Environmental Group Sues Healdsburg over Housing Development’s GHGs
In the latest environmental challenge of a major development project, a local environmental group is suing the City of Healdsburg for failing to account for the greenhouse gas emissions of what could be the city’s largest housing project. The proposed project would replace a vacant former lumber yard with a 120-room hotel and 350 units of housing, including 132 income-restricted rental units and a 220-unit senior living community. According to city data, Healdsburg is one of Sonoma County’s most expensive and slowest-growing real estate market – adding just over 300 new homes in the past decade. The lawsuit, filed by the Sebastopol-based California River Watch, followed Healdsburg City Council’s May approval of its northern development plan. The group particularly objects to county-wide trends toward hotel-centered growth and its attendant tourist activity, which adds to local greenhouse gas emissions. “We have maybe 10 years to make major changes in how we conduct our lives and business activities to avoid irreversible, catastrophic global warming,” Santa Rosa-based environmental attorney Jerry Bernhaut told the Press Democrat. “If the only way to get affordable housing is to destroy the environment, then we’re in deep trouble.”
Virgin Trains Revives Vegas-to-Victorville Train Concept
High-speed rail service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas just got closer to becoming reality, after Los Angeles transit officials announced initial talks with the private rail developer Virgin Trains USA. In 2018, the Florida-based company announced plans to revive a long-simmering proposal for the Southern California-to-Vegas line. The train would travel along the 15 Freeway and end in the San Bernandino County city of Victorville. LA Metro CEO Phil Washington announced that though Metro won’t be involved in the railroad’s operation, the agency can facilitate the project’s extension to Los Angeles. Now, Virgin Trains is seeking approval from California and Nevada to raise $3.6 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The company awaits approval for $2.4 billion in bonds from California in September, and $1.2 billion in bonds from Nevada in November. The company has used private activity bonds before to fund a Florida rail system from Miami to Orlando. If bonds are approved, trains could begin running as soon as 2023 – far ahead of the publicly-funded California High Speed Rail project. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)
Bay Area Envisions ‘Seamless’ Regional Transit
The future Bay Area transit system could include integrated fares and coordinated scheduled systems, according to a new vision mapped by Seamless Bay Area. Seamless, a project funded by Microsoft and conducted in partnership with Interline, is assembling a European-inspired transit vision intended to inform lawmakers devising a future transit mega-measure. Seamless representatives argue that before improving existing or building new transit lines, Bay Area officials have to address the lack of coordination between the 27 existing lines. To design a newly-coordinated system, Interstate uses a mapping technology that can minimize distance and time traveled between distance. Realizing this vision would be expensive: current estimates project that funding such a “megabond” measure would require upwards of $100 billion. But according to Seamless and transit officials, funds for a coordinated system will make the difference for whether people choose transit at all. At a recent SPUR meeting, Seamless cofounder Ian Griffiths expressed this opinion. “This has the potential to bring not just a thousand new riders, but hundreds of thousands or millions of new riders, which is what we need to think about if we really want to reduce the amount of driving,” Griffiths said, according to Streetsblog SF.
Survey Finds Strong Support for Coastal Preservation
Three out of four Californians believe that the condition of the ocean and beaches is very important to the economy and quality of life, according to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)’s 2019 “Californians and the Coast” report. The report, conducted as part of the PPIC’s “Californians and the Environment” statewide survey, illustrates that concern for the beaches crosses party and demographic lines; with Democrats and Independents only slightly more likely than Republicans to express interest in preserving beaches. Similarly, the report found that 72 percent of Californians see plastics and marine debris as a big problem – but Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to hold this view. Another key metric finds that about 80 percent of residents believe that urban developments that harm wildlife habits and overfishing are big problems affecting the ocean and its coast. Notably, 67 percent of residents opposed allowing more coastal oil drilling – nearly the lowest level of support expressed for oil drilling since the PPIC began asking about it in 2003. Coastal residents are only slightly more likely than inland residents to oppose drilling. Finally, the report found that 72 percent of Californians support allowing wind power and wave energy projects off the California coast.
