ASSEMBLY
SUPPORT
AB 356 (Support) (Mathis) The Dilapidated Building Refurbishment Act
APA California is pleased to support Assembly Bill 356, which would continue to streamline the refurbishment of an abandoned or dilapidated building, when considered under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), by removing the sunset date established in AB 2341 (Mathis, 2018).
AB 894 (Support) (Friedman) Parking requirements: shared parking
APA California is pleased to support Assembly Bill 894, which would require public agencies to allow underutilized parking spaces to be shared with the public, a private entity, or other users and allow those shared parking spaces to count toward parking requirements in specified circumstances.
APA California is pleased to support Assembly Bill 1307, which would specify that noise generated by the unamplified voices of residents is not a significant effect on the environment for residential projects for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
APA California is pleased to support Assembly Bill 1449, which would facilitate the development of affordable housing by exempting from CEQA certain 100% affordable housing projects throughout California.
AB 1657 (Support) (Wicks) The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024
APA California is pleased to support Assembly Bill 1657, which would enact the Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024, which, if adopted, would authorize the issuance of bonds to be used to finance programs to fund affordable rental housing and homeownership programs.
SENATE
APA California is pleased to support Senate Bill 83, which would set clear timelines for Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) to complete necessary interconnection work after a project has been completed necessary post-entitlement permit review by a local jurisdiction.
APA California is pleased to support Senate Bill 91, which would eliminate the January 1, 2025, sunset date on a provision of state law that exempts from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) certain projects that convert a motel, hotel, residential hotel, or hostel to supportive or transitional housing.
APA California) is pleased to support Senate Bill 406, which would make clear that actions by local agencies to provide financial assistance or insurance to develop and build housing for low or moderate-income levels are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), if the actual project receiving the financial assistance or insurance is subject to review under CEQA. This is consistent with exemptions currently available to the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and the California Housing Finance Agency (CHFA).
SB 450 (Support) (Atkins) Housing development: approvals
APA California is pleased to support Senate Bill 450, which would make several changes to improve and clarify provisions in SB 9 (Atkins, 2021), which established streamlining opportunities for homeowners to create a duplex or subdivide an existing residential parcel.
By requiring local governments to survey property owners prior to including any individual site in their housing element inventories, SB 405 would dramatically increase the costs of preparing the housing element without necessarily improving the quality of sites planned to accommodate regional housing needs. SB 405 is also potentially susceptible to exploitation by bad-faith actors who may pressure property owners to remove their land from the inventory to prevent development in high-opportunity communities. Finally, SB 405 is premature given the ongoing Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and Office of Planning and Research (OPR) stakeholder process and forthcoming report to recommend legislative changes to the regional housing needs allocation (RHNA) process.