California to Fast-Track Downtown Office Conversions

A new law aiming to fast-track office-to-housing conversions of empty buildings in California’s cities has been passed by the state Senate and sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.

The measure, known as AB 3068 and approved by the Senate in a 27-11 vote, will expedite adaptive reuse projects by mandating by-right approval for projects converting offices to residential or mixed-use in city centers, Kron4 reported.

Under AB 3068, adaptive reuse projects will be eligible for a streamlined, ministerial review process, regardless of the zoning of the site, provided that at least half of the square footage of the project is dedicated to residential uses, according to a posting of the bill on CalMatters.

The streamlined approval process mandated by the bill exempts eligible adaptive reuse housing projects from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reviews. Eligible projects must be located “in an urbanized area or urban cluster.”

The bill also sets affordability requirements for housing units created by conversion projects and it requires the preservation of historic structures, including the exterior facades of historic buildings that face a street.

“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,” AB 3068 states.

The bill was authored by Matt Haney, an assembly member representing San Francisco who chairs the lower body’s Select Committee on Downtown Recovery.

“California’s downtowns are desperate for ways to inject vitality into their streetscape,” Haney said, in a statement. “While the demand for living downtown is at an all-time high, many urban centers simply lack the available housing. If we are serious about jump-starting the economic engine of our cities, we need to remove the red tape that makes office to housing conversions nearly impossible.”

The coalition that backed AB 3068 included YIMBY Action and the California Preservation Foundation. The bill also features a labor agreement that establishes safe working conditions and fair wages for reuse projects.

“AB 3068′s contractor workforce standards were tailored for a subset of projects that reuse and convert existing underutilized commercial concrete and steel buildings to provide homes,” Jay Bradshaw, executive officer of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, told Kron4.