BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2425
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 14, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Norma Torres, Chair
AB 2425 (Hagman) - As Introduced: February 19, 2010
SUBJECT : Land use: City of La Habra Heights: regional
housing need allocation
SUMMARY : Exempts the City of La Habra Heights from receiving
an allocation of the regional housing need during its next
housing element planning period.
EXISTING LAW
1)Requires every city and county to prepare and adopt a general
plan containing seven mandatory elements, including a housing
element (Government Code Sections 65300 and 65302).
2)Requires a jurisdiction's housing element to identify and
analyze existing and projected housing needs, identify
adequate sites with appropriate zoning to meet the housing
needs of all income segments of the community, and ensure that
regulatory systems provide opportunities for, and do not
unduly constrain, housing development (Government Code Section
65583)
3)Requires all cities and counties to periodically revise their
housing elements. For most jurisdictions, the housing element
must be revised every eight years based on a staggered
statutory schedule (Government Code Section 65588).
4)Requires the housing element to plan for the following income
categories:
a) Very low-income (50% or less of area median income);
b) Lower-income (80% or less of area median income);
c) Moderate-income (between 80% and 120% of area median
income); and
d) Above moderate-income (exceeding 120% of area median
income).
AB 2425
Page 2
5)Requires each council of government (COG), in conjunction with
the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), to
prepare a regional housing needs assessment (RHNA) and
allocate to each jurisdiction in the region its fair share of
the housing need for all income categories prior to the
housing element planning period. Where a COG does not exist,
HCD determines the local share of the region's housing need
(Government Code Sections 65584-65584.09).
6)Requires every jurisdiction to receive an allocation of units
at the lower- and very low-income categories (Health and
Safety Code Section 65584).
7)Requires the regional housing needs allocation plan to be
consistent with all of the following objectives:
a) Increasing the housing supply and the mix of housing
types, tenure, and affordability in all cities and counties
within the region in an equitable manner, which shall
result in each jurisdiction receiving an allocation of
units for low- and very low income households;
b) Promoting infill development and socioeconomic equity,
the protection of environmental and agricultural resources,
and the encouragement of efficient development patterns;
c) Promoting an improved intraregional relationship between
jobs and housing.
8)Requires the COG to consider the following factors in
determining what share of the regional housing need to
allocate to each jurisdiction:
a) Each member jurisdiction's existing and projected jobs
and housing relationship;
b) The opportunities and constraints to development of
additional housing in each member jurisdiction;
c) The distribution of household growth assumed for
purposes of a comparable period of regional transportation
plans and opportunities to maximize the use of public
transportation and existing transportation infrastructure;
d) The market demand for housing;
AB 2425
Page 3
e) Agreements between a county and cities in a county to
direct growth toward incorporated areas of the county;
f) The loss of units contained in assisted housing
developments that changed to non-low-income use through
mortgage prepayment, subsidy contract expirations, or
termination of use restrictions;
g) High housing costs burdens;
h) The housing needs of farmworkers;
i) The housing needs generated by the presence of a private
university or a campus of the California State University
or the University of California within any member
jurisdiction; and
j) Any other factors adopted by the COG. (Health and
Safety Code Section 65584.04)
9)Requires the COG to consider the following in analyzing each
jurisdictions opportunities and constraints to the development
of additional housing:
a) Lack of capacity for sewer or water service due to a
variety of factors that preclude the jurisdiction from
providing necessary infrastructure for additional
development during the planning period.
b) The availability of land suitable for urban development
or for conversion to residential use, the availability of
underutilized land, and opportunities for infill
development and increased residential densities.
c) Lands preserved or protected from urban development
under existing federal or state programs, or both, designed
to protect open space, farmland, environmental habitats,
and natural resources on a long-term basis; and
d) County policies to preserve prime agricultural land
within an unincorporated area. (Government Code Section
65584.04)
10)Includes a process by which a jurisdiction can request that
AB 2425
Page 4
the COG revise its allocation and also allows for an appeal to
the COG in the event the jurisdiction is not satisfied with
the outcome of its revision request (Government Code Section
65584.05).
11)To the extent that existing zoning is insufficient to
accommodate a jurisdiction's share of the regional housing
need, requires the jurisdiction to rezone land during the
first three years of the housing element planning period with
appropriate zoning and development standards and with services
and facilities to accommodate its entire share of the regional
housing need (Government Code Section 65583).
FISCAL EFFECT : None.
