Wiener tries again with zoning reform bill to require 2 to 4 housing units per parcel
Making good on his promise to float another housing production bill in the wake of Senate Bill 50’s defeat, state Sen. Scott Wiener on Monday introduced legislation that aims to rezone neighborhoods for increased density.
SB 902 would mandate that cities, depending on their populations, grant by-right zoning approval for two to four residential units per parcel, effectively removing single-family zoning in almost all jurisdictions.
Wiener, D-San Francisco, described SB 902 as a “lighter touch” measure compared with SB 50, his transit-oriented housing bill that sought to eliminate local zoning restrictions to significantly increase the size of housing projects in transit and job rich areas.
That bill was voted down by a margin of three votes on the Senate floor in January, the third time it failed to advance in the chamber.Cities with populations of under 10,000 and unincorporated areas would have to allow at least two units per parcel in residential areas that are outside of very high fire hazard severity zones.
In cities with populations between 10,000 and 50,000, it would be a minimum of three units per parcel, and in cities home to more than 50,000, it would be four. The bill also would give local governments the choice of allowing up to 10 units per parcel in taller buildings.
For a neighborhood to qualify for 10-plex zoning, it must either meet the “urban infill” definition established by SB 35 — meaning that 75% of a site’s perimeter is already developed — or be located near high-quality public transportation or a job-rich area. Local governments would then need to pass ordinances establishing whether these larger projects would be granted by-right approval or be subject to additional review in a public process.
It would also exempt these projects from review under the California Environmental Quality Act, so long as they meet certain requirements. Providing cities with a tool to “quickly and effectively” build more housing is important as the state is in the midst of issuing new housing production goals for individual cities — and some are seeing their mandated housing allocations “tripled,” according to Wiener.
Providing cities with a tool to “quickly and effectively” build more housing is important as the state is in the midst of issuing new housing production goals for individual cities — and some are seeing their mandated housing allocations “tripled,” according to Wiener.
“This legislation will over time allow for a significant amount of housing — and do it in a way that cities have latitude in how to (build more),” Wiener said.
SB 902 “nears SB 50” — which also had a provision mandating statewide fourplex zoning — but will provide cities with more flexibility in regard to choosing where to build taller, he said.
SB 50 divided the housing community, with affordable housing advocates and other groups opposing the bill in part over its effects on communities at risk of gentrification and displacement.
Wiener said that he anticipates broader support for SB 902, which adds “modest” density and comes with built-in tenant protections in line with what was proposed in SB 50. Demolitions would be prohibited at sites where a renter lived in the seven years prior to an SB 902 project being proposed or where an Ellis Act eviction took place in the 15 years prior. Rent-controlled and affordable housing would also be protected from demolitions intended to make way for SB 902 projects.
Assembly Bill 1279
Wiener acknowledged that SB 902 would be most impactful as “part of a package” of bills aimed at addressing the state’s housing crisis.
In the wake of SB 50’s defeat in January, state Senate leader Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, promised that California would see a sweeping housing production bill this year. That effort is still forthcoming, and Wiener said that SB 902 would complement that effort.
“SB 50 was a big impactful bill but you don't have to do it as one bill — you can have a bunch of bills that collectively make dramatic change,” he said.
Another housing production bill that was introduced around the same time as SB 50 last year and has since quietly made its way through legislature is Assembly Bill 1279, spearheaded by state Assemblymember Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica.
AB 1279 geographically focuses zoning overrides on suburban, “high resource” areas to incentivize the construction of smaller, market-rate projects and larger affordable housing projects. It is supported and sponsored by statewide housing justice advocacy organizations.
“In suburban low-density areas there is basically not the same intense development happening, it's a lot quieter in those places. All the market development activity is for the most part happening in urban core areas, and it's happening on adrenaline — too much too fast — in a lot of urban communities across the state but it's also quite concentrated in gentrifying neighborhoods, which is why we have the displacement crisis,” said Peter Cohen, executive director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, a nonprofit coalition of more than two dozen community-based housing developers and advocates. Cohen and CCHO opposed SB 50.
Cohen explained that high-resource areas — those with higher income levels, higher homeownership rates, high-quality schools, among other things — tend to be areas with "typically low density” and in the suburbs that are "often also more homogenous in terms of demographics."
“What that means on a more practical level, you probably don't have at-risk populations being displaced if you were to incentivize more development in those suburban places, especially if there is an affordability requirement built in to the policy,” said Cohen.
AB 1279 was voted out of the Assembly and is expected to be taken up in the Senate by the summer. Wiener’s office declined to comment on that bill.