SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A new bill is looking to expand housing accessibility in California’s coastal neighborhoods by eliminating these areas’ exemption from a state law allowing developers to increase density in exchange for adding a certain number of affordable units.
The tradeoff has been an option for developers in other residential areas since 1979, when state legislators passed the landmark “density bonus law.” However, local planning groups have never been able to evenly apply the benefit to housing projects in coastal zones.
That is because of a provision of the original law that prevented it from overriding the California Coastal Act of 1976, which enabled the then-recently-formed state Coastal Commission to make decisions about land use and development in those areas.
Assembly Bill 2560, introduced by Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), seeks to roll change that broad authority as it applies to housing projects, as a way to facilitate more mixed-income units in some of the state’s most expensive neighborhoods.
Under the bill, local governments can approve projects in coastal zones with up to 50% more units than would otherwise be allowed, granted they have a percentage of reserved for income-based housing.
“By removing the provisions preventing the application of the Density Bonus Law within the coastal zone, we can actually help make housing more affordable for all Californians no matter where we’re looking at,” Alvarez said during a press conference in National City on Friday. “If you want to solve the housing problem, you have to solve it throughout the state.”
Coastal neighborhoods have historically been among the least affordable residential areas in the nation, particularly in the Golden State.
According to 2019 data from the National Association of Home Builders, eight of the 10 most expensive areas in the country were in California, seven of which were along the coast — a price tag Alvarez says has pushed median-priced homes out of reach for one in four households.
Density bonus projects in these areas, however, have largely been blocked due to incompatibilities with the Coastal Act.
A state appeals court affirmed local officials’ ability to reject these proposals in 2016 after a developer sued the city of Los Angeles over its halting of a density bonus residential project in Venice that would have included spaces for very low-income households.
In its ruling, the court held the project violated the “visual and scenic elements requirement of the California Coastal Act,” which lawmakers intended to take “precedence over statutes awarding density and height increase bonuses for proposed residential developments that include affordable housing units.”
The appeals judge did also note that density statutes in coastal zones can still be applied to approve projects that do not violate the Coastal Act.
Yet developers say it has still largely deterred affordable housing construction in these areas, as they view determinations about what is not a breech of the law as “subjective” and “discretionary.”
“My developer colleagues don’t even contemplate building in the coastal zone because the coastal process is … completely up to the Coastal Commission of what they’re willing to approve,” Rammy Cortez, a developer, said during Friday’s press conference.
Proponents of AB 2560 say it would enhance one of the key tools for local governments to ease housing shortages.
“Removing the special exemption for wealthy coastal areas would be the best way to improve housing access in coastal areas already zoned for density, while still protecting our important coastal environmental resources,” said William Moore, policy council with Circulate SD.
As of Friday, the bill remains in the 30-day hold for printing and has not yet been assigned to a committee for discussion.
