August 25, 2026 · Nat Resources · 1,345 words · 12 speakers · 45 segments
Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee will come to order. Good morning. We ask if all members can come to room 2100 very promptly. Since we only have one bill on today's agenda, pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10b, not 29.10a, This is AB 2051 by WICs. The bill was substantially amended on the floor last week. Previously, AB 2051 passed this committee unanimously at our July 1, 2026 hearing. Bless you.
We do have Assemblymember WICs with us. Please go ahead and give us the update. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for hearing AB 2051 in light of amendments that we made last week. the committee unanimously already supported the policy that is in Section 2 of the legislation, so now we're here to talk about the amendments. Amendments made also narrowly address one of the many hurdles facing the Venice Dell Community Housing Project, a 100% affordable housing development on what is currently a parking lot 800 feet from the coastline in the Venice Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles. The project first proposed 10 years ago would include two mixed-use structures, each four stories high, which contain 120 affordable housing units, 68 of which are reserved for people experiencing homelessness with supportive services offered on site. In 2025, the Department of Housing and Community Development provided a $42.4 million conditional award to help fund the project. Because of the obstacles that Venice Del must overcome, that award is now in peril. AB 2051 retroactively extends for five years, the Coastal Commission's authority to give a local government more time to act on modifications to a land use plan, which specifically authorizes the approval of a 100% affordable housing project. To be clear, this bill does not simply provide a glide path for Venice, for Venice Del to break ground. The project has been the subject of seven lawsuits of which it has won, and two of which are scheduled to go on trial next year. AB 2051 does not invalidate those challenges, but it addresses the issues of the City of Los Angeles to act on the pathway provided by the Coastal Commission for the Venice Del to begin construction. Joining me today to testify and answer technical questions is Anya Lawler on behalf of Venice Community Housing, and when the time is right, I would
respectfully ask for an aye vote. Okay, thank you. Please go ahead. Good morning, Mr. Chair Members. Anya Lawler here today representing Venice Community Housing, one of the two developers of the Venice Del project. This project has been put through the ringer, totally unnecessarily. This is a minor modification to keep the Coastal Commission's approval alive so that once the remaining two pieces of litigation are resolved, the project can quickly break ground and not lose out on the HCD award, and we would respectfully request an aye vote. Thank you.
Anyone else in support?
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members. Stephen Stenzler with Brownstein. on behalf of the Bay Area Council, a proud co-sponsor of this measure, YIMBY Action, Housing Action Coalition, and I've been asked to give a Me Too for Enterprise Community Partners.
Thank you. All in support.
Good morning, Chair and members. Paul Schaefer with the California Council of Affordable Housing here in support.
Thank you.
Good morning. Lizzie Guansona here on behalf of the County of Marin, City County of San Francisco, City County Association of San Mateo,
and SF Bay Ferry, all in support.
Jack Worson from Nausman on behalf of the County of Monterey and the Santa Clara Valley Water District in support.
Okay any opposition Do we have any opposition We do not We bring it back to committee for discussion Good. I have questions, too. Go ahead. You go first.
Thank you. Actually, I just want to say thank you for your perseverance in trying to see this through. I think it's a perfect example of why we are so far behind in housing. is the process, the lawsuits, all of the above, the commission sometimes. I mean, all of these things are things that we put in place, and now they are manifesting themselves in this type of issue where you actually have to create legislation to allow a project to get built, or it won't. And that's sad. That's sad. We really need to think about that and understand what we need to do better what we need to get out of the way of so that these type of projects can get to get get funded and get done and keep their funding so appreciate it I'll be supporting when in time comes if we can get a quorum that'd be really good because I have another meeting I have to get to that would be
really good you've called the relevant members okay I want a question which is why we were talk about this being put through the ringer. Why was it put through the ringer? Was it just neighbors who didn't want the project or was it the Coastal Commission issues involved or
why was it put through the ringer? It was definitely not the Coastal Commission. The Coastal Commission has been very supportive of this project. The project, this actually started with the city of Los Angeles seeking developers to develop this parking lot as affordable housing. the project that these developers applied Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing they applied they won the award to build the project the project was approved by the city council and then a new city council member came in and a new city attorney and they rescinded the approvals and that teed off a whole bunch of litigation most of which has been resolved in favor of the project two of which are pending in March and April and meanwhile the coastal Commission's approval has expired. So this would simply be able to keep that alive while we resolve those last two pieces of litigation and then we can break ground and build 120 units of affordable
housing. Excellent. Well, I will be supporting the bill when the time comes. I don't want to
require you to stay here necessarily. We'll be waiting for a quorum to vote. Would you like to
close? Sure. Well, I appreciate the comments. It shouldn't be so hard to build housing in California, especially 100% affordable. And with that, when the time is right, respectfully ask
for an aye vote. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thanks for being here. Thank you. Well thank you for that We have a rush of members We heard from Assemblymember Wicks on AB 2051 I would love to entertain a motion Move it Okay. Oh, sorry, I apologize. Let's do quorum first. Submissive quorum. Please call the law.
Senators Becker.
Aye, here. Becker here.
Sayato?
Here. Sayato here.
Allen?
Here. Allen here.
Cabaldon?
Here. Stern. Stern here.
Okay, we have a quorum. Now we have a motion from Senator Ciaro. Can you please call the roll? Senator Becker.
Aye. Do you want to read it?
Measure to be returned to the Senate floor for consideration. That is the motion by Senator Ciaro. Aye. Becker, aye.
Becker, aye.
Ciaro. Aye.
Ciaro, aye.
Allen? Allen, aye. Cabaldon? Aye. Cabaldon, aye. Grove? Laird? Stern? Aye. Stern, aye. All right, 5 to 0. We'll keep that open. Thank you to all the members who are here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have some visitors in the Rules Committee. We'd love to reopen the roll on AB 2051.
We have a motion. Would the measure be returned to the Senate floor for consideration?
Please call the absent members. Senators Grove.
Grove, aye. Laird, aye.
Thank you to both of you. That is 7-0. It is out. Thank you. And thank you guys so much for the beautiful flowers. You were so sweet.
You're very welcome. It was super sweet of you guys.
Thank you.
Credit for Rebecca.
And now we shall adjourn. Thank you.
Thank you.