BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1690
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1690 (Gordon)
As Introduced February 13, 2014
Majority vote
HOUSING 7-0 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 8-0
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|Ayes:|Chau, Beth Gaines, |Ayes:|Achadjian, Levine, Alejo, |
| |Gordon, Brown, | |Bradford, Gordon, |
| |Maienschein, Quirk-Silva, | |Melendez, Mullin, Rendon |
| |Yamada | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Deletes the requirement that a local government, when
it fails to identify adequate sites in its housing element and
must adopt a rezoning program, rezone at least 50% of its
affordable housing sites on land designated for residential use
and for which nonresidential uses or mixed-uses are not
permitted. This bill would instead require the program to
accommodate at least 50% of the affordable housing need on sites
designated for residential use or mixed-uses.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS :
Purpose of the bill: According to the author, encouraging
mixed-use development is critical to California's smart growth
goals. As local governments, particularly built-out urban
communities, add more zoning designations and overlays,
restrictive segregation of use is increasingly rare. Integrating
commercial uses into a very low- and low-income project can also
provide benefits from a development perspective. In the
author's view, a commercial component can also make a project
more attractive to a community, like a food desert, starved for
services. The most direct benefit of accommodating more very
low- and low-income residents in mixed-use projects is that they
are less likely to be isolated from jobs and services. The
author contends that this bill will allow local cities and
counties the option of planning for growth in a way that better
integrates new low- and very low-income housing into
communities.
AB 1690
Page 2
Adequate sites: Every local government is required to prepare a
housing element as part of its general plan. The housing
element process starts when the Department of Housing and
Community Development (HCD) determines the number of new housing
units a region is projected to need at all income levels (very
low-, low-, moderate-, and above-moderate income) over the
course of the next housing element planning period to
accommodate population growth and overcome existing deficiencies
in the housing supply. This number is known as the regional
housing needs assessment (RHNA). The council of governments
(COG) for the region, or HCD for areas with no COG, then assigns
a share of the RHNA number to every city and county in the
region based on a variety of factors.
In preparing its housing element, a city or county must show how
it plans to accommodate its share of the RHNA. The housing
element must include an inventory of sites already zoned for
housing. When a local government's housing element does not
identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of
all household income levels, it must rezone those sites by a
specific deadline during the planning period. This rezoning
program has to accommodate 100% of the RHNA need for very low-
and low-income households, for which site capacity has not been
identified, on sites that are zoned to permit owner occupied and
rental multifamily use by-right during the planning period.
These zones must allow for, depending on the jurisdiction,
between 16 and 20 units per acre. At least 50% of the very low-
and low-income housing need must be accommodated on sites
designated for residential use and for which nonresidential uses
or mixed-uses are not permitted.
This bill will impact reforms to housing element law that came
out of the Housing Element Working Group (HEWG), which convened
in 2003. One of the bills that implemented the reform, AB 2348
(Mullin), Chapter 724, Statutes of 2004, amended housing element
law by clarifying the land inventory requirements to provide
local governments more certainty about the statutory
requirements. Amongst other things, AB 2348 provided clarity
about the relationship between the land inventory and adequate
sites program. The bill clarified that a rezoning program to
provide adequate sites is only needed when the inventory does
not identify adequate sites already appropriately zoned to
accommodate the RHNA.
AB 1690
Page 3
This bill relates to the scenario where a local government has
not identified adequate sites to accommodate its RHNA which, in
the most recent housing element cycle, is comprised of about 25%
of local governments statewide. As noted above, if a local
government fails to identify adequate sites, then it must adopt
a rezoning program to accommodate its RHNA share, and at least
50% of the very low- and low-income RHNA must be accommodated on
sites designated for residential use and for which
nonresidential uses or mixed-uses are not permitted. These
sites must also be zoned to permit owner-occupied and rental
multifamily residential use by-right.
This bill provides that this 50% requirement may also be
accommodated on mixed-use sites. The idea behind existing law
was likely to encourage the development of affordable housing in
areas that did not identify adequate sites for it to begin with.
Requiring that affordable housing sites must allow residential
uses by-right certainly removes impediments to developing
affordable housing. Affordable housing developers have
indicated that, while it is possible to develop mixed-use
projects, there tends to be more impediments to this type of
development. For example, once sites are zoned as mixed use,
the price of the land is likely to increase, which has the
effect of excluding affordable housing developers. The 50%
floor on residential sites for affordable housing can be viewed
as promoting the actual development of affordable housing by
making it more feasible for developers.
Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca Rabovsky / H. & C.D. / (916)
319-2085
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