Bill Text: CA SB906 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Housing: joint living and work quarters and occupied substandard buildings or units.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-18 - March 31 hearing postponed by committee. [SB906 Detail]
Download: California-2019-SB906-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 906
| Introduced by Senator Skinner |
February 03, 2020 |
An act to amend Section 17958.11 of, and to add Section 17980.13 to, the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 906, as introduced, Skinner.
Housing: joint living and work quarters and occupied substandard buildings or units.
Existing law, the State Housing Law, establishes statewide construction and occupancy standards for buildings used for human habitation. Existing law permits a city or county to adopt alternative building regulations for the complete or partial conversion of commercial or industrial buildings to joint living and work quarters. Existing law defines a joint living and work quarter as residential occupancy by a family or not more than 4 unrelated persons maintaining a common household of one or more rooms or floors in a building originally designed for industrial or commercial occupancy, as specified.
This bill would redefine joint living and work quarters to mean residential occupancy by a group of persons, whether those persons are related or unrelated.
Existing law, among other things, requires the
Department of Housing and Community Development to propose the adoption, amendment, or repeal of building standards to the California Building Standards Commission, and to adopt, amend, and repeal other rules and regulations for the protection of the public health, safety, and general welfare of the occupant and the public, governing hotels, motels, lodging houses, apartment houses, and dwellings, and buildings and structures accessory thereto. Existing law specifies that its provisions and the building standards and rules and regulations adopted pursuant to that law apply in all parts of the state and requires specified entities within each city, county, or city and county to enforce within its jurisdiction those pertaining to the maintenance, sanitation, ventilation, use, or occupancy of apartment houses, hotels, or dwellings.
This bill would authorize an enforcement agency that issues a notice to correct or abate, as defined, to an owner of an occupied
substandard building or unit, as defined, a statement that the owner has the right to request a delay in enforcement of up to 7 years. The bill would authorize this delay only for an occupied substandard building or unit located in a zone where residential use is permitted, including areas zoned for residential mixed use. The bill would permit the owner of an occupied substandard building or unit that receives a notice to correct or abate to submit an application requesting delayed enforcement for up to 7 years on the basis that correcting the violation or abating the nuisance is not necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and the occupants of the building or unit. The bill would authorize an enforcement agency to grant an application for delayed enforcement upon determining that correcting the violation or abating the nuisance is not necessary to protect the health and safety of the public or occupants. The bill would also permit the enforcement agency to grant the application for a shorter
period of time than requested for violations or nuisances that impact the health and safety of the public or occupants and to require those violations or nuisances to be corrected or abated earlier than 7 years.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 17958.11 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:17958.11.
(a) Any city or county may adopt alternative building regulations for the conversion of commercial or industrial buildings, or portions thereof, to joint living and work quarters. (b) As used in this section, “joint living and work quarters” means residential occupancy by a family maintaining a common household, or by not more than four unrelated persons,
group of persons, whether related or unrelated, of one or more rooms or floors in a building originally designed for industrial or commercial occupancy which that include (1) cooking both of the following:
(1) Cooking space and sanitary facilities in conformance with local building standards adopted pursuant to Section 17958 or 17958.5 and (2) adequate
17958.5.
(2) Adequate working space reserved for, and regularly used by, one or more persons residing therein.
The
(c) The alternative building regulations adopted pursuant to this section shall be applicable in those geographic areas specifically designated for such occupancy, or as expressly permitted by a
redevelopment plan with respect to a redevelopment project area. The alternative building regulations need not impose the same requirements as regulations adopted pursuant to Section 17922, except as otherwise provided in this section, but in permitting repairs, alterations, and additions necessary to accommodate joint living and work quarters, the alternative building regulations shall impose such requirements as will, in the determination of the local governing body, protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
(b)
(d) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that a substantial number of manufacturing and commercial buildings in urban areas have lost manufacturing and
commercial tenants to more modern manufacturing and commercial premises, and that the untenanted portions of such buildings constitute a potential resource capable, when appropriately altered, of accommodating joint living and work quarters which would be physically and economically suitable particularly for use by artists, artisans, and similarly-situated individuals. The Legislature further finds that the public will benefit by making such buildings available for joint living and work quarters for artists, artisans, and similarly-situated individuals because (1) conversion of all of the following:
(1) Conversion
of space to joint living and work quarters provides a new use for such buildings contributing
those buildings, which contributes to the revitalization of central city areas, (2) such
areas.
(2) The conversion of space to joint living and work quarters results in building improvements and rehabilitation, and (3) the rehabilitation.
(3) The cultural life of cities
and of the state as a whole is enhanced by the residence in such cities of large numbers of persons regularly engaged in the arts.
(c)
(e) (1) The Legislature further finds and declares that (1) persons all of the following:
(A) Persons regularly engaged in the arts require larger amounts of space for the pursuit of their artistic endeavors and for the storage of materials therefor, and of the products thereof, than are regularly found in dwellings, (2) the dwellings.
(B) The financial remunerations to be obtained from a career in the arts are generally small, (3) persons small.
(C) Persons regularly engaged in the arts generally find it financially difficult to maintain quarters for their artistic endeavors separate and apart from their places of residence, (4) high residence.
(D) High property values and resulting rental costs make it particularly difficult for persons regularly engaged in the arts to obtain the use of the amount of space required for their work, and (5) the
residential use of such space is accessory to the primary use of such space as a place of work.
It
(2) It is the intent of the Legislature that local governments have discretion to define geographic areas which may be utilized for joint living and work quarters and to establish standards for such occupancy, consistent with the needs and conditions peculiar to the local environment. The Legislature recognizes that building code regulations applicable to residential housing may have to be relaxed to provide joint living and work quarters in buildings previously used for commercial or industrial
purposes.
SEC. 2.
Section 17980.13 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:17980.13.
(a) As used in this article, both of the following definitions apply:(1) “Notice to correct or abate” means a notice to correct a violation of any provision of this part, any building standards published in the State Building Standards Code, or any other rule or regulation adopted pursuant to this part, or a notice to abate a nuisance pursuant to this part.
(2) “Occupied substandard building or unit” means a building or unit in which one or more persons reside that an enforcement agency finds is in violation of any provision of this part, any building standards published in the State Building Standards Code, or any other rule or regulation adopted pursuant to this part as set
forth in Section 17920.3.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding any law, an enforcement agency that issues a notice to correct or abate to an owner of an occupied substandard building may include, in the notice, a statement that the owner has the right to request a delay in enforcement by the enforcement agency of up to seven years. This paragraph shall apply only when the occupied substandard building or unit is in a zone where residential use is a permitted use, including areas zoned for residential mixed use.
(2) The owner of an occupied substandard building or unit that receives a notice to correct or abate pursuant to paragraph (1) may submit an application to the enforcement agency, in the form and manner prescribed by the enforcement agency, requesting that the enforcement of the violation be delayed for up to seven years on the basis that correcting the violation
or abating the nuisance is not necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and the occupants of the building or unit.
(3) The enforcement agency may grant an application submitted pursuant to paragraph (2) and delay enforcement if the agency determines that correcting the violation or abating the nuisance is not necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and the occupants of the building or unit. An enforcement agency may grant the application for a shorter period of time than requested for violations or nuisances that impact the health and safety of the public or occupants and may require that those violations or nuisances be corrected or abated earlier than seven years.
