July 13, 2022
The Honorable Anna Caballero
California State Senate
1021 O Street, Suite 7620
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: SB 6 (Caballero) Local planning. Housing. Commercial Zones.
Notice of Oppose Unless Amended (As Amended June 20, 2022) Dear Senator Caballero:
The City of San Marcos writes to express an oppose unless amended position on your SB 6, which would create a new process allowing residential development on certain commercial and industrial sites, including allowing qualifying projects to use the streamlined application procedures of SB 35 (Wiener, 2017).
Our city supports opportunities for redevelopment on underutilized commercial sites, many of which are near transit and jobs centers. In fact, the City of San Marcos already allows multifamily residential uses within commercial zones. We also appreciate the recent amendments to allow residential capacity from SB 6 sites to be “reallocated” to sites that meet housing element default densities. Preserving some sites for strictly commercial uses is important to economic development efforts and local revenue considerations. Despite this positive change, and prior technical improvements to SB 6, we unfortunately continue to have the following unresolved concerns:
Limit to Zones Best Suited for Residential Reuse – Exclude Industrial Zones and Parking The bill was recently amended to apply to zones where “office, retail, or parking are a principally permitted use,” but prior concerns regarding whether the zoning designations targeted by SB 6 are always appropriate for housing have not been addressed. The definition in the bill would allow by-right housing within many commercial and industrial zones. Commercial uses can vary in type and intensity with some commercial uses being more compatible with housing development than others. For instance, allowable commercial uses in unincorporated areas can include surface mining, outdoor storage, auto salvage, auto repair, hog farms, oil wells, and certain manufacturing and assembly uses. Precluding parcels next to industrial and agricultural zones is helpful, but additional protections are needed due to the flexible nature of commercial zones, which allow retail, office, and more intensive uses as principally permitted uses.
Accordingly, we request that SB 6 be amended to apply to parcels that are both commercially zoned and for which the zoning only allows office or retail as principally permitted uses. Zones where parking lots are principally permitted include industrial zones, so this provision should be removed from the bill. This change will lessen the likelihood of issues relating to incompatible uses, as well as limit applicability to zones more commonly located near transit and job centers. An alternative approach to addressing this issue would be to limit the applicability of the bill to sites that were previously developed with an office or retail use and which are now at least partially vacant.
Remove New SB 35 Process for non-Zoning Compliant Projects One of the core premises of SB 35 was to ensure a quick and predictable approval process for projects that comply with adopted local land use standards. SB 6 would drastically change this approach by extending the same by-right authority to non-compliant projects that are located on a site meeting the basic eligibility requirements of SB 35.
Offer Housing Element Credit for Eligible Sites
Consistent with concerns we have stated on other bills seeking to provide statewide overrides to local zoning codes, we request SB 6 be amended to allow cities to count sites where SB 6 would apply toward their regional housing needs allocation planning requirement irrespective of whether the current zoning allows for residential uses, provided that the sites are able to accommodate residential development. This especially relevant for those sites that SB 6 would make eligible for a by-right approval process for a housing project pursuant to SB 35.
For these reasons, The City of San Marcos has an oppose unless amended position on SB 6.
Sincerely,
Rebecca D. Jones
Mayor
cc: Catherine Hill, League of California Cities – San Diego and Imperial Counties League of California Cities (Via email: [email protected]) PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 2
Administration
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