Governor Gavin Newsom is releasing more than $300 million dollars in grants to fund housing and infrastructure development around transit hubs across the state. Funded by the Regional Early Action Planning (REAP 2.0) grants totaling $352 million, Metropolitan Planning Organizations will develop state housing and infrastructure that will accelerate the state's climate goals by reducing the number of cars on the roads through the creation of neighborhoods close to transit hubs and jobs.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass last Thursday signed into law an ordinance updating the city's zoning code to exempt all affordable units from the time-consuming Site Plan Review process that often delays final approval of much-needed housing projects. The city's existing building code required all housing developments of more than 49 units to undergo Site Plan Review, which can add months to the completion of a project and increase expenses. Many developers avoid the process by limiting housing projects to 49 units in an attempt to avoid the review -- reducing affordable housing units when the project could support far more.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin announced a new plan last Tuesday to expedite the planning, approval, and construction of housing projects in the city. If the two-pronged legislation package is passed, the Housing Fee Reform Plan would temporarily reduce inclusionary housing requirements, the amount of affordable housing units that developers must set aside in their projects. Additionally, it would use data to reform or defer development impact fees to make the development timeline faster. Proponents estimate that the reforms could unlock 8,000 pre-approved units around the city, including 2,500 in San Francisco's downtown district.
Developers in the Bay Area have begun invoking a rule — dubbed the "builder's remedy" — in hopes of pushing through projects that are much bigger than local zoning restrictions typically allow. So far this year, at least 34 such projects totaling more than 6,400 units have been proposed across 11 local cities and counties according to a recent Bay Area News Group survey of local officials and planning documents throughout the region. Many of the proposals target affluent areas that have long resisted large housing projects.
As discussed in our prior alert, the builder's remedy applies when a local jurisdiction has not adopted a revised Housing Element in compliance with state law, in which case the local jurisdiction cannot deny a qualifying housing development project even if it is inconsistent with the general plan and zoning ordinance (subject to limited exceptions).
California's Building Standards Commission has voted to ease barriers to the safe conversion of underused existing commercial buildings. The move has been described by AIA California as "an action that simultaneously addresses the climate emergency and California's housing crisis." News of the change comes one year after California's building codes were updated to allow for high-rise mass timber buildings, and months after the ICC updated its own method for updating building codes.
Thirty percent of all homeless people in the United States live in California. And while the state has allocated funds and developed and supported various programs to alleviate the crisis, there's no central coordinator manning the efforts. Assembly Bill 86 seeks to remedy that through the creation of a statewide homelessness coordinator. The coordinator would set goals toward that end, time the release of state funds for housing and housing services, and submit yearly recommendations to the California Legislature and governor.
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