That's ALMOST A Wrap!
That’s ALMOST A Wrap!
On Friday, September 11th the California State Legislature closed out its 2015 legislative session. In total, 2354 bills were introduced between the Senate and Assembly in regular session along with 71 in extraordinary sessions and 17 constitutional amendments.
BOMA CAL staff and member volunteers worked tirelessly to identify legislation related to taxation, water, energy and land use that would directly impact the commercial real estate industry. The BOMA San Diego Government Affairs Committee has monitored these priority bills for the past 9 months and engaged and educated members to actively support or oppose these key pieces of legislation.
Below is the summary and disposition of some of BOMA’s 2015 Senate and Assembly Bills of Interest. The ones that passed out of the legislature will be either signed into law or vetoed by the Governor who has 30 days from bill passage to act on the various measures. The BOMA San Diego Government Affairs team will give a final report after the Governor acts on all remaining measures of interest.
AB 1335 (Atkins) Affordable Housing/Real Estate Document Tax
BOMA’s position: No Position/Monitor
Bill disposition: Failed Passage; can be reconsidered in new session
AB 1335 would have imposed a $75 fee on every real estate document, in addition to all other recording fees, per transaction, per parcel of property not to exceed $225 to fund low-income housing development. This was a bill BOMA SD was interested in due to the connection to affordable housing and our efforts on the linkage fee measure over the last couple of years. It is likely to resurface next year, so stay tuned.
AB 802 (Williams) Benchmarking Reform
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 802 repeals AB 1103’s statutory benchmarking requirements and replaces it with a new energy use benchmarking and public disclosure program. Specifically, this bill allows existing buildings to use ratepayer energy efficiency funds to bring their energy efficiency performance up to current building code regulations, rather than above-code performance levels under current law. It authorizes investor owned utilities to recover, in rates, the cost of the energy efficiency expansion program, changes the formula for calculating energy savings achieved through efficiency measures, and gives the Public Utilities Commission discretion to increase funding for energy efficiency programs that are funded by ratepayers. AB 802 also set a minimum of 50k square feet gross floor area for multi-family and commercial building for the benchmarking and disclosure program. This has been a major issue for BOMA over the years because of issues with obtaining the necessary energy consumption information from the utilities when the tenant controlled the bill. BOMA will continue to monitor implementation and issues that might arise from this bill’s passage should it be signed into law.
AB 504 (Gonzalez) Civic San Diego
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
From the AB 504 opposition campaign - “AB 504 authorizes a city to delegate planning functions and powers to a nonprofit public benefit corporation (NPBC) but requires the city to retain all non-ministerial planning functions. Requires a NPBC preforming ministerial planning functions and powers to comply with city and state laws relating to the requirements for open meetings and public records disclosure. Requires any planning action taken by a NPBC to me appealed to the city council. AB 504 makes it more likely that Labor-friendly councilmembers in San Diego will require downtown hotel projects to be unionized.” BOMA SD has been supportive of Civic San Diego and the certainly it provides. This was viewed as a direct attack on the organization and BOMA has urged the Governor to veto the measure. BOMA San Diego has issued a veto letter to Governor Brown.
SB 287 (Hueso) AED New Construction Mandate
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
Requires certain buildings constructed on or after January 1, 2016, and with maximum occupancies of 20 or more, to have an AED on the premises no later than January 1, 2017. AB 287 exempts local government buildings and licensed health care facilities. In the City of San Diego, this requirement already exists, but the measure would expand it to other jurisdictions in the region. There was initial concern, but the measure was amended and in conjunction with the next bill by Senator Hill to address training requirements, the decision was to support the measure.
SB 658 (Hill) – AED Liability Reform
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Signed
SB 658 removes several conditions required for exemption from civil liability of a person or entity that obtains an AED for emergency use as well as any person or entity responsible for the site where the AED is located, making it easier to obtain immunity from civil liability. BOMA has been seeking these changes for years to make installation far easier. With the mandatory requirement, this will help alleviate concerns about onerous and unnecessary installation requirements.
