BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: sb 1033
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: torres
VERSION: 2/14/14
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: no
Hearing date: April 1, 2014
SUBJECT:
Housing element law and housing successor agencies
DESCRIPTION:
This bill updates housing element law references to
redevelopment housing funds with a reference to housing
successor agency funds.
ANALYSIS:
Historically, the Community Redevelopment Law allowed a local
government to establish a redevelopment area and capture all of
the increase in property taxes generated within the area
(referred to as "tax increment") over a period of decades. The
law required redevelopment agencies to deposit 20 percent of tax
increment into a Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund (L&M fund)
to be used to increase, improve, and preserve the community's
supply of low- and moderate-income housing available at an
affordable housing cost.
In 2011, the Legislature enacted two bills, AB 26X (Blumenfield)
and AB 27X (Blumenfield), Chapters 5 and 6, respectively, of the
First Extraordinary Session. AB 26X eliminated redevelopment
agencies and established procedures for winding down the
agencies, paying off enforceable obligations, and disposing of
agency assets. AB 26X also included provisions allowing the
host city or county of a dissolving redevelopment agency to
retain the housing assets and functions previously performed by
the agency and thus become a successor housing agency. Housing
successor agencies were not allowed to keep L&M funds on
deposit, but over time they receive repayments made on
outstanding loans and may have other program income.
AB 27X allowed redevelopment agencies to avoid elimination if
they made payments to schools in the current budget year and in
future years. In December 2011, the California Supreme Court in
SB 1033 (TORRES) Page 2
California Redevelopment Association v. Matosantos upheld AB 26X
and overturned
AB 27X. As a result, all of the state's roughly 400
redevelopment agencies dissolved on February 1, 2012.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires cities and counties to
prepare and adopt a general plan, including a housing element,
to guide the future growth of a community. Cities and counties
located within the territory of a metropolitan planning
organization (MPO) must revise their housing elements every
eight years. Cities and counties in rural, non-MPO regions must
revise their housing elements every five years.
Before each revision, each community is assigned its fair share
of the region's housing need for four separate income categories
(very low-, low-, moderate-, and above-moderate income
households) through a two-step process known as the regional
housing needs assessment (RHNA). In the first step, the
Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determines
the aggregate housing need for the region during the planning
period the housing element will cover. In the second step, the
council of governments (COG) for the region allocates the
regional housing need to each city and county within the region.
In general, a housing element must identify and analyze existing
and projected housing needs, identify adequate sites with
appropriate zoning to meet its share of the RHNA, and ensure
that regulatory systems provide opportunities for, and do not
unduly constrain, housing development. Among other things, the
element specifically must include an analysis of existing
assisted housing developments that are eligible to convert to
market-rate rental housing upon the expiration of affordability
restrictions, and identify all public resources, including
redevelopment agency tax increment funds, that are available to
preserve the affordability of these housing units. In addition,
the housing element must include a program of actions that the
city or county will undertake to implement the policies and
achieve the goals and objectives of the housing element through
regulatory measures and the utilization of available public
funding, including redevelopment agency tax increment funds.
HCD reviews both draft and adopted housing elements to determine
whether or not they are in substantial compliance with the law.
SB 1033 (TORRES) Page 3
This bill updates housing element law references to
redevelopment agency housing funds with a reference to housing
successor agency funds.
COMMENTS:
Purpose of the bill . The housing element is meant to describe a
city's or county's housing goals, the programs it will
administer to achieve those goals, and the resources that it has
available and will use to implement those programs. With the
demise of redevelopment, there are no redevelopment tax
increment funds available for housing purposes, but housing
successor agencies do receive limited program income from
outstanding loans originally made by their communities'
redevelopment agencies. This bill updates housing element law
to reflect this change in available funding sources for housing.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, March 26,
2014.)
SUPPORT: None received.
OPPOSED: None received.