BILL NUMBER: AB 2054 CHAPTERED 09/26/00 CHAPTER 665 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 26, 2000 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 24, 2000 PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 25, 2000 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 25, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 23, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 8, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 29, 2000 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 26, 2000 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 2, 2000 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 24, 2000 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Torlakson FEBRUARY 22, 2000 An act to add Sections 65891.3, 65891.5, 65891.11, and 65891.12 to the Government Code, and to add Sections 50542.1, 50543, and 50546 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to balancing jobs and housing. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2054, Torlakson. Balance of jobs and housing. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to prepare a guidebook for use by governmental agencies in planning and developing a housing supply to meet the need created by employment growth. Existing law requires a city or county to include a housing element in its general plan, and, for that purpose, prescribes criteria for determining the city or county share of the regional housing needs, including a requirement that the distribution of regional housing needs take into account, among other things, market demand for housing and employment opportunities. This bill would revise the legislative findings and declarations with regard to the need for the Inter-Regional Partnership (IRP) State Pilot Project to Improve the Balance of Jobs and Housing, and would revise provisions related to the research and development phase of the IRP State Pilot Project, as proposed to be established by AB 2864. The bill would create a special fund in the State Treasury, the Jobs-Housing Balance Improvement Account, for the purposes of making grants to local agencies, cities, counties, and cities and counties and transferring funds to the Rental Housing Construction Fund, and for related administrative expenses of the department pursuant to the Jobs-Housing Balance Improvement Program, as that program is proposed to be created by AB 2864, and would make other changes relating to administration of that program. The bill would become operative only if AB 2864 is enacted and becomes effective on or before January 1, 2001. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 65891.3 is added to the Government Code, to read: 65891.3. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) California will experience significant population growth in the coming decades. In the San Francisco Bay Area, one million new residents are forecast by the year 2020. An equal number of new jobs are expected during the same time period. However, less than 500,000 new housing units are expected to be built in an already costly and competitive housing market. (b) Under the current land use and policy framework, central valley communities expect to double or triple in size, but most of them will not attract equivalent numbers of new jobs. Instead, thousands of central valley residents are expected to commute far into the bay area, often driving two hours or more each way. The challenges to transportation, air quality, and social quality of life are enormous. Projections estimate the current number of less than 100,000 daily Altamont Pass commuters will more than double to 250,000 by the year 2020. (c) These growth-related issues cut across county and regional boundaries. The Inter-Regional Partnership is intended to provide a forum for neighboring jurisdictions governed by different regional councils of government to deal collaboratively with land use, transportation, and air quality issues that affect a five county region, while also complementing existing collaborative regional organizations, including, but not limited to, the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development, the Bay Area Council, the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, the Great Valley Center, and others, in order to support optimal intra-regional accountability for growth. (d) The IRP State Pilot Project will stand as an important example for other regions in the state in dealing with multijurisdictional problem solving and addressing land use planning across metropolitan borders. (e) The need for communication and cooperation among these jurisdictions is underscored by the fact that Alameda County recently sued the City of Tracy in San Joaquin County concerning the environmental impacts of a planned housing development on the western edge of the county where a majority of residents would be assumed to commute into the San Francisco Bay Area through Alameda County. (f) These interjurisdictional planning issues are not unique to the IRP's five county area; several other expanding metropolitan areas in California are beginning to experience similar problems. However, the geographic imbalance in housing and job growth in the IRP area is among the country's most extreme examples, and, driven by continued employment growth in the Silicon Valley, is predicted to worsen significantly in the coming years. (g) The housing market in the Silicon Valley is now the most expensive in the nation. Land being developed for housing in the San Joaquin Valley is some of the highest quality agricultural land in the world. (h) The IRP area is the best place in the state, and probably one of the best in the country, to implement a pilot program designed to mitigate the myriad of problems associated with unbalanced and uncoordinated growth. (i) By implementing this pilot program, the state will play an important role in creating a more sustainable future pattern of land use in the IRP area. (j) Active investment of state resources to balance job growth and housing growth will reduce the need for costly transportation infrastructure investments in the future. (k) The current path of land development in the five county area will have very costly transportation and environmental impacts if efforts are not made soon to link job growth to housing production. SEC. 2. Section 65891.5 is added to the Government Code, to read: 65891.5. (a) During the first year after the date that funding is received, the IRP shall complete all the necessary research, outreach, and negotiation to allow the successful establishment of jobs-housing opportunity zones throughout the five IRP counties. The IRP shall collaborate with local governments and existing regional and subregional organizations committed to improving inter-regional jobs-housing balance. During this phase, a series of outreach meetings shall be held with local jurisdictions and the public to review and comment on the data and make recommendations for locations of jobs-housing opportunity zones. Public input and participation shall be encouraged throughout phase one of the IRP pilot project. Local jurisdictions wishing to participate in the pilot project shall enter into agreements with the IRP to pursue the regional goals and objectives of opportunity zones within their jurisdictions. (b) The first phase shall provide all of the following: (1) An integrated Geographic Information System (GIS) designed, where feasible, to be compatible with existing regional GIS systems. The IRP's GIS system shall enable easy comparison of data