BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1672
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1672 (Torres)
As Amended April 17, 2012
Majority vote
HOUSING 4-2 WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 9-3
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|Ayes:|Torres, Atkins, |Ayes:|Huffman, Blumenfield, |
| |Bradford, Hueso | |Campos, Fong, Williams, |
| | | |Roger Hern�ndez, Hueso, |
| | | |Lara, Yamada |
| | | | |
|-----+-----------------------+-----+-----------------------------|
|Nays:|Beth Gaines, Knight |Nays:|Halderman, Beth Gaines, |
| | | |Jones |
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APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, | | |
| |Bradford, Charles | | |
| |Calderon, Campos, Davis, | | |
| |Gatto, Hall, Hill, Lara, | | |
| |Mitchell, Solorio | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly, | | |
| |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Makes changes to the Housing-Related Parks Program
(HRP), administered by the Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD). Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires HCD to award grants to cities and counties under HRP
based upon the issuance of building permits for new housing
units that are affordable to low- or very low-income
households.
2)Deletes the requirement that funds be disbursed upon
documentation of a certificate of occupancy, final inspection,
or other comparable local approval.
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3)Requires that substantial bonus funds be awarded for any of
the following:
a) Jurisdictions that demonstrate that grant funds will be
spent to improve a park or community recreational facility
that will serve a disadvantaged community;
b) Jurisdictions that demonstrate that grant funds will be
spent to create a new park or community recreational
facility that will serve a disadvantaged community; and,
c) Jurisdictions that meet the definition of a park
deficient community.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, costs to HCD would be minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS : The HRP provides grants to local governments for park
and recreation facilities. Grant awards are based on the number
of affordable housing units that are started in community in a
given year. The program is not competitive; grants are awarded
to all local governments that apply that meet the program's
requirements in a given year. Awards are calculated on a
per-bedroom basis. The current program regulations establish a
base award of $500 per bedroom for low-income units and $750 per
bedroom for very low-income units. Various bonus categories
raise the potential maximum per-bedroom award to $1,100 for
low-income units and $1,625 for very low-income units.
Proposition 1C, the Housing and Emergency Trust Fund Act of
2006, provided $200 million in funding for housing-related
parks. HRP was modeled on HCD's popular Workforce Housing
Rewards Program, which was funded through the prior housing bond
(Proposition 46 of 2002) but not under Proposition 1C. Under
that program, local governments received flexible funding for a
variety of community facilities and improvements when they
approved affordable housing. The idea behind Workforce Housing
Rewards, and subsequently HRP, was to provide local governments
with an incentive to approve needed affordable housing by
providing guaranteed funding for community amenities.
Under current law, HRP awards are based on the number of housing
starts in a community in a given year. The HRP statute defines
a housing start to mean that the local government has issued a
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completed foundation inspection. Unfortunately, this has proven
problematic. There is little consistency in documenting
foundation inspections across jurisdictions, which has left some
jurisdictions unsure how to document their eligibility or
confused as to whether they even are eligible for HRP funds even
though they approved affordable units. In addition, some types
of construction, such as podium structures, do not involve a
foundation inspection.
This bill replaces housing starts with building permits as the
way to document HRP eligibility. All local governments issue
and track building permits. This small change will simplify the
HRP application process and ensure that local governments
receive awards under HRP for all affordable housing projects
that they approve, enabling them to receive needed park funding.
This bill also eliminates a requirement that funds not be
disbursed to local governments until they issue a certificate of
occupancy for the units that qualified them for the HRP award.
It takes an average of 18 months between the time a building
permit is issued and the time units are completed. Depending on
when HCD awards funds each year, local governments may have to
wait a substantial amount of time between receiving an award and
actually getting the money. While the intent of the requirement
is to ensure that units that qualify a jurisdiction for an award
actually get built, it is extremely rare for an affordable
housing project to not proceed through the construction process
once building permits have been issued. Thus, the requirement
in effect serves to delay the delivery of needed park funds to
local governments.
Additionally, this bill rearranges the existing categories of
bonus funding under HRP. The bill requires HCD to provide
substantial bonus funding for park-deficient and disadvantaged
communities. The current program guidelines provide a $100 per
bedroom bonus for these categories, but include higher bonus
amounts for other categories, such as for housing projects built
in infill areas and for extremely low-income units. Park
advocates argue that park-deficient and disadvantaged
communities have the greatest need for park funding and thus
should receive higher award amounts.
Analysis Prepared by : Anya Lawler / H. & C.D. / (916)
AB 1672
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319-2085 FN: 0003549