california legislature—2023–24 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 1490
Introduced by Assembly Member Lee
February 17, 2023
An act to add Section 65960.1 to the Go vernment Code, relating to housing.
legislative counsel’s digest
AB 1490, as introduced, Lee. Affordable housing de velopment 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.
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 project that is an adaptive reuse project and that guarantees that 100% of the units be made a vailable for lower income households, 50% of which shall be made available to extremely low income households or very lo w income households, specified benefits and e xemptions by local government agencies, including, among other things, approval of all entitlements and permits applicable to the project in 30 days or less, exemption from an y minimum floor area ratio, and w aiver of local building and permit fees, as specified. Because the bill w ould require local officials to provide a higher level of service, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
99 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.
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 65960.1 is added to the Government line 2 Code, to read:
line 3 65960.1. (a) Notwithstanding any other pro vision of la w, a line 4 local government shall provide, to an affordable housing project line 5 that is an adaptive reuse project and that guarantees that 100 percent line 6 of the units shall be made available for lower income households, line 7 50 percent of which shall be made a vailable to e xtremely low line 8 income households or v ery lo w income households, all of the line 9 following:
line 10 (1) All entitlements and permits applicable to the project shall line 11 be approved within 30 days or less from the date of submission of line 12 the entitlement or permit application. This paragraph shall apply line 13 to any agency that governs provision of water or power for a local line 14 jurisdiction and that operates independently from the local line 15 jurisdiction.
line 16 (2) Local b uilding and permit fees for the project shall be line 17 waived.
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line 1 (3) Low-income utility rates that are a vailable to lo w-income line 2 projects shall be available to adaptive reuse projects when utilities line 3 are not separately metered.
line 4 (4) The project shall be exempt from any minimum floor area line 5 ratio, provided that the size of a unit is no less than the size of the line 6 unit under its pre vious occupanc y permit, and that the unit is line 7 compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public line 8 Law 101-336; 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12101 et seq.) and an y other state line 9 or federal disability design requirements.
line 10 (5) The number of parking spaces required for the project shall line 11 be no more than the number of parking spaces required under the line 12 previous occupancy permit, without re gard to any change in the line 13 zoning of the property that might result from the adapti ve reuse line 14 of the property.
line 15 (b) Any local source of funding that can be used for the line 16 development of af fordable housing shall include adapti ve reuse line 17 as an eligible project. No agency with control of a local source of line 18 funding shall prohibit or e xclude a project proposal that uses an line 19 adaptive reuse model for an af fordable housing project line 20 development solely on the basis that the proposal is for an adaptive line 21 reuse project.
line 22 (c) As used in this section, all of the following definitions shall line 23 apply:
line 24 (1) “Adaptive reuse” means the retrofitting and repurposing of line 25 an existing building to create new residential units. line 26 (2) “Lower income households” shall ha ve the same meaning line 27 as in Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code. line 28 (3) “Very low income households” shall have the same meaning line 29 as in Section 50105 of the Health and Safety Code. line 30 (4) “Extremely low income households” shall ha ve the same line 31 meaning as in Section 50106 of the Health and Safety Code. line 32 SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of line 33 this act adding Section 65960.1 to the Government Code address line 34 a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that line 35 term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California line 36 Constitution. Therefore, Section 1 of this act applies to all cities, line 37 including charter cities.
line 38 SEC. 3. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that line 39 this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimb ursement to line 40 local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made 99 AB 1490 — 3 —
line 1 pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division line 2 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
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