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HomeMy WebLinkAbout040523-3.1 LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM 3.1 TO: Mayor and Town Council April 5, 2023 SUBJECT: March 2022 Legislative Report BACKGROUND During the month of March, the Legislature continued its quick pace of considering legislation and amending bills, which included numerous policy committee hearings. These hearings serve as an important benchmark for determining which proposed bills will move forward through the legislative process and which will be amended or fail to progress. Bills will continue to work their way through the legislative process in their respective houses until June 2, the last day for each house to pass bills to the second house. Following a special session, the Governor and the Legislature announced they had reached a compromise on a measure to hold oil distributors accountable for recent price hikes over the past year. Measure SBX1-2 specifically creates a new independent watchdog agency within the California Energy Commission (CEC) charged with monitoring California’s petroleum market to ensure market participants do not engage in price gouging activities. If the oversight agency identifies bad actors, the measure authorizes the CEC to set a price gouging penalty via a public rulemaking process that deters excessive pricing. The measure passed the Senate, and is awaiting its first Assembly policy committee hearing, where several procedural rules have been waived to ensure its expedited process. On March 24, Governor Newsom announced the state’s plan to ease previous Emergency Drought Restrictions. These actions come as the state announced increased water deliveries to 29 public water agencies that serve 27 million Californians, now expecting to deliver 75% of requested water supplies – up from 35% announced in February, and the highest since 2017. While the winter storms have mitigated some issues related to the drought, the Governor reiterated that regions and communities across the state continue to experience water supply shortages, especially communities that rely on groundwater supplies that have been severely depleted in recent years. DISCUSSION The Town’s Legislative Committee follows legislation that is identified as a priority through the Tri-Valley Cities coalition and by the Danville Town Council based upon the March Legislative Update 2 April 5, 2023 Town’s legislative framework. The Tri-Valley Cities Legislative Framework identifies six focus areas for the 2022 State Legislative session including: Transportation and Infrastructure, Climate, Environment, Health and Safety, Economic Development, Affordable Housing and Homelessness, Mental Health, and Fiscal Sustainability. The bills and positions that are a priority for the Tri-Valley coalition are discussed in the second half of this report. The following bills have been identified as having an impact on Danville. AB 1318 (Rivas) California Environmental Quality Act: exception: residential projects. This bill would expand the existing CEQA exemptions by increasing the size of a residential project that would qualify for the exemption to include a project of no more than 5 acres in total area and would require the lead agency approving an exempt residential project on an urbanized infill site to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research. Recommended Position: Oppose ACA 10 (Haney) Fundamental human right to housing. This measure would declare that the state recognizes the fundamental human right to adequate housing for everyone in California. The measure would make it the shared obligation of state and local jurisdictions to respect, protect, and fulfill this right, by all appropriate means, as specified. Recommended Position: Support SB 393 (Glazer) California Environmental Quality Act: judicial challenge: identification of contributors: housing projects. This bill would require a plaintiff or petitioner, in an action brought pursuant to the act relating to a housing development project, to disclose the identity of a person or entity that contributes in excess of $5,000, as specified, toward the plaintiff’s or petitioner’s costs of the action and require the plaintiff or petitioner to identify any pecuniary or business interest related to the project of any person or entity that contributes in excess of $5,000 to the costs of the action, as specified. The bill would provide that a failure to comply with these requirements may be grounds for dismissal of the action by the court. Recommended Position: Support Tri-Valley Cities Coalition The following bills have been identified as legislation to track during the 2023 Legislative Session by the Tri-Valley Cities Coalition. AB 52 (Grayson) Income tax credit: sales and use taxes paid: manufacturing equipment: research and development equipment. This bill would allow, for a taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2029, a credit against those taxes to a taxpayer in an amount equal to the March Legislative Update 3 April 5, 2023 amount of tax reimbursement paid during the taxable year for sales tax on gross receipts that would be exempt from taxation under the Sales and Use Tax Law pursuant to the sales and use tax exemption described above but for the provision that prohibits that exemption from applying with respect to any tax levied by a county, city, or district pursuant to, or in accordance with, the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law or the Transactions and Use Tax Law, sales and use taxes imposed pursuant to certain provisions of the Sales and Use Tax Law, and sales and use taxes imposed pursuant to certain provisions of the California Constitution. Recommended Position: Oppose AB 234 (Bauer-Kahan) Microparticles. This bill would prohibit a synthetic polymer microparticle from being placed on the market in this state as a substance on