BILL NUMBER: AB 485 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 5, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ma
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
An act to amend Section Sections
53395.1 and 53395.19 of, and to add Sections 53395.7.5 and
65460.2.5 to, the Government Code, relating to local planning.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 485, as amended, Ma. Local planning: transit village
development districts. Infrastructure financing.
The
(1) The Transit Village
Development Planning Act of 1994 authorizes a city or county to
create a transit village plan for a transit village development
district that addresses specified characteristics. Existing law
authorizes the legislative body of the city or county to adopt an
infrastructure financing plan, create an infrastructure financing
district, and issue bonds for which only the district is liable, to
finance specified public facilities, upon voter approval.
This bill would eliminate the requirement of voter approval for
the adoption of an infrastructure financing plan, the creation of an
infrastructure financing district, and the issuance of bonds with
respect to a transit village development district. The bill would
require a city or county that uses infrastructure financing district
bonds to finance its transit village development district to use at
least 20% of the revenue from those bonds for the purposes of
increasing, improving, and preserving the supply of lower and
moderate-income housing; to require that those housing units remain
available and occupied by moderate-, low-, very low, and extremely
low income households for at least 55 years for rental units and 45
years for owner-occupied units; and to rehabilitate, develop, or
construct for rental or sale to persons and families of low or
moderate income an equal number of replacement dwellings to those
removed or destroyed from the low- and moderate-income segment of the
housing market as a result of the development of the district, as
specified. The bill would set forth the findings and declarations of
the Legislature, and the intent of the Legislature that the
development of transit village development districts be
environmentally conscious and sustainable, and that related
construction meet or exceed the requirements of the California Green
Building Standards Code.
(2) Existing law prohibits the legislative body of a city or
county from enacting a resolution proposing the formation of an
infrastructure finance district and providing for the division of
taxes of any affected taxing entity unless a resolution approving the
plan has been adopted by the governing body of each affected taxing
entity that is proposed to be subject to the division of taxes has
been filed with the legislative body at or prior to the time of the
hearing.
This bill would require, in the case of an affected taxing entity
that is a special district that provides fire protection services and
where the county board of supervisors is the governing authority or
has appointed itself as the governing board of the district, that the
proposed infrastructure financing district plan be adopted by a
separate resolution approved by the special district's governing
authority or board.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Federal, state, and local governments in California are
investing in new and expanded transit systems in areas throughout the
state, including Los Angeles County, the San Francisco Bay area, San
Diego County, Santa Clara County, and Sacramento County.
(2) This public investment in transit is unrivaled in the state's
history and represents well over ten billion dollars
($10,000,000,000) in planned investment alone.
(3) Recent studies of transit ridership in California indicate
that people who live within a one-half mile radius of transit
stations utilize the transit system in far greater numbers than does
the general public living elsewhere.
(4) The planning strategy of clustering housing and commercial
development around transit stations, and the creation of transit
villages pursuant to that strategy, has gained momentum in recent
years.
(5) Only a few transit stations in California have any
concentration of housing in close proximity to the station.
(6) The greater use of public transit facilitated by the
development of transit villages improves local street, road, and
highway congestion by providing viable alternatives to automobile
use.
(7) The development of transit village development districts can
improve environmental conditions by increasing the use of public
transit, facilitating the creation of and improvements to walkable,
mixed-use communities, and decreasing automobile use.
(8) Transit-oriented development can improve local and regional
economies by providing appropriate commercial and residential
development opportunities, including investment in local transit
village development, job creation through the construction of related
facilities, and job creation through employment opportunities
associated with related entertainment, retail, residential, and other
mixed-use development.
(9) Facilitating the use of infrastructure financing districts for
transit village development could provide local jurisdictions with a
cost-effective tool for pursuing transit-oriented development
projects.
(10) Tax-increment financing of transit village development
districts will provide a new tool for green development to help
achieve the sustainable communities strategy and regional
transportation plan goals of Senate Bill 375 (Chapter 728 of the
Statutes of 2008), as well as the greenhouse gas reduction goals of
Assembly Bill 32 (Chapter 488 of the Statutes of 2006).
(11) Tax-increment financing has been a useful tool for local
government to fund redevelopment projects, and the need for the state
to continue to provide local governments with revenue generating
infrastructure financing tools during difficult economic times. Local
governments will benefit greatly from the expanded use of
infrastructure financing districts for the delivery of
transit-oriented development and related low-income housing.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the development of
transit village development districts throughout the state be
environmentally conscious and sustainable, and that related
construction meet or exceed the requirements of the California Green
Building Standards Code, Part 11 of Title 24 of the California Code
of Regulations, or its successor code.
SEC. 2. Section 53395.1 of the Government Code is amended to read:
53395.1. Unless the context otherwise requires, the following
definitions shall govern the construction of this chapter:
(a) "Affected taxing entity" means any governmental taxing agency
that levied or had levied on its behalf a property tax on all or a
portion of the property located in the proposed district in the
fiscal year prior to the designation of the district, but not
including any county office of education, school district, or
community college district.
(b) "City" means a city, a county, or a city and county.
(c) "Debt" means any binding obligation to repay a sum of money,
including obligations in the form of bonds, certificates of
participation, long-term leases, loans from government agencies, or
loans from banks, other financial institutions, private businesses,
or individuals.
