Bill Text: CA AB2516 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Housing accessibility: Accessible Housing Task Force.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-05-28 - In committee: Set, second hearing. Held under submission. [AB2516 Detail]
Download: California-2009-AB2516-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2516 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hill
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to amend Section 12955.1 of the Government Code,
relating to community development. An act to add
Section 17926.5 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2516, as amended, Hill. Community development: housing
discrimination. Housing accessibility: Accessible
Housing Task Force.
The State Housing Law requires the Department of Housing and
Community Development to submit to the Building Standards Commission
proposed building standards for hotels, motels, lodging houses,
apartment houses, and dwellings. Existing law authorizes the
department to adopt regulations it determines are necessary for the
use and enforcement of certain provisions relating to a list of
universal accessibility features for persons with disabilities.
This bill would require the department to establish the Accessible
Housing Task Force. The bill would require the director of the
department to appoint the members of the task force, which would
include, but not be limited to, representatives of specified
organizations and state agencies. The bill would also require the
task force to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature no later
than June 30, 2012, making specified recommendations relating to
increasing housing accessability. The bill would further require the
department to carry out the bill's provisions relating to the
Accessible Housing Task Force only to the extent that funding is made
available from local, regional, federal, or private sources.
The existing California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)
makes it unlawful to discriminate against any person in any housing
accommodation on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, marital
status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, or disability. It
permits the Department of Fair Employment and Housing to engage in
affirmative actions to prevent and provide for effective remedies
against housing discrimination.
Under existing law, discrimination includes, but is not limited
to, a failure to design and construct a covered multifamily dwelling
in a specified manner. Existing law provides that regulations
adopting building standards necessary to implement, interpret, or
make specific these provisions are required to be developed by the
Office of the State Architect for public housing and by the
Department of Housing and Community Development for all other
residential occupancies, as specified.
This bill would revise the definition of discrimination to include
prescribed requirements relating to multistory dwelling units
located in buildings where the closest edge or perimeter of the
building is within 1/2 mile of a transit station.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(1) California's population is projected to grow by 25 percent
between 2010 and 2030, from 39 million to 49 million.
(2) The segment of California's population that is 65 years of age
or older is projected to double by 2030, from 4.4 million to 8.8
million. By 2030, almost one in five of the state's residents will be
65 years of age or older.
(3) Nationally, about 14 percent of people 65 years of age or
older use some type of mobility device, including a wheelchair, cane,
or crutches. The proportion of the population using mobility devices
increases sharply with age.
(4) According to the American Community Survey of 2008, 1.9
million Californians, or 6 percent, have ambulatory disabilities and
one in four Californians 65 years of age or older has ambulatory
disabilities.
(5) The enactment of Senate Bill 375 of the 2007-08 Regular
Session (Chapter 728 of the Statutes of 2008) seeks to encourage
construction of housing and other public services near public transit
in order to accommodate the growth in the state's population in a
manner that reduces per capita vehicle travel and its associated
greenhouse gas and criteria air pollutant emissions. As a result of
this statute, a significant share of new housing construction is
expected to be built in close proximity to existing or future public
transit service.
(6) People living close to effective public transit service have
significantly lower transportation costs than those not served by
transit. In the San Francisco Bay Area, households in
transit-accessible, jobs-dense neighborhoods spend less than half as
much on transportation as households in the lowest density, least
transit-accessible, residential-only neighborhoods.
(7) Persons with disabilities and the elderly have lower incomes
than the average population.
(8) According to the American Association of Retired Persons, more
than 71 percent of older households want to live within walking
distance of transit.
(9) For the past 15 years, the ground floors of most new apartment
and condominium buildings have been required to meet the state's
Multifamily Disabled Accessibility Building Standards. When the
above-grade floors of these apartment and condominium buildings are
served by an elevator, all units must comply with the state's
Multifamily Disabled Accessibility Building Standards.
(10) Multistory dwelling units without an elevator that consist of
at least four condominium units or at least three rental apartment
units, commonly referred to as townhomes, are a popular building type
near public transit stations, but they are exempt from many of the
state and federal housing access requirements that apply to
single-story dwelling units located in covered multifamily buildings.