ACA 5 (Hancock) Split Roll
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill Disposition: 2-year bill, will be revisited in 2016
From BOMA CAL, SCA 5 “undermines the protections of Prop 13 by unfairly targeting commercial property owners and increasing their property taxes by assessing their property based upon current fair market vale instead of acquired value. Such costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers and tenants through higher prices and will result in job loss as businesses struggle to absorb such a dramatic tax increase.” This constitutional amendment is still in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee and will likely be taken up again in the new legislative session. A constitutional amendment takes a 2/3rds vote to pass. BOMA continues to oppose these kinds of changes to Prop 13 and is part of a coalition in Sacramento led by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to fight these unfair and economically damaging proposals.
AB 744 (Chau) Parking Density
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill would limit municipalities or local agencies to imposing a parking ratio, inclusive of handicapped parking, to no more than 0.5 spaces per bedroom provided that a developer has agreed to include the maximum number of very low and low income units under the Density Bonus Law and if the development is within one half mile of a major transit stop and where there is unobstructed access to the stop from the development. This bill completely removes local control on this type of land use decision in allowing the State, not local agencies, to determine parking standards.
SB 251 (Roth) ADA Technical Violations
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill offers relief to businesses who are trying to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act by providing that they are not liable for minimum statutory damages in a construction related accessibility claim as long at they meet certain criteria. It establishes that certain “technical violations” are presumed not to have caused difficulty or discomfort for the purpose of an award of statutory damages in a construction related accessibility claim and provides a tax credit for small businesses equal to 10 % of eligible access expenditures from 2016-2020. Another measure to help facilitate cures of problems and limit the “drive by” lawsuits being filed against property owners.
AB 662 (Bonilla) ADA Changing Tables
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 662 requires all newly constructed “commercial places of public amusement” to install at least one adult changing station that is accessible by both men and women after the year 2020 or on any restroom renovation occurring on or after 2025 if the renovation requires a permit or is expected to cost $10,000 or more.
SB 119 (Hill) Dig Bill
BOMA’s position: Support Approps
Bill disposition: Passed
SB 199 was a great success for BOMA. BOMA got involved before the bill was introduced and were able to amend current law to expand ability for property maintenance without having to call 811. It clarifies landscaping and basic land use issues and includes liability protections except in cases of willful, repeated or flagrant violations.
SB 350 (De Leon) Double Energy Savings
BOMA’s position: Removed Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill requires that the amount of electricity generated and sold to retail customers per year from eligible renewable energy recourses be increased from 33% by 2020 to 50% by 2030. It requires electric utilities to propose programs and investments to accelerate transportation electrification and requires the CEC to double savings through efficiency and conservation by 2020. Amendments softened statutory requirements and did not give any new authority to agencies that they did not already have.
AB 219 (Daly) Concrete Delivery/Labor
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 219 Expands the current definition of “public works” to include the hauling and delivery of ready-mixed concrete for public works contracts awarded after July 1, 2016 to trigger prevailing wage requirements. This will likely increase costs.
AB 428 (Nazarian) Seismic Retrofit/Tax Credit
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill provides an income tax credit for taxable years 2017 through 2022 of 30% of the cost of making seismic improvements to at-risk properties. Eligibility requirements include obtaining certifications from local building code enforcement and the program is caped at $12 million each year.
AB 1236 (Chiu/Low) EV Charging Permits Priority
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 1236 requires any city or county with a population of 200,000 or more to create and adopt a streamlined permitting process for electric vehicle charging stations by 2016. Any city or county with a population of less than 200,000 would need to adopt an ordinance by 2017.
AB 2 (Alejo) Redevelopment
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Signed
AB 2 authorizes local agencies to form community revitalization and reinvestment agencies to administer economic revitalization and development through affordable and low-income housing programs.
AB 313 (Atkins) Infrastructure Financing Districts
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Signed
This bill makes minor clarifications to the law governing Enhanced Infrastructure Districts (EID’s) allowing local agencies to create them in order to fund infrastructure projects and facilities. This should help aid in providing infrastructure, particularly in areas that once benefited from redevelopment tax increment.
