Law and Legislation Committee Meeting, May 18, 2021: ADU Ordinance and Employee Recall Rights
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Law and Legislation Committee Meeting – May 18, 2021
The Sacramento Law and Legislation Committee met via teleconference on May 18, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. to consider routine consent items, a proposed ordinance on laid-off employee recall rights, and an ordinance amending city code related to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). The committee took action on all items, forwarding the ADU ordinance with amendments to the full City Council.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1 – Law and Legislation Log: Approved by a 3-0 vote (Councilmember Guerra absent). Councilmember Valenzuela asked about the timing of a tenant protection program update and was told staff would confirm.
- Item 2 – Legislative Advocacy Correspondence: Received and filed as part of the consent motion. Valenzuela inquired about the process for determining positions on state bills; staff explained the framework based on the city’s legislative platform and the ability to bring controversial items to committee.
Discussion Items
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Item 3 – Reconsideration of Proposed Ordinance Relating to Laid-Off Employee Recall Rights (Two-Thirds Vote Required):
- Staff recommended not passing the ordinance because state legislation (SB 93) had rendered it unnecessary.
- The committee passed a motion (3-0, Guerra absent) to suspend council rules, reconsider the ordinance, and not forward it to the City Council. No public comments were received.
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Item 4 – Ordinance Amending Various Sections of the Sacramento City Code Related to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs):
- Staff presented changes to codify an emergency ordinance set to expire July 31, 2021. Proposed amendments included allowing zero-foot ground-floor setbacks for ADUs located more than 60 feet from the front property line, increasing attached ADU size to 1,200 square feet, and exempting all ADUs from lot coverage limits up to 1,200 square feet.
- Public comments submitted via eComment expressed concern about providing flexibility beyond state law; no verbal callers were taken.
- Councilmember Harris proposed amendments to maintain state size limits for attached ADUs (not increasing to 1,200 sq ft), keep the lot coverage exemption at 800 sq ft (consistent with state law), and preserve existing state parking requirements (which exempt most of the city from requiring dedicated parking for ADUs). After discussion with Councilmembers Valenzuela and Guerra, the committee adopted Harris’s motion (4-0) to forward the resolution and ordinance as amended to the City Council.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar approved (3-0).
- Proposed ordinance on laid-off employee recall rights not forwarded to City Council (3-0).
- ADU ordinance forwarded (4-0) with the following amendments:
- Attached ADU size capped at state-mandated limits (not 1,200 sq ft).
- Lot coverage exemption limited to 800 sq ft.
- Required parking for ADUs kept at state minimums; no additional local parking requirements added.
- Setback provisions as proposed by staff (zero-foot ground floor setbacks for ADUs >60 ft from front property line, with 3-foot upper-floor setbacks) were retained.
- Next steps: The amended ADU ordinance will go before the full City Council for final consideration, likely in the coming weeks.
Meeting Transcript
Chair Shineer's staff is ready when you are great. Let's go ahead and call this meeting of the law and legislation committee to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll to establish a quorum. Thank you. Vice Chair Harris. Here. Councilmember Valenzuela. I expect Councilmember Gera momentarily. And Chair Shaneer. Here. Great. So we have a quorum. Let's go ahead and go forward. And I'm not sure when Councilmember Guerra will be able to attend at what time, but we'll we'll go ahead. So let's look at the consent calendar, items one and two. Any comments on that one? I have a couple questions if that's okay, Chair, before we vote. Sure, of course. Okay, I was just wondering, um, wanted to confirm that I think next month, March 90 days from the tenant protection program update. So wanted to confirm if that would be on the agenda next month. Um the log. Yeah, I believe so. Um Ms. Hernandez. I can double check and get back to council member Valenzuela. Okay. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Consuelo. Um, and then for the legislative advocacy, I was just curious, just because I've been asked and I didn't really know the answer, what the process was for determining positions on bills and whether or not offices chime could chime in or something. Yeah, absolutely. Offices can chime in. But uh Ms. Hernandez, do you want to kind of walk through that real quick for council member Valenzuela? Sure, I'd be happy to. Um so the process starts um usually at the beginning of the year, we pass a legislative platform that outlines our policy position. So usually if something falls within kind of the confines of the legislative platform, um, then we can, you know, if somebody makes a request, it could come from the community from council members from from staff. Um, then we go ahead and take a position after running it by um the chair's office uh to make sure that they're okay with it. Um if it's something that's outside of the um of the platform, then you know, kind of similar, we run it by the chair's office. If it's something that we want to move forward with, then we can go ahead and do that. We do try to kind of stick uh with items that have a relatively direct impact on the city. Um, you know, not necessarily like every global issue, but things that kind of affect the work that we do, um, you know, the way we impact our residents, that sort of thing. But yeah, basically, what I would what I would add to that um council member is for the most part, you know, if it falls within the framework, we'll send letters. Uh if if we think and decide that it's it's controversial to the point or it slightly falls out, we can bring it to the committee. We we haven't done a lot of that, but we certainly will do some of some of that uh on specific bills. And my hunch is with the current makeup of the council, there may be more bills that that come to this committee individually, and we'll deal with those on a one one-off basis. Awesome. Thank you, Chair, for indulging that. And with that, I'll move consent. Great. And I'll second.
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