Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) on July 1 presented four bills in both the Senate Agriculture Committee and Senate Housing Committee, where they passed with solid support.

AB 1009 would establish the Farm to School Food Hub Program and propose funding for a regional pilot program to establish three farm-to-school food hubs in northern, central and southern California. The food hubs created under AB 1009 will prioritize aggregation and distribution from small to mid-scale farms and ranches that are cooperatively owned, or owned by socially disadvantaged, beginning, limited resource, veteran, minority, or disabled farmers and ranchers to school districts and other public institutions.

The California Pet Blood Bank Modernization Act, AB 1282, would authorize California licensed veterinarians to operate humane community blood banks to produce and sell or transfer animal blood and blood products. Currently, voluntary community-based blood banking isn’t allowed in California, and it is the only state in the country that requires animal blood to come from so-called “closed colony blood banks.”

AB 721 would clarify that the density restrictions in private covenants cannot be used to curtail an affordable or supportive housing development that is otherwise consistent with local zoning. While court decisions and the California Legislature have made racially restrictive covenants unenforceable, these covenants often contain other vestiges of discrimination — such as limits on the number and size of units that can be built.

Lastly, AB 1398 would require local agencies that fail to adopt a legally compliant housing element to properly re-zone within one year. The bill aims to ensure that cities and counties are adequately re-zoning to meet their housing needs.