Bill Text: CA AB2356 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Planning and zoning: housing element: extremely low income housing.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [AB2356 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB2356-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 2356	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 26, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 29, 2016

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Gomez

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2016

   An act to add Section  21081.3   65583.3
 to the  Public Resources   Government
 Code, relating to  environmental quality. 
 land use. 



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2356, as amended, Gomez.  California Environmental
Quality Act: infill planning projects.   Planning and
zoning: housing element: extremely low income housing.  
   The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a
general plan for land use development that includes, among other
things, a housing element. That law requires the housing element to
include an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources
and constraints relevant to the meeting of these needs. That law
requires this assessment and inventory to include the identification
of a zone or zones where emergency shelters are allowed as a
permitted use without a conditional use or other discretionary
permit, as provided.  
   This bill would authorize a city or county to additionally include
in its assessment and inventory the identification of housing for
extremely low income households, as defined. If a local government
elects to include this identification in its assessment and
inventory, the bill would impose certain requirements, including that
the identified zone or zones include sufficient capacity to
accommodate the need for housing for extremely low income households,
that the local government demonstrate that existing or proposed
permit processing, development, and management standards are
objective and encourage and facilitate the development of housing for
extremely low income households, and that housing for extremely low
income households generally be subject only to the development and
management standards that apply to residential or commercial
development within the same zone. The bill would also provide that
the permit processing, development, and management standards applied
under these provisions would not be discretionary acts within the
meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act.  
   Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act, 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, as defined, or to adopt a negative
declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect,
unless the project is exempt from the act.  
   This bill would authorize the lead agency to determine whether an
infill planning project, as defined, has a significant impact on the
environment based on a comparison of the potential change in physical
conditions resulting from the infill planning project with the
change in physical conditions that would reasonably be expected at
build-out under the general plan or zoning designation existing at
the time of the lead agency's determination. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    Section 65583.3 is added to the 
 Government Code  , to read:  
   65583.3.  The assessment and inventory adopted pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 65583 may include the identification of a
zone or zones where housing for extremely low income households, as
defined in Section 50106 of the Health and Safety Code, is allowed as
a permitted use without a conditional use or other discretionary
permit. If the local government elects to identify a zone or zones
pursuant to this section, all of the following shall apply:
   (a) The identified zone or zones shall include sufficient capacity
to accommodate the need for housing for extremely low income
households. If the local government cannot identify a zone or zones
with sufficient capacity, the local government shall include a
program to amend its zoning ordinance to meet the requirements of
this section within one year of the adoption of the housing element.
The local government may identify additional zones where housing for
extremely low income households is permitted with a conditional use
permit.
   (b) The local government shall also demonstrate that existing or
proposed permit processing, development, and management standards are
objective and encourage and facilitate the development of, or
conversion to, housing for extremely low income households. Housing
for extremely low income households may only be subject to those
development and management standards that apply to residential or
commercial development within the same zone except that a local
government may apply written, objective standards.
   (c) The permit processing, development, and management standards
applied under this section shall not be deemed to be discretionary
acts within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act
(Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources
Code).  
  SECTION 1.    Section 21081.3 is added to the
Public Resources Code, to read:
   21081.3.  (a) For the purposes of this section, "infill planning
project" means any activity related to, or approval by a local
government of, amendments to the general plan or changes in zone
designation that meet all of the following criteria:
   (1) The proposed amendments or changes collectively increase
planned or zoned housing capacity or jobs capacity within areas
already designated for residential or commercial use.
   (2) The area of change proposed by the project occurs within city
limits and is substantially surrounded by urban uses.
   (3) Approval of the project does not affect or otherwise modify
the preexisting thresholds for environmental review for subsequent
projects that are within the scope of the project.
   (b) The lead agency, in determining whether the infill planning
project has a significant impact on the environment, may base that
determination on a comparison of the potential change in physical
conditions resulting from the infill planning project with the change
in physical conditions that would reasonably be expected at
build-out under the general plan or zoning designation existing at
the time of the lead agency's determination.