COMMENTS :
Background
Every local government is required to prepare a housing element
as part of its general plan. The housing element process starts
when HCD determines the number of new housing units a region is
projected to need at all income levels (very low-, lower-,
moderate-, and above-moderate income) over the course of the
next housing element planning period to accommodate population
growth and overcome existing deficiencies in the housing supply.
This number is often referred to as the "RHNA" number (short
for regional housing needs assessment). The COG for the region,
or HCD for areas with no COG, then assigns a share of the RHNA
number to every city and county in the region based on a wide
variety of factors. A jurisdiction may request that the COG
revise its allocation and, if unsatisfied with the outcome of
the revision request, may formally appeal the allocation to the
COG. Once the COG decides on the appeal, the allocation is
final.
In preparing its housing element, a city or county must show how
it plans to accommodate its share of the RHNA. The housing
element must include an inventory of sites already zoned for
housing. To the extent that a community does not have adequate
sites within its existing inventory of residentially zoned land,
then the community must adopt a program to rezone land within
the first three years of the planning period at appropriate
densities to accommodate the community's housing need for all
income groups With respect to sites rezoned to accommodate the
need for very low- and low-income housing, the new zoning must
AB 2425
Page 5
allow multifamily residential use by right.
Cities and counties are required to demonstrate that sites are
adequate to accommodate housing for each income group based on
the zoning after taking into consideration individual site
factors such as property size, existing uses, environmental
constraints, and economic constraints. With respect to the
zoning, density can be used as a proxy for affordability.
Jurisdictions may establish the adequacy of a site for very low-
or low-income housing by demonstrating that the site
realistically allows certain densities established in statute
(commonly referred to as the "Mullin densities") as sufficient
to accommodate housing at these affordability levels. The
Mullin densities are 30 units per acre for jurisdictions in
metropolitan counties, 20 units per acre in "suburban"
jurisdictions, 15 units per acre in cities in non-metropolitan
counties, and 10 units per acre in unincorporated areas in
non-metropolitan counties. In showing that they can accommodate
their need at the lower income levels, jurisdictions may also
include sites zoned at lower densities by providing an analysis
of how the lower density can accommodate the need for affordable
housing.
Staff comments
One common misconception about the housing element is that it is
limited to affordable housing. Support letters received by the
committee clearly illustrate this misconception. The reality is
that housing element law requires communities to plan for
housing at all income levels, and for the vast majority of
communities, the above-moderate income category (i.e.
market-rate housing) represents 40% or more of their RHNA share.
Another misconception is that the housing element is exclusively
about high-density housing. In planning for all income levels,
communities zone for housing at a wide variety of densities
depending on local conditions. Although generally speaking
higher densities are needed to accommodate a jurisdiction's RHNA
allocation at the lower income levels, communities can zone at
lower densities if they can show that there are other ways to
make the units affordable.
In materials provided to the committee, the City of La Habra
Heights indicates that its RHNA allocation of high density
housing is 133 units. It is unclear where this figure comes
AB 2425
Page 6
from. As indicated in the final RHNA allocation plan adopted by
the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) in
July of 2007, the city's RHNA allocation for the current
planning period is 80 total units. This is roughly 1/10 of 1%
of the SCAG region's total housing need of 699,368 units. By
income category, La Habra Heights' allocation was 31 above
moderate-income (i.e. market-rate) units, 14 moderate-income
units, 13 low-income units, and 21 very low-income units. If
all 80 units that the city must plan for were to be built, this
would represent roughly a 4% increase in its total housing
stock.
The committee may wish to consider whether it is good policy to
exempt one city from a law with which the state's 537 other
jurisdictions have to comply, especially when existing law
includes a process by which a jurisdiction can appeal its RHNA
allocation. If the author and sponsor believe that the RHNA
appeals process is inadequate, or that the statutes governing
the RHNA process are flawed in some way, a better course of
action would be to introduce legislation addressing these issues
rather than seeking an exemption for a single jurisdiction.
The committee may wish to consider whether it is appropriate for
the Legislature to supplant the role of SCAG, a role that is
statutorily mandated and that relies on a complex methodology
and a substantial amount of data and information from all of its
member jurisdictions, in determining the appropriate RHNA share
for each city and county in its region.
Double referred : The Assembly Committee on Rules referred AB
2425 to the Committee on Housing and Community Development and
Local Government. If AB 2425 passes this committee, the bill
must be referred to the Committee on Local Government.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
City of La Habra Heights (sponsor)
City of Whittier
Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority
Opposition
American Planning Association, California Chapter
AB 2425
Page 7
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Housing California
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Analysis Prepared by : Anya Lawler / H. & C.D. / (916)
319-2085