Brief

This motion by Councilmembers Blumenfield, Hutt, Lee, McOsker, Rodriguez, and Soto-Martínez directs the city to establish a Citywide Housing Incentive Program aligned with California's SB 4, which allows local governments to offer incentives for housing development in exchange for affordability commitments and labor standards compliance. The Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved an amended version in November 2024. The file currently sits in the Housing Committee after a September 2026 rereference and was noted and filed at the most recent hearing on September 8, 2026.

Full summary

California's SB 4, signed into law in October 2023, allows faith-based organizations and non-profit colleges to build multifamily affordable housing on their land regardless of local zoning restrictions. Projects receive by-right approval so long as they meet objective standards and environmental protections. In exchange, developers must restrict rents to households below 80% of area median income for at least 55 years for rentals and 45 years for homeownership. The law also mandates prevailing wages on projects with more than 10 units, and on projects with 50 or more units, contractors must hire apprentices and cover health care costs for construction workers and their dependents. This motion, introduced in October 2024 by Councilmember Tim McOsker and five colleagues, identified a specific problem: the city's developing Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP), and particularly its Affordable Housing Incentive Program (AHIP) component, contained local adaptations of SB 4's intent that did not fully comply with state law on affordability and labor protections. The motion directed the Planning Department and the Chief Legislative Analyst, with help from the City Attorney and Housing Department, to report on language that would fully incorporate SB 4's labor and affordability standards into CHIP, and that would remove any local adaptation of SB 4 from CHIP so that SB 4 itself — not a weaker local version — would govern by-right development on faith-based and non-profit college lands. The motion was referred first to the Housing and Homelessness Committee, then rerouted to Planning and Land Use Management, which approved an amended version on November 5, 2024, and sent it to the Housing Committee. After a rereference in August 2026 under a broader administrative reorganization, the Housing Committee took up the matter at its September 8, 2026 meeting. Councilmembers Padilla, Jurado, and Park all voted yes on a motion to note and file — meaning the committee acknowledged the item but chose not to advance it to the full Council. The committee report notes no fiscal analysis was completed and no community impact statements were submitted. The file remains technically open and does not expire until August 2028, but the note-and-file action signals that the committee considered the matter resolved or superseded, likely because CHIP and related housing incentive policy has continued to evolve through other Council files, including the related file 23-0002-S30. No further action has been recorded since September 2026.

Activity (8)

• 2026-09-08 Housing Committee noted and filed item(s).
• 2026-08-31 Housing Committee scheduled item for committee meeting on September 8, 2026.
• 2026-08-28 City Clerk rereferred item to Housing Committee, pursuant to Council File No. 26-2000.
• 2024-11-05 Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved as amended .
• 2024-11-05 Planning and Land Use Management Committee transmitted Council File to Housing and Homelessness Committee.
• 2024-11-01 Planning and Land Use Management Committee scheduled item for committee meeting on November 5, 2024.
• 2024-10-24 Corrected Referral per Council President to include Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
• 2024-10-15 Motion referred to Housing and Homelessness Committee.

Documents (9)

• 2026-09-08 Report from Housing Committee · report
• 2024-11-18 Communication(s) from Public · communication
• 2024-11-07 Communication(s) from Public · communication
• 2024-11-05 Communication(s) from Public · communication
• 2024-11-05 Communication(s) from Public · communication
• 2024-11-05 Report from Planning and Land Use Management Committee · report
• 2024-11-05 Speaker Card(s) · speaker_card
• 2024-11-04 Communication(s) from Public · communication
• 2024-10-15 Motion · motion