Good morning:

UPDATE -- SB 937 was heard on the Assembly Floor yesterday. Unfortunately, it passed -- but due to our efforts and those of our partners we took a bill that previously had only one no vote and pulled 15 more votes from it. 

The measure is now in the Senate for a concurrence vote. We have one more chance to stop it before it goes to the Governor, but would need 20 members to pull off. 

If you are able, please call your Senator today and ask them to lay off the bill or vote NO on SB 937. It would be a huge help! This is not the same measure they voted on the first time, and this one leaves out parks, among many other essential community services, from important fiscal provisions in the bill. 

Again, CARPD is opposed to SB 937 (Wiener) due to last-minute amendments that were added to the bill on August 22. These amendments were not vetted through stakeholders, including CARPD. We had gone neutral due to prior amendments, but the new provisions go against the nature of our negotiations.

Please review the measure (linked above) and share your concerns with your legislators. Below are some suggested talking points. You can call the office directly or call and ask the scheduler for the name and email of the Chief of Staff and Legislative Director. You should also cc the district director for your legislator.

FIND MY LEGISLATOR

If you do not know your representative, you can find your member using your business address here.

Background: Talking Points

• I (name) with (district name) ask (legislators name) to vote NO or abstain from voting when SB 937 comes up for a vote.
• SB 937 shifts financial and legal risk to local agencies from developers and restricts the timely funding of vital infrastructure and services necessary to build new homes in livable, equitable, and thriving communities.
• New amendments were made late last week that go against the spirit of prior negotiations that allowed us to come off the bill earlier this year. They were not vetted through local government stakeholders and parks input was not sought. Because of that the new language has a lot of gaps that could create real inequity in California communities.
• As amended, this bill would defer development impact fees until the certificate of occupancy or its equivalent for certain developments, but now drastically limits exceptions to this rule.
• The prior language would have allowed for parks and open space impact fees to be collected prior to the completion of the development project if the project was ready to be constructed. Now, the project must fall into specific categories and those categories leave out projects for parks and recreation infrastructure.
• Parks are NOT a luxury that are nice to have – instead they are essential infrastructure vital to the quality of life in communities and providing essential services at cost-of-service prices for residents that will reside in these new housing units.
• If a park is ready and able to be upfitted, expanded, or newly built with the addition of the impact fees for a development, then that project should be able to move forward in tandem with the housing project so that essential open spaces and services will have capacity to serve the new residents who will rely on them.
• Furthermore, SB 937 locks in those impact fees at prior to the issuance of a building permit and prohibits the charging of interest or indexing for inflation on those deferred fees, undermining the buying power of local agencies to protect the buying power of the agencies between the start and completion of the projects.
• This bill will build inequitable communities. We support new housing and take seriously our mission of providing parks and recreational wrap around services to our communities. We are the epicenter of vibrant communities, providing open spaces and recreational opportunities and provide residents with everything from food banks, before and after school care, to swimming instruction, and senior and teen centers.
• Housing should not be built on the financial back of local parks services and to the detriment to the communities who will live there. I ask for a NO vote.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at mduarte@capri-jpa.org or our Legislative Advocate, Alyssa Silhi, at asilhi@publicpolicygroup.com. Thank you again for your assistance and for your help in our fight for CARPD's member agencies.

-Matthew Duarte

CARPD Executive Director