodate its share of the RHNA. The housing
element must include an inventory of sites already zoned for
housing. If a jurisdiction does not have enough sites within
its existing inventory of residentially zoned land to
accommodate its entire RHNA, then it must adopt a program to
rezone enough land within the first three years of the planning
period. Cities and counties are required to demonstrate that
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sites are adequate to accommodate housing for each income group
based on the zoning after taking into consideration individual
site factors such as property size, existing uses, environmental
constraints, and economic constraints.
Under current law, counties can transfer a portion of their
share of the regional housing need to a city within the county
if the city agrees to take on the additional allocation. In
implementing such a transfer, a county's share of low- and very
low-income housing can be reduced only in proportion to the
amount by which the county's share of moderate- and
above-moderate income housing is reduced. The proportionality
requirement is consistent with the overall goal of housing
element law to ensure that every jurisdiction plans for housing
across all income levels and serves to ensure that a county does
not pursue transfers simply as a way to remove its obligation to
plan for affordable housing.
In 1996, Napa County successfully pursued legislation (AB 3452
(V. Brown), Chapter 1018, Statutes of 1996) to allow the County
to transfer a portion of its lower-income RHNA without a
proportionality requirement if it provided funding to ensure
that the units got built within the city that accepted the
transfer. Such transfers were limited to 15% of the county's
total share of the RHNA for lower-income households and the
statutory language include a sunset date of June 30, 2004. At
the time, the County argued that there were a variety of unique
circumstances in Napa County that made affordable housing
development difficult within the unincorporated area, including
a voter-approved measure designed to protect the county's
valuable agricultural land.
The County's special transfer authority was extended in 2000 (AB
2430 (Wiggins), Chapter 358, Statutes of 2000), allowing the
County to pursue non-proportional transfers through June 30,
2007. AB 2430 (Wiggins) also placed additional conditions on
the transfers, including that the number of units transferred
could not exceed 40% of the number of lower-income units built
in the unincorporated area during the same planning period. In
other words, for every one unit transferred, the County would
have to show that 2.5 units were built in the unincorporated
area. The extension of the transfer authority expired in June
2007. Both of the bills regarding the County's special transfer
authority pre-dated the law that allows counties to pursue
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transfers but only if the transfer is proportional across income
categories.
Napa County's last housing element was due in June of 2009.
HCD's review of the draft element found that it was not in
compliance with the law, primarily because HCD did not believe
that the County had identified adequate sites to support the
development of affordable housing. The County disagreed with
HCD and adopted the housing element despite HCD's position that
it was not in compliance with the law. The County was
subsequently sued by Latinos Unidos, a farmworker advocacy
group. That suit is currently being litigated. The County's
next housing element is due in October 2014.
Napa County has a sizable affordable housing trust fund that is
capitalized through fees on development in the unincorporated
area. The County has spent over $21 million from this trust
fund since 1989, almost entirely on projects within the City of
Napa (City). For many of these projects, the County was not
able to get full "credit" towards meeting its RHNA obligations.
For example, the County has recently provided funding for two
projects within the City with a total of 104 units of low- and
very low-income housing. However, because of the
proportionality requirement, the County is not able to transfer
104 units worth of its lower-income RHNA share to the City
because the City is not willing to absorb a proportional amount
of the County's moderate- and above-moderate income RHNA.
This bill places a new sunset date of October 31, 2022, on Napa
County's special non-proportional transfer authority. The new
sunset date is the end of the County's next housing element
planning period. The bill also makes a minor change to the
statute by deleting a requirement that the City that receives
the transfer demonstrate that it has met, in the current or
previous housing element cycle, at least 20% of its share of the
regional need for housing for very low-income households. The
bill leaves intact the various checks and balances that ensure
that the County can only do non-proportional transfers if
affordable housing is also being developed in the unincorporated
area of the County, and only if the County adopts a housing
element that HCD finds is in compliance with the requirements of
the law.
AB 679
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Analysis Prepared by : Anya Lawler / H. & C.D. / (916)
319-2085
FN: 0000663