(d) "Designated official" means the city engineer or other
appropriate official designated pursuant to Section 53395.13.
(e) (1) "District" means an infrastructure financing district.
(2) An infrastructure financing district is a "district" within
the meaning of Section 1 of Article XIII A of the California
Constitution.
(f) "Infrastructure financing district" means a legally
constituted governmental entity established pursuant to this chapter
for the sole purpose of financing public facilities.
(g) "Landowner" or "owner of land" means any person shown as the
owner of land on the last equalized assessment roll or otherwise
known to be the owner of the land by the legislative body. The
legislative body has no obligation to obtain other information as to
the ownership of land, and its determination of ownership shall be
final and conclusive for the purposes of this chapter. A public
agency is not a landowner or owner of land for purposes of this
chapter, unless the public agency owns all of the land to be included
within the proposed district.
(h) "Legislative body" means the city council or board of
supervisors.
(i) "Transit facility" includes, but is not limited to, any
publicly owned facility and amenity necessary to implement a transit
village plan adopted pursuant to Article 8.5 (commencing with Section
65460) of Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 7.
SEC. 3. Section 53395.7.5 is added to the Government Code, to
read:
53395.7.5. With respect to an infrastructure financing district
proposed to implement a transit village plan adopted pursuant to
Article 8.5 (commencing with Section 65460) of Chapter 3 of Division
1 of Title 7, an election is not required to form an infrastructure
financing district, adopt an infrastructure financing plan, or issue
bonds pursuant to this chapter. Any other provision of this chapter
applies to the formation of an infrastructure financing district and
the adoption of an infrastructure financing plan.
SEC. 4. Section 53395.19 o f the
Government Code is amended to read:
53395.19. (a) The legislative body shall not enact a resolution
proposing formation of a district and providing for the division of
taxes of any affected taxing entity pursuant to Article 3 (commencing
with Section 53396) unless a resolution approving the plan has been
adopted by the governing body of each affected taxing entity which is
proposed to be subject to division of taxes pursuant to Article 3
(commencing with Section 53396) has been filed with the legislative
body at or prior to the time of the hearing.
(b) In the case of an affected taxing entity that is a special
district that provides fire protection services and where the county
board of supervisors is the governing authority or has appointed
itself as the governing board of the district, the plan shall be
adopted by a separate resolution approved by the district's governing
authority or governing board.
(b)
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to
prevent the legislative body from amending its infrastructure
financing plan and adopting a resolution proposing formation of the
infrastructure financing district without allocation of the tax
revenues of any affected taxing entity which has not approved the
infrastructure financing plan by resolution of the governing body of
the affected taxing entity.
SEC. 4. SEC. 5. Section 65460.2.5 is
added to the Government Code, to read:
65460.2.5. If a city, county, or city and county finances any
portion of a district, as defined in this article, under the
provisions of Chapter 2.8 (commencing with Section 53395) of Part 1
of Division 2 of Title 5, the city, county, or city and county shall
do all of the following:
(a) Use at least 20 percent of all revenues derived from the
property tax increment under Chapter 2.8 (commencing with Section
53395) of Part 1 of Division 2 of Title 5 for the purposes of
increasing, improving, and preserving the supply of lower and
moderate-income housing available in the district at an
affordable housing cost, as defined in Section 50052.5 of the Health
and Safety Code, and occupied by persons and families of low or
moderate income, as defined in Section 50093 of the Health and Safety
Code, lower income households, as defined in Section 50079.5 of the
Health and Safety Code, very low income households, as defined in
Section 50105 of the Health and Safety Code, and extremely low income
households, as defined in Section 50106 of the Health and Safety
Code. The amount of very low, low- and moderate-income housing shall
be in compliance with the Community Redevelopment Law (Part 1
(commencing with Section 33000) of Division 24 of the Health and
Safety Code) and any adopted policies of the city, county, or city
and county that adopted the transit village plan.
(b) Require that housing units described in subdivision (a) remain
available at affordable housing cost to, and occupied by, persons
and families of low or moderate income and very low income and
extremely low income households for the longest feasible time, but
for not less than 55 years for rental units and 45 years for
owner-occupied units. The covenants or restrictions implementing this
requirement shall be in compliance with subdivision (f) of Section
33334.3 of the Health and Safety Code.
(c) Rehabilitate, develop, or construct, or cause to be
rehabilitated, developed, or constructed for rental or sale to
persons or families of low or moderate income an equal number of
replacement dwelling units that have an equal or greater number of
bedrooms as the destroyed or removed units, at affordable housing
costs within the district, and within four years after the
destruction or removal, whenever dwelling units housing persons or
families of low or moderate income are destroyed or removed from the
low- and moderate-income housing market as part of the development of
a district that is subject to a written agreement with the city,
county, or city and county, or when financial assistance has been
provided by the city, county, or city and county. The replacement
dwelling units shall be available at affordable housing cost to, and
occupied by, persons and families in the same or a lower income
category as the persons and families displaced from those destroyed
or removed units.
(d) Include in the transit village plan both of the following:
(1) As one of the five demonstrable public benefits required by
subdivision (f) of Section 65460.2, either an increased stock of
affordable housing or live-travel options for transit-needy groups.
(2) Provisions to implement subdivisions (a) and (b) and paragraph
(1).