Congress passed the final budget package for 2023 in late
December, which included a significant provision to make the
American Rescue Plan’s State and Local Fiscal Relief Funds
(SLFRF) more flexible, known as ARPA Flex.
The ARPA Flex provision, which was championed by Senator Alex
Padilla, provides additional flexibility for local
government to spend their allocations of the Coronavirus State
and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, including:
Nominate a project or program that your city or county has
deployed to preserve and protect the public’s investment in the
local street and road system. Nominations are due by 5:00 pm,
February 3, 2023. Winners will be announced in late February.
Award presentations are currently scheduled during the Cal Cities
Public Works Officers Institute/CEAC Spring Conference, March 9,
2023 in Los Angeles County.
California is exploring an alternative to the gas tax and is
recruiting members of rural and tribal communities to provide
input on the policy idea and take part in the pilot.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development
(HCD) has proposed to modify the text of proposed regulations
that establish the Prohousing Designation Program. Specifically,
HCD is proposing to modify the following sections to title 25,
division 1, chapter 6, subchapter 6.6 of the California Code of
Regulations:
The Governor has convened
a special session of the legislature to examine potential
responses targeted at oil companies to what the administration
believes are unexplainable gas price increases orchestrated by
the industry.
The Governor’s action came in response after five major oil
refiners refused to attend the California Energy Commission’s
hearing on gas price hikes amidst record profits on November
29th.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development
(HCD) in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Planning and
Research (OPR), Strategic Growth Council (SGC), and the
California Air Resources Board (CARB), recently announced
the release of the Final Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)
and Guidelines for the Higher Impact Transformative (HIT)
Allocation of the Regional Early Action Planning Grant Program of
2021 (REAP 2.0).
CSAC recently reported on the final outcomes of measures that
were approved by the Legislature and delivered to Governor Newsom
for action. To keep counties informed of new laws of interest and
impact, CSAC will publish a series of articles to spotlight those
laws in each policy area. This week, the Housing, Land Use and
Transportation (HLT) policy area provides information on new
laws impacting zoning, parking requirements, and CEQA.
The 2022 Permanent Local Housing Allocation (PLHA) application
deadline has been extended to November 30, 2022.
Jurisdictions throughout California can use this opportunity to
apply for their 2019, 2020, and 2021 available funds. The 2019
PLHA funds have an encumbrance deadline of December 31, 2022 so
if your jurisdiction has not applied for your 2019 funds, it is
critical to apply by that November 30, 2022 deadline or 2019
funds will revert to other uses according to state law.
Last week the Department of Transportation (DOT) launched its
Thriving Communities Program, a $30 million collaboration
between DOT and HUD to help communities access
once-in-a-generation levels of federal infrastructure funding
under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and deliver
transformative projects.
The California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) is hosting
a Energy
Storage Safety Series looking to advance safe installation of
energy storage devices in California and across the Western US.
The Statewide National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) Construction Stormwater General
Permit was adopted on September 8, 2022 and will become effective
on September 1, 2023. The newly adopted permit addresses
stormwater from construction activities on sites that disturb one
or more acres of land. The new permit includes implementation
requirements for watersheds with Total Maximum Daily Loads,
dewatering, and passive treatment application, among many other
topics.
US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has published a list of
anticipated dates for Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) for
key Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs, including the
Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART)
Grants Program and Advanced Transportation Technology and
Innovation (ATTAIN) Program. The NOFO list will
be updated periodically with new programs and dates.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and California
Department of Transportation (Caltrans) would like to help local
public agencies (LPAs) make bundling a routine process for saving
time, money, and resources, especially as additional funds from
the IIJA are rolled out.
FHWA and Caltrans will be hosting a peer exchange
on October 4, 2022, from 8:30 AM – 5
PM and October 5, 2022, from 8:30 AM -
12:30 PM.
The U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation’s signoff on
the California Deployment Plan for the National Electric Vehicle
Infrastructure (NEVI) Program makes an initial $56 million in
funding available to install charging stations throughout the
state.
AB 1932 (Daly) was signed by the Governor on September
19th. AB 1932 is CSAC’s sponsored bill, which extends
the sunset date in existing law which allows counties to enter
into construction manager at risk contracts (known as CMAR
contracts).
The California Department of Transportation Division of
Local Assistance has partnered with Sacramento State’s
College of Continuing Education (CCE) to provide trainings
and technical assistance as part of the Cooperative Training
Assistance Program (CTAP) and Local Technical Assistance Program
(LTAP). These programs provide subsidized, practical training for
transportation professionals in California’s cities, counties,
and regional transportation agencies.
Please join the League of California Cities, the California State
Association of Counties, and the California Housing Finance
Agency for a one-hour presentation and Q&A session about
Accessory Dwelling Units, and how CalHFA’s ADU Grant can help
your jurisdiction increase its housing stock.
The CESA Safety Series has officially launched and is holding a
Roundtable in Napa, CA on October 12th!
The goal of the series is to both educate local government
officials, fire departments and other key safety partners, and to
create open lines of communication between the storage industry
and these local stakeholders.
California’s legislative session came to a close in the early
morning hours this week with hundreds of bills now awaiting
action by Governor Gavin Newsom. The following provides an update
on major bills of interest for the Housing, Land Use and
Transportation policy area. CSAC staff will continue to
monitor and advocate for County priorities during the
signing period, which ends September 30, 2022.
This notice details the application requirements and procedures
to obtain grant funding for eligible projects under the Railroad
Crossing Elimination Program for Fiscal Year 2022. This notice
solicits applications for the Railroad Crossing Elimination
Program funds made available by the Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act. The opportunity described in this notice is made
available under Assistance Listings Number 20.327 – “Railroad
Crossing Elimination.”
