BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1174
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Date of Hearing: August 4, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1174 (Wolk) - As Amended: June 24, 2010
Policy Committee: Local
GovernmentVote:6-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill uses previously authorized bond funds to create a
pilot project, administered by the Strategic Growth Council
(SGC), to assist five cities and five counties in updating their
general plans in order to identify and start to address the lack
of infrastructure and services provided to disadvantaged
unincorporated communities within their areas.
1)Generally defines a disadvantaged unincorporated community as
an inhabited unincorporated community that is surrounded by
cities (an "island community") where median household income
is 80% or less of the statewide median.
2)Requires that SGC select five cities and five county
applicants for the pilot project.
3)Requires that the successful applicants use the grants to
review and prepare amendments to their General Plan to address
the presence of disadvantaged unincorporated communities.
Requires the plan amendments to identify the extent to which
the households in the communities lack access to sanitary
sewer service, municipal water service, paved roads, storm
drainage, sidewalks, and street lighting, and how improvements
in these areas would encourage sustainable land use.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown, potentially moderate costs for grants to five cities
and five counties under the pilot program (Proposition 84 bond
funds).
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2)As an illustration of potential costs, the existing SCG grant
program provides for grants of between $100,000 and $1 million
for planning purposes. Assuming an average grant of $300,000
for the 10 agencies participating in the program, total costs
of the bill would be about $3 million.
COMMENTS
1)Background - disadvantaged communities . This bill attempts to
address a long-standing issue concerning the disparity of
public facilities and services between communities, and in
particular, the lack of quality infrastructure in lower-income
communities located in unincorporated areas of the state. Some
of these are county islands (mostly surrounded by cities),
others are fringe communities (at or near the edge of cities)
or "legacy communities" (located in geographically isolated
areas). Cities and special districts are often reluctant to
annex these areas.
2)Background - general plans . Every county and city is required
to adopt a general plan with seven mandatory elements: land
use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise,
and safety. City and county general plans guide local
officials' development and public works decisions. Major land
use decisions related to subdivisions, zoning, public works
projects, and use permits must be consistent with their
general plans.
Proposition 84 (2006) authorized $5.4 billion in state bonds
and specifically set aside $90 million for "planning grants
and planning incentives." SB 732 (Steinberg), Chapter xx/2008
created the Strategic Growth Council, which manages these
programs. The Council intends to award planning grants to
cities and counties worth $22 million a year in 2010-11,
2011-12, 2012-13, and is setting aside 20% of each year's
grants for work that benefits economically disadvantaged
communities.
3)Rationale . The purpose of this bill is bring the challenges
related to disadvantaged unincorporated communities to the
forefront of local land use and planning decisions, by
incorporating these challenges into general plans. The author
asserts that the bill addresses a very serious public health
and planning problem in California - the existence of hundreds
of disadvantaged unincorporated communities that lack basic
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necessities such as clean drinking water, adequate sewage
disposal and other critical infrastructure.
4)Fiscal issue . As noted above, the SGC has established a grant
program for updating general plans, and has set aside 20% the
grants for economically disadvantaged communities, using
definitions for disadvantaged communities that are nearly
identical to this bill. SGC released final guidelines for the
grant program in March of 2010, with a proposed application
due date of August 31, 2010 for local governments.
It is unclear how this bill would interact with the existing
program. For example, would the pilot project come from the
20% currently set aside for disadvantaged communities, or
would it be in addition to the current funds?
Analysis Prepared by : Brad Williams / APPR. / (916) 319-2081