1972 to 2012 · Over 40 Years of Service to the Commercial, Industrial, and Retail Real Estate Industry

For those of you following the Redevelopment Dissolution process, last week the Court of Appeal requested supplemental briefing on the effect of the AB1X 26 and the Matosantos decision on CRA v. Genest (challenging SERAF payments), currently pending before the Court of Appeal. CRA’s and the Attorney General’s responses are on the CRA website under Lawsuit Documents.  Click here to read.

One of several bills we are strongly supporting that would provide more opportunity for energy efficiency financing to flow to existing building projects, passed the Assembly Local Government Committee this week on a unanimous, bipartisan vote.

AB 2131 (Olsen; R-Modesto) would authorize the legislative body of a local government to invest up to 5% of their aggregate investment funds in Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bonds or projects financed with PACE bonds.

If passed, we expect this program would help local governments provide the needed capital and authorize more PACE programs up and down the state.

The Hallways of the Capitol are abuzz awaiting release of the Governor’s revised spending plan next week, known as the “May Revise.”  It is known that revenue is running some $3 billion below expectations and deep cuts are expected in the revised numbers.  Brown states his plan back to fiscal health is built on a mix of cuts in the budget along the hope that voters pass his tax initiative this November.  A budget for the new fiscal year beginning on July 1 is due from the Legislature by June 15.  Click here for more information.

This week, after a long run-up to an anticipated battle on Split Roll Property Tax, the bill dealing with the “Change of Ownership” issue, introduced by the author that proclaimed he was seeking to “nuke Prop 13,” AB 2014 (Ammiano; D-San Francisco), was suddenly “pulled” from the committee hearing docket and not presented.

The bill sought to set up a “Task Force” to purportedly review change of ownership issue. This task force however, neglected to name anyone from the commercial real estate industry to participate and did not provide any funding to complete the task.

The Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee reports that the bill has missed an important deadline and will not move forward this year.  However, as in the past, we are expecting advocates to try to move the issue forward in budget negotiations and a much bigger effort is looming as part of a statewide ballot measure.

On a bipartisan 4-1 vote, the Senate Judiciary committee this week passed SB 1186, a bill jointly authored by Senator Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Senator Dutton (R-Inland Empire) which contains important reforms relating to disability access lawsuits.

Although contentious at times, with several individuals known to file hundreds of ADA lawsuits present at the hearing to oppose the measure, the committee mustered the political will to agree that reforms are necessary.

Many amendments and changes to the bill were discussed and a working group has been established to continue to work towards consensus.  Rex Hime, President and CEO of CBPA, is representing commercial real estate interests and he expects the bill to be the “focus of intense negotiations over the next few months.”

Hime has a long history working with a bipartisan group of legislators and a wide variety impacted constituency groups, that have been able to work together to provide incremental reform over the past few years.

SB 1186 is intended to enhance accessibility while addressing lawsuit abuses and provides a modicum of protection from predatory individuals to businesses that are striving to do the right thing and complying with accessibility laws.

Click here to read the current version of the bill.

The 2012 Green California Summit & Expo, the largest annual event focused on green policy, practice and technology, comes to the Sacramento Convention Center on April 26 & 27. Now in its sixth year, the Summit will feature 150 companies offering green products and services, as well as keynote speakers, educational sessions, a special full-day green curriculum workshop, leadership awards, and networking opportunities.

BOMA California is a sponsor of this is event.  As such you receive a 20% discount when you register by using the code “BOMA.”  Click here to register or call Cindy Dangberg at 626-577-5700.

From the Governor’s Office:

Lucy Dunn, of Coto de Caza, has been appointed to the California Transportation Commission, where she has served since 2008. Dunn has been the president and chief executive officer of the Orange County Business Council since 2005 and was director at the California Department of Housing and Community Development from 2004 to 2005. She was senior vice president at Hearthside Homes Inc. from 1990 to 2004, senior vice president at Signal Landmark from 1987 to 1990 and principal at the Law Offices of Lucetta Dunn from 1981 to 1987. Dunn sits on the board of directors for the Lennar Charitable Housing Foundation and the Association of California Cities-Orange County. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Dunn is a Republican.