AB 359 (Gonzalez) Successor Employer
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Signed by Governor
Deemed a “Job Killer” bill by the Chamber of Commerce, AB 359 would require successor grocery store employers to retain their predecessors employees for no less than 90 days, and mandates that the new employer retain those employees with an offer of continued employment after the 90-day period if they have not found any unsatisfactory conduct within the 90-day period. This was tried for janitorial employees, which BOMA also successfully fought, and could lead to a renewed effort in the next legislative session.
AB 723 (Rendon) Water Efficient Fixtures Disclosure
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
AB 723 would have required the CEC to consider the performance requirements established by the EPA’s WaterSense standards when setting their own water efficiency standards as well as creating a water efficient fixtures lease disclosure. BOMA felt this was unnecessary and part of an effort to try and “shame” property owners. The concern was that the information would not adequately demonstrate water use or savings.
SB 608 (Liu) Right to Rest Act
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
SB 608 would have enacted a Right to Rest Act allowing the homeless statutory right to use public spaces for rest without discrimination. BOMA’s concern was over the definition of “public space” which would have included areas inside buildings.
AB 718 (Chu) Right to Park and Sleep
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
AB 718 would prohibit the citation of individuals sleeping in their vehicles as long as they were lawfully parked.
SB 32 (Pavley) 2050 GHG Targets
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
Also named a “Job Killer” by the Chamber of Commerce, SB 32 would have significantly expanded the Air Resources Board’s (ARB) authority to regulate and reduce GHG emissions and would have required the ARB to start including “short lived climate pollutants” within new emission limits. New limits would have been 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% of 1990 levels by 2050.
Should you have any questions or comments about these bills or any other legislative matter, please don’t hesitate to contact BOMA San Diego’s legislative affairs team Craig Benedetto or Julianna Chick with California Strategies at (619) 546-7451 or by email at: craigb@calstrat.com or jchick@calstrat.com.
Back to October articles
On Friday, September 11th the California State Legislature closed out its 2015 legislative session. In total, 2354 bills were introduced between the Senate and Assembly in regular session along with 71 in extraordinary sessions and 17 constitutional amendments.
BOMA CAL staff and member volunteers worked tirelessly to identify legislation related to taxation, water, energy and land use that would directly impact the commercial real estate industry. The BOMA San Diego Government Affairs Committee has monitored these priority bills for the past 9 months and engaged and educated members to actively support or oppose these key pieces of legislation.
Below is the summary and disposition of some of BOMA’s 2015 Senate and Assembly Bills of Interest. The ones that passed out of the legislature will be either signed into law or vetoed by the Governor who has 30 days from bill passage to act on the various measures. The BOMA San Diego Government Affairs team will give a final report after the Governor acts on all remaining measures of interest.
AB 1335 (Atkins) Affordable Housing/Real Estate Document Tax
BOMA’s position: No Position/Monitor
Bill disposition: Failed Passage; can be reconsidered in new session
AB 1335 would have imposed a $75 fee on every real estate document, in addition to all other recording fees, per transaction, per parcel of property not to exceed $225 to fund low-income housing development. This was a bill BOMA SD was interested in due to the connection to affordable housing and our efforts on the linkage fee measure over the last couple of years. It is likely to resurface next year, so stay tuned.
AB 802 (Williams) Benchmarking Reform
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 802 repeals AB 1103’s statutory benchmarking requirements and replaces it with a new energy use benchmarking and public disclosure program. Specifically, this bill allows existing buildings to use ratepayer energy efficiency funds to bring their energy efficiency performance up to current building code regulations, rather than above-code performance levels under current law. It authorizes investor owned utilities to recover, in rates, the cost of the energy efficiency expansion program, changes the formula for calculating energy savings achieved through efficiency measures, and gives the Public Utilities Commission discretion to increase funding for energy efficiency programs that are funded by ratepayers. AB 802 also set a minimum of 50k square feet gross floor area for multi-family and commercial building for the benchmarking and disclosure program. This has been a major issue for BOMA over the years because of issues with obtaining the necessary energy consumption information from the utilities when the tenant controlled the bill. BOMA will continue to monitor implementation and issues that might arise from this bill’s passage should it be signed into law.
