As the California Legislature moves into spring horse-trading season, here's a review in links of some state-level legislation we're following that's relevant to land use, housing and the environment. In addition to the links provided here, the "Bill Information" section at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ has status updates and texts for all bills and helpful legislative analyses for most.

AB 2493 (Bloom) - Post-Redevelopment funds retention
This bill by Assemblymember Bloom, D-Santa Monica, would return some $750 million to successor agencies to finish redevelopment projects. By the end of April it had passed two Assembly policy committees and was headed into Assembly Appropriations. For Bloom's comments in the local Santa Monica Lookout see http://bit.ly/1jwkF9e. The League of California Cities, which supports it, has a tracking page and support letter at http://bit.ly/Q8J612.

SB 1129 (Steinberg) - Post-Redevelopment
SB 1129, a post-redevelopment cleanup bill with League of Cities support, would give cities' successor agencies more authority in several areas, notably to enter contracts. It was heard May 5 in Senate Appropriations and placed on the suspense file. for an endorsement statement by the City of Glendale see http://bit.ly/SvBvvz. The League's comments on this and a crop of other March-introduced bills on the Redevelopment wind-down are at http://bit.ly/1igufww.

AB 2280 (Alejo) - Re-create some elements of Redevelopment
Per the League of California Cities, which supports it, the Alejo bill (Discussed at http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3480) has reached the Assembly floor, was read a second time May 1 and goes to a third reading May 8: http://bit.ly/OUOtRg

SB 33 (Wolk) - Remove voter approval for post-Redevelopment IFDs
SB 33, which would remove the requirement of a popular vote from infrastructure finance districts, was among the post-Redevelopment bills that remained formally dormant but still informally under consideration, as discussed at http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3480. Although it has officially gone nowhere since September 2013, SB 33 is on the "Hot and Priority Bills" list of the League of California Cities at http://www.cacities.org/Top/News/News-Articles/2014/April/2014-League-Hot-and-Priority-Bill-List.

AB 1404 (Leno) - San Francisco Redevelopment housing backlog
The San Francisco-specific SB 1404, originated by the city government, passed the State Senate Committee on Governance and Finance, its second committee, per Legiscan's entry at http://legiscan.com/CA/rollcall/SB1404/id/361266 .The measure would both require and allow the successor to the city's redevelopment agency to replace over 5000 units of affordable housing that were destroyed during 1955-1975 "urban renewal". See http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3480.

AB 2292 (Bonta) - Freight Rail, redevelopment sites
AB 2292, per the Assembly Local Government committee's analysis, would "allow an infrastructure financing district [IFD] in the Oakland Army Base, Howard Terminal or Coliseum City in the City of Oakland to finance public capital facilities or projects that include freight rail." All three sites are subjects of major redevelopment planning; the latter two are competing sites for pro sports stadiums. (See http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3476.) Per the author's statement in the analysis, "we need to include freight rail as an eligible expense for IFDs" to improve the city's transportation capacity and emissions reduction through rail use.

AB 2549 (Ridley-Thomas) - Milpitas post-redevelopment
The full Assembly has passed AB 2549, to create a local commission to address Milpitas' especially deep post-Redevelopment funding losses. It now goes to the State Senate.

SB 391 (DeSaulnier) - Affordable housing via recording fees
SB 391, which would raise funds for affordable housing with real estate recording fees, remains formally on the Assembly suspense file, having passed the Senate last year.

SB 1132 (Mitchell, Leno) - Fracking restrictions
This anti-fracking bill (see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3475) passed the State Senate Environmental Quality Committee 5-2 on April 30 per a statement (at http://bit.ly/RiQt7c) by State Sen. Holly Mitchell, the measure's cosponsor. The Los Angeles Democrat has expressed concern for her district as close to "the largest urban oil field in the country" in Inglewood.

AB 2417 (Nazarian) - Recycled water
AB 2417, on "purple pipe" distribution of recycled water, passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee April 28. It would create an exemption from CEQA for new or existing recycled water pipelines of less than eight miles. The Associaton of California Water Agencies (ACWA), which backs the measure, said it goes next to the Appropriations Committee. See
http://www.acwa.com/news/state-legislation/acwa-sponsored-ab-2417-clears-first-committee.

