Housing bills OKd at upbeat S.F. event

Brown signs into law ambitious package to ease statewide crisis

Surrounded by a crowd of Democratic mayors and legislators Friday morning, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a wide-ranging package of 15 bills designed to bring some relief to the statewide housing crisis.

Enthusiastic housing advocates and business leaders also joined the governor for the outdoor bill-signing ceremony in a pocket park at Hunters View, a new mixed-income housing development on the hills of Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco.

“This is the biggest bill-signing I’ve ever seen, and it’s because it deals with something as basic as shelter,” the governor said. “It was a big challenge, and we’ve risen to it this year.”

But the governor also stressed that many of the problems the new bills are designed to ease were caused by the same local and state officials now cheering the improvements.

Things like tough zoning restrictions, requirements for clean air and green energy, multiple rules for construction and a variety of other laws dealing with housing are all good things in themselves, he said. But they combine to build up red tape that can make it harder to build affordable housing, he argued.

“All these rules were passed by people like

Here are some of the 15 bills signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday. For the complete list, go to tinyurl.com/ycfwet8y. To read the full bills, go to leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

SB2 by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, establishes a permanent funding source for affordable housing through a $75 fee on real estate transaction documents. The fee is capped at $225 per transaction and exempts real estate sales. The fees would generate roughly $250 million a year, which would be split among state and local housing programs.

SB3 by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, authorizes $4 billion in general obligation bonds for affordable housing programs and a veterans’ homeownership program. SB3 will be up for approval by voters in November 2018.

SB35 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, streamlines the approval process for infill developments in local communities that have failed to meet their regional housing needs.

SB166 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, ensures that cities maintain an ongoing supply of housing construction sites for residents of various income levels.

SB167 by Skinner and AB678 by Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, D-Pacoima (Los Angeles County), increase the standard of proof required for a local government to justify a denial of low- and moderate-income housing development projects. SB540 by Sen. Richard D. Roth, D-Riverside, streamlines the environmental review process for certain local affordable housing projects.