Bill Text: CA AB1579 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: College and university student housing: impact mitigation fees.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2020-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1579 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB1579-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  March 28, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1579

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Introduced by Assembly Member Gabriel

February 22, 2019

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An act to amend Section 62250 of the Government Code, relating to local government. An act to add Section 65995.3 to the Government Code, relating to land use.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1579, as amended, Gabriel. Affordable housing authorities. College and university student housing: impact mitigation fees.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to levy a fee, charge, dedication, or other requirement against any construction within the boundaries of the district, as provided. Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, limits the amount of fees, charges, dedications, and other requirements levied or imposed by state and local agencies on the planning, use, or development of real property for the construction or reconstruction of school facilities based upon assessable space, as defined. Existing law exempts certain facilities from these charges, including any facility owned and occupied by a federal, state, or local entity.

This bill would prohibit a school district from levying a fee, charge, dedication, or other requirement against the construction or operation of a college or university student housing facility, as defined. The bill would require the owner of the facility to pay the school impact mitigation fee for a unit of the facility if a child residing in that unit attends a school of the district. The bill would require the owner of a facility to record a covenant in favor of the school district requiring the owner to pay the school impact mitigation fee as provided, and submit a report to the school district each year disclosing each unit that houses a child attending a school of the district and the assessable area of each of those units.

This bill would require a developer of a college or university student housing facility to notify the appropriate school districts of their intent to construct and operate a college or university student housing facility, as specified. The bill would require a developer that proposes to convert a college or university student housing facility to any other use to obtain the approval of the city or county that issued the original building permit after all school impact mitigation fees have been paid, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to adopt a resolution creating an affordable housing authority with powers limited to providing low- and moderate-income housing and affordable housing, as provided. Existing law defines various terms for these purposes, including the term “authorizing resolution.”

This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to the definition of “authorizing resolution.”

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NOYES  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) California’s colleges and universities suffer from an acute shortage of student housing facilities.

(b) Today’s modern college and university student housing facilities contain units consisting of two or more bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, a common area, and frequently contain cooking facilities.

(c) These college or university student housing facilities rent bedrooms to students on an annual basis.

(d) These facilities do not traditionally house children who attend kindergarten through high school.

(e) Some school districts have recently treated these college and university student housing facilities as if they were typical apartment buildings that generate students who may attend the district’s schools and have levied the school impact mitigation fees authorized by Section 17620 of the Education Code on these facilities at the residential rate applicable to multifamily buildings.

(f) It is the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the imposition of school impact mitigation fees on college and university student housing facilities.

(g) It is the further intent of the Legislature to ensure that school districts are protected against the costs that they may incur if a student attending any of a district’s schools ever resides in a unit in a college or university student housing facility.

SEC. 2.

 Section 65995.3 is added to the Government Code, to read:

65995.3.

 (a) Notwithstanding any other law, including any provisions of this chapter and Section 17620 of the Education Code, a school district shall not levy a fee, charge, dedication, or other requirement against the construction or operation of a college or university student housing facility except as provided in this section.

(b) If any unit in a college or university student housing facility is occupied by a student who attends a school of a school district that imposed a school impact mitigation fee, the owner of the facility shall pay the school impact mitigation fee to that school district for the unit at the residential rate in effect when the school district student first resides in the unit. A school impact mitigation fee shall not thereafter be imposed on that unit.

(c) (1) The developer of a college or university housing facility shall record a covenant in favor of the school district or districts in which the facility is located before receiving a building permit for the facility.

(2) The covenant shall require the owner to provide an annual report to the school district or districts, signed under penalty of perjury, by January 31 of each calendar year, that provides the following information:

(A) The number of school district students residing in any unit of the facility during the proceeding calendar year and the number of units housing those students.

(B) Identification of each unit housing school district students.

(C) The square footage of assessable space of each unit identified, as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 65995.

(3) The covenant shall require the owner of the college or university housing facility to pay the school impact mitigation fee under Section 17620 of the Education Code at the residential rate in effect at the time a school district student first resides in a unit.

(d) The developer of a college or university student housing facility shall notify the appropriate school districts of the developer’s intent to construct and operate a college or university student housing facility at the time that the developer submits an application for a building permit to the applicable city or county. The appropriate school districts shall then immediately notify the applicable city or county that the facility will be used for a college or university student housing facility and that no school impact mitigation fee will be collected in connection with the building permit.

(e) (1) A college or university student housing facility may be converted to any other use subject to the approval of the city or county that issued the original building permit for the college or university student housing facility.

(2) Approval under paragraph (1) shall not become effective until the city or county has received certification from the appropriate school districts that the facility has paid all school impact mitigation fees at the rate applied by the district as of the date of the conversion, less the amount of any school impact mitigation fees paid on the part of the facility pursuant to subdivision (b).

(f) For purposes of this section:

(1) “College or university student housing facility” means a structure that will be used exclusively for undergraduate, graduate, or professional students enrolled full time at an institution of higher education accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges or the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.

(2) “School impact mitigation fee” means a fee, charge, dedication, or other requirement authorized by Section 17620 of the Education Code

SEC. 3.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.

SECTION 1.Section 62250 of the Government Code is amended to read:

62250.

For purposes of this division, the following terms have the following meanings:

(a)“Affordable housing” means housing with an affordable housing cost, as defined in Section 50052.5 of the Health and Safety Code, or affordable rent, as defined in Section 50053 of the Health and Safety Code, for households whose gross income does not exceed 120 percent of the area median income.

(b)“Authority” means an affordable housing authority created pursuant to this division.

(c)“Authorizing resolution” means a resolution creating an authority adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 62251.

(d)“Consenting local agency” means a local agency that has adopted a resolution of its governing body consenting to the affordable housing investment plan.

(e)“Plan” means an affordable housing investment plan adopted pursuant to Section 62252. The plan shall be deemed to be the plan described in Section 16 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.

(f)“Property tax increment” means that portion of the ad valorem taxes, as defined under subdivision (a) of Section 1 of Article XIII A of the California Constitution, levied each year in excess of the amount levied by or for a taxing agency upon the total sum of the assessed value of the taxable property in the boundaries of an authority as defined in the resolution first establishing the authority, as shown upon the assessment roll used in connection with the taxation of that property by the taxing agency as of the last equalized roll prior to either the effective date of the authorizing resolution or, if specified in the authorizing resolution, another fiscal year no more than five years prior to the effective date of the authorizing resolution. Property tax increment shall not include taxable properties located within the boundaries of a former redevelopment agency dissolved pursuant to Section 34172 of the Health and Safety Code unless and until all obligations of the former redevelopment agency have been retired and the successor agency to the former redevelopment agency has fully dissolved. Following dissolution, for purposes of calculating property tax increment for those taxable properties located within the boundaries of a former redevelopment agency, the fiscal year following final dissolution shall serve as the last equalized roll.

(g)“Real property” means any of the following:

(1)Land, including land under water and waterfront property.

(2)Buildings, structures, fixtures, and improvements on the land.

(3)Any property appurtenant to, or used in connection with, the land.

(4)Every estate, interest, privilege, easement, franchise, and right in land, including rights-of-way, terms for years, and liens, charges, or encumbrances by way of judgment, mortgage, or otherwise and the indebtedness secured by those liens.