(11) Many jurisdictions are promoting the construction of
high-density multifamily buildings, including townhomes, as infill
projects near public transit and bus hubs.
(12) Over the past 15 years, over 500,000 new apartments and
condominiums have been constructed in the State of California. Of
that number, it is estimated that over 120,000 of these units were
subject to the state and federal disabled accessibility building
standards for covered multifamily dwellings. At the present time,
there is no easy way for interested members of the public to discern
between which of these multifamily units comply with these
accessibility provisions and those units which are exempt.
(13) It is the intent of the Legislature to encourage the
construction of new housing, as well as the rehabilitation of
existing housing, that is accessible and habitable by persons using
wheelchairs and is located within one-half mile of public transit
stations and bus hubs in order to provide greater public transit
access to people of all ages and abilities.
SEC. 2. Section 17926.5 is added to the
Health and Safety Code , to read:
17926.5. (a) The department shall establish the Accessible
Housing Task Force. The director shall appoint the members of the
task force, and, as part of an appointment, may enter into an
interagency agreement with a member of the task force to allow the
director to oversee the member's work. The members of the task force
shall be responsible for their expenses, serve without pay, and
include, but not be limited to, a representative from the following
state agencies and organizations, subject to the consent of each
entity:
(1) A certified access specialist, as described in Section 4459.5
of the Government Code.
(2) Housing California.
(3) The American Institute of Architects.
(4) The California Apartment Association.
(5) The California Building Industry Association.
(6) The California Building Officials.
(7) The California Building Standards Commission.
(8) The California Commission on Aging.
(9) The California Commission on Disability Access.
(10) The California Foundation for Independent Living Centers.
(11) The California State Association of Counties.
(12) The California Transit Association.
(13) The Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County.
(14) The League of California Cities.
(b) The director may enter into an interagency agreement with a
member or members of the task force to oversee its work.
(c) The task force shall prepare and submit a report to the
Legislature no later than June 30, 2012, that does all of the
following:
(1) Recommends strategies to improve the identification and
marketing of multifamily dwelling units that comply with the state's
disabled accessibility building standards for multifamily dwelling
units.
(2) Recommends policies that cities, counties, and the state could
adopt that would encourage the voluntary construction of new units
or the retrofit of existing units within one-half mile of transit
stations and bus hubs in a manner that provides for live-in occupancy
of one or more individuals with severe mobility impairments.
(3) Recommends voluntary design options, possible revisions to
building code regulations, local incentive options, and any suggested
statutory changes that are needed to improve the accessibility of
new and existing dwelling units that are located within one-half mile
of transit stations or bus hubs, as defined in Section 65460.1 of
the Government Code.
(c) This section shall be carried out only to the extent that
funding is made available from local, regional, federal, or private
sources for that purpose, and expenses associated with the task force
shall be covered through in-kind services to the maximum extent
possible.
SECTION 1. Section 12955.1 of the Government
Code is amended to read:
12955.1. (a) For purposes of Section 12955, "discrimination"
includes, but is not limited to, a failure to design and construct a
covered multifamily dwelling in a manner that allows access to, and
use by, disabled persons by providing, at a minimum, the following
features:
(1) All covered multifamily dwellings shall have at least one
building entrance on an accessible route, unless it is impracticable
to do so because of the terrain or unusual characteristics of the
site. The burden of establishing impracticability because of terrain
or unusual site characteristics is on the person or persons who
designed or constructed the housing facility.
(2) All covered multifamily dwellings with a building entrance on
an accessible route shall be designed and constructed in a manner
that complies with all of the following:
(A) The public and common areas are readily accessible to and
usable by persons with disabilities.
(B) All the doors designed to allow passage into and within all
premises are sufficiently wide to allow passage by persons in
wheelchairs.
(C) All premises within covered multifamily dwelling units contain
the following features of adaptable design:
(i) An accessible route into and through the covered dwelling
unit.
(ii) Light switches, electrical outlets, thermostats, and other
environmental controls in accessible locations.
