BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
Senator Patricia Wiggins, Chair
BILL NO: AB 333 HEARING: 6/17/09
AUTHOR: Fuentes FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 5/4/09 CONSULTANT:
Weinberger
SUBDIVISION APPROVALS (URGENCY)
Background and Existing Law
Under the Subdivision Map Act, cities and counties approve
tentative maps that must be consistent with their general
plans, attaching scores of conditions. Once subdividers
comply with those conditions, local officials must issue
final maps. For smaller subdivisions (lot splits) local
officials usually use parcel maps, but they can require
tentative parcel maps followed by final parcel maps.
In good economic times, an experienced subdivider can
comply with a tentative map's conditions in a few years.
Scarce financing, complex settings, and inexperience can
drag out the time between a tentative map's approval and
the filing of a final map. If a tentative map expires, the
subdivider must start over, complying with any new required
conditions.
Tentative maps can be valid for up to 16 years:
The initial life of a tentative map is two years.
At the option of the city or county, a map's initial
life can be three years.
Local officials can grant extensions for up to six
years.
If the subdivider spends substantial funds and
files phased final maps, the remaining tentative map
is automatically extended by three years, up to a
maximum of ten years.
These deadlines don't apply during development moratoria
(up to five years) or during pending litigation (up to five
years).
The Legislature extended the life of unexpired tentative
maps, without local review or approval. Legislators said
that tentative maps that were valid on:
September 13, 1993, gained two more years (SB 428,
Thompson, 1993).
AB 333 -- 5/4/09 -- Page 2
May 14, 1996, gained one more year (AB 771, Aguiar,
1996).
July 15, 2008, gained one more year (SB 1185,
Lowenthal, 2008).
When the Legislature granted last year's automatic
extension, it also let local officials grant an additional
year, at their discretion (SB 1185, Lowenthal, 2008).
Because of the poor housing construction market, some
legislators want to extend the life of unexpired tentative
maps by an additional year.
Proposed Law
For any tentative map, vesting tentative map, or parcel map
for which a tentative map or tentative vesting map has been
approved and the approval has not expired when this urgency
bill takes effect, Assembly Bill 333 extends the expiration
date by 24 months. This extension is in addition to any
other statutory extensions.
For any legislative, administrative or other approval by a
state agency relating to a development project in a
subdivision affected by AB 333 that has not expired when
the bill takes effect, AB 333 extends the expiration date
by 24 months. This extension is in addition to any other
statutory extensions.
AB 333 reduces, from five years to three years, the period
of time after the approval of a tentative map or
recordation of a parcel map during which a city or county
is prohibited, with exceptions, from imposing specified
conditions on a building permit.
The bill states that the prohibition on conditions being
placed on building permits does not prohibit a city,
county, or city and county from levying a fee or imposing a
condition that requires the payment of a fee upon the
issuance of a building permit or after the issuance,
including a fee as defined in the Mitigation Fee Act.
Comments
AB 333 -- 5/4/09 -- Page 3
1. It's about time . Whether you call it a recession or a
depression, it's clear that subdividers will build fewer
houses and apartments in 2009 than just a few years ago.
Until the demand for new housing resumes, subdividers
aren't likely to complete the required conditions of their
tentative maps and qualify for final maps. With statutory
time limits looming, some builders risk losing their
earlier approvals and having to start over again. Similar
to the Legislature's three earlier responses during other
market slumps, AB 333 preserves subdividers' ability to
complete their conditions so that they can build houses
once California's economy picks up again.
2. Not-so-sweet sixteen ? Some unexpired tentative maps
may be 16 years old, although most are probably younger.
The oldest subdivision approvals may date back to 1994 when
gas cost less than $1.25 a gallon, Governor Pete Wilson
occupied the corner office, and Arnold Schwarzenegger
played special agent Harry Trasker in "True Lies." Since
then, cities and counties have revised their general plans'
housing elements two or three times. The Legislature
expanded the contents of local general plans for fire
hazards (AB 3065, Kehoe, 2004) and flood hazards (AB 162,
Wolk, 2007). Further, the Legislature imposed tougher
development standards: a sufficient water supply must be
available for larger subdivisions (SB 221, Kuehl, 2001) and
local officials must deny subdivisions threatened by
flooding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley (SB 5,
Machado, 2007). Public officials now worry about how land
use decisions affect green house gas emissions (AB 32,
Nu?ez, 2006 and SB 375, Steinberg, 2008). Extending the
life of older tentative maps may result in putting houses
in places that don't meet current land use standards.
