An annexation and zoning plan that would constitute the most dramatic expansion of a California city in recent memory will, most likely, be more incremental than monumental. Last week, the Fresno City Council considered the proposed Southeast Development Area (SEDA), a 9,0000-acre swath that would annex farmland for urban development, including up to 45,000 residential units.

Last week, state demographers reported that California’s population had increased again in 2024 – if only slightly – making the third year in a row the population had gone up. That’s a market change from the pandemic years, when the state’s population dropped significantly for the first time ever.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Angelenos of a certain age may remember Allan Malamud, whose column in the Herald-Examiner , and later the Los Angeles Times , was called “Notes on a Scorecard.” He jotted down scattered thoughts and observations—some amusing, some profound—over the course of nine innings and shared them with readers. I recently attended the annual journalists forum at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy , which entailed two days of discussion on all things land use aroun

Apparently a city can delegate final approval of its housing element to the city manager – and not hold a final public hearing – so long as the final changes as a result of negotiating with the Department of Housing and Community Development are relatively minor.

Carlsbad’s growth management plan – dating from the 1980s – is often held up as a model of integrating private residential growth with public infrastructure. (It’s even highlighted in Guide To California Planning.) Times have changed in the last 40 years and local growth control advocates say the Carlsbad City Council has not stuck to the spirit of the initiative. But the growth control folks keep losing in court.

Since Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement a few weeks ago, he has been hailed - and reviled - as the Court's "great liberal voice" of the past couple of decades. But especially in land use, Stevens' legacy rests with not only his ardent support of government regulatory power, but also his skill in mustering five votes, on a pretty conservative court, in favor of aggressive use of land use regulation.

A proposed development in Newport Beach that has become a crucible for the California Coastal Commission was overwhelmingly rejected, 9-1. 

Was Tuesday's election the turning point in the San Francisco density battles?  There's been a lot of talk lately about how the city's longtime policy of controlling new development may be outdated now that it's the most expensive city in the country. And in the election, a ffordable housing, urban density, and short-term housing rentals all prevailed . In fact, m ore people voted on land use measures yesterday in the City and County of San Francisco than in the rest of the

Major reforms of RHNA process and housing element enforcement are proposed.

13 bills are included. Two would permit tax-increment-style financing and entitlement incentives for adaptive reuse and commercial-to-industrial conversations. Those bills are already in the Senate.

In the 20 or so cities where growth and development was on the ballot, voters mostly sided with anti-development forces. San Diego and Monterey Park were the exceptions.

But housing remains a big issue in remaining bills headed to Gov. Brown's desk.