HomeCity NewsCity Council Watches Progress of Portantino Bills

City Council Watches Progress of Portantino Bills

The La Cañada Flintridge City Council seemed pleased to hear state Sen. Anthony Portantino, a local resident, was working on a couple of bills of interest to the community’s residents.
Portantino is behind Senate Bill 1317, which addresses sober living facilities, and SB 1266, which addresses those convicted of burglaries. Both bills are in the Senate Appropriations Committee at the moment.
Ann Wilson, division manager for the city of La Cañada Flintridge, presented updates on current legislative bills at the City Council meeting this week, by request of Mayor Terry Walker, to coincide with the council’s own update.
“I thought it would be nice for the public to hear what is going on in Sacramento,” Walker said.
SB 1317 would develop a series of guidelines addressing issues related to sober living facilities, including methods to determine whether complaints filed about allegedly improper facilities are legitimate or not. An accompanying Assembly Bill (3162, filed by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman) would require the state post addresses for proposed sober living facilities online.
“Local communities have been pre-empted from requiring any form of reasonable public safety inspections or regulations,” Wilson explained.
SB 1266 would essentially require that a condition of parole for burglary convicts is to agree to GPS monitoring upon release from jail. Burglaries have plagued local communities, including affluent LCF, in recent years, with many officials blaming newer laws allowing for early prison release for nonviolent offenders.
SB 831, introduced by state Sen. Bob Wieckowski, also might be of interest to local residents because of its proposed amendments to current laws governing accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.
This bill is currently set to prohibit consideration of an ADU’s square footage when calculating allowable floor-to-area ratio for property; require approval or disapproval of an ADU within 60 days; prohibit the requiring of a property owner to replace off-street parking if a garage or carport is demolished or repurposed for an ADU; prohibit the use of a local ordinance for delaying or denying a permit for an ADU; prohibit the requirement of owner-occupancy on the lot; and remove the ability to require a separate utility connection for an ADU.
Sacramento lawmakers in recent years have substantially limited county and municipal governments in their ability to regulate ADUs, ostensibly to help alleviate housing shortages in the state.
AB 1912, introduced by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, would expand liability, even retroactively, of joint powers agreements between public agencies. Wilson said this applies to LCF because of its participation in San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments and other JPAs.
“We could be affected potentially,” Wilson said, characterizing the bill as a negative for those cities. “In addition, our state lobbyist has testified in opposition to this bill twice in Sacramento.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular

[bsa_pro_ad_space id=3]

27