AB 1584

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, authorizes a local agency to provide for the creation of accessory dwelling units in single-family and multifamily residential zones by ordinance, and sets forth standards the ordinance is required to impose with respect to certain matters, including, among others, maximum unit size, parking, and height standards. Existing law authorizes a local agency to provide by ordinance for the creation of junior accessory dwelling units, as defined, in single-family residential zones and requires the ordinance to include, among other things, standards for the creation of a junior accessory dwelling unit, required deed restrictions, and occupancy requirements. Existing law, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, which governs the management and operation of common interest developments, makes void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, or other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in a planned development, and any provision of a governing document, that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the construction or use of an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit on a lot zoned for single-family residential use that meets the above-described minimum standards established for those units. However, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act permits reasonable restrictions that do not unreasonably increase the cost to construct, effectively prohibit the construction of, or extinguish the ability to otherwise construct, an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit consistent with those aforementioned minimum standards provisions. This bill would make void and unenforceable any covenant, restriction, or condition contained in any deed, contract, security instrument, or other instrument affecting the transfer or sale of any interest in real property that either effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the construction or use of an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit on a lot zoned for single-family residential use that meets the above-described minimum standards established for those units, but would permit reasonable restrictions that do not unreasonably increase the cost to construct, effectively prohibit the construction of, or extinguish the ability to otherwise construct, an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit consistent with those aforementioned minimum standards provisions. The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act prohibits a common interest development from adopting or enforcing a provision in a governing document, or amendment to a governing document, that restricts the rental or lease of separate interests within a common interest to less than 25 percent of the separate interests. The act requires a common interest development to comply with the prohibition on rental restrictions regardless of whether the common interest development has revised its governing documents to comply with the act and requires a common interest development to amend its governing documents no later than December 31, 2021. This bill would require the common interest development board, without approval of the members, to amend any declaration or other governing document no later than July 1, 2022, that includes a prohibited restrictive covenant, as provided. The bill would require a board to provide general notice of the amendment at least 28 days before approving the amendment and would require any decision on the amendment to be made at a board meeting, after consideration of any comments made by association members. (2) Existing law, the Mobilehome Residency Law, requires the management of a mobilehome park to comply with notice and specified other requirements in order to terminate a tenancy in a mobilehome park due to a change of use of the mobilehome park, including giving homeowners at least 15 days' written notice that the management will be appearing before a local governmental board, commission, or body to request permits for the change of use. This bill would instead require the management to give homeowners at least 60 days' written notice that the management will be appearing before a local governmental board, commission, or body to obtain local approval for the intended change of use of the mobilehome park. (3) Existing law prescribes various requirements to be satisfied before the exercise of a power of sale under a mortgage or deed of trust. In this regard, existing law requires that a notice of default and a notice of sale be recorded and that specified periods of time elapse between the recording and the sale. Existing law establishes certain requirements in connection with foreclosures on mortgages and deeds of trust, including restrictions on the actions mortgage servicers may take while a borrower is attempting to secure a loan modification or has submitted a loan modification application. Existing law, until January 1, 2023, applies those protections to a first lien mortgage or deed of trust that is secured by residential real property that is occupied by a tenant, contains no more than 4 dwelling units, and meets certain criteria, including that a tenant occupying the property is unable to pay rent due to a reduction in income resulting from COVID-19. This bill, commencing January 1, 2023, would limit the extension of those protections to the above-described first lien mortgages and deeds of trust to instances in which the borrower has been approved for foreclosure prevention, as specified, or the borrower submitted a completed application for a first lien loan modification before January 1, 2023, and, as of January 1, 2023, either the mortgage servicer has not yet determined whether the applicant is eligible, or the appeal period for the mortgage servicer's denial of the application has not yet expired. (4) Existing law requires the court clerk to allow access to limited civil case records filed, including the court file, index, and register of actions, under specified provisions relating to real property proceedings, if specified provisions are met, including to any other person 60 days after the complaint has been filed if the plaintiff prevails in the action within 60 days of the filing of the complaint, as specified. This bill would instead require access to be provided to any other person 60 days after the complaint has been filed if judgment against all defendants has been entered for the plaintiff within 60 days of the filing of the complaint, as specified. (5) Existing law, the Housing Accountability Act, which is part of the Planning and Zoning Law, among other things prohibits a local agency from disapproving a housing development project that complies with applicable, objective general plan, zoning, and subdivision standards and criteria, or from imposing a condition that it be developed at a lower density, unless the local agency bases its decision on written findings supported by the preponderance of the evidence on the record that specified conditions exist, as provided. Existing law provides that the receipt of a density bonus pursuant to specified law, known as the Density Bonus Law, is not a valid basis on which to find a proposed housing