BILL NUMBER: SB 880 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 21, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator Corbett
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to amend Section 21092.2 of, and to repeal Section
21162 of, the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental
quality. An act to amend Sections 1353.9 and 1363.07
of the Civil Code, relating to common interest developments.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 880, as amended, Corbett. Environmental quality:
environmental impact report: notice of completion.
Common interest developments: electric vehicle charging stations.
The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act defines and
regulates common interest developments, which include community
apartment projects, condominium projects, planned developments, and
stock cooperatives. Beginning January 1, 2012, any covenant,
restriction, or condition in a deed or other instrument affecting the
transfer or sale of an interest in a common interest development, or
any provision of the governing documents of a common interest
development, that prohibits or restricts the installation or use of
an electric vehicle charging station is void and unenforceable. On
and after January 1, 2012, if an electric vehicle charging station is
to be placed in a common area, the homeowner and common interest
development association shall be subject to certain requirements.
This bill would make those provisions applicable only to the
installation or use of an electric vehicle charging station in an
owner's designated parking space, as described. The bill would also
provide that any provision in those documents that is in conflict
with those requirements is void and unenforceable. The bill would
authorize the installation of a charging station in a common area
that is not an exclusive use common area only if installation in the
owner's designated parking space is impossible or unreasonably
expensive. However, the bill would authorize an association or owners
to install a charging station in the common area for use of all
members, and would require the association to develop appropriate
terms of use for the charging station. The bill would authorize the
board of directors of an association to grant exclusive use of a
portion of the common area without the affirmative vote of the
members of the association for the purpose of installing and using an
electric vehicle charging station in an owner's garage or designated
parking space, under specified circumstances, such as when the
installation or use of the charging station requires reasonable
access through the common area for utility lines or meters.
(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a
lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and
certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a
project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a
significant effect on the environment, or to adopt a negative
declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.
CEQA requires that notices regarding a lead agency determination
to require an EIR or other actions taken pursuant to that act be
mailed to every person who files a written request.
This bill would additionally require a notice of completion of an
EIR by a public agency to be mailed upon request, thereby imposing a
state-mandated local program by imposing new duties upon local
agencies.
(2) The California Environmental Quality Act requires the State
Clearinghouse to provide to a legislator in whose district a project
has an environmental impact the notice of completion of an EIR on the
project if the legislator requests the notice and the State
Clearinghouse has received the notice.
This bill would instead require the State Clearinghouse to provide
a notice of a determination by a lead agency that an EIR is required
for a project and a notice of completion of an EIR by a public
agency if the legislator requests the notice and the State
Clearinghouse has received the requested notice.
(3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes
no . State-mandated local program: yes
no .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 1353.9 of the Civil
Code , as added by Section 1 of Chapter 121 of the
Statutes of 2011, is amended to read:
1353.9. (a) Any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in
any deed, contract, security instrument, or other instrument
affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in a common interest
development, and any provision of a governing document, as defined in
subdivision (j) of Section 1351, that ei ther
effectively prohibits or restricts the installation or use of an
electric vehicle charging station in an owner's designated
parking space, including, but not limited to, a deeded parking space,
a parking space in an owner's exclusive use
common area, or a parking space that is specifically designated for
use by a particular owner, or is in conflict with the provisions of
this section is void and unenforceable.
(b) (1) This section does not apply to provisions that impose
reasonable restrictions on electric vehicle charging stations.
However, it is the policy of the state to promote, encourage, and
remove obstacles to the use of electric vehicle charging stations.
(2) For purposes of this section, "reasonable restrictions" are
restrictions that do not significantly increase the cost of the
station or significantly decrease its efficiency or specified
performance.
(c) An electric vehicle charging station shall meet applicable
health and safety standards and requirements imposed by state and
local permitting authorities as well as all
other applicable zoning, land use or other ordinances, or land use
permits .
(d) For purposes of this section, "electric vehicle charging
station" means a station that is designed in compliance with the
California Building Standards Code and delivers electricity from a
source outside an electric vehicle into one or more electric
vehicles. An electric vehicle charging station may include several
charge points simultaneously connecting several electric vehicles to
the station and any related equipment needed to facilitate charging
plug-in electric vehicles.
(e) If approval is required for the installation or use of an
electric vehicle charging station, the application for approval shall
be processed and approved by the association in the same manner as
an application for approval of an architectural modification to the
property, and shall not be willfully avoided or delayed. The approval
or denial of an application shall be in writing. If an application
is not denied in writing within 60 days from the date of receipt of
the application, the application shall be deemed approved, unless
that delay is the result of a reasonable request for additional
information.
(f) If the electric vehicle charging station is to be placed in a
common area or an exclusive use common area, as designated in the
common interest development's declaration, the following provisions
apply:
(1) The homeowner owner first shall
obtain approval from the common interest development
association to install the electric vehicle
charging station and the common interest development
association shall approve the installation if
the homeowner owner agrees in writing
to do all of the following:
(A) Comply with the common interest development's
association's architectural standards for the
installation of the charging station.
(B) Engage a licensed contractor to install the charging
station.
(C) Within 14 days of approval, provide a certificate of insurance
that names the common interest development
association as an additional insured under the
homeowner's owner's insurance policy in the
amount set forth in paragraph (3) .
(D) Pay for the electricity usage associated with the
charging station.
