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LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

Meeting Date:	06/13/2016
Subject: Governor's Affordable Housing By-Right Proposal
Submitted For:	LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Department:	County Administrator
Referral No.:	2016-11
Referral Name:	Governor's Affordable Housing By-Right Proposal
Presenter:	L. DeLaney	Contact:	L. DeLaney, 925-335-1097

Information

Referral History:

This issue was brought to the Legislation Committee in February 2016 as an information item only. Since its introduction, the proposal has been more developed by the Governor in his May Revise, and budget trailer bill language has been developed. The League of California Cities is opposed to the proposal. The Contra Costa County Mayors' Conference has expressed their opposition to the proposal as well (Attachment D).

Referral Update:

The May Revise outlined $3.2 billion in existing state and federal funding for various affordable housing and homelessness programs, and lists several recently enacted bills that assist local governments in providing affordable housing. These measures include the revised infrastructure finance district legislation and alternatives to CEQA review for transit oriented development projects. The Governor also points to a pending report from Housing & Community Development scheduled for release this summer that the Administration intends to use to explore new approaches for addressing affordable housing needs.

The Governor supports several policy additions to the budget aimed at easing the approval process and reducing development costs of housing projects. The Administration included budget trailer bill language in the May Revision to include a “By Right” standard for housing projects that meet specified requirements. The following summarizes the conditions a project must meet to be granted a permit by right:

The development applicant or development proponent has submitted to the local government its intent to utilize this authority, and certifying under penalty of perjury that, to the best of its knowledge and belief, it conforms with all other provisions identified.
The development is consistent with objective general plan and zoning standards in effect at the time that the subject development is submitted to the local government pursuant to this section.
The development is located on a site that is either immediately adjacent to parcels that are developed with urban uses or at least 75 percent of the perimeter of the site adjoins parcels that are developed with urban uses.
The development must be an attached housing development, for which the development applicant or development proponent already has recorded, or is required by law to record, a land-use restriction meeting a specified number of affordable units.

Attached for your review and feedback is a Discussion Draft of Amendments to the Governor’s Affordable Housing By-Right Proposal that CSAC staff propose to pursue during budget negotiations. (Attachment A)

In order to be able to negotiate on these amendments CSAC will likely need to take a position such as “support in concept”, “support if amended” or “oppose unless amended”. For purposes of providing feedback on the Discussion Draft, we are encouraged to consider whether these amendments would be enough for our county to “support if amended”. This is not the CSAC staff recommendation at this time, but just a potential position from which to evaluate the proposed amendments.

In direct response to concerns over loss of discretion, CSAC has proposed amendments that would provide $100 million for a competitive grant program for counties and cities for General Plan, Housing Element, and Zoning Code updates. The Governor’s By-Right Proposal assumes that the General Plan, Housing Element, and Zoning Code update processes provide robust environmental review and public participation opportunities for community input into future affordable housing decisions. CSAC staff agrees that these planning processes do provide environmental review and public participation opportunities but many local plans, particularly General Plans have not been updated in a long time. As such, in order for plan level environmental review and public input to be meaningful in the context of future project level decisions, these documents need to be updated to reflect the communities current and future priorities and planned growth forecast/patterns.

CSAC is seeking feedback on any and all aspects of the Discussion Draft and has asked a number of specific questions and provided alternative amendments in the margins of the document. If there are additional amendments our county wants that staff has not identified, we are encouraged to share them. CSAC staff has requested a meeting with HCD to discuss in specific detail the proposal and will endeavor to answer any questions about how the By-Right Proposal would work in counties.

Contra Costa County staff has reviewed the proposal and offers their observations in Attachment B.

The current version of the budget trailer bill language is Attachment C. It is not clear to staff as to the timeframe for finalizing this language. Staff understands there is a desire by some in the Legislature to conclude this issue by the June 15, 2016 adoption of the budget by the Legislature. Others contend that it may take longer to resolve, with budget trailer bill language possibly being finalized in August.

Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):

Attachments
Attachment A
Attachment B
Attachment C
Attachment D