development project is inconsistent, not in compliance, or not in conformity, with an applicable plan, program, policy, ordinance, standard, requirement, or other similar provision for purposes of the Housing Accountability Act. This bill would additionally provide that the receipt of an incentive, concession, waiver, or reduction of development standards under the Density Bonus Law is not a valid basis on which to find a proposed housing development project is inconsistent, not in compliance, or not in conformity, with an applicable plan, program, policy, ordinance, standard, requirement, or other similar provision for purposes of the Housing Accountability Act. The bill would include findings that this change is declaratory of existing law. Under existing 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, 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 require that rents in a development allowed under these provisions be set at an amount consistent with the rent limits stipulated by the public program providing financing for the development. (6) Existing law requires an owner of an assisted housing development, as defined, to give notice at least 12 months prior to the anticipated date of the termination of a subsidy contract, the expiration of rental restrictions, or prepayment on an assisted housing development, to tenants and specified public entities, except as provided. Existing law requires specified information to be provided in the notice to tenants, including a statement of the possibility that the housing may remain in the federal or other program after the proposed date of subsidy termination or prepayment. Existing law prohibits an owner from terminating a subsidy contract or prepayment of a mortgage unless the owner or its agent has provided qualified entities an opportunity to submit an offer to purchase the development. Existing law specifies requirements of an owner as to receipt and acceptance of a bona fide offer, including that if an owner has received a bona fide offer from a qualified entity within the first 180 days from the date of an owner's notice of the opportunity to submit an offer to purchase, the owner is prohibited from accepting an offer from another entity and is required to accept the offer, or declare, in writing, to the qualified entity and the Department of Housing and Community Development that it will not sell the property for at least five years from the date of the declaration. Existing law authorizes the owner to, within a second 180-day period, accept an offer from a nonqualified entity, provided the owner offers each qualified entity that made a bona fide offer to purchase the development the first opportunity to purchase the development at the same terms and conditions as the pending offer, unless the terms and conditions are modified by mutual consent. Existing law, among other things, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to monitor compliance with the above-described provisions by owners of assisted housing developments and to provide a report to the Legislature on or before March 31, 2019, and on or before March 31 each year thereafter containing specified information for the previous year. This bill would define an assisted housing development to consist of five or more units and would add a definition for an "owner." The bill would revise the statement required to be made to tenants regarding whether or not the applicable federal or other program allows the owner to elect to keep the housing in the program after the proposed termination or prepayment date. The bill would specify that the owner may receive offers from one or more entities and would require the owner to notify the Department of Housing and Community Development of the offers and either accept a bona fide offer to purchase from a qualified entity or declare, in writing, to the qualified entity or entities and the department that, if the property is not sold during the first 180-day period or the second 180-day period, the owner will not sell the property for at least five years after the end of the second 180-day period. The bill would make conforming changes. The bill would instead require the Department of Housing and Community Development to submit the above-described report on or before December 31 of each year, and instead require that the information included in that report be for the previous fiscal year, except that the bill would require that the report due December 31, 2022, include information for the 18 months from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, inclusive. The bill would authorize the department to combine this report with another report required under specified law relating to the department's administration of housing programs. (7) Existing law, the Mobilehome Parks Act, sets forth regulations and enforcement standards for mobilehome parks. Under the act, a mobilehome park is defined as any area or tract of land where 2 or more lots are rented or leased, held out for rent or lease, or were formerly held out for rent or lease and later converted to a subdivision, cooperative, condominium, or other form of resident ownership, to accommodate manufactured homes, mobilehomes, or recreational vehicles used for human habitation, except as provided. Existing law also provides that the rental paid for a manufactured home, a mobilehome, or a recreational vehicle includes rental for the lot it occupies. This bill would provide that an area or tract of land is not a mobilehome park due to the rental or lease of an accessory dwelling unit created by use of a manufactured home. (8) Existing law dissolved redevelopment agencies and the redevelopment components of community development agencies as of February 1, 2012, and provides for the designation of successor agencies for specified purposes. Existing law authorizes a city or county that created a subsequently dissolved redevelopment agency to elect to retain the housing assets and functions previously performed by the agency, which entity is referred to as a housing successor. When a redevelopment project is developed with low- or moderate-income housing units, existing law requires that housing be made available for rent or purchase to persons and families of low or moderate income who were displaced by the project, as specified. This bill would specify that a redevelopment agency's successor is required to offer displaced persons and families the opportunity to rent or purchase in housing projects, as described above. The bill would further require that the opportunity to rent or purchase also be extended to a person of low or moderate income whose parent was displaced by the redevelopment project and would require the housing successor to maintain a list of people who are eligible for this priority. The bill would prescribe a definition of "descendant" for these purposes. The bill would make conforming changes. By requiring local officials to perform additional duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (9) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65589.5 of the Government Code proposed by SB 8 to be operative only if this bill and SB 8 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (10) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.