BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 7
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 19, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 7
(Wolk) - As Amended July 16, 2015
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|Policy |Housing and Community |Vote:|7 - 0 |
|Committee: |Development | | |
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| |Water, Parks and Wildlife | |10 - 4 |
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|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires, as of January 1, 2017, that individual water
meters (submeters) be installed on all new multifamily
residential units or mixed commercial and multifamily units, and
requires that landlords bill residents for the increment of
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water they use. The bill also specifies rights and obligations
between landlords and tenants. Recent amendments require that
the installation and maintenance of submeters be provided by
licensed plumbing contractors using workers who have graduated
from a state approved apprenticeship program.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)HCD administrative costs of $244,000 over two years ($127,000
in the first year, $114,000 in the second year) for 1 limited
term PY of staff to develop the proposed building standards
(Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund).
2)Minor and absorbable costs for the BSC to adopt the proposed
building standard in the next or subsequent triennial code
adoption cycle.
3)Minimal fiscal impact to the Department of Food and
Agriculture. This bill would increase the amount of water
submeters installed in multiunit structures. Each water
submeter is charged an annual device administrative fee in the
amount of $0.10 per device. These funds are deposited into the
Department of Food and Agriculture Fund. The Department
estimates the increase in revenue generated by the additional
water submeters will be less than $5,000 annually.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. The author states that "California's water supply is
under intense pressure from climate change, increasing
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population and development. The financial demands from
communities around the state for additional water and
wastewater infrastructure currently exceed the available state
and federal budgetary resources. Thus, it is essential that
all California communities use existing water supplies as
efficiently as possible." The author adds that "water
metering and volumetric pricing are paramount to giving
Californians an accurate price signal about their water use."
The author states that "California's population is 38 million
people and growing. Currently, 46% live in multi-family
housing. Of the State's 15.6 million apartment residents,
fewer than 20% (3.1 million) are billed for their water use.
In other words, for 80% of California's apartment renters, or
12.5 million Californians, there is no correlation between
water usage and cost."
2)Background. Existing law, the California Building Standards
Law, authorizes the BSC to approve and adopt building
standards through a triennial rulemaking process to revise and
update the California Building Standards Code. There are
approximately twenty state agencies that develop building
standards for submittal to the BSC for review, approval, and
adoption. HCD is responsible for proposing building standards
for residential buildings including, hotels, motels, lodging
houses, apartment houses, dwellings, buildings and structures.
Building standards take effect 180 days after they are
published, unless a different date is specified. The most
recent update to the Building Standards Code has been in
effect since January 1, 2014. The 2015 triennial code
adoption cycle for the development of the 2016 California
Building Standards Code is currently underway. The subsequent
triennial cycle will commence in 2018.
Existing law requires all new water service connections to be
metered, and requires water purveyors to charge water users
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based on the actual volume of deliveries as measured by those
meters. In addition, all existing unmetered water connections
must be retrofitted with a meter by 2025. Generally,
individual units in multiunit residential buildings are not
metered or submetered, and residents typically pay for water
and sewage based on the average water use of all units, rather
than actual usage attributable to individual units.
This bill would require installation of water submeters in all
newly constructed multi-residential dwellings, for which an
application for water connect is received, after January 1,
2017. This bill is prospective and does not require an owner
of an existing multifamily dwelling to install submeters,
retrofit existing submeters, or use existing submeters that
are currently unused.
3)Related legislation: On May 18, 2015, the California
Department of Finance posted language very similar to SB 750
as trailer bill proposal number 826 to the Natural Resources
and Capital Outlay area of the Governor's 2015-16 Budget. The
Governor's office grouped the submetering requirement with
other proposals addressing drought but ultimately left the
language out of the budget.
4)Prior Legislation.
a) SB 750 (Wolk) of 2013 was substantially similar to this
bill. The bill failed passage in the Assembly Water, Parks,
and Wildlife Committee.
b) AB 19 (Fong) of 2011 was also substantially similar to
SB 750. The bill failed passage in the Assembly Housing
and Community Development Committee.
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c) AB 1975 (Fong) of 2010 would have required HCD to adopt
building standards requiring the installation of individual
water meters and submeters in newly constructed multiunit
residential buildings. The bill was held on Suspense in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
d) AB 1173 (Keene) of 2007 would have required submeters in
multiunit residential structures built after January 1,
2010. This bill was held on this Committee's Suspense File.
1) Arguments in Support. Supporters, primarily environmental
groups and advocates for low income residents, state that this
bill will "help apartment dwellers track their water use, and
because people will pay their water bills directly (rather
than through their rent as is the common practice), they will
have an incentive to reduce wasteful practices. People living
in multiunit housing will be a critical part of the pictures
as California suppliers strive to reduce water use by 20
percent by 2020. This bill will give residents the tool they
need to make changes."
2)Arguments in Opposition. July 16 amendments restricting the
installation and maintenance of submeters to workers who have
graduated from a state approved apprenticeship program
elicited new opposition to the bill from members of the bill's
working group who were previously in support or neutral. In
particular, the apartment and rental property associations,
realtors, and utility management groups argue, "The
installation of submeters is a highly specialized activity,
requiring service agents to be trained to follow very specific
regulations issued by the California Department of Food and
Agriculture's Division of Measurement Standards. This system
has been in place for years and there is no known concerns or
workmanship performance issues that need to addressed by this
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legislation." They are also concerned by the precedent being
set regarding the State directing who can and can't perform
certain work, despite their qualifications, especially private
construction on private property.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081