OPR Seeks Cities' Input via Surveys on Specific Plans, Climate Change
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and its partners within the planning community distributed a series of statewide surveys asking local jurisdictions to help it in its work to better support communities across California. It is asking these jurisdictions to inform OPR about local planning and community needs. The Specific Plan Survey is a a special survey and data-gathering endeavor to gain a better understanding of Specific Plans in the State of California. OPR's goal is to create a publicly accessible geodatabase of all the boundaries of specific plans in the State. In order to do so, they are asking all jurisdictions outside of the of the SCAG and SANDAG MPOs to fill out a survey on specific plans. They also ask jurisdictions to provide them with the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) shapefile containing the boundaries of specific plans for their jurisdiction. The Local Government Commission is distributing a survey that focuses on local agencies’ climate action capacity. The survey is geared toward local governments that are planning to work on a specific climate action project (e.g. a research project, plan development, pilot project etc.) in the next 12 months. The Local Government Commission is conducting this survey because they understand that local agencies face significant capacity limits with respect to responding to climate change. They want to better understand what capacity limits pubic agencies currently have, how implementation of climate programs and projects might build capacity, and the factors that influence progress.
Quick Hits & Updates
As part of his multi-pronged agenda to address housing scarcity and protect renters, Gov. Newsom is proposing to redirect California’s share of a 2012 nationwide bank settlement into a legal assistance fund for renters and homeowners. The funds come from the state’s portion of a settlement with the country’s fie largest mortgage services accused of abusive lending practices linked to the 2008 recession. Pending the Legislature’s approval, California would place $331 million previously spent on debt repayment into a trust for nonprofits to assist with borrower relief in foreclosure cases and represent renters facing eviction.
Cities must approve new navigation centers for the homeless as long as they comply with zoning laws, building codes, and safety requirements, according to new legislation approved by state lawmakers. The measure, drafted by Senator Scott Weiner and folded into the AB101 budget bill, is intended to speed up construction of such homeless shelters and service providers. The bill comes amid strong community opposition against San Francisco’s proposed Embarcadero Navigation Center.
In its first step toward its $1 billion Bay Area housing plan, tech giant Google announced that it will donate $50 million to Housing Trust Silicon Valley, a nonprofit that offers loans for affordable housing. In June, Google announced its far-reaching housing vision, which included $250 million specifically toward affordable housing. Google is donating the money specifically through the Housing Trust’s “TECH” (Tech + Equity + Community + Housing) program, which offers loans to affordable housing developers.
The Beverly Hills School District faces a lawsuit from a citizens’ committee for its use of voter-approved bond money to challenge Metro’s Purple Line subway extension to the Westside. The school district has spent $15.7 million in bond funding for infrastructure improvements on its lawsuit to block or alter the route of the subway, which will travel under Beverley Hills High School. The Measure E citizens’ bond oversight committee is questioning whether the $334 million made available to the district for building and maintaining school facilities could be used on legal funds. So far, more than eight percent of the funds have gone toward litigation against Metro and the Federal Transit Administration. (See prior CP&DR commentary.)
The Los Angeles City Council instructed the city planning department to make policy recommendations to ensure the creation of affordable housing throughout the city. Such recommendations will likely include “inclusionary zoning,” a strategy already adopted in the Westlake community plan. However, some experts claim that though inclusionary zoning is well-intentioned, it may not have its intended effect in areas of the county zoned exclusively for single-family homes – and that rezoning for multi-family units first would be the most effective strategy. Currently, estimates show that LA County has a shortage of 516,946 affordable housing units.
L.A. Metro staff presented a report with $175 million of recommendations for improved service in the corridor between Burbank and downtown Los Angeles over the next 20 years. Improvements include adding new infill stations, including a “River Park” station adjacent to the Taylor Yard, and running Amtrak and Metrolink at 30-minute headways. According to the report, these proposed improvements would increase weekday round trips by 64 percent from 37 trips in 2019 and 61 trips upon completion. These projects do not yet have an identified funding source.
