The libertarian nonprofit Reason Foundation released a its own  speculative mobility plan for the Los Angeles region, seeking to ease congestion through a network of toll roads and varying pricing models on vastly expanded express lanes. In lieu of train, bike and pedestrian infrastructure, the $700 billion proposal mostly aims to facilitate better car travel while raising billions of dollars for transportation construction by giving drivers a premium to use express lanes on all freeways -- with different prices depending on the time of day -- and giving them the option to pay even more to use tolled underpasses at busy intersections. The tolls would largely go towards financing an extensive network of freeway tunnels. The projects would include an I-710 Extension connecting to I-210 in Pasadena, a Glendale-Palmdale Tunnel from SR 2 to SR 14, and a Downtown Bypass Tunnel from SR 2 south to I110 among others. Hasan Ikhrata, the executive director for the Southern California Association of Governments, criticized the tunneling portion of the plan as a pipe-dream, citing the complexity and time involved in planning, funding and gaining environmental approval for just a single subway in Los Angeles, a project that has been attempted for decades. The plan also states that it would facilitate expansion of transit services by creating the equivalent of a network of exclusive busways. Though the plan was not commissioned or endorsed by any public agencies, Ikhrata said that the plan's focus on user fees is appealing. He told KPCC , "I think pricing has to come in as part of the solution." (See prior CP&DR coverage of the official City of Los Angeles Mobility Plan 2035 .) High Speed Rail Cost Increases Get Federal Scrutiny  State and federal officials are scrutinizing the High Speed Rail Authority in the wake of a LA Times disclosure that the project's lead contractor forecast significant cost increases that were not made public. Rep. Jeff Dunham (R- Turlock), the chairman of the U.S. House rail subcommittee, along with 11 other House members, demanded that Parsons Brickerhoff, the state's main project management contractor, release a 2013 cost estimate that shows a 31 percent increase for the project's initial operating segment from Burbank to Merced. Additionally, State Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said in a letter this month that her chamber "will be undertaking a broader range of oversight activities in 2016." For their part, the rail authority has dismissed the cost projection, saying that they believe they can keep the project cost below the 2012 estimate of $68 billion --still more  than double to projected cost from 2008. "The lack of transparency involving money on a project this large is very disturbing," Kristin Olsen, the California Assembly Republican leader, told the LA Times. "Certainly before we start tunneling through mountains and destroying homes we need to know what the project is going to cost." Fresno Approves Update to Development Code In a 5-1 vote, the Fresno City Council approved the city's first update to its development code since 1964 , setting a 600-page framework to guide the city to growth. Among other changes, the update will increase the area for notifying residents of proposed new developments is expanding from 300 feet to 1,000 feet. Controversially, a 4-2 vote passed an 11th-hour amendment that would disallow the city from approving any inclusionary zoning -- zoning that requires certain percentages of affordable housing in residential developments -- unless there is a general plan update. The development code update implements the city's already-updated general plan. Rail Route between Coachella Valley and L.A. Identified Riverside County officials have selected their preferred route for the long-awaited rail line to connect the Coachella Valley to Los Angeles. The route selected by the Riverside County Transportation Commission would run from Los Angeles to Fullerton, swing north to Colton, and then continue southeast through the San Gorgonio Pass to Indio. It could serve 189,000 riders and generate $3.2 million in revenue annually, and the average trip would last just over three hours. Planners will take the next two years to study the project's impact on the environment, after which they will determine station locations. Court Approves Proposed Method for Financing San Diego Stadium A state appeals court handed a victory to San Diego officials by approving a controversial method of financing that would enable them to raise $200 million to build a new Chargers stadium. The financing method is called lease-revenue bonds, wherein the city puts up city buildings and other assets as collateral to borrow money, and then sets up a special financing agency that collects rent from the city and its taxpayers to cover the debt payments. The bonds skirt the two-thirds voter approval that would typically be required to raise such money. "The city has created a bogus joint powers authority that is run by the city," attorney Cory Briggs, who filed the lawsuit against the use of the bonds, said. "The city's current JPA is an intentional bastardization of what the Supreme Court approved two decades ago, which the politicians designed in order to avoid getting voter approval of their profligate spending practices." The appeals court called such arguments "immaterial" and said they were not "well taken." Palo Alto Trailer Park Files Federal Suit The owners of the Buena Vista trailer park in Palo Alto have filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that it is excessive to require them to pay $8 million in relocation fees in order to sell the park. The Palo Alto City Council in April voted to approve the closure of the park on the condition the Jissers pay relocation costs that take into account the cost of living in the city -- which amounts to shelling out roughly $20,000 to each of their nearly 400 tenants. "The high cost of living in Palo Alto is not the Jissers' fault," Lawrence Salzman, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation who is representing the couple, told the SF Gate. "The city is looking to scapegoat the Jissers. It's oppressive, abusive and outrageous." Relocation is especially difficult for some tenants who are elderly or who have mobile homes that are no longer roadworthy, who would likely be priced out of living in Palo Alto if they were evicted. The lawyer for Tim and Eva Jisser, the couple who own the trailer park, has stated that they would be willing to pay tenants lesser amounts to move out, but not the currently-required $8 million. LAX Unveils Plans for People Mover Los Angeles International Airport announced details of its long-awaited $5 billion Landside Access Modernization Program . The plan includes an Automated People Mover to connect the central terminal with a consolidated Rent-A-Car facility