This week, the hotly-debated SB-827, which would have increased zoning for housing near transit around the state, was voted down in committee, as you may well have seen in the news. Meanwhile, the more modest AB-2923 which requires cities to make their zoning compatible with BART’s Transit Oriented Development guidelines, passed its first committee hearing, and now heads to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on April 23.

The BART TOD bill was amended in committee to exempt cities that are meeting their full statewide housing obligations for all income levels, and clarifies that local design guidelines continue to apply, as long as they don’t contradict the minimum density requirements in BART’s policy. The bill applies to properties that BART owns, within one-half mile of a BART station.

Currently, the bill only covers areas represented by the elected BART board.  The bill currently excludes San Mateo which currently has BART service and Santa Clara County, which will which soon have BART service to San Jose, because those areas aren’t represented by the BART board.

The BART TOD bill has three key legislative leaders from the Bay Area/Peninsula Corridor, including main author David Chiu, and co-authors including Kevin Mullin (San Mateo County) and Phil Ting (San Francisco and Northern San Mateo County).