Key Bills Receive Hearing Date, VoterVoice Campaigns Coming Next Week

The Legislature’s many committees are finally starting to meet, and two bills supported by WMA will be considered by the Senate Housing Committee on March 19. The two bills are Senate Bill 1052 and Senate Bill 1108, and WMA will be asking you, our members, via VoterVoice to communicate with your State Senator indicating your support of these legislative measures.

Senate Bill 1052 (Seyarto) — This bill adopts recommendations made by the State Auditor on the Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program (MRLPP). The key elements of the bill include suspending the $10 per space fee that can be collected from residents and would allow HCD to examine the bills submitted by the responsible Legal Services Provider (LSP). 

To read the language of Senate Bill 1052, please click here.

Senate Bill 1108 (Ochoa Bogh) — This bill would extend the amount of time to allow residents to correct a violation cited by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) before a mobilehome park’s Permit to Operate (PTO) is threatened with revocation. Senate Bill 1108 is sponsored by WMA.

To read the language of Senate Bill 1108, please click here:

Many other bills impacting the manufactured housing community industry have not yet been assigned to a policy committee, and many committees have not yet scheduled their first meeting. WMA will be closely monitoring developments, so please be on the lookout for future updates and VoterVoice alerts.

The bills of utmost interest to WMA include the following:

1. Assembly Bill 3200 (Hoover) — This bill would create a pilot program to allow mobilehome parks to transfer their existing water systems and the management and billing for water systems over to the serving water company regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). This legislation has not yet been referred to a specific policy committee, but that will occur next week. AB 3200 is sponsored by WMA and is modeled after legislation that created the conversion program currently underway for natural gas and electric systems in mobilehome parks. 

To read the language of Assembly Bill 3200, please click here:

1. Assembly Bill 2778 (Muratsuchi) — This bill would establish statewide rent control for mobilehome parks. While there is no language in the bill yet, the author has until March 11 to make amendments. If the bill is amended to a point where it is referred to a policy committee, WMA will quickly launch an aggressive campaign through VoterVoice to urge opposition.

To read the language of Assembly Bill 2778 as it currently stands, please click here.

To avoid confusion, the current law cited in the bill references Assembly Bill 978, which was signed into law in 2021. The bill dealt with rent control for mobilehome parks located in two incorporated cities in counties with a population between 2.5 million and 3.75 million people. AB 978 has been ruled as unconstitutional by the California Superior Court in Orange County, and the State of California has appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal. WMA’s Committee to Save Property Rights (CSPR) is helping to fund the appeal.

1. Assembly Bill 2539 (Connolly) — This bill would give a so-called “right of first refusal” to residents, resident groups, nonprofit organizations, and local governments when a mobilehome park is listed for sale. Modeled after legislation in Colorado, this bill would delay the amount of time afforded to a mobilehome park when a decision to sell the park is made. WMA is in strong opposition to this measure. The bill has been referred to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, but a hearing date has not yet been announced. 

To read the language of Assembly Bill 2539, please click here.

1. Assembly Bill 2387 (Pellerin) — This bill would encourage new space construction in existing mobilehome parks by exempting up to 10 percent of the permitted spaces currently in the park from local fees and taxes. This would incentivize mobilehome parks to use vacant land in existing communities to build more housing units as California faces a serious housing shortage. 

This bill is almost identical to AB 1334, which was stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee last year. WMA is a strong supporter of efforts to build more housing units in existing mobilehome parks. This bill has been referred to the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development, but a hearing date has not been announced. 

To read the language of AB 2387, please click here.

The Presidential Primary Election is Over and Many Races Too Close to Call

The Presidential Primary election took place on Tuesday, but late arriving ballots in the mail can still be counted if they are received by March 12. As of Tuesday night, statewide voter turnout in the Primary was at 18 percent, but that number will increase as ballots continue to be received. Counties have until April 5 to submit final election results to the Secretary of State.

California has an open “jungle primary” election system which means all candidates from all political parties appear on the Primary ballot. The candidates who finish in first or second place then move on to the general election in November, even if one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.  This differs from local nonpartisan elections that enables a candidate to win the race in the Primary election if he or she receives more than 50 percent of the vote.

Election spending for legislative races in the Primary exceeded $50 million, including expenditures made by candidates and independent expenditures.

To learn about the election results around the state, please visit the Secretary of State’s election results website by clicking here.

HCD Begins Drafting Regulations for Park Manager Training Requirement

The Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is currently preparing draft regulations to adopt a park manager training program, as required by SB 869 which passed and was signed into law in 2022. Once the regulations are drafted, they will be available for public review, and comments may be made by the public beginning May 23, 2024. The comment period will close June 3.

In a stakeholder meeting held on February 22, HCD made it clear that third-party providers of manager training programs will be welcomed. WMA will seek to become a provider of manager training to satisfy the requirements laid out in Senate Bill 869. If you have not already done so, WMA encourages our members to sign up for HCD alerts and bulletins, as this information can often prove to be useful to park owners and managers.

To sign up and begin receiving notifications from HCD, please click here.

It is an honor to serve WMA. Please feel free to reach me directly at chris@wma.org or on my direct line at the office at 916.288.4026 if I may be of assistance or if you need additional information.