Subdivisions approved in the 1990s may not make sense in
2009.
3. State intervention or local discretion ? The state
government allows local officials to control land use
planning and development, except when they affect statewide
or regional resources. In those cases, the voters and the
Legislature have created commissions to oversee local
decisions: the San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency,
the California Coastal Commission, the Delta Protection
AB 333 -- 5/4/09 -- Page 4
Commission, Airport Land Use Commissions, and Local Agency
Formation Commissions. Except for the three subdivision
extension bills, the state rarely intervenes to approve
projects or extend permits. The Committee may wish to
consider whether the Legislature should directly intervene
in subdivision maps or instead give local officials the
discretion to give extensions based on local circumstances.
Why not leave subdivision extensions up to the city
councils and county supervisors?
4. Consider this alternative ? Instead of another
mandatory statewide bill to extend unexpired tentative maps
by another year, the Committee may wish to consider an
alternative that allows local officials to extend older
tentative maps if they still make sense. Under this
alternative, a subdivider with an unexpired tentative map
could ask the city council or county supervisors to grant
an additional one-year extension, provided that the
subdivision is consistent with the city or county's current
general plan. This alternative gives subdividers more time
to complete the remaining conditions on their older
tentative maps, while leaving substantial discretion in the
hands of locally elected officials.
5. What's new ? AB 333 largely replicates the language in
last year's Lowenthal bill. However, AB 333 includes
additional provisions relating to the conditions that
cities and counties can place on building permits during
the five years after the approval of a tentative map or
recordation of a parcel map. By reducing, from five years
to three years, the period of time during which cities and
counties are prohibited from placing specified conditions
on the issuance of any building permit, and by stating that
that prohibition does not apply to specified permit fees,
AB 333 attempts to mitigate some of the impacts of repeated
subdivision and parcel map extensions on cities and
counties.
Assembly Actions
AB 333 -- 5/4/09 -- Page 5
Assembly Local Government Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee:15-0
Assembly Floor: 76-0
Support and Opposition (6/11/09)
Support : California Building Industry Association,
California Major Builders Council, American Council of
Engineering Companies of California, American Design
Coatings, Inc., American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, American Subcontractors Association
California, Inc., Art D's Concrete Co., Inc., Associated
General Contractors of California, Bay Area Construction
Framers, Inc., Bayside Concrete Construction Company,
Blackhawk Concrete Company, Inc., Browning Contractors,
Inc., C Construction, Inc., California Association of
Realtors, California Business Properties Association,
California Chamber of Commerce, California Major Building
Industry Association, California Manufacturers & Technology
Association, California Professional Association of
Specialty Contractors, Can-Do Electric, Coachella Valley
Engineers, Conco, Custom the Works, Custom Tile Works, DPW,
Inc., Emerald Roofing, Inc., Fredrickson, Mazeika & Grant,
LLP., GHA Communities, H&D Electric Inc., JDM Construction
Co., Inc., Karsyn Construction, Lancaster Burns
Construction, Inc., Magik Glass and Door, Pacific Painting,
Inc., Palm Desert Door & Hardware, Inc., Palm Springs
Welding, Inc., Porter Law Group, Prot?g? Commercial
Builders, Inc., RCR Plumbing & Mechanical, Inc., Seawright
Custom Precast, Inc., Signal Heating & Air Conditioning
Inc., Southwest Finish & Supply Inc., Swanillon, Inc.,
Taylor Trim & Supply, Inc., Team Heating and Air
Conditioning, Inc., The Land Stewards, Tri-Co Floors,
Valley Industry and Commerce Association, Vic Ross's
Masonry, Inc., and Western Concrete Pumping, Inc.
Opposition : Unknown.