Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council Regular Meeting of March 13, 2018
Title
CONSIDERATION OF OPPOSITION TO SENATE BILL 827
“TRANSIT-RICH HOUSING BONUS”
(Community Development Director Ken Robertson)
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
It is recommended that that the City Council authorize the Mayor to sign a letter of opposition (Attachment 1), and direct staff to send the letter to Senator Wiener and our local representatives on behalf of the City, expressing opposition to Senate Bill 827, which would modify planning and zoning regulations to exempt projects in transit-rich areas from several local planning and zoning controls.
Body
Background:
The proposed bill was introduced by Senator Wiener in early January and the bill author has proposed additional amendments as of March 1, 2018. (Attachment 2)
Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Torrance City Councils are among local jurisdictions that have already unanimously opposed this measure.
Analysis:
The League of Cities action alert (Attachment 3) summarizes the possible adverse consequences of the bill. While the bill is perhaps well intended, the approach to provide high density housing near transit stops by pre-empting local General Plans and Zoning, including height limits, density standards, and parking requirements, could have serious adverse consequences by undermining local planning efforts (like PLAN Hermosa) and result in incompatible development in inappropriate locations without public input.
As currently defined, it doesn’t appear that Hermosa Beach would currently have any qualifying “high quality transit corridors” under the latest version of the bill, however bus routes through the city could be included in a final version of the bill, or could be upgraded to high quality transit corridors in the future. The bill might actually discourage local support of improvements to public transit service if the outcome would then result in the nearby residential areas being subjected to pre-emptive zoning from the State.
Attachments:
1. Proposed opposition Letter
2. SB 827 as introduced, and authors amendments
3. League of Cities Alert
Respectfully Submitted by: Ken Robertson, Community Development Director
Concur: Nico De Anda-Scaia, Assistant to the City Manager
Noted for Fiscal Impact: Viki Copeland, Finance Director
Legal Review: Mike Jenkins, City Attorney
Approved: Sergio Gonzalez, City Manager