Local government: community facilities districts.

(1) The Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 authorizes a community facilities district to finance the purchase, construction, expansion, improvement, or rehabilitation of certain facilities, including, among others, child care facilities, undergrounding of water transmission and distribution facilities, and the cleanup of hazardous materials. This bill would also authorize a community facilities district to finance and refinance the acquisition, installation, and improvement of energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy improvements to or on real property and in buildings, as specified. (2) Existing law specifies the requirements for the establishment of a community facilities district, including, among other things, a petition, a hearing, the establishment of the boundaries of the community facilities district, and an election on the question of establishment. This bill would authorize a separate procedure for establishing a community facilities district where the district initially consists solely of territory proposed for annexation to the community facilities district in the future, as specified, and would provide an alternate procedure for incurring bonded indebtedness for community facility districts established in this manner. This bill would provide that the refusal by a person to undertake or cause to be undertaken an act relating to community facilities districts, including formation of, or annexation to, a community facilities district, voting to levy a special tax, or authorizing another to vote to levy a special tax, shall not be a factor when considering the approval of a legislative or adjudicative act, or both, including, but not limited to , the planning use, or development of real property or any change in governmental organization or reorganization if the purpose of the community facilities district is to finance energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy improvements. (3) Existing law defines a Property Assessed Clean Energy bond, otherwise known as a PACE bond, to mean a bond that is secured by a voluntary contractual assessment on property or a voluntary contractual assessment or a voluntary special tax on property to finance the installation of distributed generation renewable energy sources, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, or energy or water efficiency improvements that is levied pursuant to a chartered city's constitutional authority under the California Constitution. This bill would also include within this definition a bond secured by a special tax on property levied by specified community facilities districts.