After nearly a year on the shelf, repeal of 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act to have first public hearing Thursday
In February of 2017, San Francisco Assemblymember David Chiu and two other California lawmakers introduced AB 1506, a bill that would repeal the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, a California law that stops cities from imposing rent control on new construction.
That was almost the end of the story for AB 1506, as California landlords reacted with such umbrage that the bill’s principal author, Assemblymember Richard Bloom of Santa Monica, put it on hold for a year.
Legislation that isn’t moving forward has a shorter shelf life than farmers market produce most of the time, so it seemed the rent control expansion might die a quiet death on the back burner. But the proposal has, improbably, survived. And it’s slated for its first public hearing in Sacramento on Thursday, January 11.
The bill is the sole agenda item for the Assembly’s Housing and Community Development Committee this week. AB 1506 still has the exact airtight, no-frills wording as when lawmakers first introduced it last year:
“The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prescribes statewide limits on the application of local rent control with regard to certain properties. This bill would repeal that act.”
