Electricity has been the dominant topic at the state Capitol for months and threatens to overshadow every other issue facing lawmakers in 2001. Still, legislators introduced hundreds of bills related to land use prior to the late-February deadline, including approximately 150 housing bills. "I'd say there are easily twice as many [housing] bills as we normally see," said Mike Herald, executive director of Housing California, a statewide coalition of advocacy groups. "I think it's a reflection of what members are hearing in their districts." Those bills range from measures that would put teeth in the housing element law, to housing subsidies for firefighters and police in certain cities, to proposals that would give local government a larger share of property taxes from housing developments, to incentives for infill and transit-oriented projects. "It's not just a Silicon Valley problem," Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) said of affordable housing. "It's really starting to touch on every portion of the state." Other land use bills would tinker with the California Environmental Quality Act, lower the hurdle for a redevelopment agency to prove "blight," require a finding of adequate water supplies for projects of at least 200 housing units, and require the Governor's Office of Planning and Research to prepare a "State Comprehensive Plan." (See accompanying list of bills.) As of late March, most legislative committees were just getting started, and a large number of bills remained in spot form. Despite the plethora of bills, a number of Capitol insiders and lobbyists said they expect to see few proposals that would create new programs for housing or anything else get approved this year because the energy situation has been costing the state an unbudgeted $45 million a day, and because the quick economic slowdown could hurt revenues. State Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton (D-San Francisco) has vowed to match last year's housing funding of $570 million, but even housing champions such as Dunn, the chairman of the Senate Housing and Community Development Committee, have doubts. "If we go down the path we've been on [regarding electricity purchases], there won't be any significant state funds available for housing," Dunn said. But the uncertain situation has not deterred interest groups and lawmakers from pursuing their agendas. The California Chapter of the American Planning Association is sponsoring legislation based on a report of the group's state plan task force, said CCAPA lobbyist Sande George. The primary components call for preparation of a state plan (AB 857, Wiggins), making infrastructure funding dependent on consistency with the state plan (SB 294, Sher), and requiring local land use elements to address issues of environmental and social justice (AB 1553, Keeley). The group may also use AB 858 (Wiggins) as a vehicle for further general plan reform. George said CCAPA is working with the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties on the bill package. "I think the biggest concern that legislators are hearing from their constituents is that everybody is sprawling too much," George said. "That's become a buzz word in the last few years." Solving the affordable housing shortage will require money, and there is talk of a housing bond, George said. However, if the state issues $10 billion worth of bonds to fund long-term electricity purchases, as is proposed, the state may have little bonding capacity remaining for other things, she said. The planners association appears to have a solid ally in Assemblywoman Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa), chairwoman of the Assembly Local Government Committee and head of the Smart Growth Caucus. She has focused on the lack of fiscal incentives for local governments to approve housing. Because so many state lawmakers have moved up from city councils and boards of supervisors during recent years, they understand that housing is a drain on local government finances, she said. "Many of us are looking at property tax incentives," Wiggins said. "We're probably not going to get a wholesale return of the property tax that was shifted away by the state, but we can do it in pieces." Sen. Dunn agreed that most lawmakers agree there is a problem with the way local government is financed. But, he said, it is very unlikely that the Davis administration will accept any measure that shifts funds from the state to local government. On a different topic, Wiggins said she intends to pursue legislation that provides for geographic information system mapping of the state. "We're very primitive in our planning in California considering the technology we have," she said. Wiggins said lawmakers are returning to their own agendas and away from electricity. However, she said there could be an effort to require an energy element as part of local general plans. Jerry Meral, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, said he has detected "member burnout on energy" and he believes lawmakers will move on to other issues. "I actually think if it were not for energy, transportation would be the biggest issue this year," Meral said. Transportation is toward the top of the PCL agenda this year, as the group is sponsoring AB 321 and ACA 2 (Vargas), both of which would allocate the state's share of sales tax on vehicles for transportation programs. Meral's organization would like to see the money focused on transit in urban areas. The PCL also is quite interested in Wiggins' AB 52, a proposed bond that would raise money for farmland protection and infill housing. Wiggins refers to the proposal as "pave an acre, save an acre." Meral said a similar program has been successful in Vermont. With the Democrat majority on both houses at nearly 2-1, the PCL finds that it has quite a few friends these days and does not spend a great deal of time fighting bills. That means that business and development groups are struggling to find allies. Thus, development interests are continuing to work with housing and labor groups in the Job-Center Housing Coalition that become a major player during the last legislative session. The group is back with a 10-bill package. Like last session, the package includes measures to limit builders' construction defect liability and to make brownfield cleanup easier. The Job-Center Housing Coalition package also includes Sen. Dunn's SB 910, a housing element law crackdown. The measure states that if HCD finds a local housing element to be out of compliance, a court should presume the element is invalid. The proposal requires courts to impose fees of up to $1,000 per unit of the jurisdiction's fair-share housing requirement, and — maybe most importantly — cuts off state funds for cities and counties that do not comply with housing element law. Dunn has not yet defined the revenue stream he will go after but said education and transportation dollars are safe. Instead, he will try to stem the flow of more discretionary funding. "That is gonna be a shot at the heart of the jurisdictions that steadfastly have refused to comply with the housing element law," Dunn said. His office estimates that about 30% of cities and counties have inadequate housing elements. Housing California's Herald said SB 910 is important because some local governments will not take the first step of zoning enough sites for affordable units. The issue is one that housing advocates and the development community can agree upon, whereas the construction defect liability concerns belong mostly to builders, Herald said. Contacts: State Senator Joe Dunn, (916) 445-5831. Assemblywoman Patricia Wiggins, (916) 319-2007. Sande George, California Chapter of the American Planning Association, (916) 443-5301. Jerry Meral, Planning and Conservation League, (916) 444-8726. Mike Herald, Housing California, (916) 447-0503. California Housing Law Project: www.housingadvocates.org Job-Center Housing Coalition: www.jobcenterhousing.com