BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 310|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 310
Author: Hancock (D)
Amended: 8/29/11
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 6-3, 4/27/11
AYES: Wolk, DeSaulnier, Hancock, Hernandez, Kehoe, Liu
NOES: Huff, Fuller, La Malfa
SENATE FLOOR : 22-17, 5/19/11
AYES: Alquist, Calderon, Corbett, De Le�n, DeSaulnier,
Evans, Hancock, Kehoe, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Lowenthal,
Padilla, Pavley, Price, Rubio, Simitian, Steinberg,
Vargas, Wolk, Wright, Yee
NOES: Anderson, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Cannella, Correa,
Dutton, Emmerson, Fuller, Gaines, Harman, Huff, La Malfa,
Negrete McLeod, Runner, Strickland, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hernandez
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not available
SUBJECT : Local development
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill allows cities and counties to create
incentives for transit priority projects.
Assembly Amendments (1) delete all provisions related to
the formation of an infrastructure financing district
CONTINUED
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(IFD), how an IFD issues bonds and how an IFD functions,
(2) clarify that a city may only participate in Transit
Priority Project Program (TPPP) if it forms an IFD, and (3)
remove the requirement standards for expedited review to be
eligible for TPPP funding.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1. Requires the regional transportation plan for specified
regions to include a sustainable communities strategy
(SCS), as specified, designed to achieve certain goals
for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from
automobiles and light trucks in a region.
2. Provides that an SCS must:
A. Identify the general location of uses, residential
densities, and building intensities within the
region;
B. Identify areas within the region sufficient to
house all the population of the region, including all
economic segments of the population, over the course
of the planning period of the regional transportation
plan;
C. Identify areas within the region sufficient to
house an eight-year projection of the regional
housing need for the region;
D. Identify a transportation network to service the
transportation needs of the region;
E. Gather and consider the best available scientific
information regarding resource areas and farmland in
the region;
F. Set forth a forecasted development pattern for the
region, which, when integrated with the
transportation network, and other transportation
measures and policies, will reduce GHG emissions from
automobiles and light trucks to achieve, if there is
a feasible way to do so; and,
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G. Quantify the reduction in GHG emissions projected
to be achieved by the SCS and, if the SCS does not
achieve the targeted reductions in GHG emissions, set
forth the difference between the amount that the SCS
would reduce GHG emissions and the target for the
region.
3. Requires a transit priority project to: (A) contain at
least 50 percent residential use, based on total
building square footage and, if the project contains
between 26 percent and 50 percent nonresidential uses, a
floor area ratio of not less than 0.75; (B) provide a
minimum net density of at least 20 dwelling units per
acre; and, (C) be within one-half mile of a major
transit stop or high-quality transit corridor included
in a regional transportation plan.
4. Defines "major transit stop" as a site containing an
existing rail transit station, a ferry terminal served
by either a bus or rail transit service, or the
intersection of two or more major bus routes with a
frequency of service interval of 15 minutes or less
during the morning and afternoon peak commute periods.
5. Authorizes cities and counties to create IFDs and issue
bonds to pay for community scale public works:
highways, transit, water systems, sewer projects, flood
control, child care facilities, libraries, parks, and
solid waste facilities.
6. Allows an IFD to divert property tax increment revenues
from other local governments, excluding school
districts, for up to 30 years, in order to pay back
bonds issued by the IFD.
7. Requires any IFD that constructs dwelling units to set
aside not less than 20 percent of those units to
increase and improve the community's supply of low- and
moderate-income housing available at an affordable
housing cost to persons and families of low- and
moderate-income.
This bill:
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1. States that it is the intent of the Legislature to
provide a process for cities and counties to create
development patterns in the form of transit priority
projects that comply with the implementation of a SCS,
create jobs, reduce vehicle miles traveled, expand the
availability of accessible open-space, build the density
needed for transit viability, and meet regional housing
targets.
2. Establishes the TPPP.
3. Authorizes a city or county to participate in TPPP by
adopting an ordinance indicating its intent to
participate in the program and by forming and IFD.
4. Requires a city or county, if it elects to participate
in TPPP, to amend, if necessary, the general plan and
any related specific plan to allow participating
developers to build at an increased height of a minimum
of three stories within the boundaries of the IFD.