on land use and transportation trends and alternative scenarios across the five county area. The GIS mapping shall focus on obtaining existing data from a variety of sources, including, but not limited to, the Bay Area Regional Livability Footprint Project that integrates land use with transportation, housing, job, economic, social equity, and environmental overlays, and integrating them into a single system to allow accurate analysis and scenario work on an interregional scale. The Legislature finds and declares that the IRP's GIS system will be a crucial tool for use in determining the location of proposed jobs-housing opportunity zones. (2) General types of data to be assembled in the GIS system shall include: (A) Demographic data, including population and employment by census tract. (B) Projected growth data consisting of information on where growth, including jobs generation and new housing location, is predicted to occur over a 20-year period. (C) Transportation information such as traffic capacity and usage, transit access and usage, and journey- to-work data. (D) Land use information, including general plan layers and zoning designations. It is the intent of the Legislature that to reduce costs and setup time, the IRP's GIS undertaking shall not include parcel-level data. (E) Basic environmental data, including floodplains, slopes, contamination, prime soils, open space, and important natural resources both inside and outside of urbanized areas. (3) A refined description of the incentive program for application to the jobs-housing opportunity zones within the IRP counties. This list shall include thorough descriptions of fiscal and nonfiscal policy and regulatory incentives. A variety of state departments shall be involved in determining what incentives might be made available, including, but not limited to, the Office of Planning and Research, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the California Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Conservation. (4) Recommendations for establishing five to 10 official Inter-Regional Partnership Jobs-Housing Opportunity Zones located throughout the five county area. Using the GIS system and conferring with interested regional organizations and with local jurisdictions, the IRP shall propose a series of jobs-housing opportunity zones. Each zone shall have specific goals and a description of the type of action desired to attain these goals, including recommended state sponsored incentives intended to encourage the desired results. The types of incentives requested may vary by zone location and type. Zones located near, or with good transit access to, existing major employment centers may receive incentives designed to promote reasonably priced housing development. Zones located far from existing employment centers, but near, or with good transit access to, significant work force housing supply, may receive incentives designed to promote employment development. Adoption of land use policies that protect agriculture and natural resources and promote compact, higher density, mixed use, transit-oriented development may be required as selection criteria for jobs-housing opportunity zones. SEC. 3. Section 65891.11 is added to the Government Code, to read: 65891.11. The department may administer the programs set forth in this article, and the funds transferred by Item 2240-112-0001 of the Budget Act of 2000 to the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Fund established by Section 50661 of the Health and Safety Code, pursuant to guidelines that shall not be subject to the requirements of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Division 3 of Title 2. SEC. 4. Section 65891.12 is added to the Government Code, to read: 65891.12. This article shall become inoperative on July 31, 2004, and, as of January 1, 2005, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute that is enacted before January 1, 2005, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed. SEC. 5. Section 50542.1 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 50542.1. (a) The Jobs-Housing Balance Improvement Account is hereby created as a special fund in the State Treasury. All money in the fund shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Department of Housing and Community Development for the following purposes: (1) To make grants to local agencies pursuant to Section 50543. (2) To make grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties pursuant to Section 50544. (3) For transfer to the Rental Housing Construction Fund pursuant to Sections 50543 and 50545. (4) For the related administrative expenses of the department. (b) There shall be paid into the fund, the following moneys: (1) Any moneys that may be made available by the Legislature for the purposes of the fund. (2) Any other moneys that may be made available to the department for the purposes of this chapter from any other source or sources. SEC. 6. Section 50543 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 50543. (a) Five million dollars ($5,000,000) of the funds appropriated for purposes of this chapter in Item 2240-114-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2000 shall be transferred to the Rental Housing Construction Fund created pursuant to Section 50740 to be used pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c). (b) The department shall provide state grants to local agencies to assist them in attracting new business and jobs in "housing rich" communities that lack an adequate employment base to match the amount and cost of housing in those communities. (c) A local agency that has completed an economic development strategic plan may apply for a grant to create an economic development strike team to assist the local agency in better targeting and coordinating outreach to employers who may choose to locate jobs within the community. (d) In order to be eligible for a grant pursuant to this section, a local agency shall have an adopted housing element that the department has determined pursuant to Section 65585 of the Government Code to be in substantial compliance with the requirements of Article 10.6 (commencing with Section 65580) of Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code. (e) The department shall establish maximum grant amounts and establish an appropriate process for evaluating need and making grant awards. (f) No later than December 31, 2002, the department shall provide an interim report to the Legislature indicating the progress of the program established by this section, including the number of jurisdictions accessing the program. No later than December 31, 2005, the department shall provide a final report with updates to the data contained in the interim report and a description of the achievements by local agencies participating in the program. SEC. 7. Section 50546 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 50546. (a) The administrative expenses of the department shall not exceed 3 percent of the amount available for the purposes of this chapter. (b) The department may administer the programs set forth in this chapter pursuant to guidelines that shall not be subject to the requirements of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code. SEC. 8. This act shall become operative only if AB 2864 is enacted and becomes effective on or before January 1, 2001, in which case Sections 65891.3, 65891.5, and 65891.11 of the Government Code, and Sections 50543 and 50546 of the Health and Safety Code, as added by AB 2864, shall not become operative.