AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 10, 2023
california legislature—2023–24 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 1490
Introduced by Assembly Member Lee
February 17, 2023
An act to add Section Sections 65913.12 and 65960.1 to the Government Code, relating to housing.
legislative counsel’s digest
AB 1490, as amended, Lee. Affordable housing development projects:
adaptive reuse.
Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to gi ve priority with respect to funding under the Multifamily Housing Program to projects that prioritize adaptive reuse in e xisting de veloped areas serv ed with public infrastructure, as specified. Existing law establishes various str eamlined, ministerial review processes for housing development proposals meetings specified standards.
This bill w ould define adapti ve reuse as the retrofitting and repurposing of an existing building to create new residential units. The bill would require a local government to provide an affordable housing approve a development proposal for a multifamily housing development project that is an adapti ve reuse project and that guarantees meets specified affordability and site r equirements, including that 100% of the units be made available for lower income households, 50% of which shall be made a vailable to extremely low income households or very low income households, specified benefits and e xemptions by local government agencies, including, among other things, appro val of all entitlements and permits applicable to the project in 30 days or less,
98 exemption from an y minimum floor area ratio, and w aiver of local building and permit fees, as specified. households, pur suant to a streamlined, ministerial review process. The bill would declare a project meeting these requirements to be a use by right. The bill would require a project approved by a local government pursuant to this ministerial review process to meet specified labor standards and would prohibit a local government from imposing certain r equirements on the pr oject, including a maximum density r equirement or floor ar ea r atio requirement. Because the bill w ould require local officials to pro vide a higher level of service, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
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 en vironmental impact r eport on a pr oject that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a ne gative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated ne gative declaration for a pr oject that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that ef fect and there is no substantial e vidence that the pr oject, as r evised, would have a significant ef fect on the environment. CEQA does not apply to the appr oval of ministerial projects.
This bill would define “use by right” for purposes of the above-described projects, in part, as a development project that is not a project for purposes of CEQA, and would deem the approval process established by the bill to be ministerial in natur e, thereby exempting the approval of development projects subject to that approval process from CEQA.
This bill would require a local source of funding that can be used for the development of affordable housing to include adaptive reuse as an eligible project and prohibit an agenc y with control of a local source of funding from prohibiting or excluding a development proposal that uses an adapti ve reuse model for an af fordable housing project development solely on the basis that the proposal is for an adapti ve reuse project.
The bill w ould include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of state wide concern rather than a municipal af fair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. 98 — 2 — AB 1490
The California Constitution requires the state to reimb urse 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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. Section 65913.12 is added to the Government line 2 Code, immediately following Section 65913.11, to read:
line 3 65913.12. (a) Notwithstanding any inconsistent pr ovision of line 4 a local government’s general plan, specific plan, zoning ordinance, line 5 or regulation, a development proponent may submit an application line 6 for a project that shall be a use by right and that shall be subject line 7 to a streamlined, ministerial review pursuant to subdivision (b) if line 8 the proposed housing de velopment satisfies all of the following line 9 objective planning standards:
line 10 (1) The de velopment is a multifamily housing de velopment line 11 project.
line 12 (2) The development is an adaptive reuse project. line 13 (3) The de velopment meets all of the following af fordability line 14 criteria.
line 15 (A) One hundred percent of the units within the de velopment line 16 project, excluding managers’ units, shall be dedicated to lower line 17 income households at an af fordable housing cost, as defined by line 18 Section 50052.5 of the Health and Safety Code , or an affordable line 19 rent set in an amount consistent with the r ent limits established line 20 by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. line 21 (B) At least 50 per cent of the units within the de velopment line 22 project shall be dedicated to very low income households at an line 23 affordable housing cost, as defined by Section 50052.5 of the line 24 Health and Safety Code , or an af fordable rent set in an amount line 25 consistent with the r ent limits established by the California Tax line 26 Credit Allocation Committee.
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line 1 (C) The units shall be subject to a recorded deed restriction for line 2 a period of 55 year s for r ental units and 45 year s for line 3 owner-occupied units.
line 4 (4) The development is not proposed to be located on a site or line 5 adjoined to any site wher e mor e than one-thir d of the squar e line 6 footage on the site is dedicated to industrial use. For purposes of line 7 this paragraph, parcels only separated by a street or highway shall line 8 be considered adjoined.
line 9 (b) (1) If the local government determines that a development line 10 submitted pursuant to this section is consistent with the objective line 11 planning standards specified in to subdivision (a), it shall approve line 12 the development.
line 13 (2) If a local go vernment determines that a de velopment line 14 submitted pursuant to this section is in conflict with any of the line 15 objective planning standards specified in subdivision (a), it shall line 16 provide the development proponent written documentation of which line 17 standard or standar ds the de velopment conflicts with, and an line 18 explanation for the r eason or reasons the de velopment conflicts line 19 with that standard or standards, within the following timeframes:
line 20 (A) Within 60 days of submittal of the completed pr oposal for line 21 the development project to the local government if the development line 22 contains 150 or fewer housing units.
line 23 (B) Within 90 days of submittal of the completed pr oposal for line 24 the development project to the local government if the development line 25 contains more than 150 housing units.
line 26 (3) The determination of whether a proposed project submitted line 27 pursuant to this section is or is not in conflict with the objective line 28 planning standards is not a “project” as defined in Section 21065 line 29 of the Public Resources Code.
line 30 (c) A local go vernment shall not impose any of the following line 31 standards on a project approved pursuant to this section:
line 32 (1) Any maximum density requirements.
line 33 (2) Any maximum floor area ratio requirements. line 34 (3) Any requirement to add additional parking. line 35 (4) Any requirement to add additional open space. line 36 (d) (1) A development project approved by a local government line 37 pursuant to this section shall meet the labor standar ds provided line 38 in Section 65912.130.
