BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 2584 Hearing Date: 6/21/2016
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|Author: |Daly |
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|Version: |6/14/2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant|Alison Dinmore |
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SUBJECT: Land use: housing development
DIGEST: This bill authorizes a "housing organization," as
defined, to enforce the Housing Accountability Act (HAA).
ANALYSIS:
Existing law, under the Housing Accountability Act (HAA):
1)Requires cities and counties, under existing planning and
zoning law, to prepare and adopt a general plan, including a
housing element, to guide the future growth of a community.
The housing element shall consist of an identification and
analysis of existing and projected housing needs and a
statement of goals, policies objectives, financial resources
and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and
development of housing.
2)Requires the local jurisdiction, to the extent that it does
not have adequate sites within its existing inventory of
residentially zoned land, to adopt a program to rezone land at
appropriate densities to accommodate the community's housing
need for all income groups.
3)Requires a city or county, to disapprove an affordable housing
project, to make one of the following findings, based upon
substantial evidence in the record:
a) The city or county has adopted an updated housing
AB 2584 (Daly) Page 2 of ?
element in substantial compliance with the law, and the
community met its share of the regional housing need for
that income category.
b) The project will have a specific, adverse impact on the
public health or safety and there is no way to mitigate or
avoid the impact.
c) The denial is required to comply with state or federal
law.
d) The project is located on agricultural or resource
preservation land that does not have adequate water or
waste water facilities.
e) The jurisdiction has identified sufficient and adequate
sites to accommodate its share of the regional housing need
and the project is inconsistent with both the general plan
land use designation and the zoning ordinance.
This bill authorizes a "housing organization" to enforce the
HAA. This bill defines "housing organization" to mean a trade
or industry group whose local members are primarily engaged in
the construction or management of affordable housing units or a
nonprofit organization whose mission includes providing or
advocating for increased access to affordable housing for
low-income households.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, developers may be reluctant
to challenge local noncompliance of the HAA because they often
build multiple projects within the same city or county over a
number of years. For this reason, developers may find it is
in their long-term best interest to maintain a good
relationship with the city or county by not challenging it on
any particular project. As a project's developer may be
reluctant to assert its eligibility for approval, it could be
beneficial to ensure that other interested parties - such as
potential residents of the development, affected residents of
the locality or region, or organizations that advocate for
more home building - are able to bring these challenges. This
bill would authorize a housing organization to bring an action
to enforce the HAA.
2)Housing Accountability Act (HAA). The purpose of the HAA is
AB 2584 (Daly) Page 3 of ?
to limit the ability of local agencies to reject or make
infeasible housing developments without a thorough analysis of
the economic, social, and environmental effects of the action.
Under current law, if a project was disapproved in violation
of the HAA, only the project developer or an eligible tenant
of the proposed development may bring suit against the
jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of the Act. This bill
would expand the enforcement of the provisions of the HAA to
also allow housing organizations to bring a legal action when
a local government fails to comply with the Act.
3)Opposition. According to the League of California Cities,
this bill is a serious expansion of the law. If a city has
violated the law, then the developer should be the first
person to bring legal action and will, in many cases, be
represented by an "entity that represents people eligible to
live in the housing." Allowing those entities to sue on their
own means disconnects the city's decision from the people it
affects.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 64-9
Jud: 9-0
H&CD: 6-1
Related Legislation:
AB 2208 (Santiago) - add to the list of types of sites that a
local government can identify as suitable for residential
development in the housing element. This bill is also being
heard in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
AB 2865 (Lopez) - requires a local planning agency staff to
collect and compile public comments and provide them to each
member of the legislative body prior to the adoption of the
housing element. This bill is also being heard in the Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
AB 2584 (Daly) Page 4 of ?
June 15, 2016.)
SUPPORT:
California Apartment Association (sponsor)
AARP
Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Santa Barbara Rental Property Association
Western Center on Law and Poverty
OPPOSITION:
League of California Cities
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