Dear Mayor Ramos and Council Members,
We understand Councilmember Kamei is preparing Mountain View’s input for the Cities Association of Santa Clara County’s Legislative Action Committee. Mountain View YIMBY would like to offer our priorities for the bills the LAC takes up this year.
Our top ask: AB 2252 (Lee) on single-stair reform
This is the biggest cost-reduction item available this session. AB 2252 directs HCD to propose building standards for single-stair multifamily buildings of up to six stories. Single-stair construction is standard in Seattle, New York, and essentially everywhere else in the developed world. California’s prohibition is estimated to add 6 to 13 percent to the cost of a mid-rise apartment with no demonstrated safety benefit. It also forces nearly every mid-rise project into a double-loaded corridor layout, producing the boxy, repetitive buildings residents complain about. Single-stair designs allow units with windows on multiple sides, more varied floor plans, and better-looking buildings overall. AB 835, signed in 2024, already directed the State Fire Marshal to develop standards by 2028, but 2028 is too far away to help any project that needs to pencil today. AB 2252 puts HCD on a faster track using a process the agency is built for. Its first hearing in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee is April 22.
Single-stair reform is already one of the seven legislative themes Council added to the City’s platform at the February 11 study session, at Councilmember Ramirez’s suggestion and with Mayor Ramos explicitly endorsing it. AB 2252 is the specific vehicle to hang that theme on, and the LAC slate is the right venue to push it in concert with the other Santa Clara County cities.
Other priority asks
Bills we think the LAC should also take a Support position on. A coordinated Support from the Santa Clara County cities carries real weight in policy committee:
SB 1216, Housing Leadership Designation. Creates a state designation for cities with measurable housing production. Mountain View is one of four Santa Clara County cities on HCD’s Pro-Housing designation list; a bill that rewards cities for actually building has our direct support.
AB 2074 (Haney), Downtown Revitalization Act. Streamlines high-rise residential and mixed-use development near regional transit hubs. Directly relevant to East Whisman, North Bayshore, and the El Camino corridor, and backed by the State Building and Construction Trades Council. Passed the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee unanimously earlier this month.
AB 1406 (Ward), starter home deposits. Raises the cap on homebuyer deposits in new for-sale housing from 3 percent to 6 percent. The mechanism is on the financing side: larger earnest money reduces lender risk on the project, which reduces construction financing cost, which makes more for-sale housing pencil. Passed the Assembly 41-14 in January.
SB 1014, requiring cities to disclose infrastructure requirements within 30 days of a housing application, and barring them from adding new requirements once a post-entitlement permit application is filed.
SB 1116 (Caballero), improvements to the Starter Home Revitalization Act (SB 684 in 2023 and SB 1123 in 2024).
SB 1117 (Cervantes), removing financial penalties that many jurisdictions impose on ADUs over 750 square feet.
We also support the City’s existing position in favor of condo construction defect reform (AB 1903), which Council has already discussed and signed on to.
Closing
We recognize the LAC handles a long bill list each cycle, and that Mountain View’s representative has limited bandwidth. If the City picks only one bill from this letter to champion, we would ask that it be AB 2252. The savings from single-stair reform compound across every mid-rise project the City approves for decades. We would be glad to discuss any of this with Council or with Councilmember Kamei before the next LAC meeting.
David Watson, on behalf of Mountain View YIMBY