AB 73: Planning and zoning: housing sustainability districts.

(1)The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. Existing law provides for various reforms and incentives intended to facilitate and expedite the construction of affordable housing.

This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county, including a charter city, charter county, or charter city and county, to establish by ordinance a housing sustainability district that meets specified requirements, including authorizing residential use within the district through the ministerial issuance of a permit. The bill would authorize the city, county, or city and county to apply to the Department of Housing and Community Development for approval for a zoning incentive payment and require the city, county, or city and county to provide specified information about the proposed housing sustainability district ordinance. The bill would require the department to approve a zoning incentive payment if the ordinance meets the above-described requirements and the citys housing element is in compliance with specified law. The bill would also require the department, each October 1 following the approval of the housing sustainability district, to issue a certificate of compliance if the city, county, or city and county meets specified criteria pertaining to the continued compliance with these provisions or to deny certification, as provided. The bill would provide that a city, county, or city and county with a housing sustainability district would be entitled to a zoning incentive payment, subject to appropriation of funds for that purpose, and require that ¹/₂ the amount be provided upon zone approval by the department and ¹/₂ the amount upon verification by the department of the issuance of permits for the projected units of residential construction within the zone, provided that the city, county, or city and county has received a certificate of compliance for the applicable year. The bill, if the city, county, or city and county reduces the density of sites within the district from specified levels, would require the city, county, or city and county to return the full amount of zoning incentive payments it has received to the department. The bill would also authorize a developer to develop a project in a housing sustainability district in accordance with the already existing land use approval procedures that would otherwise apply to the parcel in the absence of the establishment of the housing sustainability district pursuant to its provisions, as provided.

The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to incorporate provisions in its housing sustainability district ordinance prescribing the contents of an application for a permit for residential development, to adopt design review standards, and to charge a project application fee to defray the costs of preparation, adoption, and administration of the housing sustainability district plan, as provided. The bill would require that a housing sustainability district ordinance be effective for no more than 10 years, but would authorize the city, county, or city and county to renew the ordinance for not more than 10 years. The bill would also require that prevailing wages be paid, and a skilled workforce employed, in connection with all projects within the housing sustainability district, as provided. The bill would establish procedures for review of an application by an approving authority, including requiring the approving authority to conduct a public hearing on an application and issue a written decision within 120 days of receipt of the application. The bill, if a proposed development within a housing sustainability district includes any parcels being used for affordable housing, would require that the approving authority condition approval of the application on the applicants agreement to replace those affordable housing units. The bill would also prescribe procedures for review of a decision of the approving authority to deny or approve with conditions an application for a permit in the superior court.

The bill would authorize the department to adopt, amend, and repeal standards, forms, or definitions to implement its provisions and exempt those standards, forms, or definitions from specified provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act governing rulemaking. The bill would require the department to publish a report containing specified information about the housing sustainability district program on its Internet Web site no later than November 1, 2018, and each November 1 thereafter.

(2)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 also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

This bill would require a lead agency, when designating housing sustainability districts, to prepare an EIR for the designation, as specified. The bill would exempt from CEQA housing projects undertaken in the housing sustainability districts that meet specified requirements.

(3)This bill would declare that its provisions are not severable. The bill would also make findings that it addresses a matter of statewide concern.

(4)This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65582.1 of the Government Code proposed by SB 35 to be operative only if this bill and SB 35 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.