AB 1739 (Dickinson) - Groundwater management
Another ACWA-backed bill, AB 1739, passed the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee April 30 and moved on to Assembly Appropriations. Per the water committee's legislative analysis it would require "sustainable groundwater management in all groundwater subbasins determined by the Department of Water Resources... to be at medium to high risk of significant economic, social and environmental impacts due to an unsustainable and chronic pattern of groundwater extractions exceeding the ability of the surface water supplies to replenish the subbasin." See http://www.acwa.com/news/groundwater/assembly-committee-approves-groundwater-legislation

SB 1077 (DeSaulnier) - Tax per vehicle miles traveled
Another item, this one "supported in concept" by the League, is SB 1077, which calls for a tax based on vehicle miles traveled. The Southern California Association of Governments has been talking it up (see http://bit.ly/1nkxKTG) but the measure was questioned last fall on privacy grounds (see http://lat.ms/1jwnuHj). the measure is through its State Senate policy committees and is set for hearing May 12 in Senate Appropriations.

SB 1439 (Leno) - Ellis Act restrictions
State Sen. Mark Leno's Ellis Act restriction measure, SB 1439 (discussed previously at http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3477) now has a heavy weight of tech industry endorsers behind it (see http://beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=12611). The measure goes to hearing May 6 in the State Senate Judiciary Committee. Assemblymember Tom Ammiano's AB 2405, which would have limited the Ellis Act more strongly and provided tenant litigants with other procedural protections, failed to clear the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 29.

SB 1451 (Hill & Roth) - CEQA procedural restrictions
A widely shared commentary by the Miller Starr Regalia law firm at http://bit.ly/1q9qPkX is arguing for SB 1451, which would limit the ways petitioners could place allegations of CEQA violations on the record. Principally, it would exclude allegations from court review if the alleged violations were known, or could have been known with reasonable diligence, during the public comment period, but were brought to the agency's attention at another time. The legislative summary and the Miller Starr essay describe the measure as designed to stop use of "document dumping" as a tactic to delay a decision or preserve a record. The bill has passed the State Senate Environmental Quality Committee and goes to hearing May 6 in Judiciary.

SB 69 (Roth) and AB 1521 (Fox) - Restore Vehicle License Fee revenue
These two somewhat different measures, both supported by the League (and discussed previously at http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3464), would restore features of the 2004-2005 budget deal's "VLF-property tax swap" and transfer back vehicle license fee income to local jurisdictions, undoing the work of 2011's SB 89, which repurposed the vehicle license money to help with "realignment" additions to the functions of county carceral systems. (Compare http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/about_cdcr/docs/realignment-fact-sheet.pdf.) The two current bills would especially help recently created municipalities such as Jurupa Valley. Per the most recent AB 1521 legislative analysis, "SB 89 had the effect of eliminating over  $15 million in the Motor Vehicle License Fee (MVLFA) revenues in 2011-12 from four  newly incorporated cities (Menifee, Eastvale, Wildomar, and Jurupa Valley)." SB 69 passed the Senate last year, but in a different form focused on education funding. It was amended to substantially its current form in September 2013, then sat with formally unchanged status until a couple of weeks ago. It was amended in the Assembly Rules Committee on April 21. Meanwhile, AB 1521 passed the Assembly Local Government committee April 30. The legislative analysis showed no opposition on file.

AB 2175 (Daly & Ting) - Renters' rebates
This bill would grant renter's rebates to tenants at heftier rates than the current renter's credit, with payments ranging from $250 to $347.50 on a sliding scale for annual incomes at and below $42,588. Introduced in February, the measure passed the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee on Apriil 28 and now moves on to Appropriations.

AB 1513 (Fox) - Residential property: possession by declaration
The California Association of Realtors was sponsoring a measure, also supported by the California Police Chiefs Association, described as meant to assist landlords, security companies and police in removing squatters from vacant properties. It would allow a landlord to declare ownership of a property, register it as vacant, and challenge allegedly unauthorized occupants to obtain or present proof of a right to remain within 48 hours. Some tenant activists had begun campaigns against the measure because they argued it could create an extrajudicial eviction process, giving landlords an end run around the more procedurally complex and time-consuming procedures of the standard California "unlawful detainer" eviction. (See e.g. http://bit.ly/RjmiN5 and http://killthebillcoalition.com/about/) The Assembly Judiciary analysis of April 28 set out the dispute carefully. Opponents it listed included the statewide Tenants Together group and the Western Center on Law and Poverty. The measure has passed the Assembly Rules and Judiciary Committees and has been referred to Appropriations.

And further --

The League of Cities' "Hot Bills" list was stating generally conservative positions on public records measures and on regulatory measures for bills involving massage businesses and marijuana dispensaries

Here's just a little from ACWA on the water bond bills, which are a whole other subject: http://www.acwa.com/news/water-supply-challenges/three-water-bond-bills-advance-assembly-sb-1250-put-over-until-may-13