We congratulate Lucy and know she will do a great job in her new public service role at on the CTC Commission.

Many of you have been following the AB 1103-Benchmarking regulatory process for several years.  Now is the last chance to review and comment prior to scheduled adoption in May.  A coalition of business groups, led by BOMA California has worked, along with the Energy Commission to shape the regulations into something that implements the bill in the most efficacious manner possible.

The proposed regulations require the owner of a nonresidential building within California, in advance of the sale, lease, or and financing of the building, to benchmark the building’s energy use using the U.S. EPA’s Portfolio Manager system and to disclose statements of the building’s energy usage to potential buyers, leasees, and lenders. The proposed regulations also require utilities serving the building to release the most recent 12 months of energy use data for the entire building to an owner’s U.S. EPA’s Portfolio Manager Account.

Click here to read the proposed regulations; Revised Staff Draft, publication # CEC-400-2010-004-SD3.

A public hearing will be held on April 9 — final adoption is scheduled for one month later.

Another policy issue, for which we have long advocated, is reform of how ADA is enforced. As sponsors of the first significant reform on the issue three years ago, we have been disheartened to see predatory (“Drive By”) lawsuits move from state to federal courts.  However, this Congressional session has seen the introduction of a bill by Congressmember Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) meant to reduce these frivolous lawsuits.  Additionally, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) recently sent a letter to State Senate pro tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) encouraging the State Legislature to make another effort to resolve the issue and offering to introduce federal legislation if needed.

We say huzzah and thank you to Mr. Lungren, Mr. Steinberg, and Ms. Feinstein, for your leadership on this issue.  Drive-by lawsuits must be staunched – they are hurting the business community while doing nothing to address or improve “access.”

Click here to read Senator Feinstein’s letter and click here to read a news story about the issue

Two bills have been introduced to update the statutory requirements relating to installation of Automated External Defibrillators (AED).  Although BOMA California was part of the group that negotiated the original law we have long pointed to the fact that the statute is unnecessarily restricting the promulgation of these life-saving devices and we fully support an update.

SB 1436 (Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) and AB 1666 (Olsen; R-Modesto) each would revamp the AED law which is scheduled to “re-set” on January 1, 2013 with new, more onerous language than is currently on the books.  However, both bills are slightly different from one another in the details, and only one can become law.

By removing unnecessary barriers to installations of AED in public places, it would increase access to AEDs which can reduce the number of deaths resulting from out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest.

Because of the life-saving potential of AEDs and their proven efficacy, we think it is in the public interest for the state to encourage accessibility in public places where cardiac arrest may be a significant risk.

As if the CEC didn’t have enough to do just writing the Nation’s most progressive energy code, along comes AB 1627 (Dickinson; D-Sacramento), legislation that will drastically impact your operations by enacting regulations attempting to limit how much people drive through building codes.

If enacted into law, AB 1627 will prohibit local governments from issuing building permits for construction or renovation until a local building official determines the building plans have significantly reduced “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) by the individuals traveling to-and-from the new construction.

To meet these standards a permitee must mitigate the “vehicle miles traveled” associated with the individual occupants of the building – whether it be commercial or residential.  The mitigation is likely to come by way of new mandates to fund public transit or other trip reduction programs.

Click here to read Assembly Member Dickinson’s press release on the bill.

Along with a large coalition of allied business groups and some in local government who are concerned that the state is further usurping land-use planning responsibilities, we are vigorously opposing the measure.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has moved out of the informal process and has now started formal proceedings to update California’s energy efficiency building standards.

The CEC kicked-off the formal proceeding by conducting two full days of hearings early last week. CEC staff covered each of the proposed changes to the standards for all new commercial and residential buildings. There is also a host of changes being proposed for additions and alterations to existing buildings.

The CEC plans to release formal “15-Day Language” on April 11 and they hope to have the new regulations adopted at their May 9 Business Meeting. These regulations would then go before the Building Standards Commission for approval later in the year. If the CEC stays on its time schedule, these new standards will apply to buildings for which the permit application is submitted to a local building department on or after January 1, 2014.

Industry representatives have expressed great concern with the proposed standards and the overall level of increased stringency and related cost being proposed by the Commission.

Click here for all the documents related to this proceeding.