BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1690
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1690 (Gordon)
As Amended August 18, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |76-0 |(May 15, 2014) |SENATE: |30-0 |(August 21, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: H. & C.D.
SUMMARY : Authorizes a city or county, when it fails to identify
adequate sites in its housing element and must adopt a rezoning
program, to accommodate all of its very low- and low-income
housing need on sites designated for mixed uses only if those
sites allow 100% residential use and require at least 50%
residential floor area of a mixed-use project.
The Senate amendments :
1)Authorize a city or county, pursuant to a rezoning program, to
accommodate all of its very low- and low-income housing need
on sites designated for mixed uses only if those sites allow
100% residential use and require at least 50% residential
floor area.
2)Add chaptering amendments to avoid a conflict with AB 1537
(Levine) of the current legislative session.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS :
Purpose of the bill: According to the author, encouraging
mixed-use development is critical to California's smart growth
goals. As local governments, particularly built-out urban
communities, add more zoning designations and overlays,
restrictive segregation of use is increasingly rare.
Integrating commercial uses into a very low- and low-income
project can also provide benefits from a development
perspective. In the author's view, a commercial component can
also make a project more attractive to a community, like a food
desert, starved for services. The most direct benefit of
accommodating more very low- and low-income residents in
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mixed-use projects is that they are less likely to be isolated
from jobs and services. The author contends that this bill will
allow local cities and counties the option of planning for
growth in a way that better integrates new low- and very
low-income housing into communities.
Background: Every local government is required to prepare 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 overcome existing deficiencies
in the housing supply. This number is known as the regional
housing needs assessment (RHNA). The council of governments
(COG) for the region, or HCD for areas with no COG, then assigns
a share of the RHNA number to every city and county in the
region based on a variety of factors.
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. When a local government's housing element does not
identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of
all household income levels, it must rezone those sites by a
specific deadline during the planning period. This rezoning
program has to accommodate 100% of the RHNA need for very low-
and low-income households, for which site capacity has not been
identified, on sites that are zoned to permit owner occupied and
rental multifamily use by-right during the planning period.
These zones must allow for, depending on the jurisdiction,
between 16 and 20 units per acre. At least 50% of the very low-
and low-income housing need must be accommodated on sites
designated for residential use and for which nonresidential uses
or mixed-uses are not permitted.
This bill will impact reforms to housing element law that came
out of the Housing Element Working Group (HEWG), which convened
in 2003. One of the bills that implemented the reform, AB 2348
(Mullin), Chapter 724, Statutes of 2004, amended housing element
law by clarifying the land inventory requirements to provide
local governments more certainty about the statutory
requirements. Amongst other things, AB 2348 provided clarity
about the relationship between the land inventory and adequate
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sites program. AB 2348 clarified that a rezoning program to
provide adequate sites is only needed when the inventory does
not identify adequate sites already appropriately zoned to
accommodate the RHNA.
This bill relates to the scenario where a local government has
not identified adequate sites to accommodate its RHNA which, in
the most recent housing element cycle, is comprised of about 25%
of local governments statewide. As noted above, the rezoning
program has to accommodate 100% of the RHNA need for very low-
and low-income households on sites that are zoned to permit
owner occupied and rental multifamily use by-right during the
planning period. At least 50% of the very low- and low-income
housing need must be accommodated on sites designated for
residential use and for which nonresidential uses or mixed-uses
are not permitted.
Prior to the Senate amendments, this bill provided that this 50%
requirement may also be accommodated on mixed-use sites. The
Senate amendments address concerns surrounding the likelihood
that affordable housing will actually be developed on mixed-use
sites. While many cities and counties have adopted mixed-use
zones, these sites do not necessarily require mixed uses or the
inclusion of housing on a site. As a result, allowing a city or
county to count mixed-use sites towards accommodating its
affordable housing needs could result in commercial development
occupying all or large portions of sites needed for affordable
housing. As the rezoning program only applies if a local
government fails to identify adequate sites to accommodate its
RHNA share, it is especially important to encourage the actual
development of affordable housing in these localities. With
this in mind, the Senate amendments narrow the bill's original
mixed-use zoning provision by only permitting mixed-use sites
that allow 100% residential use and require at least 50%
residential floor area.
Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca Rabovsky / H. & C.D. / (916)
319-2085
FN: 0005150
AB 1690
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