Affordable Housing - AB 56/SB 2

We are very pleased to report that Governor Jerry Brown has signed AB 56 (Holden) - a CDA-supported bill - into law. AB 56 allows the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank "IBank" to fund public development facilities like city street improvements, drainage, water supply and other mitigation measures that often make infill and transit-oriented housing projects difficult or impossible to develop. AB 56 provides greater flexibility for the financing of infrastructure improvements in order to realize new housing opportunities in urban areas.

Although a somewhat technical bill, AB 56, along with passage of the broader housing package this year (including SB 2) represents significant progress on affordability and availability of new housing opportunities in California. The Governor signed the housing package last month during a signing ceremony in San Francisco where he was joined by housing advocates, labor and business leaders.

AB 1479 - Public Records Act requests

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 1479 by Assemblyman Bonta (D-Oakland). The bill would have required public agencies (including BIDs) to name a custodian of records to administer all PRA requests. As previously reported in this column, AB 1479 was amended in August removing the civil penalty provisions in order to address the strong opposition of CDA and other public agencies.

We do expect legislation to be introduced next year to require additional disclosure requirements under the Public Records Act - placing similar burdens on PBIDs that the previous version of AB 1479 had created. You'll see the veto message from Governor Brown below which he keeps the door open on strengthening public record disclosure requirements. We will have to be diligent in our advocacy efforts should legislation be introduced next year on this topic.

An excerpt from the veto message from Governor Jerry Brown:

"I am not convinced the bill would have any measurable impact on the speed or accuracy in responding to Public Record Act requests. While I am open to future discussions about strengthening public records disclosures for all branches of California government, this bill has the potential to further confuse an already complex process."

SB 611 - Reforms to the DMV's Disabled Parking Placard Program

We are pleased to report the Governor has signed CDA-supported SB 611 by Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) which implements a number of reforms to the DMV's disabled parking placard program to curtail fraudulent use.

Abuses within the state's disabled placard program were highlighted by a CA State Auditor report that determined more than one million placards were issued in the past five years that may lack sufficient evidence that the applicant would qualify for the placard.

As we know, California allows anyone with a disabled placard to park for free at any metered space without time limits; unfortunately, this can result in situations where unauthorized holders of disabled placards misuse them in order to gain the benefit of free and unlimited parking.