(iii) Reinforcements in bathroom walls to allow later installation
of grab bars around the toilet, tub, shower stall, and shower seat,
where those facilities are provided.
(iv) Useable kitchens and bathrooms so that an individual in a
wheelchair can maneuver about the space.
(b) (1) For purposes of Section 12955, "discrimination" includes,
but is not limited to, a failure to design and construct 10 percent
of the multistory dwelling units in buildings without an elevator
that consist of at least four condominium dwelling units or at least
three rental apartment dwelling units in a manner that incorporates
an accessible route to the primary entry level entrance and that
meets the requirements of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) with
respect to the ground floor, a unit with at least one full bathroom,
including a bath and shower combination, on the primary entry level
and the public and common areas. Any fraction thereof shall be
rounded up to the next whole number. For purposes of this
subdivision, "elevator" does not include an elevator that serves only
the first ground floor or any nonresidential area. In multistory
dwelling units in these buildings without elevators, the "primary
entry level entrance" means the principal entrance through which most
people enter the dwelling unit, as designated by the California
Building Standards Code or, if not designated by California Building
Standards Code, by the building official. To determine the total
number of multistory dwelling units subject to this subdivision, all
multistory dwelling units in the buildings subject to this
subdivision on a site shall be considered collectively. This
subdivision shall not be construed to require an elevator within an
individual multistory dwelling unit or within a building subject to
this subdivision.
(2) For multistory dwelling units located in buildings where the
closest edge or perimeter of the building is within one-half mile of
a transit station, as defined in Section 65460.1, a failure to design
and construct buildings according to the following requirements
shall be considered "discrimination" under Section 12955:
At least 10 percent of the units in buildings without an elevator
that consist of at least four condominium dwelling units or at least
three rental apartment dwelling units shall be designed and
constructed in a manner that incorporates an accessible route to the
primary entry level entrance and meets the requirements of paragraph
(2) of subdivision (a) with respect to the ground floor, the
requirements of paragraph (1), and includes a bedroom and a kitchen
on the ground floor, both of which shall be readily accessible to and
usable by persons with disabilities.
(3) Changes to this subdivision made during the 2009-10 Regular
Session shall apply only to multistory dwelling units in a building
subject to this subdivision for which an application for a
construction permit is submitted on or after January 1, 2011.
(4) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), the Division of the State
Architect and the Department of Housing and Community Development may
adopt regulations to clarify, interpret, or implement this
subdivision, if either of them deem it necessary and appropriate.
(c) Notwithstanding Section 12935, regulations adopting building
standards necessary to implement, interpret, or make specific the
provisions of this section shall be developed by the Division of the
State Architect for public housing and by the Department of Housing
and Community Development for all other residential occupancies, and
shall be adopted pursuant to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section
18935) of Part 2.5 of the Health and Safety Code. Prior to the
effective date of regulations adopted pursuant to this subdivision,
existing federal accessibility standards that provide, to persons
with disabilities, greater protections than existing state
accessibility regulations shall apply. After regulations pursuant to
this subdivision become effective, particular state regulations shall
apply if they provide, to persons with disabilities, the same
protections as, or greater protections than, the federal standards.
If particular federal regulations provide greater protections than
state regulations, then those federal standards shall apply. If the
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development determines
that any portion of the state regulations are not equivalent to the
federal standards, the federal standards shall, as to those portions,
apply to the design and construction of covered multifamily
dwellings until the state regulations are brought into compliance
with the federal standards. The appropriate state agency shall
provide notice pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter
5 (commencing with Section 11500) of Part 5 of Division 3 of Title 2)
of that determination.
(d) In investigating discrimination complaints, the department
shall apply the building standards contained in the California
Building Standards Code to determine whether a covered multifamily
dwelling is designed and constructed for access to and use by
disabled persons in accordance with this section.
(e) The building standard requirements for persons with
disabilities imposed by this section shall meet or exceed the
requirements under the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988
(P.L. 100-430) and its implementing regulations (24 C.F.R. 100.1 et
seq.) and the existing state law building standards contained in the
California Building Standards Code.