its own or, where the synthetic polymer microparticles are present to confer a sought-after characteristic, in mixtures in a concentration equal to or greater than 0.01% by weight. Recommended Position: Support AB 478 (Connolly) Wildfires: insurance. This bill would limit an increase in the yearly premium, of insureds 65 years of age or older, for a policy of residential property insurance by no more than 25% for the insured property located in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone. Additionally, only one previous increase in a 5-year period would be allowed. This bill also prohibits an insurer form cancelling or refusing to renew a policy of residential property insurance based solely on the fact that the insured property is located in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone, if the insured is 65 years of age or older. Recommended Position: Support AB 894 (Friedman) Parking requirements: shared parking. This bill would require a public agency to allow existing land uses with underutilized parking to share underutilized parking with the public, a private entity, a public agency, or other users. Furthermore, this bill would require a public agency to allow shared parking to be counted toward meeting automobile parking requirements for a new or existing development or use, when the parking spaces meet specified conditions regarding the distance of the spaces from the applicable site. Recommended Position: Oppose unless Amended AB 1532 (Haney) Office conversion projects. This bill would make an office conversion project, as defined, that meets certain requirements a use by right in all areas regardless of zoning. The bill would define “office conversion project” to mean the conversion of a building used for office purposes or a vacant office building into residential dwelling units. By requiring the approval of housing crisis projects as a use by right, the bill would expand the exemption for approval of ministerial projects under CEQA. Additionally, this bill would exempt an office conversion project from impact fees that are not directly related to the conversion of an March Legislative Update 4 April 5, 2023 office building into residential dwelling units. The bill would allow the proponent of an office conversion project to pay applicable impact fees over a 10-year period, subject to specified requirements. Recommended Position: Oppose unless Amended AB 1634 (Bauer-Kahan) Income taxes: deduction: childcare. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2029, would allow a deduction in computing income for any cost paid or incurred by a taxpayer for qualified childcare provided by the taxpayer to a dependent, under 6 years of age, of the taxpayer’s employee, not to exceed $5,000 per taxable year per qualified dependent. Recommended Position: Support ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry) Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval. This measure would authorize a local government to impose, extend, or increase a sales and use tax or transactions and use tax imposed for the purposes of funding the construction, rehabilitation, or replacement of public infrastructure, affordable housing, or permanent supportive housing if the proposition proposing that tax is approved by 55% of its voters voting on the proposition and the proposition includes specified accountability requirements. The measure would specify that these provisions apply to any local measure imposing, extending, or increasing a sales and use tax, transactions and use tax, or parcel tax for these purposes that is submitted at the same election as this measure. Recommended Position: Support SB 402 (Wahab) Emergency services: limiting police response. This bill would require 911 or other service center calls for service relating to mental health or homelessness, as specified, to be dispatched to fire district or department personnel, EMS personnel, mental health personnel, or nonsworn unarmed police personnel and not to police officers, except as otherwise provided. Recommended Position: Support SB 405 (Cortese) Planning and zoning: housing element: inventory of sites: regional housing need. This bill would require the planning agency to provide notice to the owner of a site included in a housing element site inventory, if the owner’s identity and contact information is known. If the site owner notifies the planning agency or the department that the owner does not intend to develop at least 80% of the number of units for the site, determined as described above, during the current planning period, the bill would provide that the site would not be considered a site that can be developed to meet the jurisdiction’s share of the regional housing need. Recommended Position: Oppose March Legislative Update 5 April 5, 2023 SB 423 (Wiener) Land use: streamlined housing approvals: multifamily housing developments. This bill would modify existing Planning and Zoning Law objective planning standards by providing an alternative definition for “affordable housing costs” for a development that dedicates 100% of units, exclusive of a manager’s unit or units, to lower income households. The bill would also delete the objective planning standards requiring development proponents to pay at least the general prevailing rate of per diem wages and utilize a skilled and trained workforce and would instead require a development proponent to certify to the local government that certain wage and labor standards will be met, including a requirement that all construction workers be paid at least the general prevailing rate of wages, as specified. Recommended Position: Oppose unless Amended SB 569 (Glazer) Taxation: renter’s credit. This bill, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028, would require the Franchise Tax Board to annually recompute for inflation the above-mentioned credit amounts, as