The Caltrans Division of Local Assistance in partnership with the
Regional Transportation Planning Agencies Group provides a
quarterly statewide webinar. Subjects include information
sharing, local project delivery policies, processes, and
procedures, and facilitating peer-sharing of best-practices. The
free webinar is open to project managers, engineers, and those
that work with local assistance processes for local and tribal
agencies.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development
has released Amendment 2 of the 2022 Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) program Notice of Funding Availability.
The Caltrans Division of Local Assistance in partnership with the
Regional Transportation Planning Agencies Group provides a
quarterly statewide webinar. Subjects include information
sharing, local project delivery policies, processes, and
procedures, and facilitating peer-sharing of best-practices. The
free webinar is open to project managers, engineers, and those
that work with local assistance processes for local and tribal
agencies. The webinar will be held on September 8, 2022 at
8:30-11:30 AM.
As state lawmakers debate proposed legislation in the final weeks
of the legislative session, CSAC is monitoring several bills of
interest for counties, including:
DOT recently issued a combined
Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for three major
transportation grant programs funded by the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law, including the National Infrastructure Project
Assistance Program (MEGA), Infrastructure for Rebuilding America
Program (INFRA) , and the Rural Surface Transportation Grant
Program (RURAL).
CSAC’s sponsored transportation and public works bills have been
moving through the legislative process this week. Both measures
have received bipartisan support, and we appreciate the letters
counties have submitted in support of these bills. Below are
brief updates on the status of AB 2120 (Ward) and AB 1932 (Daly).
As the COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of Americans and
created turmoil for homeowners, the American Rescue Plan Act’s
Homeowner Assistance Fund has granted California $1 billion
in mortgage relief funds to help homeowners who have faced
financial hardships during these times.
As the COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of Americans and
created turmoil for homeowners, the American Rescue Plan Act’s
Homeowner Assistance Fund has granted California $1 billion
in mortgage relief funds to help homeowners who have faced
financial hardships during these times.
The deadline for the Legislature to introduce new bills was last
month, and both the Senate and the Assembly are currently in the
process of referring substantive bill proposals to policy
committees for their consideration. CSAC’s Housing, Land Use and
Transportation team is reviewing several bills that would make
changes to California Environmental Quality (CEQA) law.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development
(HCD) recently released the
2022 Statewide Housing Plan (plan), which is a statutorily
required report that is updated every four years to outline the
state’s housing challenges and strategies to address them over
the next 10 years.
AB 101 (Committee on Budget, 2019) tasked HCD with
designating jurisdictions as “Prohousing” when they demonstrate
policies and strategies to accelerate housing production. In
turn, Prohousing jurisdictions will be awarded additional points
or preference in grant programs, such as the Affordable Housing
and Sustainable Communities, Transformative Climate Communities,
and Infill Incentive Grant programs as well as other state
programs.
The deadline for legislators to introduce bills during the second
year of the 2021-22 legislative session was last week. CSAC is
sponsoring
AB 2120 (Ward) and
AB 1932 (Daly)—two transportation and public works bills—and
encourages all counties to express their support for these bills.
California recently launched the California Mortgage Relief
Program to provide one-time payments to qualified homeowners
who have fallen behind on their housing payments or to reverse
missed payments of up to $80,000 as part of the state’s Housing
is Key initiative. The $1 billion in federal funding for this
program comes from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
UCLA Extension’s annual one-day Land Use Law Planning Conference
will be held on Friday, January 21, 2022from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Due to the
spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, the conference will be
completely virtual, an in-person option will no longer be
available.
The Conference will include a big-picture view of land use law
and planning practice, updates on core state and federal case law
and legislation, as well as practice pointers on basic land use
law and planning issues.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will
be hosting a workshop on the Clean California Local Grant
Program to discuss common questions related to the application
process on Wednesday, January 12 from 1:30 – 3:00
p.m.
Caltrans developed the Clean California Local Grant Program as
part of the nearly $1.1 billion Clean California Program created
pursuant to
AB 149, the transportation budget trailer bill.
The Legislature reconvened for the second year of the 2021-22
legislative session this week, and members have already started
to amend and introduce proposed legislation. Below are a couple
of two-year bills that were recently significantly amended into
land use and solar permitting measures.
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development has
released updated electric vehicle charging station permit
streamlining guidance to include recently passed electric vehicle
charging station (EVCS) permit streamlining law
AB 970. AB 970 builds on the State’s existing permit
streamlining law, adding timelines for EVCS application review
and approval.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) developed
the Clean California Local Grant Program as part of the nearly
$1.1 billion Clean California Program created pursuant to
AB 149, the transportation budget trailer bill.
The two-year Clean California Local Grant Program includes
approximately $296 million for communities to beautify and
improve local streets and roads, tribal lands, parks, pathways,
and transit centers to restore pride in public spaces.
UCLA Extension’s annual one-day Land Use Law Planning Conference
will be held on Friday, January 21, 2022from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Attendees will
have the option to join the Conference virtually or in-person at
the Omni Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.
The Conference will include a big-picture view of land use law
and planning practice, updates on core state and federal case law
and legislation, as well as practice pointers on basic land use
law and planning issues.
Governor Newsom met the October 10 deadline to take action on
measures approved by the Legislature and delivered to his desk.
To keep counties informed of new laws that impact them, CSAC will
be publishing a series of articles to spotlight those laws in
each policy area. This week, the Housing, Land Use, and
Transportation policy area provides information on new laws
affecting housing and land use, permitting, transportation,
and Tribal Intergovernmental Relations.
