Read: AB 2011 [ Approved by Governor September 28, 2022. Filed with Secretary of State September 28, 2022. ]
Enacts the “Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022” to create a ministerial, streamlined approval process for 100% affordable housing projects in commercial zones and for mixed-income housing projects along commercial corridors, as specified. The bill would also impose specified labor standards on those projects, including requirements that contractors pay prevailing wages, participate in apprenticeship programs, and make specified healthcare expenditures.
Senate Amendments
1) Delay implementation to July 1, 2023, and sunset this bill’s provisions on January 1, 2033.
2) Require HCD to conduct at least two studies of the outcomes of the bill by January 1, 2027 and January 1, 3031, respectively, that include the number of projects built, the number of units build, the jurisdictional and regional location of the housing, the relative wealth and access to resources of the communities in which they are built, the level of affordability, the effect on greenhouse gas emissions, and the creation of construction jobs that pay the prevailing wage.
3) Add an option for developers of mixed-income rental housing to provide 8% of the units for very low-income households and 5% of the units for extremely low-income households.
4) Require developers to provide relocation assistance for displaced small businesses.
5) Require a specified environmental assessment and mitigation of any hazards identified.
6) Allow local governments to exempt parcels from the bill if the local government identifies alternative sites that can be developed by right pursuant to the by criteria of this bill, such that there is no overall loss in units, no loss in affordable units, and that the new sites affirmatively further fair housing.
7) Make certain changes to conform to recent or proposed amendments to SB 35’s (Umberg), Chapter 318, Statutes of 2021, ministerial process.
8) Specify that this bill cannot apply to the following:
a) Sites where a neighborhood plan does not permit housing, and defines neighborhood plans to include specific plans, areas plans, precise plans, master plans, and urban village plans;
b) Sites that include industrial uses or are identified in local general plans as being for industrial uses;
c) Vacant sites in a very high hazard severity zone; and
d) Housing within 500 feet of a freeway or 3,200 feet of an oil or gas extraction facility or refinery.
9) Require, for a vacant site, that it does not contain tribal cultural resources that could be affected by the development and that were found pursuant to a consultation, and that those effects cannot be mitigated, as specified.
10) Specify that the 65 foot height limit within one-half mile of a major transit stop only applies in cities of greater than 100,000 and outside the coastal zone.
11) Enable a local government to require up to half of the ground floor of the new development be utilized as retail, and preclude development from using the density bonus process to avoid any local requirement to provide retail.
12) Allow local governments to adopt an ordinance to implement the bill, the adoption of which would not be subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
13) Require local agencies to report, in their Annual Progress Report to the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), whether projects have utilized the provisions of this bill, and other pertinent information.
14) Allow HCD to enforce the provisions of this bill, including referring violations to the Attorney General.