(2) The homeowner owner and each
successive homeowner owner of the
parking stall on which or near where the electric vehicle
charging station is placed shall be
responsible for all of the following:
(A) Costs for damage to the charging station, common
areas area , exclusive use
common areas area , or
adjacent units separate interests resulting from
the installation, maintenance, repair, removal, or replacement of
the charging station.
(B) Costs for the maintenance, removal, repair,
and replacement of the electric vehicle charging
station until it has been removed from the common area or
exclusive use common area and for the restoration of
the common area after removal .
(C) The cost of electricity associated with the charging
station.
(D) Disclosing to prospective buyers the existence of any
electric vehicle charging station of the owner
and the related responsibilities of the homeowner
owner under this section .
(3) The homeowner owner and each
successive homeowner owner of the charging
station , at all times, shall maintain an umbrella liability
coverage policy in the amount of one million dollars ($1,000,000)
covering the obligations of the owner under paragraph (2), and shall
name the common interest development
association as an additional insured under the policy with a
right to notice of cancellation.
(g) Except as provided in subdivision (h), installation of an
electric vehicle charging station in a common area, that is not an
exclusive use common area, shall be authorized by the association
only if installation in the owner's designated parking space that is
owned in fee or as an exclusive use easement is impossible or
unreasonably expensive. In such cases, the association shall enter
into a license agreement with the owner for the use of the space in a
common area, and shall comply with all of the requirements in
subdivision (f).
(h) The association or owners may install an electric vehicle
charging station in the common area for the use of all members of the
association and, in that case, the association shall develop
appropriate terms of use for the charging station.
(i) An association may create a new parking space where one did
not previously exist to facilitate the installation of an electric
vehicle charging station.
(g)
(j) An association that willfully violates this section
shall be liable to the applicant or other party for actual damages,
and shall pay a civil penalty to the applicant or other party in an
amount not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000).
(h)
(k) In any action to enforce compliance with this
section, the prevailing plaintiff shall be awarded reasonable
attorney's fees.
SEC. 2. Section 1363.07 of the Civil
Code is amended to read:
1363.07. (a) After an association acquires fee title to, or any
easement right over, a common area, unless the association's
governing documents specify a different percentage, the affirmative
vote of members owning at least 67 percent of the separate interests
in the common interest development shall be required before the board
of directors may grant exclusive use of any portion of that common
area to any member, except for any of the following:
(1) A reconveyance of all or any portion of that common area to
the subdivider to enable the continuation of development that is in
substantial conformance with a detailed plan of phased development
submitted to the Real Estate Commissioner with the application for a
public report.
(2) Any grant of exclusive use that is in substantial conformance
with a detailed plan of phased development submitted to the Real
Estate Commissioner with the application for a public report or in
accordance with the governing documents approved by the Real Estate
Commissioner.
(3) Any grant of exclusive use that is for any of the following
reasons:
(A) To eliminate or correct engineering errors in documents
recorded with the county recorder or on file with a public agency or
utility company.
(B) To eliminate or correct encroachments due to errors in
construction of any improvements.
(C) To permit changes in the plan of development submitted to the
Real Estate Commissioner in circumstances where the changes are the
result of topography, obstruction, hardship, aesthetic
considerations, or environmental conditions.
(D) To fulfill the requirement of a public agency.
(E) To transfer the burden of management and maintenance of any
common area that is generally inaccessible and not of general use to
the membership at large of the association.
(F) Any grant in connection with an expressly zoned industrial or
commercial development, or any grant within a subdivision of the type
defined in Section 1373.
(G) To install and use an electric vehicle charging station in an
owner's garage or a designated parking space that meets the
requirements of Section 1353.9, where the installation or use of the
charging station requires reasonable access through, or across, the
common area for utility lines or meters, or to install and use an
electric vehicle charging station through a license granted by an
association under Section 1353.9.
(b) Any measure placed before the members requesting that the
board of directors grant exclusive use of any portion of the common
area shall specify whether the association will receive any monetary
consideration for the grant and whether the association or the
transferee will be responsible for providing any insurance coverage
for exclusive use of the common area.
SECTION 1. Section 21092.2 of the Public
Resources Code is amended to read:
21092.2. (a) The notices required pursuant to Sections 21080.4,
21083.9, 21092, 21108, 21152, and 21161 shall be mailed to every
person who has filed a written request for notices with either the
clerk of the governing body or, if there is no governing body, the
director of the agency. If the agency offers to provide the notices
by e-mail, upon filing a written request for notices, a person may
request that the notices be provided to him or her by e-mail. The
request may also be filed with any other person designated by the
governing body or director to receive these requests. The agency may
require requests for notices to be annually renewed. The public
agency may charge a fee, except to other public agencies, that is
reasonably related to the costs of providing this service.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall not be construed in any manner that
results in the invalidation of an action because of the failure of a
person to receive a requested notice, if there has been substantial
compliance with the requirements of this section.
(c) The notices required pursuant to Sections 21080.4 and 21161
shall be provided by the State Clearinghouse to any legislator in
whose district the project has an environmental impact, if the
legislator requests the notice and the State Clearinghouse has
received it.
SEC. 2. Section 21162 of the Public Resources
Code is repealed.
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this
act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution because a local agency or school district has the
authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to
pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within
the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.