Bill Talk: Four measurable measure modifications

A weekly update from Cal Cities, sorting through the state bill buzz

By Brian Hendershot, Cal Cities Advocate managing editor. Additional contributions by the Cal Cities Advocacy Team

Welcome back to Bill Talk, a weekly roundup of the week’s biggest legislative developments for city officials. It's shaping up to be a busy week, with authors proposing big changes to many of their measures, including a high-profile encampment bill, over the weekend. Legislators have until Friday to get any bills with a fiscal tag through appropriations.

Also on the minds of lots of lawmakers? The state’s revenues — or lack thereof. Budget expert Scott Graves told city officials last week, “This is going to be a very cautious May Revision, and that's probably putting it mildly, in part because we don't know what's happening with federal funding.”

Before we get into the good and not-so-good stuff, here is a quick reminder. You can get this list a few days early through your regional public affairs manager. To access old Bill Talks, visit the archive page. Cal Cities also maintains a live list of all sponsored/hot measures. Lists of all tracked bills are available on individual policy pages.

Sponsored bills face next committee hurdle

Four sponsored bills are set for hearings in the coming weeks. The Assembly Local Government Committee will hear AB 650 (Papan) on April 30. The measure would allow local governments to begin the housing element update process six months early and provide greater certainty and reduce ambiguity in the housing element review process. The measure passed 11-0 from the Assembly Housing Committee with bipartisan support.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard SB 35 (Umberg), a bill that would increase state oversight of unlicensed sober living homes. Building on another sponsored bill from last year, SB 35 would implement recommendations from a recent state audit urging more frequent and thorough investigations of unlicensed facilities accused of violating state licensure law. If the Department of Health Care Services fails to meet these deadlines, counties could conduct site visits and enforce licensure laws.

Also on April 29, the Assembly Committee on Public Safety unanimously passed AB 476 (Gonzalez). The measure seeks to address the proliferation of metal theft that cities are experiencing in their public infrastructure by enhancing reporting requirements and increasing penalties. Metal theft has grown across the state, threatening public infrastructures by disrupting essential services like communications, public safety, and utilities, and costing millions in repair and restoration.

Warehouse standards bill set for hearing

Legislators have introduced changes to a problematic warehouse standards bill. Crafted behind closed doors last year, the law places restrictions on new or expanding warehouses and imposes a sweeping, costly statewide mandate by requiring all cities to update their circulation elements to account for these changes. 

Lawmakers got the measure through after promising to clean it up this year through two spot bills, AB 735 (Carrillo) and SB 415 (Reyes). Cal Cities proposed several changes that would increase flexibility for cities, redefine some hastily crafted definitions, and narrow the bill’s scope to cities with warehouses as opposed to all cities.

The local government committees in both houses heard the measures on April 30 and moved the bill forward with some of the suggested amendments.   

Tribal consultation measure becomes a two-year bill

Lawmakers were set to hear AB 52 (Aguiar-Curry) this week, a bill that would have changed the tribal consultation process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The bill — now pulled by the author — would have extended the tribal consultation process outside CEQA to the planning and construction phases. This would have created significant legal risks for any projects under CEQA — including housing development, water, wastewater, and electrical projects — or even halted such projects. 

The bill’s broad provisions would have effectively removed the ability for cities to fully vet, analyze, and publicly engage all interested parties on the potential implications of a project at the deference to tribal governments. The bill defined federal and non-federally recognized tribal governments differently, causing confusion and ultimately leading to many non-federally recognized tribes opposing the measure.

Late on Sunday, the author elected to hold the bill for another year, noting she would like to take more time to work through the details of the measure.  

Flawed housing bills blaze forward

The Senate Local Government Committee will hear SB 79 (Wiener) on April 30. The bill would force cities to approve housing up to 7 stories near public transit stops, regardless of zoning laws. It would give transit agencies full land-use authority over residential and commercial development on property they own, without any requirement to build housing.

Over in the Assembly that same day, the Local Government Committee will review AB 647 (González, Mark). It would disregard state-mandated housing plans and force cities to allow up to eight housing units on nearly any lot with a single-family home without environmental review or public input. This would give developers practically free rein to bulldoze a home and replace it with eight new units — only one of which must be affordable — while ignoring things like parking standards.

Cal Cities opposes both measures.

Encampment bill gets a major overhaul

The Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed SB 634 (Pérez) on April 29. Cal Cities opposed the bill when it was first introduced, arguing it would limit cities' ability to respond to the growing homelessness crisis and undermine a legal decision affirming their ability to enforce public camping ordinances. Since then, over 50 cities submitted letters of opposition to the author.

In response to this strong, sustained advocacy, Sen. Sasha Pérez this week announced substantial amendments to SB 634. The bill would now prohibit cities from adopting an ordinance prohibiting a person or organization from providing support services, including legal services and medical care, to a homeless person. The changes allowed Cal Cities to remove its opposition.

Proposed changes to homelessness reporting

The Senate Health Committee will hear SB 16 (Blakespear) on Wednesday. The bill would create new reporting mandates on all but 14 cities. As written, the measure would require cities that do not receive state funding to report on the HHAP regional plan’s performance metrics through their housing elements.

There is a reason these system performance metrics are in the regional planning process. Gathering this data requires collaboration with counties, prisons, hospitals, and other stakeholders. Nearly all cities lack the infrastructure to collect the data required by SB 16, making compliance almost impossible.

Cal Cities is requesting changes that would include smaller cities in the regional planning process. This would accomplish the same goal — allowing transparency on the same system metrics that SB 16 includes — but through the same regional process already used by California’s largest cities.

Home hardening fund proposal set for hearing

Cal Cities is urging members of the Assembly Insurance Committee to approve AB 888 (Calderon) on April 30. The measure would create a grant program to fund wildfire prevention efforts, such as roof replacements or defensible space, by establishing a Sustainable Insurance Account within the state Insurance Fund. The Legislature would make the funds available upon appropriation and the Department of Insurance would need to provide biennial performance reports to lawmakers starting in 2027.