New bill bad for housing, climate and environmental justice

OPINION – California is grappling with three simultaneous crises: a shortage of affordable housing, land use decisions that subject vulnerable people and communities to dirty air and water, and rapid climate change that has led to record heat waves and dangerous wildfires. We count on our lawmakers to write and pass laws to combat these challenges. Unfortunately, AB 1893, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and sponsored by Attorney General Rob Bonta, will make them worse.

At a time when we need significantly more affordable housing, AB 1893 reduces housing affordability requirements. State law currently includes a policy hammer called the “builder’s remedy.” The builder’s remedy provides that if cities and counties have not adopted adequate housing plans, they must approve housing projects that include at least 20 percent of units affordable to people with low incomes—janitors, childcare providers, new teachers, restaurant workers—and exempts these developments from most local zoning. It ensures that California plans for enough housing for people at all income levels and thus meaningfully contributes to local affordable housing needs, recognizing that those needs are the most unmet across the state.

Inexplicably, AB 1893 calls for reducing the affordable housing requirements for Builder’s Remedy projects—from 20 percent to just 13 percent—and restricts local governments from imposing more rigorous affordability requirements. Builder’s remedy projects already receive substantial benefits that make construction more lucrative. This bill will allow for-profit developers to build developments that are out of reach for most Californians with only token amounts of affordable housing, putting lower income people at even greater risk of displacement and gentrification. Lawmakers should be looking for ways to guarantee safe and affordable housing, not corporate profits.

Proponents of the bill say the reduction is needed to make building feasible. We call foul. Just as one example, Los Angeles’ Transit-Oriented Communities Program has created thousands of new homes and requires that 21% to 25% of units be affordable to people with lower incomes. Developers have termed the existing builder’s remedy a “golden opportunity” and have submitted numerous applications to build using it.

AB 1893 also undercuts critical efforts to fight climate change and environmental injustice. For instance, there are state and local laws to concentrate housing near transit and in urban infill areas. These laws reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing walkability and transit use and reducing driving while also protecting open space, wildlife habitat and farmland. But under AB 1893, developers can use the builder’s remedy to sidestep these laws and build lower-density housing in areas where high-density housing is most critical. Alarmingly, 1893 will also allow housing development in industrial areas without adequate consideration of the public health impacts of such development.

Finally, AB 1893 will promote more lawsuits and discourage local jurisdictions from considering the potential harms and risks of housing development in areas not zoned for housing by allowing developers to sue jurisdictions for almost any delay in project approval. Local governments have the responsibility to ensure that people live in healthy and safe neighborhoods. By handing developers a sword of Damocles to dangle over planners’ heads, cities and counties will be dissuaded from efforts to ensure residents in a new development will be safe and healthy in their new homes. A local government could be brought to court for taking the time to hold a public forum, taking steps to address extreme heat or air pollution, or for ensuring an adequate and safe water supply. California taxpayers will foot the bill to defend against these lawsuits.

AB 1893 takes California housing and land use policy in the wrong direction. The last thing California needs is a law that reduces affordable housing, encourages sprawl, limits efforts to ensure public health and safety, and invites corporate developers to sue our cities and counties at taxpayer expense. Lawmakers should reject AB 1893.

Shashi Hanuman is the Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Project. Jen Ganata is Co-Legal Director of Communities for a Better Environment.