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It’s Sacramento’s never ending tug-of-war. The Legislature tries to extend its control over local governments, while the affected localities scratch and claw to stop them.  

Wednesday, the Assembly’s Local Government Committee will hear a controversial bill that, if passed, could have a big impact both on Berkeley’s landlords and its tenant population. AB 2702, carried by Darrell Steinberg D-Sacramento, and sponsored by the California Association of Realtors, could diminish the city’s ability to regulate the development of second unit housing (so-called “in-law apartments”) just one year after a similar bill forced the city to revamp its ordinance. 

The bill is essentially a replay from 2002, when the Legislature passed a law that required all applications for second unit housing be approved without an administrative hearing as long as the addition was in compliance with city zoning. Many localities negated that provision by passing local ordinances that made administrative hearings practically mandatory. 

This year’s proposed state bill would take that option out of the hands of cities by specifying what zoning standards cities can apply to second unit housing. 

“[The bill] would make it much easier to build a second unit,” said Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks. “It’s the state’s usual one-size fits all approach to laws even though every community is somewhat different.” 

Miriam Ng, a real estate agent with Berkeley-based Korman & Ng, countered that the bill would improve the supply of affordable housing by eliminating costly appeals from neighbors unhappy with the development of second unit apartments. 

“When you have to fight three years and hire two attorneys, that doesn’t make for affordable housing,” she said. 

Ng added that the bill was geared more towards cities like Piedmont, where the community has demonstrated it doesn’t want homeowners to construct second unit housing. 

Berkeley, on the other hand, amended its zoning ordinance to comply with the 2002 law and to encourage such development, Instead of requiring all applicants to go before the Zoning Adjustment Board, Berkeley’s amended ordinance grants the homeowner a zoning certificate if the landlord has complied with all standards outlined in the ordinance. 

The proposed new state law, however, would cut into Berkeley’s freedom to regulate new projects. The city would no longer be allowed to deny proposed additions except on grounds of “health or safety,” would have to strike its prohibition against second units being built by absentee landlords, and would diminish local parking requirements to one space per unit. The latter provision would eliminate Berkeley’s ability to request more parking to mitigate the increase in density caused by a new housing unit. 

So far, the city hasn’t experienced much fallout since the 2002 bill went into effect. The Berkeley Zoning Adjustment Board has faced roughly the same amount of hearings on second unit developments, said Commissioner and Realtor Laurie Capitelli. Most of last year’s appeals, Capitelli said, involved parking or density issues, which he believed the city would retain discretion over even under the newly proposed law. 

Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton guessed that, under the proposed law, the city would still be able to regulate second unit housing in the Berkeley Hills because the narrow windy roads and lack of parking would qualify make new developments a safety issue. But he feared that even if the law affected just a few developments it could have a big impact on the city. “If 10 people decided to do it, that’s 10 neighborhoods that are affected and 10 fights over second-story units,” he said.