CHC 2008 Policy Platform – DRAFT
The California Housing Consortium/CHC Institute is the statewide ‘big tent’ housing advocacy organization representing the development, building, financial, and public sectors united in a non-partisan effort to advance affordable housing and community development throughout California.
CHC is differentiated from other associations through it diverse membership across the private, public, and non-profit sectors and because our members believe that through constructive dialogue in roundtable discussions and forums we can work across self-interest boundaries to overcome policy stalemates and achieve outcomes ultimately beneficial to all. Our policy focus is in three key areas:
SUSTAINING CATALYTIC PUBLIC SECTOR FUNDING
• Establish a State Housing Trust Fund for Affordable Housing in California
o Put before the legislature/voters in 2009/2010
o It should provide at least $600,000 in funding per year
o should include TOD/Infill/Mixed-Use/Mixed-Income components
• Support the expansion of local housing trust funds
• Promote redevelopment and tax increment funding to expand affordable housing, community reinvestment, and economic development initiatives
ENCOURAGING SENSIBLE LAND USE PLANNING
• Encourage jurisdictions to proactively plan according to growth factors – housing, transportation, economic development, education, public health – and require local government to zone consistent with their housing element;
o create a state revolving loan fund to advance monies to cities and counties to pay for increased planning and environmental review and allow local government to repay state loans via local building permit fees
• Promote the use of short-form EIR for residential, mixed-use residential, mixed-income, and transit-oriented projects on infill sites and expand existing statutory exemption for infill housing for which no further environmental review is required
• Promote Brownfield remediation and reuse
• Support reasonable eminent domain reform to prevent seizure of owner-occupied single family homes, support prudent commercial relocation benefits, and oppose ‘government taking initiatives’ aimed at curtailing or preventing the effective use of eminent domain authority
PROMOTING REGULATORY REFORM
• Reform CEQA to reduce frivolous NIMBY lawsuits and streamline the entitlement process; improve CEQA in order to encourage, not discourage, Infill and Transit-Orient Development
• Encourage ‘green’ building practices, energy efficient applications, alternative energy sources, and sustainable construction technologies
• Promote the reform of Prevailing Wage requirements, including posting residential wage rates by jurisdiction, the clarification of development components to which the requirements pertain
• Promote inclusionary zoning policies that provide real development incentives, provide reasonable flexibility, and encourage developers to build housing rather than in lieu fees
• Ensure the preservation of existing affordable housing stock and promote refinancing options in order to extend the affordability term of expiring use projects
• Preserve and protect the use of the affordable housing property tax exemption while encouraging responsible ownership and managing general partner practices
• Develop consensus within the housing sector for greenhouse gas emission assessment and reduction targets
