BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 398
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Correa
VERSION: 4/13/09
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: YES
Hearing date: April 21, 2009
SUBJECT:
Mobilehome parks: fire code enforcement
DESCRIPTION:
This bill increases local agencies' authority to enforce fire
prevention standards in mobilehome parks.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law, the Mobilehome Parks Act, authorizes the
Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to
regulate mobilehome parks to assure protection of the health,
safety, and general welfare of all mobilehome park residents.
HCD has adopted statewide regulations to enforce the act's
provisions. Local agencies, however, have the option of assuming
enforcement authority within their jurisdictions through
agreement with HCD. Enforcement agencies inspect those
mobilehome parks that have a history of health and safety code
violations or about which the agency receives a complaint
regarding a potential health or safety code violation.
The Mobilehome Parks Act specifically directs HCD to adopt fire
protection standards to prevent fires and to protect life and
property in mobilehome parks. HCD's fire protection standards
are applicable in all parks, except for parks located in a
jurisdiction where the local agency is the enforcement agency
for the Mobilehome Parks Act and the local agency has adopted a
fire prevention code that imposes restrictions that are equal to
or stronger than HCD's standards.
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Existing law allows a local agency that is not the enforcement
agency to enforce only specific provisions of HCD's fire
prevention code, which it enumerates to be fire hydrant systems,
water supply, fire equipment access and posting thereof,
parking, lot identification, weed, debris and combustible
material abatement, and burglar bars.
This bill :
1.Permits a local agency that is not an enforcement agency, such
as the local fire district, to assume enforcement of all of
HCD's fire standards, not just those enumerated in existing
law.
2.Deletes the requirement that a local jurisdiction be the
enforcement agency for the whole Mobilehome Parks Act in order
for the local jurisdiction to impose on and enforce in
mobilehome parks a stricter fire prevention code than HCD's
code.
3.Requires HCD and local agencies that enforce the Mobilehome
Parks Act to maintain on file all records of mobilehome park
inspections conducted since January 1, 1991.
4.Requires HCD, by July 1, 2012 and to the extent feasible, to
make all records available under the Mobilehome Parks Act
accessible on its website.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author chairs the Senate Select Committee on
Manufactured Housing and Communities, and he introduced this
bill to address issues that arose from hearings of the
committee on wildfire safety and code enforcement in
mobilehome parks. The bill enables local fire authorities to
assume jurisdiction from HCD for fire code enforcement in
mobilehome parks without having to take on all park code
enforcement issues, as existing law requires. For these
jurisdictions, they may also adopt a stricter fire prevention
code than that produced by HCD. This bill also requires HCD to
place park code enforcement records on-line by July 1, 2012,
in order to provide better public access to information about
violations of health and safety codes and inspections of
parks.
2.Local enforcement . Seventy-four local agencies currently
SB 398 (CORREA) Page 3
enforce the Mobilehome Parks Act in their jurisdictions under
agreement with HCD. Three of these are counties that also
provide enforcement for parks in seven cities within their
respective jurisdictions. These 74 local agencies also retain
jurisdiction to enforce their own local fire code in
mobilehome parks, as long as that standard meets or exceeds
HCD's requirements. Due to the fee structure for the park code
enforcement program and the lack of revenue it provides, local
governments have been largely unable to take on the whole park
inspection program in order to obtain greater fire code
authority. SB 1627 (Dunn), Chapter 433, Statutes of 2000,
allows local enforcement of the fire code only for park fire
hydrant systems, water supply, fire equipment access, posting
of fire equipment access, parking, lot identification, weed,
debris and combustible storage abatement, and burglar bars. To
date, eight fire agencies have assumed this limited
jurisdiction for fire safety in parks. These eight are Los
Angeles County Fire, Santa Barbara County Fire, the fire
departments in the cities of Huntington Beach, Mountain View,
Sunnyvale, and Torrance, the Burney Fire Protection District,
and the Ebbetts Pass Fire District.
In these eight jurisdictions, this creates an overlapping
approach whereby the local fire authorities and HCD have
responsibility for different aspects of fire safety.
Proponents note that this can lead to confusion. They assert
that when it comes to issues involving enforcement of the fire
code, there should be a more straightforward approach, such as
allowing local fire authorities that are responsible for
putting out the fires to enforce fire related code issues
across the board in mobilehome parks.
3.Accessibility of inspection records . HCD park inspection and
other reports, such as those involving the maintenance and
operation of fire hydrants in mobilehome parks, may be
accessed under the Public Records Act. A member of the public
making a request for a specific report must know that a
specific report exists in order to request it via the mail or
must visit HCD offices in Sacramento to look through the
reports to find out what is available. The author believes
that the internet provides a better and more cost-effective
way to post this information and make it available to the
public. This bill, however, requires that all Mobilehome Parks
Act records be put on line. The would be a tremendous amount
of information, some of it not likely to be of interest to the
public or mobilehome park residents, including records of fee
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payments, information on HCD's adoption of building standards,
and materials from HCD's rulemaking process. The author or the
committee may wish to limit the requirement to post records on
HCD's website to inspection and code violation records.
4.Technical amendments .
Move subdivision (d) on page 3 to between lines 2 and 3 on
page 3 and re-letter it as "(b)"
On page 3, line 3, delete "(b)" and insert "(c)"
On page 3, line 5, after "that" insert "has assumed fire code
enforcement under subdivision (b) and"
On page 3, line 6, delete "and is enforcing"
On page 3, one 10, delete "(c)" and insert "(d)"
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
April 15, 2009
SUPPORT: Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League
OPPOSED: None received.