AB 504 (Gonzalez) Civic San Diego
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
From the AB 504 opposition campaign - “AB 504 authorizes a city to delegate planning functions and powers to a nonprofit public benefit corporation (NPBC) but requires the city to retain all non-ministerial planning functions. Requires a NPBC preforming ministerial planning functions and powers to comply with city and state laws relating to the requirements for open meetings and public records disclosure. Requires any planning action taken by a NPBC to me appealed to the city council. AB 504 makes it more likely that Labor-friendly councilmembers in San Diego will require downtown hotel projects to be unionized.” BOMA SD has been supportive of Civic San Diego and the certainly it provides. This was viewed as a direct attack on the organization and BOMA has urged the Governor to veto the measure. BOMA San Diego has issued a veto letter to Governor Brown.
SB 287 (Hueso) AED New Construction Mandate
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
Requires certain buildings constructed on or after January 1, 2016, and with maximum occupancies of 20 or more, to have an AED on the premises no later than January 1, 2017. AB 287 exempts local government buildings and licensed health care facilities. In the City of San Diego, this requirement already exists, but the measure would expand it to other jurisdictions in the region. There was initial concern, but the measure was amended and in conjunction with the next bill by Senator Hill to address training requirements, the decision was to support the measure.
SB 658 (Hill) – AED Liability Reform
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Signed
SB 658 removes several conditions required for exemption from civil liability of a person or entity that obtains an AED for emergency use as well as any person or entity responsible for the site where the AED is located, making it easier to obtain immunity from civil liability. BOMA has been seeking these changes for years to make installation far easier. With the mandatory requirement, this will help alleviate concerns about onerous and unnecessary installation requirements.
ACA 5 (Hancock) Split Roll
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill Disposition: 2-year bill, will be revisited in 2016
From BOMA CAL, SCA 5 “undermines the protections of Prop 13 by unfairly targeting commercial property owners and increasing their property taxes by assessing their property based upon current fair market vale instead of acquired value. Such costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers and tenants through higher prices and will result in job loss as businesses struggle to absorb such a dramatic tax increase.” This constitutional amendment is still in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee and will likely be taken up again in the new legislative session. A constitutional amendment takes a 2/3rds vote to pass. BOMA continues to oppose these kinds of changes to Prop 13 and is part of a coalition in Sacramento led by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to fight these unfair and economically damaging proposals.
AB 744 (Chau) Parking Density
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill would limit municipalities or local agencies to imposing a parking ratio, inclusive of handicapped parking, to no more than 0.5 spaces per bedroom provided that a developer has agreed to include the maximum number of very low and low income units under the Density Bonus Law and if the development is within one half mile of a major transit stop and where there is unobstructed access to the stop from the development. This bill completely removes local control on this type of land use decision in allowing the State, not local agencies, to determine parking standards.
SB 251 (Roth) ADA Technical Violations
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill offers relief to businesses who are trying to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act by providing that they are not liable for minimum statutory damages in a construction related accessibility claim as long at they meet certain criteria. It establishes that certain “technical violations” are presumed not to have caused difficulty or discomfort for the purpose of an award of statutory damages in a construction related accessibility claim and provides a tax credit for small businesses equal to 10 % of eligible access expenditures from 2016-2020. Another measure to help facilitate cures of problems and limit the “drive by” lawsuits being filed against property owners.
AB 662 (Bonilla) ADA Changing Tables
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 662 requires all newly constructed “commercial places of public amusement” to install at least one adult changing station that is accessible by both men and women after the year 2020 or on any restroom renovation occurring on or after 2025 if the renovation requires a permit or is expected to cost $10,000 or more.