provided. The bill, for credits allowable for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028, would provide that the credit amount in excess of the qualified renter’s liability would be refundable and paid from the Tax Relief and Refund Account to the qualified renter upon appropriation by the Legislature. Recommended Position: Support Additional Advocacy Efforts At the end of March, the Tri-Valley Cities Mayors participated in the annual state advocacy trip in Sacramento to meet with state representatives and agency/department staff to communicate the coalitions policy priorities and continue to foster relationships with key stakeholders. Meetings included: • Office of Senator Anna Caballero • Assembly Member Damon Connolly • Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan • Assembly Local Government Committee staff • Office of Assembly Member Liz Ortega • Office of Senator Susan Eggman • Senator Steve Glazer • California Energy Commission Grant Programs The Town of Danville submitted and received approval for $11,125 in grant funding from the Cal Recycle City/County Payment Program. March Legislative Update 6 April 5, 2023 CONCLUSION Accept this report and direct any questions and/or direction to Town legislative staff. Prepared by: Cat Bravo Management Analyst Reviewed by: Joseph Calabrigo Town Manager Attachment A – Bill Summary and Analysis Packet Attachment B – League of California Cities Comments Letter on Draft ACF Public Fleets Regulatory Language ATTACHMENT A 5 0 0 L A G O N D A W A Y , D A N V I L L E , C A L I F O R N I A 9 4 5 2 6 Administration Building Engineering & Planning Transportation Maintenance Police Parks and Recreation (925) 314-3388 (925) 314-3330 (925) 314-3310 (925) 314-3320 (925) 314-3450 (925) 314-3700 (925) 314-3400 April 4, 2023 Craig Segall Deputy Executive Officer California Air Resources Board 1001 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: League of California Cities Comments on the Draft ACF Public Fleets Regulatory Language The Town of Danville appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) draft regulatory language (March 23 iteration) for public fleets as proposed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). There are several items that we are seeking clarity on. We also have serious concerns about its aggressive timelines, which due to local budget cycles, are simply unattainable. We are grateful for the collaborative workshops held by CARB to discuss our concerns and for providing feedback on some of our suggestions. While the latest iteration reflects some of the exemptions and extensions that we requested, we remain concerned with the following: Lack of Price Caps. We recommend that CARB consider imposing price caps to ensure the market responds positively with vehicles at competitive rates. Local governments strive to be good stewards of the taxpayer’s dollars, but without price caps, the proposed regulations may result in zero-emission vehicles that are put to market at an artificially inflated rate. A percentage price cap would potentially prevent manufacturers from manipulating the market and help local governments protect taxpayer resources. Inventories. We believe that CARB should provide a list of available manufacturers that have market-ready vehicles in the medium- to heavy-duty class sizes, 2B-8. Availability of model/body types of multiple weight classes (and functions) are not confirmed by fleets, but rather by manufacturers informing CARB which models will be available. ATTACHMENT B April 4, 2023 Page 2 Timelines and Public Funding. The proposed regulations continue to impose aggressive timelines for compliance. They do not consider public budgets and funding methods for capital projects. Many local governments follow a two-year budget cycle, and many cities have a five-year capital budget cycle that cannot be easily repurposed at the scale this proposed regulation would require. Requiring compliance to start on Jan. 1, 2024, would require significant and immediate investment from local budgets for the preconstruction that is simply unattainable. Electrifying service yards to support an electrified fleet is a much greater undertaking than a simple electricity panel upgrade or some quick trenching in the parking lot. The time and costs for planning, engineering, and expansion of both the electrical capacity of a facility’s system and the distribution system that feeds it are well beyond the available budget of cities. While savings will eventually manifest from retiring or repurposing internal combustible engine assets, they will have no effect on the upfront expenses. For these reasons, we believe that local governments need an extension of at least four years from regulation adoption. The proposed regulations ignore existing market realities, as well as the time needed to develop and ramp up an infrastructural system that can support an electrified fleet of waste, water, and sewer utility vehicles. If required to comply with the proposed regulation as drafted, the projected infrastructure and fleet costs will add substantial rate increases across multiple public works and utility service departments. Cities across the state are pursuing robust, environmentally sound strategies to decarbonize their communities. However, this proposed regulatory language does not account for rising utility costs and substantial mandates from multiple regulatory bodies. We urge CARB to consider these impacts to ensure this regulation succeeds without further exacerbating the affordability issues facing many of our cities and residents. Again, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to provide written responses to the proposed Advance Clean Fleets Regulations. Sincerely, ______________________ Robert Storer, Mayor cc: League of California Cities, cityletters@calcities.org Sam Caygill, East Bay Division, scaygill@calcities.org