Senate Panel Passes Bill to Weaken Rent Control Law : Legislation: Judiciary Committee approves measure to let landlords raise fees when units become vacant.

A bill that would weaken rent control in Santa Monica, West Hollywood and four other cities has won approval in the state Senate Judiciary Committee, where it has repeatedly been killed in previous years.

“With this victory, we are optimistic the Legislature will finally act to reform rent control,” said Terry Reardon, chief of staff for state Sen. Jim Costa (D-Hanford), the bill’s sponsor.

In previous years, a similar bill to allow rents to go up when a unit is vacated has passed the state Assembly. It has never reached the Senate floor because former Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Van Nuys), a proponent of stringent rent control, succeeded in blocking it in the Judiciary Committee.

On Tuesday, however, that committee passed the bill on a 5-2 vote, with two abstentions--including state Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), who succeeded Roberti as Senate leader. In a surprise change from previous years, state Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland), who represents Berkeley--a city with a strong rent control law--supported the measure.

Dejected rent control proponents predicted dire consequences if the bill becomes law. Former Santa Monica Mayor Dennis Zane, an architect of the rent control movement in Santa Monica, said: “It will be a creeping, incremental disaster for Santa Monica.”

“This is one more indication in California and the nation that the interests and rights of the common people are going to be sacrificed to the interests of the more affluent and propertied,” Zane said.

But those who favored the Costa bill said it will benefit Santa Monica in the long run because it will encourage the construction of additional housing and the improvement of existing housing stock.

“Owners will have to fix up their buildings to compete,” said Robert Sullivan, past president of the Apartment Owners of Greater Los Angeles.

The measure, which faces several more legislative actions, would allow landlords to increase rents each time an apartment unit is vacated. The rent on that apartment would remain controlled until another vacancy occurs. Currently, landlords in cities with strong rent control laws cannot raise rents when a unit becomes vacant.