(May 31, 2018, 7:15 a.m.) -- The state Senate has voted (May 30) to advance to the Assembly SB 828, a highly impactful land use element-affecting bill by State Senator Scott Wiener (D, SF) that as amended could require cities to to identify 125% and make available for multi-family housing at least 100% of the city's regionally-determined housing need (RHNA), a figure decided locally by the Southern CA Ass'n of Governments/SCAG.) The bill also adds a number of other Sacramento mandates, including preventing cities from using a lack of housing actually produced to justify lowering their updated SCAG RHNA numbers..

The bill's text as amended is here The state Senate's floor analysis is here.

SB 828, if approved in the Assembly, would amplify the effects of Senator Wiener's SB 35 (enacted in 2017 without City of LB opposition) which now requires cities that fall short of producing housing units sufficient to meet SCAG-decided RHNA housing numbers to "streamline" approval of developer-desired housing projects (clerk-type approval, eliminated local minimum parking requirements, erased a number of previous CEQA-grounds for public appeals.)

[Scroll down for further.]

A day before the Senate floor vote on SB 828, state Senator Ricardo Lara (LB-Huntington Park) [who'd voted for SB 35] voted to advance SB 828 to the Senate floor from the Senate Appropriations Committee he chairs [indicating the bill had support from Dem majority leadership.] Lara also answered "aye" (yes") on the Senate floor roll call vote...but prior to the vote become final switched his vote to "no" when it became clear the bill had sufficient votes to pass. Senator Janet Nguyen (R, SE LB-west OC) [who voted "yes" on SB 35] voted "no" on SB 828.

The final Senate floor vote was 23-10 (Ayes: Atkins, Beall, Cannella, Dodd, Gaines, Galgiani, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Leyva, McGuire, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach, Pan, Portantino, Roth, Skinner, Stone, Vidak, Wieckowski, Wiener; Noes: Anderson, Bates, Berryhill, Fuller, Glazer, Lara, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Wilk; No Votes Recorded: Allen, Bradford, De León, Jackson, Newman, Stern)

Sponsor

Sponsor

SB 828 as amended now heads to the Assembly and contains the following Land Use impacting provisions:

1) Requires a city's or county's inventory of land suitable for residential development to meet 125% of its RHNA ["Regional Housing Needed Assessment"] requirement.

2) Requires a city or county, if its inventory is not sufficient to meet 125% of its RHNA requirement, to identify zoning and other actions it will take to accommodate the unmet portion, which must be made available for multifamily housing within the jurisdiction's existing urban service boundary.

3) Revises the data COGs [regional "Councils of Governments"] must provide to HCD [Sac'to Housing Community Development" agency] as follows:

a) Specifies that the vacancy rate for a healthy housing market shall be between 5-8% for both rental and owner housing.
b) Adds a requirement to provide data on cost burdened households, as specified, as well as on household income growth.

4) Requires HCD, in determining the RHNA, to grant allowances to adjust for overcrowding, vacancy rates, and housing cost burden based on the region's existing and projected households.

5) Prohibits COGs from using prior underproduction of housing, or stable population numbers, in a city or county as justification for a determination or reduction in a city's or county's share of the RHNA. 6) Requires the final allocation plan to assign additional weight, particularly for low- and very low-income categories, to jurisdictions

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As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, SB 828 advanced without any public discussion by the LB City Council or the Council's Mayor-chosen "State Legislation Committee" (Austin, Mungo, Gonzalez) but on April 23, City Manager Pat West sent a letter of opposition stating that the City of Long Beach "strongly opposes" SB 828 [in its then-form, prior to amendments.] "While Long Beach understands the need to address the housing crisis in California, we believe there are more nuanced opportunities at the local level to meet neighborhood needs," Mr. West's letter said and continued:

Through responsible local land use management, Long Beach has been able to cultivate a unique and diverse urban fabric. This includes quality public parks, state of the art private developments, sustainable transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, market rate housing and other components to cities that are unique to each city across the great state of California.

The City has conscientiously worked with the private sector to facilitate housing. Over the past ten years, 1,778 new affordable units have been built, 2,093 existing units have been preserved, and 367 units have been rehabilitated. Long Beach has also supported 335 first-time homebuyers with silent second mortgages. With that said, developers build housing -- cities facilitate housing developments through the provision of public service such as public infrastructure and public safety services.

Long Beach recognizes that California's housing market is financially challenging for many individuals and families in our State. However the problem will not be solved by simply mandating cities [to] accommodate housing developments at 200 percent of a city's RHNA [Regional Housing Needs Assessment.] [Caveat: amended version of SB 828 reduced this requirement to 100%].

Given these reasons, the City of Long Beach strongly opposes SB 828 (Wiener),

It's not immediately clear if the May amendments to SB 828 will cause LB city management, or the City Council, to change the City's current opposition stance to SB 828.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The state Senate's floor analysis lists SB 828's supporters/opponents as follows: