An amended version of Senate Bill 10, the proposal from state Sen. Scott Wiener that would give cities the option to upzone infill sites and areas near transit centers, was approved 41-9 by the California Assembly on Monday.
It now returns to the state Senate, which passed the original version in June.If the Senate concurs with the changes, the bill will head to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. Newsom, who faces a Sept. 14 recall election, has generally supported efforts to build more housing.
Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, introduced the bill in December to allow cities to override zoning restrictions if they choose without going through the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
The zoning changes would be voluntary, unlike those called for under Wiener's contentious SB 50. That broad housing density bill, introduced several years in a row, would have mandated height and density requirements for developments around transit hubs and job rich areas, including single-family neighborhoods. The bill died on the Senate floor last year.
The amended version of SB 10 would allow the construction of up to 10 units on urban infill sites and near transit centers — rather than job centers as originally envisioned by Wiener — by right in qualifying single-family zoning areas. The bill also allows for the addition of another two accessory dwelling units and two junior accessory dwelling units.
“California’s severe housing shortage requires many strategies, and making it easier and faster for cities to zone for multi-unit housing is a critical piece of the puzzle,” Wiener said Monday in a statement about SB 10. “This voluntary tool will help local governments throughout California fundamentally reshape their zoning in infill areas, and help our state climb out of the housing crisis we face. Today is a step in the right direction, and we must continue to build on this victory to end California’s housing crisis.”
Livable California, an advocacy group that supports local control, is among those opposing SB 10, arguing that it "openly invites gentrification of older, diverse, multifamily and single-family areas."
Two other zoning bills introduced by Wiener — SB 477 and 478 — are currently held in the Assembly's Appropriations Committee. SB 478 is aimed at loosening restrictive requirements for multifamily housing construction by setting a minimum standard for lot sizes and floor area ratios; FAR is calculated by dividing the size of the building by the size of the lot. SB 477 would instruct the state to collect data about another law authored by Wiener in 2017 — SB 35 — which established a streamlined approval process for certain multifamily affordable housing projects in jurisdictions that failed to meet their share of the regional housing need.
Another housing bill, Senate Bill 9 — which would allow property owners to subdivide their single family-zoned lots to construct two duplexes or two houses with attached units via ministeral approval — is slated for a vote at the Assembly floor on Thursday after passing out of the Appropriations Committee last week.
SB 9 is being spearheaded by Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, who amended the bill last week in response to opposition over its potential to incentivize real estate speculation. As amended, SB 9 would require applicants to sign an affidavit stating their intent to occupy one of the housing units as their principal residence for a minimum of three years, with exemptions given to community land trusts or a qualified nonprofits. It also authorizes local governments to deny a proposed housing development or lot split on the condition that a building official makes a written finding that the development would have a specific adverse impact on public health, safety or the physical environment that cannot be mitigated.
“These most recent amendments to SB 9 are in response to specific concerns that we had been hearing from community members and local municipalities, and grants local government the ability to respond to safety concerns, as well as bolsters an existing provision related to owner occupancy requirements. The amendments strengthen and clarify certain provisions this bill, which stands to help renters and homeowners alike," Atkins said in a statement on Tuesday.
Both SB 9 and 10 stand to bring about significant and needed changes the state's housing landscape, according to proponents, who among other things argue that single-family zoning is a construct of systemic racism.
But for many, the changes proposed under SB 9 and 10 remain too radical. Cities across the state, from Los Angeles to South San Francisco, have formally opposed the rezoning efforts unless amended.
In a letter penned to Atkins earlier this month, South San Francisco Mayor Mark Addiego described the city's biggest concern as being a market-rate developer's ability under SB 9 to "buy one or more of these homes, tear down the older single-family home, split the large lot and then build four market-rate condos."
"This will accelerate gentrification, displace our Latinx community, and add just more super high-priced condos in Silicon Valley," said Addiego, who requested that additional changes be made to the bill to among other things require that new homes permitted be restricted as affordable housing.
In June, more than 50 affordable housing and housing justice organizations sent also sent a letter to Newsom and the legislative leaders describing five principles of equitable development policies, which include "not pre-emption of zoning or approval processes for market-rate housing in communities at risk of displacement."
"SB 9 looks mostly symbolic and certainly not like an affordable housing strategy. Understandably, symbolism may have political importance, but it is different from substantive affordable housing policy," said Peter Cohen, executive director for the Council of Community Housing Organizations, a San Francisco coalition of 21 affordable housing developers and advocates.
Cohen said the coalition believes the upzoning and "missing middle infill strategy" proposed by SB 9 could work if targeted to the right places — which do not include "hot-market rapidly gentrifying cities like San Francisco and central San Jose and Oakland," but rather the "huge swaths of the region's suburban cities."