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Mayor Thorne requested housing-related bills be considered before all other bills and voted upon separately. Community Development Director Clark provided a brief overview of the proposed housing bills and noted they have been organized by Zoning, Density Bonus Law, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) and the Housing Element process. She reported Senate Bill (SB) 1385 (Caballero), Assembly Bill (AB) 1279 (Bloom), AB 3107 (Bloom) have all died in committee, but staff will continue to track them in case they return. Community Development Director Clark reported SB 1120 (Atkins) would allow for additional residential density within residential neighborhoods by allowing for the construction of duplexes as well as splits of single-family lots into smaller lots without the benefit of design review. She explained the staff's concern with this bill is that it introduces the densification of development in residential neighborhoods with limited City oversight and does not contain an affordability component. She reported staff recommends the City oppose the bill. Community Development Director Clark reported SB 902 (Weiner) would allow for local jurisdictions to zone parcels and properties for up to 10 units of housing and the City would retain local control. She reported staff recommends the City support the bill. Community Development Director Clark reported SB 899 (Wiener) would allow housing projects by right on properties owned by religious institutions or by higher education institutions that could be developed in partnership with the housing nonprofit and would have to be 100% affordable housing. She reported 80% lower-income and up to 20% of moderate-income units could be allowed. She explained the significant density increase and the lack of local control has resulted in staff recommending opposing the bill. Community Development Director Clark reported both SB 1085 (Skinner) and Assembly Bill 2345 (Gonzalez) propose to expand and extend the existing provision of the Density Bonus Law. She explained those provisions increase the number of units that could be granted through density bonuses. Community Development Director Clark reported SB 995 (Atkins) is a tool that would provide local jurisdictions the ability to streamline judicial review for housing projects and noted staff recommends supporting the bill. Community Development Director Clark reported AB 3040 (Chiu) is a tool for cities to count units zoned on small infill sites against the RHNA allocation and City staff recommends the City support the bill. She reported AB 725 (Wicks) proposes changes to the Housing Element process and adds an additional layer of requirements relative to moderate-income housing and the way that cities would have to zone certain properties for higher density housing to accommodate a proportion of the moderate-income need and noted staff recommends opposing the bill. Niccolo De Luca, Townsend Public Affairs, reported many of the bills have gone through many iterations with his team working on approximately 70% of the bills on behalf of the City and other Tri- Valley cities. He noted his firm was invited to be at the table by Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins on many of the bills due to the successful advocacy day they had back in January. In response to Councilmember Pentin's earlier inquiry, Andres Ramirez, Townsend Public Affairs, explained the Appropriations Suspense File process allows for bills with a certain level of fiscal impact to be set aside by a majority of the members present and voting. He further explained the bills can be brought up at a later hearing date and the Committee Chair announces which bills have been removed from the Suspense File. He explained that, if removed, the bill moves onto the respective House's floor for a final vote before being sent to the Governor. Additionally, he explained if the bill remains in the Suspense File it will not continue forward that year. He further explained the Suspense File allows the City Council Minutes Page 8 of 14 August 18,2020