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Bill would give developers extension on building plans
| Friday, May 2 2008 6:48 PM
Last Updated: Friday, May 2 2008 7:01 PM
A bill that’s making its way through the state Senate could extend the time developers have to usher their tract maps through the development process.
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If the proposed bill becomes a law, timelines for city and county residential developments would change —one year would be added to their shelf lives.
As of mid-April, nearly 37,000 lots were in the city of Bakersfield’s planning pipeline. Those projects can have up to eight years to come to fruition.
Jim Movius, planning director, said the extensions could cause the city to lose out on some revenues it would normally be collecting if the act is changed. He wasn’t sure how much money could be involved, though.
His county counterpart, Ted James, said “as long as standards and requirements don’t change, there’s not an issue. We do have issues when vesting maps are submitted, that locks in the requirements at the time the application was accepted.”
These requirements include the traffic impact fee, which James said county staff are examining.
Maps filed in the county typically have six-year lifespans, but an additional three-year approval is available if certain conditions are met.
The proposed legislation is another sign of the economy’s overall slowdown, and some proponents view it as a temporary measure to help ensure developers can capitalize on the housing market when it improves.
The Subdivision Map Act spells out statewide land-use policies. State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, proposes adding an additional 12 months to existing tract maps that are in the pipeline but not yet final.
It’s meant to help builders weather the economic downturn, said John Casey, Lowenthal’s spokesman.
“Hopefully next year, conditions will be more favorable and building may resume,” Casey said. “This bill is just a modest extension of maps that have already been vetted at the local level.”
The bill, if approved by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, would take effect immediately. It hasn’t been voted on by the Legislature yet; it may go before the Senate on Thursday. It would require a two-thirds majority approval.
There are other bills that propose similar extensions; they include Senate Bill 1237 and Assembly Bill 1777.
This type of relief was granted by the Legislature in 1993 and 1996.
If maps expire, developers have to start the whole approval or entitlement process over again, and that’s costly and takes time.
Donna Carpenter, Central Valley division manager for Sikand Engineering Associates, said navigating smaller projects through the process can take nine months. Large developments can take five years to 10 years, depending on their complexity. Carpenter is on the board of the Home Builders Association of Kern County.
Fellow board member David Dmohowski, president of Premier Planning Group LLC, said the extra year would give developers a chance to ride out the downturn.
“Otherwise, in order to preserve the validity of a map, you would have to spend significant dollars on designing and constructing infrastructures for other facilities,” he said, such as road and sewer improvements.
“You don’t do that five years in advance, because you don’t get that money back until you actually sell a home,” he said.
The present downturn is the most serious he’s seen in his 35 years of industry work. But he added the proposed legislation is a temporary measure.
“This is really intended to allow the industry to get a jumpstart when the market conditions improve,” he said.