Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022.

The Planning and Zoning Law authorizes a development proponent to submit an application for a multifamily housing development that is subject to a streamlined, ministerial approval process and not subject to a conditional use permit if the development satisfies specified objective planning standards. This bill would create the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, which would authorize a development proponent to submit an application for a housing development that meets specified objective standards and affordability and site criteria, including being located within a zone where office, retail, or parking are a principally permitted use, and would make the development a use by right and subject to one of 2 streamlined, ministerial review processes. The bill would require a development proponent for a housing development project approved pursuant to the streamlined, ministerial review process to require, in contracts with construction contractors, 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. The bill would require a development proponent to certify to the local government that those standards will be met in project construction. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the obligation to pay prevailing wages. The bill would require a development proponent for a development of 50 or more housing units approved by a local government pursuant to the above-described provisions to require construction contractors to participate in an apprenticeship program or request dispatch of apprentices from a state-approved apprenticeship program, and to make specified health care expenditures for construction craft employees. The bill would require the development proponent to certify compliance with those requirements to the local government and to report monthly to the local government that they are in compliance with those requirements. The bill would subject the development proponent and the construction contractors and subcontractors to specified civil penalties for failing to comply with those requirements, and would require the penalty funds to be deposited in the State Public Works Enforcement Fund. The bill would prohibit a local government from imposing any requirement, including increased fees, on the basis that the project is eligible to receive ministerial or streamlined approval. Because the bill would impose new duties on local governments, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to undertake specified studies of the outcomes of the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, to publish reports on the findings of those studies, to post the reports on its internet website, and to submit the reports to the Legislature. This bill would repeal the provisions of the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022 on January 1, 2033. The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries that includes, among other things, a housing element. The law also requires a planning agency to provide a specified annual report after the legislative body has adopted all or part of a general plan. This bill would require the annual report to include specified information about applications for housing developments submitted pursuant to the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022. The Planning and Zoning Law also requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to notify the city, county, or city and county, and authorizes the department to notify the Attorney General, that the city, county, or city and county is in violation of state law if the department finds that the housing element or an amendment to that element, or any specified action or failure to act, does not substantially comply with the law as it pertains to housing elements or that any local government has taken an action in violation of certain housing laws. This bill would add the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022 to that list of housing laws. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA does not apply to the approval of ministerial projects. This bill would define "use by right" for purposes of the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, in part, as a development project that is not a project for purposes of CEQA, and the approval process established by this bill would be ministerial in nature, thereby exempting the approval of development projects subject to that approval process from CEQA. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65400 of the Government Code proposed by AB 1743, AB 2094, and AB 2653, to be operative only if this bill and any one or a combination of AB 1743, AB 2094, and AB 2653, are enacted, and this bill is enacted last, as described. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65585 of the Government Code proposed by AB 2097 and AB 2653 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of AB 2097 and AB 2653 are enacted, and this bill is enacted last, as described. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. This bill would make its provisions operative on July 1, 2023.