BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: sb 575
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Steinberg
VERSION: 4/15/09
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: April 28, 2009
SUBJECT:
SB 375 and SB 732 cleanup
DESCRIPTION:
This bill cleans up three provisions of last year's SB 375: 1)
the exemption for transportation sales tax projects; 2) the
rezoning requirement under housing element law; and, 3) housing
elements due dates generally and the due date in the San Diego
region specifically. The bill also clarifies a provision of
last year's SB 732 regarding the open meeting requirements
applicable to the Strategic Growth Council.
ANALYSIS:
Exemption for transportation sales tax projects
SB 375 (Steinberg), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008, required the
Air Resources Board (ARB), by September 30, 2010, to provide
each region that has a metropolitan planning organization (MPO)
with a greenhouse gas emission reduction target for the
automobile and light truck sector for 2020 and 2035,
respectively. Each MPO, in turn, is required to include within
its regional transportation plan (RTP) a sustainable communities
strategy (SCS) designed to achieve the ARB targets for
greenhouse gas emission reduction. The SCS and all other
elements of the RTP, including the programming of funding to
transportation projects, must be internally consistent. SB 375
provides that the internal consistency requirement does not
affect any transportation project programmed for funding by the
California Transportation Commission (CTC) on or before December
31, 2011, if it is contained in the 2007 or 2009 STIP, funded
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through the Transportation Congestion Relief Program, or
specifically listed in a local transportation sales tax ballot
measure approved prior to December 31, 2008. Nor does it
require a transportation sales tax authority to change the
funding allocations approved by the voters for categories of
transportation projects in a sales tax measure adopted prior to
December 31, 2010.
This bill further provides that the internal consistency
requirement does not affect transportation projects funded
solely by a local sales tax measure (in which case the CTC would
not be involved in the programming of funds) if they were listed
in a ballot measure prior to December 31, 2008 approving the
sales tax increase.
Housing elements
The Planning and Zoning Law requires cities and counties to
prepare and adopt a general plan, including a housing element to
guide the future growth of a community. A housing element must
identify and analyze existing and projected housing needs,
identify adequate sites with appropriate zoning to meet its fair
share of the regional housing need, and ensure that regulatory
systems provide opportunities for, and do not unduly constrain,
housing development. The Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD) reviews both draft and adopted housing
elements to determine whether or not they are in substantial
compliance with the law.
Cities and counties are required to revise their housing
elements on a regular basis. Before each revision, each city
and county is assigned its fair share of the regional housing
need for four separate income categories through a two-step
process known as the regional housing needs assessment (RHNA).
In the first step, HCD determines the aggregate housing need for
the region during the planning period to be covered by the
housing element. Depending on whether or not subregions are
involved in the RHNA process, this step begins 26 or 24 months
prior to the regional housing element due date, when HCD is
required to meet and consult with the council of governments
(COG) regarding the assumptions and methodology HCD will use to
determine the region's housing need. In the second step, the
COG allocates the regional housing need to each city and county
within the region.
If a city or county does not have adequate sites to meet its
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housing need at the time the housing element is adopted, it must
commit to rezoning adequate sites. SB 375 generally required
cities and counties to complete these rezonings no later than
three years after the jurisdiction's housing element is adopted,
provided that this does not extend beyond three years and 120
days from the regional housing element due date. SB 375 also
allows this rezoning deadline to be extended by one year if the
local government has completed rezonings at densities sufficient
to accommodate at least 75% of the "sites" for very low and
low-income housing.
This bill allows the deadline to complete required rezonings to
be extended by one year if the local government has completed
rezonings at densities sufficient to accommodate at least 75% of
the "units," as opposed to sites, for very low and low-income
housing.
Prior to the enactment of SB 375, cities and counties were
required to revise their housing elements every five years
according to a staggered schedule by region. All regions have
now completed the fourth revision cycle to the housing element,
and some regions are about to begin the fifth revision cycle.
In order to align the population projections used in the RHNA
process with those used for transportation planning and to
coordinate the RHNA allocation with the sustainable communities
strategy of the RTP that an MPO adopts every four years, SB 375
put housing elements in regions with an MPO on an eight-year
cycle. SB 375 established the due date for the fifth revision
of housing elements within each region at eighteen months after
the date of the first RTP adopted after September 30, 2010 and
the due date for the sixth and subsequent revision every eight
years thereafter. Pursuant to SB 375, housing elements within
the region of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)
for the fifth revision are due on June 30, 2010, and housing
elements for the sixth revision are due around May of 2013.
This bill alters the due date for housing elements in the SANDAG
region such that housing elements for the fifth revision are due
around May of 2013, and the housing elements for the sixth
revision are due around January of 2021. The planning period
for fifth revision housing elements in the region shall cover
the period of time from June 30, 2010 until January 2021. The
bill also allows HCD to adjust the deadlines for adoption of the
fifth and subsequent revisions in any region so that the
deadline occurs 18 months after adoption of the region's RTP,
provided that the planning period for the previous housing
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element is not less than 90 months or more than 102 months.
Strategic Growth Council
SB 732 (Steinberg), Chapter 729, Statutes of 2008, established
the Strategic Growth Council, comprised of the Director of the
Office of Planning and Research; the Secretary of the Resources
Agency; the Secretary for Environmental Protection; the
Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing; the Secretary
of California Health and Human Services; and one member of the
public to be appointed by the Governor. The bill further
required the Council to coordinate specified programs of member
state agencies and to award grants and loans to support the
planning and development of sustainable communities. The
Strategic Growth Council is required to comply with the
Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. All but the public member of the
council are also members of the Governor's Cabinet. The concern
has been raised that the presence of these members at a cabinet
meeting may inadvertently require that the cabinet meeting
comply with the Bagley-Keene Act.
This bill clarifies that a meeting of the Governor's cabinet
does not qualify as a meeting of the Strategic Growth Council
for purposes of the Bagley-Keene Act.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose of the bill . This bill is intended as a clean-up
measure to both SB 375 and SB 732. It clarifies that
transportation sales tax projects listed in pre-2009 ballot
measures are exempt from the internal consistency requirement
of the RTP, whether or not they are programmed by the CTC. It
clarifies that cabinet meetings are not inadvertently subject
to the Bagley-Keene Act. It clarifies that local governments
must have completed rezonings for 75% of low-income units in
order to get an extension on their housing element rezoning
requirement, and the bill seeks to smooth the transition for
the SANDAG from the pre-SB 375 housing element schedule to the
schedule under SB 375.
2.Author amendments . The author's office indicates that the
provisions relating to sales-tax funded transportation
projects and to housing element due dates in the SANDAG region
need further discussion with stakeholders. As a result, the
author will offer amendments in committee to remove these two
provisions from the bill until these discussions have been
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held and the language refined.
3.Fixing the date discrepancy . Long-standing law requires that
the RHNA process begin at least 26 months prior to a region's
housing element due date. SB 375 sets the housing element due
date at 18 months after adoption of the RTP. In other words,
the RHNA process must begin eight months prior to adoption of
the RTP. The problem is that the date by which a region must
adopt its RTP is a moving target, so it is now unclear exactly
when the RHNA process must begin. While federal law requires
regions to adopt their RTPs no later than every four years,
they often do so before the final four-year deadline, and the
exact date of adoption is not known until it actually occurs.
The committee may wish to amend the bill to require an MPO to
notify HCD and Caltrans of the estimated date for adoption of
each RTP and base the RHNA dates on this estimate.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
April 22, 2009)
SUPPORT: None received.
OPPOSED: None received.