AB 663: Coastal resources: low- and moderate-income housing.

(1)Existing law, the California Coastal Act of 1976, establishes the California Coastal Commission and prescribes the powers and responsibilities of the commission with regard to the regulation of development along the California coast. The act requires any person wishing to perform or undertake any development in the coastal zone, as defined, to obtain a coastal development permit, except as provided. The act requires that lower cost visitor and recreational facilities be protected, encouraged, and, where feasible, provided.

This bill would, until January 1, 2023, also require housing opportunities for persons of low and moderate income in the coastal zone to be protected, encouraged, and, where feasible, provided. The bill would require the commission, no later than January 1, 2019, to adopt interpretive guidelines for the development, implementation, and construction of housing opportunities for persons of low- and moderate-income in the coastal zone.

(2)The act prescribes procedures for the approval and certification of a local coastal program by the commission, and provides for the delegation of development review authority to a local government, as defined, with a certified local coastal program. The act provides that no local coastal program shall be required to include housing policies and programs.

This bill would suspend the operation of that provision specifying that local coastal programs are not required to include housing policies and programs beginning January 1, 2018, until January 1, 2023.

(3)Provisions of the Planning and Zoning Law, known as the Mello Act, prohibit the conversion or demolition of residential dwelling units within a coastal zone, as defined and delineated in the Coastal Act, occupied by persons and families of low or moderate income unless provision has been made for the replacement of those dwelling units, as specified, and also requires that new housing developments constructed within a coastal zone provide, where feasible, housing units for persons and families of low or moderate income. That law also prohibits the conversion or demolition of any residential structure for purposes of a nonresidential use which is not coastal dependent, as that term is defined in the Coastal Act, unless the local government first determines that residential use is no longer feasible in that location.

In the event an application for a coastal development permit has not been acted upon prior to January 1, 1982, existing law prohibits the commission from imposing any condition or requirement with respect to housing for persons or families of low or moderate income on the proposed development when processing an application for a coastal development permit. Existing law requires an applicant for a coastal development permit to apply to the appropriate local government, as provided, to have that local government apply the requirements of the Mello Act to the proposed development.

This bill would provide that the above provisions do not apply to a coastal development permit application acted upon between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2023.

(4)Existing property tax law establishes a partial exemption for properties used exclusively for rental housing and related facilities that are owned and operated by certain types of nonprofit entities or veterans organizations and that meet specified requirements. Existing law, on or after January 1, 2015, prohibits a local government from entering into a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement with a property owner of a low-income housing project that is eligible for the exemption described above, and makes any PILOT agreement entered into in violation of this provision void and unenforceable.

This bill would, on or after January 1, 2018, prohibit the commission from entering into a PILOT agreement with a property owner of a low-income housing project that is eligible for that exemption, and would make any PILOT agreement entered into in violation of that provision void and unenforceable.