Redondo Beach would need $291 million to prepare for a 5.5-foot increase in sea levels by 2100, according to a recent report from the California State Land Commission. The study, shared at a recent city council meeting, also found that damage incurred for not preparing for seawater inundation would cost $79 million in damages and $7.8 million in potential revenue lost. This assessment is required by state Assembly Bill 691, under which any city with public trust land generating at least $250,000 must prepare a sea level rise assessment. Funding and timelines for potential preparations – including possibly raising the height of harbor sea walls – are not yet clear.
North Coast wildfires have deepened a housing crisis in rural communities, according to a recent analysis by the Times-Standard. The analysis, which cites U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and HUD numbers, finds that the vacancy rate in Chico was already nearly 0 percent before the Camp Fire – and the loss of homes has led people to move to surrounding areas or face increased home prices. Similarly, the analysis found that home prices are climbing in areas like Yuba City, Corning, and Redding.
The San Mateo City Council voted not to approve Measure P in its 2040 General Plan, a bill imposing 50-foot height limits and restricting density. Measure P, which was first approved as Measure H in 2004, will sunset in 2020. City officials will be required to approve a General Plan amendment to fully change the building restrictions set by Measure P, since the General Plan will not be complete until 2023.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development released a survey asking Californians to share their opinions on housing and community needs. Additionally, in August 2019 HCD will begin hosting focus groups statewide to collect additional input. Results from the survey and focus groups will contribute to a large-scale planning effort to contextualize U.S. census data and data from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
L.A. Metro will need at least $3.3 billion in additional funding to complete their ambitious “28 by ’28” plan to build 28 new projects in time for the 2028 Olympics. Metro is lagging behind on four key projects: rail lines serving the Sepulveda Pass, the South Bay, Southeast Los Angeles, and the Gateway cities. A recent report from Metro staff recommends that agency leaders consider developing the four projects in phases, enabling portions to be completed by 2028 and the entire lines opening at a later date.
Joining a recent trend of local city initiatives to meet California’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, the Irvine City Council announced that it is drafting a Climate Action Plan. The city hopes to set a precedent in Orange County, and follow the standards set in San Diego County, by outlining specific measures to reduce emissions, produce less waste, and convert to more efficient energy sources. Early talks focus on reducing wildfire risks to the area, as well as pursuing “community choice energy” to allow the city to choose its own energy sources rather than rely on Southern Californian Edison.
Oakland’s antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League for the Raiders' impending move to Las Vegas was dismissed by a Chief U.S. Magistrate, who ruled that Oakland hasn’t shown how it was harmed by the NFL’s limit of 32 teams. The city maintains that it has a right to damages under a provision of the NFL’s relocation policy requiring each team to “advance the interests of the League in its home territory.” The magistrate gave the city until September 9 to file a revised suit to address his objections.
Residences in LGBTQ-centric communities reap higher value for their homes, in what recent Zillow research calls a “gayborhood premium.” According to the recent analysis of 36 statewide housing markets, residents in LGBTQ-friendly areas can gain up to 294 percent more value for their homes than those in surrounding metro areas. For example, Palm Springs, which has the highest percentage of same-sex couples in California, have a 233 percent home value premium over the average prices in surrounding metro areas. Similarly, Guerneville and West Hollywood, which rank second and third in same-sex couple ratios statewide, also carry high home values.
Citing safety concerns for walkers close to a pedestrian border crossing, an outlet mall at the San Ysidro border sued the City of San Diego for its approval of a parking garage. In May, the San Diego City Council approved a five-story garage above 13,000 square feet of commercial outlet space. However, the suit seeks an injunction, pending an analysis of pedestrian and cyclist impacts of the 70-foot garage – particularly since the garage entrance would cross a bike lane, a sidewalk, and three eastbound lanes of traffic.
The Long Beach Planning Commission recommended approval of the West Gateway project downtown, including a 40-story tower that will become the city’s tallest building. The proposed high-rise project, spanning two towers and four residential buildings, will bring 748 residential units to the city, 1,510 parking spaces in a nine-level garage, 153 bicycle spaces. It will occupy a massive 5.61-acre tract north of the World Trade Center, and include both public and private open space.