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line 1 (2) A development project of 50 or more housing units approved line 2 by a local government pursuant to this section shall also meet the line 3 labor standards provided in Section 65912.131.
line 4 (e) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the line 5 following meanings:
line 6 (1) “Adaptive reuse” means the r etrofitting and r epurposing line 7 of an existing building to create new residential units. line 8 (2) “Dedicated to industrial use” means any of the following:
line 9 (A) The square footage is currently being used as an industrial line 10 use.
line 11 (B) The most recently permitted use of the square footage is an line 12 industrial use.
line 13 (C) The site was designated for industrial use in the latest line 14 version of a local go vernment’s g eneral plan adopted befor e line 15 January 1, 2022.
line 16 (3) “Development proponent” means a developer who submits line 17 a housing development project application to a local government line 18 under the streamlined, ministerial review process pursuant to this line 19 section.
line 20 (4) “Housing development project” has the same meaning as line 21 defined in Section 65589.5.
line 22 (5) “Industrial use” means utilities, manufacturing , line 23 transportation storage and maintenance facilities, and warehousing line 24 uses. “Industrial use” does not include power substations or utility line 25 conveyances such as power lines, broadband wires, and pipes. line 26 (6) “Local government” means a city, including a charter city, line 27 a county , including a c harter county , or a city and county , line 28 including a charter city and county.
line 29 (7) “Lower income households” has the same meaning as line 30 defined in Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code. line 31 (8) “Use by right” means a de velopment project that satisfies line 32 both of the following conditions:
line 33 (A) The development project does not require a conditional use line 34 permit, planned unit de velopment permit, or other discr etionary line 35 local government review.
line 36 (B) The development project is not a “project” for purposes of line 37 Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public line 38 Resources Code.
line 39 (9) “Very low income households” has the same meaning as line 40 defined in Section 50105 of the Health and Safety Code. 98 AB 1490 — 5 —
line 1 SECTION 1.
line 2 SEC. 2. Section 65960.1 is added to the Government Code, to line 3 read:
line 4 65960.1. (a) Notwithstanding any other pro vision of la w, a line 5 local government shall provide, to an affordable housing project line 6 that is an adaptive reuse project and that guarantees that 100 percent line 7 of the units shall be made available for lower income households, line 8 50 percent of which shall be made a vailable to e xtremely low line 9 income households or v ery lo w income households, all of the line 10 following:
line 11 (1) All entitlements and permits applicable to the project shall line 12 be approved within 30 days or less from the date of submission of line 13 the entitlement or permit application. This paragraph shall apply line 14 to any agency that governs provision of water or power for a local line 15 jurisdiction and that operates independently from the local line 16 jurisdiction.
line 17 (2) Local b uilding and permit fees for the project shall be line 18 waived.
line 19 (3) Low-income utility rates that are a vailable to lo w-income line 20 projects shall be available to adaptive reuse projects when utilities line 21 are not separately metered.
line 22 (4) The project shall be exempt from any minimum floor area line 23 ratio, provided that the size of a unit is no less than the size of the line 24 unit under its pre vious occupanc y permit, and that the unit is line 25 compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public line 26 Law 101-336; 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12101 et seq.) and an y other state line 27 or federal disability design requirements.
line 28 (5) The number of parking spaces required for the project shall line 29 be no more than the number of parking spaces required under the line 30 previous occupancy permit, without re gard to any change in the line 31 zoning of the property that might result from the adapti ve reuse line 32 of the property.
line 33 (b)
line 34 65960.1. (a) Any local source of funding that can be used for line 35 the development of affordable housing shall include adaptive reuse line 36 as an eligible project. No agency with control of a local source of line 37 funding shall prohibit or e xclude a project proposal that uses an line 38 adaptive reuse model for an af fordable housing project line 39 development solely on the basis that the proposal is for an adaptive line 40 reuse project.
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line 1 (c) As used in this section, all of the following definitions shall line 2 apply:
line 3 (1) “Adaptive
line 4 (b) For purposes of this section “adaptive reuse” means the line 5 retrofitting and repurposing of an existing building to create new line 6 residential units.
line 7 (2) “Lower income households” shall ha ve the same meaning line 8 as in Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code. line 9 (3) “Very low income households” shall have the same meaning line 10 as in Section 50105 of the Health and Safety Code. line 11 (4) “Extremely low income households” shall ha ve the same line 12 meaning as in Section 50106 of the Health and Safety Code. line 13 SEC. 2.
line 14 SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of line 15 this act adding Section 65913.12 to the Go vernment Code and line 16 Section 2 of this act adding Section 65960.1 to the Go vernment line 17 Code address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal line 18 affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the line 19 California Constitution. Therefore, Section 1 of this act applies to line 20 all cities, including charter cities.
line 21 SEC. 3.
line 22 SEC. 4. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that line 23 this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimb ursement to line 24 local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made line 25 pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division line 26 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
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