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Councilmembers Don't Ask Why City Failed To Follow Council-Stated Policy And Failed To Oppose Bills (Incl. SB 35) That Impose Sac'to Housing Dictates And Undercut Local Control, As Council Votes 8-0 To Approve Same Policy In 2018 That City Ignored In 2017

Action comes as Sac'to considers new housing density bill (SB 827) by SB 35's author...with no serious Council discussion to date of any of the bills' impacts with Council vote scheduled in March on LB Land Use Element maps


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(Jan. 24, 2018, 10:02 a.m.) -- No current Long Beach City Council members asked any questions or sought to learn publicly why the City they were elected to govern failed to oppose multiple 2017 Sacramento bills (including SB 35) that now impose Sacramento housing dictates and undercut local control. as the Council voted 8-0 (Price absent) on Jan. 23 to adopt the same verbiage in the City's 2018 "state legislative agenda" (general policies the City says it will follow toward Sacramento legislation) that the City failed to follow in 2017.

Councilman Austin (term-limited, mulling a possible state Senate run in 2019) and Councilwoman Stacy Mungo (seeking re-election in April 2018 with three April opponents) didn't mention this issue and instead commended city staff. To hear their comments, click here. Austin and Mungo are Mayor Garcia's-chosen members of Council's "state legislation committee" which in January 2017 approved and brought to the full Council for its approval in April 2017 the policies recited below. The Committee then failed to hold any meetings between Jan. 10, 2017 and Nov. 21, 2017 while the bills advanced through various votes to enactment in September 2017.

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To date, no LB Councilmember has sought a public explanation for exactly why the City (through non-elected city staff) remained "neutral" on the bills instead of opposing them. The bills were backed by Dem-leadership and supported by housing development interests but opposed by multiple CA cities as well as the League of CA Cities, citing loss of local decision making control. LB-area state Senators Ricardo Lara (D, LB-Huntington Park) and Janet Nguyen (D, SE-LB/west OC) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (NLB-Lakewood-Paramount) supported the bills. Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell (D, LB-SP) voted against SB 35.

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The LB City Council's 2017 adopted policies and its 2018 recited policies include: "Oppose legislation that preempts the City's existing control over local matters" with these actions:

  • a) Support policies and legislation that protect and/or expands the City's authority and rights over its affairs.

  • b) Oppose policies and legislation that preempt the current authority possessed by the City and delegates that authority to the State or other governmental jurisdiction.

  • ...f) Oppose policies and legislation that diminish the City's local control over land use, planning, zoning and development decisions, and oppose legislation in conflict with the City's adopted General Plan or other Council adopted land use policies.

  • To view details on SB 35 that the City failed to oppose in 2017 click here.

  • To view additional bills that could impact the proposed Land Use Element / density increases, click here.

  • To view a 2018 introduced bill, SB 827 (by the author of SB 35) that offers housing developers density bonus/exemptions from various req'ts within half-mile/quarter mile from transit, click here
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    City staff has now scheduled a March 6 City Council vote on city staff desired proposed Land Use Element density increase maps. At that time, a Council majority can accept the maps as now proposed and/or tweak before advancing them to EIR review and hearings before a future Council enacting vote...or "receive and file" the maps [take no immediate action on them] until the Council and the public have fully reviewed the neighborhood and citywide impacts created by the 2017 legislation and posed by now pending SB 827 on the proposed LUE density increases and accompanying maps.

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