CP&DR News Briefs August 4, 2026: Bay Area Transit Funding; Mojave Water Project; Sacramento Arena Redevelopment, and More

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Bay Area Voters to Decide Fate of Regionwide Transit Funding

The Connect Bay Area transit funding measure will officially appear on the November 2026 ballot after election the campaign collected 305,000 signatures, nearly doubling the required 186,000. The tax measure would provide long-term funding for major transit agencies including BART, SFMTA Muni, Caltrain and AC Transit, while helping VTA expand service and giving counties direct funding for transit. A combination of grassroots transit organizing efforts, 80 elected officials and more than 90 labor, business and advocacy groups helped raise over $5.5 million to qualify the five-county sales tax measure. Without more sustainable transit funding, the Bay area could face severe cutbacks including up to 15 BART station closures, elimination of two lines and service cuts of up to 70% on BART alone. Meanwhile, a separate but related measure, Stronger Muni For All, has qualified San Francisco's November 3 ballot, aiming to help close Muni's projected $300 million-plus budget deficit through a parcel tax. If approved, the tax would charge single-family property owners $129 annually, multifamily owners $249, and commercial landlords $799, generating roughly $150 million yearly toward the deficit and $10 million for service improvements over 15 years. It is tied to a separate regional sales tax initiative, the Connect Bay Area Act, which would raise about $1 billion annually for Muni, BART, Caltrain, and other Bay Area transit agencies.

Cadiz Receives Approvals to Pump Mojave Desert Water, Faces Lawsuits 

After over a decade of negotiation, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan by Cadiz Inc. to repurpose 162 miles of a former oil and gas pipeline to transport groundwater pumped from the Mojave Desert. The agency determined the pipeline conversion "will not significantly affect" the environment and would comply with regulations, while stating that the broader environmental impacts of the groundwater extraction itself fall "outside the scope of analysis" for this authorization. Nonetheless, two environmental groups and two Native American tribes filed separate lawsuits in over the Bureau of Land Management's approval of the use of a decommissioned oil and gas pipeline for transporting the water project. Both suits target BLM’s decision earlier this month approving Cadiz Inc.'s "Northern Pipeline," which the company acquired in 2011. Plaintiffs claim that the project’s aquifer drawdown near Joshua Tree National Park has never faced meaningful review despite extracting far more groundwater than is naturally replenished, roughly 16.3 billion gallons per year for 50 years. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club filed in Los Angeles, while the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Native American Land Conservancy and National Parks Conservation Association filed in Riverside.

Sacramento Investigates EIFD to Redevelop Former Kings Arena 

Sacramento City Council has advanced plans to redevelop the former Kings arena site in North Natomas. The proposed 171-acre Innovation Park project would include housing, commercial development, regional open space, a future school site, and a California Northstate University medical campus anchored by a hospital. Major construction has yet to begin, and to help pay for public infrastructure the city is turning to an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District to capture a share of new property tax revenue generated as the site develops, with about 80% earmarked for infrastructure and 20% for affordable housing. Under the plan, tax revenue wouldn't flow until a hospital or similar "catalytic" project promising high-paying jobs is actually completed, a safeguard officials say protects the city's general fund and doesn't raise taxes.

San Francisco to Impose Penalties on Stalled Office Projects San Francisco's Planning Department will withhold developers’ Proposition M development allocations if they haven't shown good-faith progress toward construction of stalled commercial office projects. Prop. M is a 1986 ballot measure that caps and regulates the amount of commercial development the city can approve. Director Sarah Dennis Phillips said projects with no demonstrated momentum could have their Prop. M allocation stripped immediately, while those that have delivered on community benefits but haven't pulled permits would get an 18-month grace period. The move targets developers who abandoned office megaprojects in favor of housing but kept their valuable Prop. M allocations in reserve. Prop. M has capped new office space in San Francisco since 1986, but the pool of available allocations has shrunk dramatically since 2020's Proposition E tied replenishment to the city's affordable housing goals, which it is failing to meet.

CP&DR Coverage: Evaluating the Surplus Land Act

Passed in 2021, and administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development under guidelines adopted in 2024, the Surplus Land Act requires local agencies to prioritize housing on agency-owned land that is being sold or leased. To date, nearly 42,000 homes either have been put on formerly public land or are in the pipeline. David Zisser, deputy director of HCD, calls the number a success. Homes created by the SLA are, arguably, among the easiest to track compared to those created by the many other pro-housing laws adopted in recent years. Development agreements are, by necessity, subject to scrutiny and well documented, by notices of availability, exemptions, and other approvals by HCD. While the state may argue that the 42,000 homes justify the process, many cities consider it burdensome--and not necessarily effective. 

Quick Hits & Updates

San Francisco voters will decide for a third time in four years whether to reopen the Great Highway to weekday car traffic. The highway has been the site of Sunset Dunes Park since 2024 when voters approved permanently closing it to cars. The new measure, backed by over 15,900 petition signatures, would reopen the road to cars on weekdays while keeping it closed Friday evenings through Monday mornings. Opponents say the closure has worsened traffic, while park supporters argue the space has been a success, drawing 1.7 million visits since opening and boosting nearby businesses, and warn that reopening it would cost the city about $10.75 million to remove. 

A California earthquake expert estimates that The Big One would likely cause around $500 billion and up to $1 trillion in damage. Ahmed Elbanna, the director of the Statewide California Earthquake Center, told the state’s Seismic Safety Commission that a 7.8-magnitude earthquake could become the costliest disaster in U.S. history dwarfing the roughly $200 billion in damage (adjusted for inflation) from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

San Diego's Community Planners Committee voted to oppose Senate Bill 958, which would exempt the Midway Rising development from the area’s 30-foot height limit by preventing building height from being treated as a significant environmental impact under CEQA.

SMART, the North Bay's commuter rail system, is exploring a new station in Geyserville after roughly 1,800 residents successfully lobbied state lawmakers to allow the stop. Local business owners say the station would boost tourism to the area's 100 wineries, outdoor recreation and historical sites including the River Rock Casino, which is being converted into the 100-room Caesars Republic Sonoma County. (See related CP&DR coverage.)  A new analysis from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that declining immigration is undermining U.S. population growth, making communities increasingly dependent on domestic migration and natural change to sustain growth. Large metro urban counties, including those in California, are most vulnerable due to steep domestic migration losses.

East Palo Alto City Council voted 3-2 to approve the Temporary Housing Development Incentive Program, an ordinance allowing developers to skip the city's inclusionary housing requirements for projects with 20 units or fewer. The policy suspends the city's 1994 inclusionary housing ordinance, which normally requires developers to set aside 20% of rental units or pay an in-lieu fee for residents earning 35%, 50% and 60% of area median income, about $114,000. 

Developer Align Real Estate submitted revised plans to redevelop the Marina district's waterfront Safeway, reducing the project's two towers from 25 and 22 stories to 22 and 18 stories (roughly 258 and 219 feet) while increasing the total unit count from 790 to 848 apartments, a change the developer attributed to improved building efficiency and optimized floor plans. The revision comes after months of criticism from city leaders, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, who officially opposed the original 25-story tower last year. 

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 to approve an ordinance requiring the city to prioritize drug-free permanent supportive housing when it fully funds future supportive housing projects. Under the new policy, residents who use illicit drugs in supportive housing could face eviction or relocation to another housing or shelter option.