BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 840
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: torres
VERSION: 2/17/11
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 14, 2011
SUBJECT:
Farmworker housing
DESCRIPTION:
This bill clarifies that cities and counties must treat
specified employer-provided farmworker housing the same as other
agricultural uses in any zone where agricultural uses are
allowed.
ANALYSIS:
The Employee Housing Act generally provides for the permitting
and inspection of employer-provided housing. Agricultural
employers provide the overwhelming majority of employee housing
for farmworkers and their families.
A portion of the Employee Housing Act provides that any
farmworker housing consisting of no more than 12 units or
spaces, or 36 beds in a group quarters, is considered an
agricultural land use. A city or county may not require a
conditional use permit, zoning variance, or other discretionary
zoning entitlement for this type of farmworker housing that is
not required of any other agricultural activity in the same
zone, nor may a city or county impose on such housing any
business taxes, local registration fees, use permit fees, or
other fees to which other agricultural activities in the same
zone are not likewise subject. Current law also specifies that
the permitted occupancy in employee housing in an agricultural
zone must include agricultural employees who do not work on the
property where the employee housing is located. The goal of
these provisions is to ensure that farmworker housing can be
located in areas where farm labor is needed.
This bill clarifies that the provision allowing farmworkers who
do not work on the property to occupy employer-provided
farmworker housing applies in zones where agricultural uses are
AB 840 (TORRES) Page 2
allowed among other uses in addition to exclusively agricultural
zones.
COMMENTS:
Purpose of the bill . The current provisions of the Employee
Housing Act that deem farmworker housing consisting of no more
than 12 units or spaces, or 36 beds in a group quarters, an
agricultural land use apply in both exclusively agricultural
zones and zones where agricultural uses are allowed among other
uses. One sentence in the law that refers to farmworkers
working off the property, however, uses the term "agricultural
zone," which some local governments have read to mean that the
law applies only in exclusively agricultural zones.
This bill rephrases this one sentence to clarify generally that
cities and counties must treat employer-provided farmworker
housing the same as other agricultural uses in any zone where
agricultural uses are allowed and, specifically, that
farmworkers working off-site may occupy such housing in any zone
where agricultural uses are allowed.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 78-0
HCD: 5-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 8, 2011)
SUPPORT: None received.
OPPOSED: None received.