By Reuben Duarte, Vice President for Policy and Legislation and Lauren De Valencia, APA California Lobbyist
Bill Introduction Approaches
The February 21 deadline to introduce new bills is approaching and APA California has already identified several of interest to planners. Proposed legislation thus far continues to offer ideas to address the housing and homelessness crisis, however several proposals have been introduced to assist LA County with recovery efforts from the devastating fires in January. We are also seeing other proposals that focus statewide on land use and fire-related issues, including the Assembly and Senate fire related bill packages.
Governor Newsom Signs Special Session Bill Package to Provide $2.5 Billion for Los Angeles
Wildfire Response, Important Planning and Recovery Efforts
APA California was pleased to support the Legislature’s wildfire special session bills, ABX1 4 (Gabriel) and SBX1 3 (Wiener), which provides $2.5 billion in funding for Los Angeles County’s wildfire response and recovery, in addition to supporting critical planning and plan check work that’s needed to help communities impacted by the devastating fires that ravaged many parts of the County in January. These bills were signed by the Governor and APA California continues to look for ways to provide support and resources to those impacted by the fires.
Governor Newsom Signs Executive Order to Further Prepare for Future Firestorms
Among many other recent actions, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to improve community hardening and wildfire mitigation strategies to increase neighborhood resilience statewide.
APA California Participates in Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee’s Informational Hearing
APA California’s Technical Advisor’s, Eric Phillips and Tom Pace, participated in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee’s informational hearing on State Housing Production Legislation: Actions, Outcomes, and Opportunities. Both Eric and Tom discussed areas of housing law that are working well and offered suggestions on improvements and assistance that’s needed to support local planning processes and to allow for smoother implementation to help address the housing crisis. A recording of this hearing is available here.
Stay Connected on Legislation
If you’re interested in receiving updates on legislative and regulatory issues from the Chapter’s Policy and Legislation Team, please join here. Have questions on policy and legislative related issues, including bills and regulations? APA California members are welcome to reach out to the VP for Policy and Legislation at policy@apacalifornia.org.
APA California’s Work in the Legislature
APA California has a robust legislative program at the Chapter level that engages with the California Legislature. The Policy and Legislation team includes an elected VP for Policy and Legislation, two appointed Legislative Technical Advisors, and a Lobbyist retained by the Chapter. The team engages directly with APA California Section Legislative Representatives from each of the 8 Sections within the Chapter to discuss feedback on legislation and other relevant issues regularly throughout the year. To view the Policy and Legislation team, visit the Board of Directors page.
APA California actively engages in many bills throughout the year. In fact, we work closely with legislative and committee staff on amendments and clarifications to bills before taking a position. As an organization, APA California is often asked to provide feedback on planning related bills and provide technical expertise, giving a voice to planners and an opportunity to help shape legislation. This is a valuable role that the Chapter works hard to maintain. More broadly, we will continue to discuss the work planners are doing at the local level to implement and keep up with
all the planning related bills that pass year over year and how that relates to the cumulative impact of bills on the table this year. We also continue seek opportunities to suggest tangible ways, absent fiscal resources at the state level, that the Legislature can help to make implementation more successful and support the planning community.