California Senate Bill 827

California Senate Bill 827
California State Legislature
Status Rejected by Senate Transportation and Housing Committee
Introduced January 3, 2018
Website Bill Information

California Senate Bill 827 (SB 827) was a proposed California bill that would have reduced local control of land zoning near public transit stations. The bill was introduced by Senator Scott Wiener in January 2018 and would have applied to areas within one-half-mile (0.8 km) of frequent transit corridors, including rail stations and bus routes. The bill was written in response to an ongoing housing affordability crisis in California's largest urban areas and was opposed by local governments and anti-gentrification activists.

The bill failed to advance from the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee in April 2018, effectively killing it.[1]

Proposal

Under SB 827, cities in California would have been required to permit residential buildings of up to 45 to 55 feet (14 to 17 m) in "transit rich" areas near train stations and bus stops.[2] The bill would have also eliminated minimum requirements for parking and prohibit local design requirements that would lower the amount of space in a new development.[3] The bill would have affected roughly 50 percent of single-family homes in Los Angeles and 96 percent of land in San Francisco.[4][5]

A similar bill, Senate Bill 828, was introduced by Wiener to amend market-rate housing requirements for local governments and avoided much of the controversy that plagued SB 827.[6] Another bill, Assembly Bill 2923, was announced in March 2018 and would require the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (serving the San Francisco Bay Area) to adopt zoning standards that would be accepted by cities and local jurisdictions.[7]

History and political debate

Senator Wiener, representing part of San Francisco, introduced the bill on the first day of the 2018 legislative session with the support of California YIMBY, a pro-development coalition.[8][9] Wiener had previously authored Senate Bill 35, a bill to streamline the approval process for residential projects, which was passed by the legislature in 2017.[10]

Wiener said he proposed the bill in part to alleviate the state's ongoing housing affordability crisis as well as address carbon emissions generated by vehicles.[4] Regarding the issue of local control, he stated:

"In education and healthcare, the state sets basic standards, and local control exists within those standards. Only in housing has the state abdicated its role. But housing is a statewide issue, and the approach of pure local control has driven us into the ditch."[11]

The bill was opposed by city councils in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and major suburban cities,[12][13] as well as by tenants' rights groups, who argued that additional development would cause gentrification and displace underprivileged residents, especially non-white groups.[2][14] The bill was supported by pro-housing groups nationally, and executives at several large tech companies, including Salesforce, Twitter, Lyft, Yelp, and Mozilla, voiced their support of the bill in a joint letter.[15]

The first revisions to the bill were made in late February, adding pro-tenant provisions to prevent demolition of existing housing and other protections.[9] In April 2018, the bill was amended to reduce the maximum height in "transit rich" areas to approximately four to five stories and remove bus stops with non-frequent service outside of peak periods.[16] The bill was brought to the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee in April, where it was rejected by a vote of 6–4.[17]

In October 2018, Senator Wiener announced that he intends to introduce an updated version of the bill in the 2019 legislative session.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Dougherty, Conor (April 17, 2018). "California Lawmakers Kill Housing Bill After Fierce Debate". The New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Grabar, Henry (April 20, 2018). "Why Was California's Radical Housing Bill so Unpopular?". Slate. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  3. ↑ Roberts, David (April 4, 2018). "The future of housing policy is being decided in California". Vox. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Zahinser, David; Dillon, Liam; Schleuss, Jon (March 25, 2018). "Plan to dramatically increase development would transform some L.A. neighborhoods". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  5. ↑ Kukura, Joe (March 29, 2018). "Tall Tales: The Potential Impact of SB 827". SF Weekly. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  6. ↑ Murphy, Katy (April 24, 2018). "After death of major California housing bill, state Senator advances another proposal". The Mercury News. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  7. ↑ Murphy, Katy (March 5, 2018). "20,000 new homes by BART stations? A new California zoning bill aims to speed building". The Mercury News. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  8. ↑ Dillon, Liam (January 4, 2018). "Get ready for a lot more housing near the Expo Line and other California transit stations if new legislation passes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  9. 1 2 Murphy, Katy; Baldassari, Erin (March 3, 2018). "California gears up for a battle over single-family zoning near transit". The Mercury News. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  10. ↑ Dillon, Liam (June 1, 2017). "California Senate passes package of bills aiming to address housing crisis". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  11. ↑ Hiltzik, Michael (2018-03-29). "California's housing crisis reaches from the homeless to the middle class — but it's still almost impossible to fix". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2018-03-31. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  12. ↑ Dillon, Liam (April 17, 2018). "California lawmakers killed one of the biggest housing bills in the country". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  13. ↑ Murphy, Katy (April 5, 2018). "Sweeping California housing bill attacked on author's home turf". The Mercury News. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  14. ↑ Dillon, Liam (May 2, 2018). "A major California housing bill failed after opposition from the low-income residents it aimed to help. Here's how it went wrong". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  15. ↑ Kendall, Marisa (January 24, 2018). "Tech execs back California bill that aims to build more housing near transit". The Mercury News. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  16. ↑ Dillon, Liam (April 10, 2018). "Major California housing bill narrowed before its first legislative debate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  17. ↑ Kim, Alicia (April 18, 2018). "Controversial state housing bill SB 827 dies in committee hearing". The Daily Californian. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  18. ↑ Walker, Alissa (October 9, 2018). "Sen. Scott Wiener will introduce new version of transit density bill". Curbed Los Angeles. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.