Larry Klein
Mayor
Murali Srinivasan
Vice Mayor
Russ Melton
Councilmember
Alysa Cisneros
Councilmember
Omar Din
Councilmember
Richard Mehlinger
Councilmember
Linda Sell
Councilmember
May 15, 2024
The Honorable Aisha Wahab
Member, California State Senate
1021 O Street, Suite 6530
Sacramento, CA 95814
The Honorable Josh Becker
Member, California State Senate
1021 O Street, Suite 7250
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 1037 (Wiener) Planning and zoning: housing element: enforcement – OPPOSE (As Amended on April 25, 2024)
Dear Senator Wahab and Senator Becker:
On behalf of the City of Sunnyvale, we respectfully request your opposition of SB 1037 (Wiener), which would allow the Attorney General to take legal action against a city and seek fines up to $50K a month for failure to adopt a compliant housing element or if the city does not follow state laws that require ministerial approval of certain housing projects.
Under existing law cities can be subject to significant fines and penalties for violating certain housing laws. However, before fines are imposed, a city can correct the action.
Additionally, enhanced fines are not imposed unless the city fails to follow a court’s order or acts in bad faith.
Unfortunately, as currently drafted, SB 1037 does not provide an opportunity for cities to correct an honest mistake or address a genuine difference in interpreting the law.
Even those jurisdictions acting in good faith could be subject to significant fines and be required to pay the Attorney General for all costs investigating and prosecuting the action, including expert witness fees and attorney’s fees.
The City of Sunnyvale’s 2023-2031 Housing Element update process began in August 2021. Our extensive process included four public drafts, over twenty public meetings, Attachment 6
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The Honorable Aisha Wahab, State Senate
The Honorable Josh Becker, State Senate
May 15, 2024
four HCD findings letters, numerous meetings with HCD staff, and hundreds of hours of City staff and consultant time. Even with the assistance of experienced housing element consultants, the certification process is opaque, subjective, and inconsistent.
HCD’s findings letters are often ambiguous and incomplete. New findings emerge during the review process that move the goal posts for certification further and further.
For example, HCD included new findings about the City’s fees in their second findings letter that could have been addressed earlier if the City had been informed in the first letter. This practice is inefficient and delays housing element certification at no fault of the jurisdiction.
After over two years of work, in November 2023, the City finally received a letter of conditional certification from HCD. In February 2024, however, HCD found that the City’s Housing Element was not in substantial compliance due to a single inconsequential error in a City ordinance. The City quickly corrected this honest mistake, but it nevertheless delayed certification of our Housing Element by yet another month. SB 1037 would open cities like Sunnyvale up to fines for honest mistakes and inefficiencies in the housing element certification process.
As identified in the City of Sunnyvale’s Legislative Advocacy Position 5(D), the City encourages “the State government to create policies that balance increased housing production for all income levels while preserving land use policy making for cities that accommodate their share of new housing.” As such, the City strongly supports the State’s increased housing production goals, but unfortunately, SB 1037 veers away from this goal by penalizing cities that are, in many cases, simply caught in a certification process that is increasingly lengthy and unclear. Instead of creating new fines and penalties, lawmakers and the Department of Housing and Community Development should provide cities with clear guidance and technical assistance to help them finalize their housing elements and put those plans to work so much-needed housing construction can occur.
For these reasons, we request your opposition of SB 1037 (Wiener). Please do not hesitate to contact me or Trudi Ryan, Community Development Director, [email protected], if you have any questions.
Attachment 6
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The Honorable Aisha Wahab, State Senate
The Honorable Josh Becker, State Senate
May 15, 2024
Sincerely,
Larry Klein
Mayor
cc: The Honorable Gavin Newsom, Governor
The Honorable Scott Wiener, State Senate
The Honorable Evan Low, State Assembly
City Council
Kent Steffens, City Manager
Sarah Johnson-Rios, Assistant City Manager
Trudi Ryan, Director of Community Development
Seth Miller, Regional Public Affairs Manager (via email: [email protected]) League of California Cities (via email: [email protected])
Attachment 6
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