Legislation to Close Loophole in Density Bonus Housing Law Passes Assembly Committee

SB 92 will prevent developers from misusing housing incentives to build oversized, mainly commercial towers that don’t provide real housing units for communities

SACRAMENTO – Legislation by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, to stop the exploitation of the state’s housing density bonus law on Wednesday passed the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee. 

SB 92 prevents the density bonus law from being used to build large commercial projects that far exceed local zoning law and city ordinances. Specifically, the legislation would limit developers to increasing the commercial floor space included in their projects to no more than 2.5 times what is allowed by local zoning. 

The deficiency in present law has come to light with a mixed-use housing project proposed for the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego in which the commercial space exceeded local zoning by more than 1,500%. Density bonus law was designed to allow developers to include commercial uses in their projects to supplement their residential components, as an enticement to build housing. 

The Pacific Beach 239-foot-high, 22-story mixed-use project, which exceeds the community’s three-story height limit, only contains 10 affordable housing units and primarily consists of luxury hotel rooms, subverting the law’s intent. SB 92 would not affect this project but would prevent similar projects proposed in the future from receiving density bonus allowances. 

“The state’s density bonus law incentivizes the building of housing, and we want that,” said Sen. Blakespear. “But we need to ensure developers aren’t exploiting the density bonus law by building giant commercial projects that otherwise wouldn’t be allowed. SB 92 adds appropriate guardrails to the density bonus law to align it with its intended purpose.”

The bill, which has already passed the Senate with bipartisan support, now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for consideration. 

SB 92 is sponsored by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and supported by U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava, the City of Alameda and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.

Blakespear represents Senate District 38, which covers northern San Diego County and part of southern Orange County. To learn more about the district and Sen. Blakespear, visit her Senate website.