SB 744

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, known as the No Place Like Home Program, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to award $2,000,000,000 among counties to finance capital costs, including, but not limited to, acquisition, design, construction, rehabilitation, or preservation, and to capitalize operating reserves, of permanent supportive housing for the target population, as specified. Existing law requires that $1,800,000,000 of the moneys available under the program be awarded, in at least 4 rounds, by a competitive program based on specified criteria, including that the county has developed a county plan to combat homelessness. Existing law requires that, before the disbursement of any funds for loans made pursuant to the competitive component of the No Place Like Home Program, the department and the development sponsor, as defined, enter into a regulatory agreement that includes specified provisions. 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 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. Existing law authorizes the court, upon the motion of a party, to award attorney's fees to a prevailing party in an action that has resulted in the enforcement of an important right affecting the public interest if 3 conditions are met. This bill would specify that a decision of a public agency to seek funding from, or the department's awarding of funds pursuant to, the No Place Like Home Program is not a project for purposes of CEQA. This bill, if a No Place Like Home project, as defined, is not eligible for approval as a use by right, as described below, would authorize the development applicant to request within a specified time period that the lead agency prepare concurrently the record of proceeding for the project with the performance of the environmental review of the program. Within 2 working days of approval, the bill would require the lead agency, if the project is subject to CEQA, to file a notice of the approval or determination regarding the project or, if the project is not subject to CEQA, to file a notice of exemption, in accordance with specified law. The bill would require a person filing an action or proceeding challenging the lead agency's action on the grounds of noncompliance with CEQA to file the action or proceeding within 30 days of the filing of the notice of determination or, if the local agency fails to comply with the applicable timelines for filing a notice of approval or determination or a notice of exemption, the earlier of 30 days from the date of the local agency's late filing of the notice or 90 days from the date the notice was required to be filed. The bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1 of the year following notification to the Speaker of the Assembly and President pro Tempore of the Senate by the Department of Housing and Community Development that funding pursuant to the No Place Like Home Program is fully allocated and disbursed. (2) The Planning and Zoning Law requires the legislative body of each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Under that law, supportive housing, as defined, is a use by right in zones where multifamily and mixed uses are permitted if the proposed housing development meets specified criteria and the developer provides the planning agency with a plan for providing supportive services, including a requirement that 100% of the units, excluding managers' units, within the development be dedicated to lower income households, as defined, and that the development is receiving public funding to ensure affordability of the housing to lower income Californians. This bill would, instead, require that 100% of the units, excluding managers' units, within the development be restricted to lower income households and that those units are or will be receiving public funding to ensure affordability of the housing to lower income Californians. The bill would also specify that these provisions do not prohibit a local government from imposing fees and other exactions, as specified, but would prohibit a local government from adopting any requirement, including increased fees, that applies to a project solely or partially on the basis that the housing project constitutes a permanent supportive housing development or based on the development's eligibility for ministerial approval pursuant to these provisions. Existing law authorizes a local government to require a supportive housing development subject to approval as a use by right under these provisions to comply with objective, written development standards and policies, but requires that the development only be subject to those objective development standards and policies that apply to other multifamily housing within the same zone. This bill would specify that objective development standards include objective design review standards and that a local government's review of a supportive housing development is not a project for purposes of CEQA. The bill would require that a local government's review of a supportive housing development under these standards and policies be consistent with specified provisions of the Housing Accountability Act. Existing law limits supportive housing developments allowed under these provisions to 50 units or fewer in certain cities and counties, but authorizes these cities and counties to develop a policy to approve as a use by right a proposed housing development with a limit higher than 50 units. This bill would provide that a policy to approve as a use by right a development with a limit higher than 50 units, as described above, is not a project for purposes of CEQA. Existing law specifies that these provisions do not preclude or limit the ability of a developer to seek a density bonus from the local government pursuant to specified law. This bill would additionally specify that these provisions do not preclude or limit the ability of a developer to seek any concessions, incentives, or waivers of development standards pursuant to that specified law. Existing law includes findings that these provisions address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. This bill would revise the above-described findings of statewide concern to specify that these changes apply to all cities, including charter cities. By adding to the duties of local planning officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.