Title
Consider Supporting Assembly Bill 1445. (Councilmember Herrera Spencer) [Not heard on May 17, 2022]
Body
COUNCIL REFERRAL FORM
The Council can take any of the following actions:
1) Take no action.
2) Refer the matter to staff to schedule as a future City Council agenda item. Concurrence that staff time will be devoted to the item does not signify approval.
3) Take dispositive action only on time sensitive legislative matters if sufficiently noticed such that the public and Council have been provided sufficient information by the published agenda, and no formal published notice of a public hearing is required.
Name of Councilmember(s) requesting referral: Councilmember Herrera Spencer
Date of submission to City Clerk (must be submitted before 5:00 p.m. on the Monday two weeks before the Council meeting requested): May 2, 2022
Council Meeting date: May 17, 2022
Brief description of the subject to be printed on the agenda, sufficient to inform the City Council and public of the nature of the referral:
Request Council support Assembly Bill 1445
"The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element.. Existing law requires that the final regional housing plan adopted by a council of governments, or a delegate subregion, as applicable, be based on a methodology that includes specified factors, and similarly requires that the department take into consideration specified factors in distributing regional housing need, as provided.
Commencing January 1, 2025, this bill [AB 1445] would require that a council of governments, a delegate subregion, or the department, as applicable, additionally consider among these factors emergency evacuation route capacity, wildfire risk, sea level rise, and other impacts caused by climate change."
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1445
On January 31, 2022, the bill passed the Assembly, voting 57 in favor including Assemblymember Mia Bonta, 16 opposing. It is now pending in the Senate.
As an island/peninsula community, I believe the City of Alameda should join the majority of the Senate and support AB 1445 to add these additional factors for consideration in the methodology for determining cities' Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) numbers.
The City Council, at its July 25, 2020 Priority Setting Workshop, established the following 5 priorities for 2021:
1. Preparing Alameda for the future
2. Encouraging economic development across the Island
3. Supporting enhanced livability and quality of life, including addressing the housing crisis and homelessness
4. Protecting core services
5. Ensuring effective and efficient operations
Briefly describe which Council priority the subject falls under and how it relates:
Urgent and important.
As it's now 2022, and a new Council was elected Nov., 2020 after these priorities were set and these priorities for 2021 per the Referral form, I don't believe this part of the Referral is currently relevant, however, I believe this referral supports priorities 1, 2 and 3, as it goes to protecting Alamedans and their property.