5. Requires a TPPP development project to meet all of the
following:
A. Is located in a designated transit priority
project and within one-half of one mile of a transit
station consistent with the implementation of an SCS;
B. Is located within a zone in which buildings of
three stories or more are authorized;
C. Meets State Air Resources Board land use
guidelines with respect to distance from major
emitters;
D. Provides onsite bicycle parking;
E. Provides for car sharing if a car sharing program
is available in the city or county;
F. Provides unbundled parking;
G. Provides to all units transit passes for 10 years
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as part of the rent or condo fees if transit passes
are available from local providers;
H. Provides to tenants recycling for bottles, cans,
paper, and plastic containers;
I. Provides open space onsite, including, but not
limited to, accessible roof gardens, or pays a fee
into a fund established for local open space;
J. Provides 20 percent affordable units in rental or
owner occupied housing for low- or moderate-income
persons and families, or pays a fee in an amount
equivalent to the cost to provide affordable units
elsewhere within the city's or county's jurisdiction,
as determined by the city or county. Built units
require an affordability covenant of 55 years for
rental units and 45 years for owner occupied units;
and,
K. Pays prevailing wages to construction workers for
residential projects over 100 units.
6. Requires a development project that meets the criteria
for a TPPP to comply with any local design guidelines
that were adopted prior to the submission of the project
application.
7. Provides that an IFD may reimburse a developer for any
permit costs or costs associated with the construction
of the affordable housing units in a TPPP.
8. Specifies for the car sharing program the car sharing
area may be onsite, or the developer may pay a fee to
the city or county to cover the cost of providing for
car sharing at an offsite location near the project.
The developer is required to provide one car share for
the first 20 units and one car share for every 50 units
thereafter.
9. Defines "unbundled parking" as renting a parking space
for the residential units separately from the
residential units, or pays a fee to the appropriate
local transit management fund to cover one-half of the
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cost of providing a parking space.
10.Prohibits the fee a developer could pay in lieu of
providing space from exceeding $0.10 per square foot.
11.Authorizes an IFD to reimburse a developer of a project
that is both located entirely within the boundaries of
that IFD for any permit expenses incurred pursuant to
that TPPP or to offset additional expenses incurred by
the developer in constructing affordable housing units.
12.Prohibits a city or county from participating in a TPPP
if it: (A) prohibits paying prevailing wages for public
works; or, (B) prohibits contractors and others from
prehire collective bargaining or similar agreements with
labor organizations regarding employment terms and
conditions on construction projects.
Comments
California has a goal of reducing GHG emissions (AB 32
�Nu�ez and Pavley], Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006).
Reducing vehicle emissions involves multiple strategies,
including clean technology as well as reducing the amount
of vehicle miles traveled. Among the ways to reduce
vehicle miles is better coordination of transportation and
land use plans and increasing the density in existing areas
and new development projects. To those ends, the
Legislature linked transportation planning and land use
planning by state, regional, and local agencies.
Metropolitan planning organizations and their constituent
counties and cities are preparing sustainable communities
strategies. Among the incentives to implement those
policies is the opportunity for developers to gain
accelerated approval for projects that promote those goals
(SB 375 �Steinberg], Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008).
Building better communities in the new century requires
intense collaboration among willing developers, local
leaders, and supportive neighbors. The statewide goals
launched by AB 32 (Nu�ez and Pavley, 2006) need to be
translated into well-designed and economically feasible
development projects in downtowns, older suburbs, and new
development. SB 375 (Steinberg, 2008) pointed the way to
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this future by linking transportation and land use planning
programs. SB 375 contained incentives for developers who
want to build projects that fit state, regional, and local
growth policies. This bill encourages builders with
projects that meet these goals by allowing local officials
to use funds from infrastructure financing districts to pay
for the developer's processing fees and the costs of
affordable housing.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/8/11)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, AFL-CIO
California Infill Builders Association (if amended)
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Natural Resources Defense Council
Paratransit, Inc.
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
State Building and Construction Trades Council of
California
TransForm
OPPOSITION : (Verified 9/8/11)
Associated Builders and Contractors of California
Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Supporters argue that this bill
creates a more flexible development tool to finance needed
affordable housing and transit-oriented development
projects. Given the "opt-in" nature of IFDs tax increment
financing, more local governments will have a voice in if
their growth in property tax is allocated, a luxury
currently not provided to them under redevelopment law.
Paratransit, Inc. states "this bill will help California to
achieve its land use and air quality goals as part of SB
375 and AB 32, will encourage transit ridership, and will
enhance cooperation between cities, counties, developers,
and transit."
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ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Associated Builders and
Contractors of California (ABC California) states, "SB 310
requires that to qualify for the economic subsidies offered
by this bill, a builder must propose a project that meets
more than a dozen conditions, from car sharing to
prevailing wages for transit village residences.
Currently, contractors are required to pay state-mandated
construction wage rates ('prevailing wages') to workers
engaged in various occupations allegedly related to public
works construction. The definition of public works has
been expanded in recent years to include numerous kinds of
privately built projects that are obviously not government
projects for public use. ABC California also opposes SB
310's proposed new Government Code 65470 (d)(11) that
mandates all contractors must pay 'prevailing wages to
construction workers for residential projects over 100
units pursuant to Sections 1770, 1773, and 1773.1 of the
Labor Code.'"
AGB:kc 9/8/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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