California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 667

Introduced by Assembly Member Roger Hernández

February 21, 2013

An act to amend Section 65950 of the Government Code, relating to land use.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 667, as introduced, Roger Hernández. Land use: development project review.

The Permit Streamlining Act within the Planning and Zoning Law requires the lead agency that has the principal responsibility for approving a development project, as defined, to approve or disapprove the project within a specified number of days from the date of certification of an environmental impact report, the date of the adoption of a negative declaration, or the determination by the lead agency that the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.

This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 65950 of the Government Code is
amended to read:

65950.  

(a) Any public agency that is the lead agency for a
development project shall approve or disapprove the project within
whichever of the following periods is applicable:

(1) One hundred eighty days from the date of certification by
the lead agency of the environmental impact begin delete report end delete begin insert report, end insert if an
environmental impact report is prepared pursuant to Section 21100
or 21151 of the Public Resources Code for the development project.

(2) Ninety days from the date of certification by the lead agency
of the environmental impact begin delete report end delete begin insert report, end insert if an environmental
impact report is prepared pursuant to Section 21100 or 21151 of
the Public Resources Code for the development project and all of
the following conditions are met:

(A) At least 49 percent of the units in the development project
are affordable to very low or low-income households, as defined
by Sections 50105 and 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code,
respectively. Rents for the lower income units shall be set at an
affordable rent, as that term is defined in Section 50053 of the
Health and Safety Code, for at least 30 years. Owner-occupied
units shall be available at an affordable housing cost, as that term
is defined in Section 50052.5 of the Health and Safety Code.

(B) Prior to the application being deemed complete for the
development project pursuant to Article 3 (commencing with
Section 65940), the lead agency received written notice from the
project applicant that an application has been made or will be made
for an allocation or commitment of financing, tax credits, bond
authority, or other financial assistance from a public agency or
federal agency, and the notice specifies the financial assistance
that has been applied for or will be applied for and the deadline
for application for that assistance, the requirement that one of the
approvals of the development project by the lead agency is a
prerequisite to the application for or approval of the application
for financial assistance, and that the financial assistance is
necessary for the project to be affordable as required pursuant to
subparagraph (A).

(C) There is confirmation that the application has been made
to the public agency or federal agency prior to certification of the
environmental impact report.

(3) Sixty days from the date of adoption by the lead agency of
the negative begin delete declaration end delete begin insert declaration, end insert if a negative declaration is
completed and adopted for the development project.

(4) Sixty days from the determination by the lead agency that
the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality
Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public
Resources begin delete Code) end delete begin insert Code), end insert if the project is exempt from begin delete the California
Environmental Quality Act end delete begin insert that act end insert .

(b) This section does not preclude a project applicant and a
public agency from mutually agreeing in writing to an extension
of any time limit provided by this section pursuant to Section
65957.

(c) For purposes of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a),
“development project“ means a use consisting of either of the
following:

(1) Residential units only.

(2) Mixed-use developments consisting of residential and
nonresidential uses in which the nonresidential uses are less than
50 percent of the total square footage of the development and are
limited to neighborhood commercial uses and to the first floor of
buildings that are two or more stories. As used in this paragraph,
“neighborhood commercial” means small-scale general or specialty
stores that furnish goods and services primarily to residents of the
neighborhood.

(d) For purposes of this section, “lead agency” and “negative
declaration” begin delete shall end delete have the same meaning as begin delete those terms have end delete
begin insert defined end insert in Sections 21067 and 21064 of the Public Resources Code,
respectively.