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Sustainable Communities Strategies 101: An Introduction to California’s New Planning
Law
SCANPH conference
October 1, 2010
Assembly Bill 32: Global Warming Solutions Act
• Signed in 2006
• Required state Air Resources Board to adopt a plan that will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020
• Covers all significant contributors of GHG emissions, including agriculture, industry, and transportation
SB 375 Overview
SB 375: Achieve a portion of these reductions by reducing the amount we have to drive.
SB 375 contents
Four components:
1. GHG reduction target
2. Sustainable communities strategy
3. Housing planning
4. CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) modifications
Component #1: Setting the GHG reduction target
• Lead agency: California Air Resources Board (ARB or CARB)
• Goal: “ambitious but achievable”
• Targets adopted at September 23 meeting SCAG: 2020 = 8% 2035 = 13%
• Can be adjusted every four years
Component #2: Developing the Sustainable Communities Strategy
• Responsible agencies: Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)
• Part of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP)
• Contents: – Land use pattern– Transportation investments
• Must be realistic
Component #2: SCS (cont)
Alternative Planning Strategy (APS):
• Prepared if the region cannot achieve its target with its reasonably expected transportation resources and land use pattern
• Shows what’s needed to meet the goal, e.g. more money for public transit and more compact homes throughout the region
Component #3: Localities’ Housing Planning
SB 375: does NOT diminish local land use authority BUT housing element = de facto implementation of SCS’s land use pattern
Changes made by 375:
•Housing needs allocated consistent with SCS development pattern
•Element covers 8-year period and is due 18 months after RTP is adopted
Component #3: Localities’ Housing Planning (cont)
• Local government accountability– Penalty for failing to adopt element
– Rezonings
– Deadline for other programs
– Reporting
• Enforcement– Builder’s remedy
– Citywide remedy
Component #4: CEQA modifications
• Reduced requirements for residential and mixed-use development that is consistent with the SCS
• Exemption for narrowly-defined “transit-priority projects”
• Reduced requirements for broader group of transit projects
How can SB 375 serve equity goals?
1. Create more rental homes affordable to lower income Californians
2. Increase investment in affordable transit serving low-income neighborhoods and communities
3. Improve health outcomes in low income communities
SB 375 and equity
WON’T WORK WITHOUT AFFORDABLE HOMES
• Less Land = Increase in Land Value =– Increase in Housing Price > Trans. Savings– Increase in Displacement/Gentrification Pressures
• Jobs/Housing Balance IS NOT Jobs/Housing Fit– Wages Often Insufficient
• Fair Housing Impacts• SB 375 Undercut If Workers Can’t Afford the
Homes
Defining Success in 2011-12
SCSs that fully accommodate housing needs, invest trans. $$ to bolster affordable TOD, and reduce GHGs by placing affordable homes near job centers and expanded transit.
Strong housing elements with zoning for apartments, local trust funds, and other programs tailored to meet local needs.
Ongoing, dedicated state investment to increasing the supply of apartments affordable to lower income Californians
Winning Strategies
1. Statewide, partner with ARB, HCD, and allies. Develop better modeling Create “model” social justice scenario Publications framing housing’s role
2. Build broad-based regional and local coalitions. Influence SCSes Shape housing elements Follow housing element implementation – litigate if necessary
3. Pass legislation to create a dedicated funding source for investment in homes affordable to all Californians.
3.