SB 119 (Hill) Dig Bill
BOMA’s position: Support Approps
Bill disposition: Passed
SB 199 was a great success for BOMA. BOMA got involved before the bill was introduced and were able to amend current law to expand ability for property maintenance without having to call 811. It clarifies landscaping and basic land use issues and includes liability protections except in cases of willful, repeated or flagrant violations.
SB 350 (De Leon) Double Energy Savings
BOMA’s position: Removed Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill requires that the amount of electricity generated and sold to retail customers per year from eligible renewable energy recourses be increased from 33% by 2020 to 50% by 2030. It requires electric utilities to propose programs and investments to accelerate transportation electrification and requires the CEC to double savings through efficiency and conservation by 2020. Amendments softened statutory requirements and did not give any new authority to agencies that they did not already have.
AB 219 (Daly) Concrete Delivery/Labor
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 219 Expands the current definition of “public works” to include the hauling and delivery of ready-mixed concrete for public works contracts awarded after July 1, 2016 to trigger prevailing wage requirements. This will likely increase costs.
AB 428 (Nazarian) Seismic Retrofit/Tax Credit
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Passed
This bill provides an income tax credit for taxable years 2017 through 2022 of 30% of the cost of making seismic improvements to at-risk properties. Eligibility requirements include obtaining certifications from local building code enforcement and the program is caped at $12 million each year.
AB 1236 (Chiu/Low) EV Charging Permits Priority
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Passed
AB 1236 requires any city or county with a population of 200,000 or more to create and adopt a streamlined permitting process for electric vehicle charging stations by 2016. Any city or county with a population of less than 200,000 would need to adopt an ordinance by 2017.
AB 2 (Alejo) Redevelopment
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Signed
AB 2 authorizes local agencies to form community revitalization and reinvestment agencies to administer economic revitalization and development through affordable and low-income housing programs.
AB 313 (Atkins) Infrastructure Financing Districts
BOMA’s position: Support
Bill disposition: Signed
This bill makes minor clarifications to the law governing Enhanced Infrastructure Districts (EID’s) allowing local agencies to create them in order to fund infrastructure projects and facilities. This should help aid in providing infrastructure, particularly in areas that once benefited from redevelopment tax increment.
AB 359 (Gonzalez) Successor Employer
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Signed by Governor
Deemed a “Job Killer” bill by the Chamber of Commerce, AB 359 would require successor grocery store employers to retain their predecessors employees for no less than 90 days, and mandates that the new employer retain those employees with an offer of continued employment after the 90-day period if they have not found any unsatisfactory conduct within the 90-day period. This was tried for janitorial employees, which BOMA also successfully fought, and could lead to a renewed effort in the next legislative session.
AB 723 (Rendon) Water Efficient Fixtures Disclosure
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
AB 723 would have required the CEC to consider the performance requirements established by the EPA’s WaterSense standards when setting their own water efficiency standards as well as creating a water efficient fixtures lease disclosure. BOMA felt this was unnecessary and part of an effort to try and “shame” property owners. The concern was that the information would not adequately demonstrate water use or savings.
SB 608 (Liu) Right to Rest Act
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
SB 608 would have enacted a Right to Rest Act allowing the homeless statutory right to use public spaces for rest without discrimination. BOMA’s concern was over the definition of “public space” which would have included areas inside buildings.
AB 718 (Chu) Right to Park and Sleep
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
AB 718 would prohibit the citation of individuals sleeping in their vehicles as long as they were lawfully parked.
SB 32 (Pavley) 2050 GHG Targets
BOMA’s position: Oppose
Bill disposition: Failed
Also named a “Job Killer” by the Chamber of Commerce, SB 32 would have significantly expanded the Air Resources Board’s (ARB) authority to regulate and reduce GHG emissions and would have required the ARB to start including “short lived climate pollutants” within new emission limits. New limits would have been 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% of 1990 levels by 2050.
Should you have any questions or comments about these bills or any other legislative matter, please don’t hesitate to contact BOMA San Diego’s legislative affairs team Craig Benedetto or Julianna Chick with California Strategies at (619) 546-7451 or by email at: craigb@calstrat.com or jchick@calstrat.com.
Back to October articles