Public housing: unrestricted multifamily housing.

Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and specified land outside boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law provides for the establishment of various special districts that may support and finance housing development, including affordable housing special beneficiary districts that are authorized to promote affordable housing development with certain property tax revenues that a city or county would otherwise be entitled to receive. This bill would prohibit a city, county, city and county, joint powers authority, or any other political subdivision of a state or local government from acquiring unrestricted multifamily housing, as defined, unless the development meets specified criteria, including, among other things, that units are subject to a long-term recorded regulatory agreement with a public entity that requires the unit to be affordable to, and occupied by, low- or moderate-income persons and families for a term of 55 years, and the public entity agrees to make certain reports and data public on its internet website. The bill would specify that those provisions do not apply to a development that is or will be subject to a regulatory agreement with the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, the Department of Housing and Community Development, or a public entity that restricts use of the development to serve specified lower income individuals, or when a public entity purchases unrestricted multifamily housing that within one year will be removed from the housing market. The bill would include, among other findings, that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.