BILL NUMBER: AB 1500 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 13, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 4, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 16, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Maienschein
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Mullin and Steinorth)
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to add Section 21080.40 to the Public Resources
Code, relating to environmental quality. An act to add
Section 65583.5 to the Government Code, relating to land use.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1500, as amended, Maienschein. California
Environmental Quality Act: priority housing projects: exemption.
Planning and zoning: housing element: supportive
housing and transitional housing.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a
general plan for land use development that includes, among other
things, a housing element. That law requires the housing element to
include an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources
and constraints relevant to the meeting of these needs. That law
requires this assessment and inventory to include the identification
of a zone or zones where emergency shelters are allowed as a
permitted use without a conditional use or other discretionary
permit, as provided.
This bill would authorize a city or county to additionally include
in its assessment and inventory the identification of supportive
housing and transitional housing, as those terms are defined in
specified statutes. If a local government elects to include this
identification in its assessment and inventory, the bill would impose
certain requirements, including that the identified zone or zones
include sufficient capacity to accommodate the need for supportive
housing or transitional housing, that the local government
demonstrate that existing or proposed permit processing, development,
and management standards are objective and encourage and facilitate
the development of supportive housing or transitional housing, and
that supportive housing or transitional housing generally be subject
only to the development and management standards that apply to
residential or commercial development within the same zone. The bill
would also provide that the permit processing, development, and
management standards applied under these provisions would not be
discretionary acts within the meaning of the California Environmental
Quality Act.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead
agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify
the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it
proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect
on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds
that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead
agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project
that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in
the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no
substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a
significant effect on the environment. CEQA exempts specified
projects from its requirements.
This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA priority
housing projects, as defined, if specified conditions are met.
Because a lead agency would be required to determine the
applicability of this exemption, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes
no . State-mandated local program: yes
no .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 65583.5 is added to the
Government Code , to read:
65583.5. The assessment and inventory adopted pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 65583 may include the identification of a
zone or zones where supportive housing, as defined in paragraph (2)
of subdivision (b) of Section 50675.14 of the Health and Safety Code,
or transitional housing, as defined in Section 50801 of the Health
and Safety Code, is allowed as a permitted use without a conditional
use or other discretionary permit. If the local government elects to
identify a zone or zones pursuant to this section, all of the
following shall apply:
(a) The identified zone or zones shall include sufficient capacity
to accommodate the need for supportive housing or transitional
housing. If the local government cannot identify a zone or zones with
sufficient capacity, the local government shall include a program to
amend its zoning ordinance to meet the requirements of this section
within one year of the adoption of the housing element. The local
government may identify additional zones where supportive housing or
transitional housing is permitted with a conditional use permit.
(b) The local government shall also demonstrate that existing or
proposed permit processing, development, and management standards are
objective and encourage and facilitate the development of, or
conversion to, supportive housing or transitional housing. Supportive
housing or transitional housing may only be subject to those
development and management standards that apply to residential or
commercial development within the same zone except that a local
government may apply written, objective standards.
(c) The permit processing, development, and management standards
applied under this section shall not be deemed to be discretionary
acts within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act
(Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources
Code).
SECTION 1. Section 21080.40 is added to the
Public Resources Code, to read:
21080.40. (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms
mean the following:
(1) "Emergency shelter" has the same meaning as set forth in
Section 50801 of the Health and Safety Code.
(2) "Priority housing project" means an activity or approval
necessary for, or incidental to, the development, planning, design,
site acquisition, subdivision, financing, leasing, construction,
operation, or maintenance of an emergency shelter, transitional
housing, or supportive housing.
(3) "Supportive housing" has the same meaning as set forth in
paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 50675.14 of the Health
and Safety Code.
(4) "Transitional housing" has the same meaning as set forth in
Section 50801 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) This division does not apply to a priority housing project if
all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The lead agency has filed a notice of determination with the
Office of Planning and Research consistent with Section 21152.1.
(2) The city or county in which the project is located has adopted
a housing element that the Department of Housing and Community
Development has determined to be in compliance with applicable
statutes and regulations at the time the lead agency files the notice
of determination with the Office of Planning and Research.
(3) The city or county in which the project is located is
compliant with the housing element portion of its annual report,
required pursuant to Section 65400 of the Government Code, at the
time the local agency files the notice of determination with the
Office of Planning and Research.
(c) This section does not alter, affect, expand, or diminish a
public agency's obligation to comply with statutory or regulatory
requirements imposed pursuant to other laws.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this
act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because a local agency or school district has the
authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to
pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within
the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.