and a regional transit system. The plan, announced by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commssioners, will include a 2.25-mile-long guideway with six stations, pedestrian bridges to airport terminals, parking garages, and a consolidated rental car station adjacent to I-405. Garcetti has tasked Los Angeles World Airports, the department that owns LAX, with delivering the project no later than 2023, which LAWA determined was most effective through a Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain delivery method to seek private investment. LAWA has now initiated the environmental review process. Water District Moves Forward on Purchase of Delta Islands The Metropolitan Water Authority board of directors moved to buy 20,369 acres of island land in three counties in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, in a move to give the district more leverage in the battle for delta water. Two of the islands that it is proposing to buy -- Bouldin and Bacon -- are directly in Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $17 billion twin tunnels project to transport water to Southern California. The current owner of the land, Delta Wetlands Properties, a subsidiary of insurance giant Zurich, recently gained approval to flood Bacon Island and Webb Tract and convert them into reservoirs covering more than 11,000 acres, and to return heavily farmed Bouldin Island and Holland Tract to wildlife habitat, a move to which Metropolitan officials have not committed themselves. Port Hueneme Gets Temporary Reprieve from HUD over Payment The Department of Housing and Urban Development has granted the city of Port Hueneme a 60-day extension to respond to the agency's request that the city repay nearly $2.4 million that HUD is owed. The repayment request arose from a HUD review that found that certain funds for affordable and public housing programs had not been allocated properly. City Manager Cynthia Haas said she will be able to successfully account for most of the spending, but requested the extension because the city fired its finance director, Robert Bravo, on June 1. State Auditor Eyes At-Risk Cities The State Auditor has launched a program to identify local government agencies that are at high risk for the potential of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement, or that have major challenges associated with their economy, efficiency, or effectiveness through a high risk local government agency audit program. Currently on the auditor's initial analyses of cities are Chico, Hemet, Maywood, Monrovia, Richmond, and Ridgecrest. The office is going ahead with audits of Hemet, Maywood, and Richmond, which were determined not to be taking proper steps to improve their financial situations.  Los Angeles County Enacts Historic Preservation Ordinance The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved and enacted the county's first Historic Preservation Ordinance , allowing board officials to designate for preservation landmarks and historic districts in the unincorporated communities of the county. "The Historic Preservation Ordinance is another important policy tool we can use to improve the quality of life in our communities," Planning Director Richard Bruckner said. "Historic preservation does more than just save old buildings. It recognizes that our built history connects us with our past, enhances our sense of community, conserves resources, and fosters economic growth and job creation." Viability of L.A. Olympic Village Site Questioned Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell raised concerns about the feasibility of developing a $1 billion Olympic village at a rail yard owned by Union Pacific Railroad, saying that the project could overrun projections by $2 billion needed to buy the rail site from the company, do an environmental cleanup, and relocate the yard. Though the city pledged that virtually all of the money would come from private investment, a traditional host city contract assigns the burden of any cost overruns to the host city. The Olympic village project, which is designed to host 17,000 Olympic athletes, comes as Los Angeles compete with Rome, Paris, Budapest, and Hamburg to host the 2024 Olympics. Los Angeles' 2024 plan outlines over $6 billion in public and private spending, staging events from volleyball on Santa Monica Beach to mountain biking in Griffith Park. Developer Wins Rights to Develop Next Phase of Transbay Complex Luxury apartment builder Crescent Heights will spend $165 million cash for the rights to develop San Francisco's latest downtown tower next to the future Transbay Transit Center. The company beat out three other development teams by agreeing to price 35 percent of the future apartments as below the market rate and by agreeing to pay for the land in full before entitlements. The development is zoned for a 750-foot-tall highrise that would span at least 750,000 square feet and could hold up to 800 housing units. Metcalf Named Director of HCD Ben Metcalf has been appointed director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Metcalf has been deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development since 2013 and was the project manager at BRIDGE Housing Corporation from 2004 to 2010. The position requires state Senate confirmation.

Reconsidering the case in light of the California Supreme Court's recent Berkeley Hillside ruling, the Third District Court of Appeal has reaffirmed last year's ruling concluding that a rodeo at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds does not qualify as an "unusual circumstance" that can override an exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act. In April 2014, the Third District ruled that the rodeo - the first held at the Watsonville facility in many years - did not constitute an "unusual circumstance".The plaintiffs, Citizens for Environmental Responsibility, appealed the ruling to the California Supreme Court, which stayed briefings pending the Supreme Court's ruling in Berkeley Hillside, which also dealt with the unusual circumstances override of CEQA exemptions. After the Supreme Court ruling in Berkeley Hillside, the case was remanded to the Third District to revise the 2014 ruling in consideration of the Supreme Court's decision. In Berkeley Hillside , the Supreme Court laid out a two-step approach to the "unusual circumstances" question when a lead agency is considering an exemption. As CP&DR reported back in March , the lead agency must first review the record to see whether unusual circumstances exist and if so courts must use the "substantial evidence" test in determining the validity of an exemption under those circumstances. The court ruled that a categorical exemption can be defeated by a "fair argument" that supports a reasonable possibility that significant environmental effects will result from the "unusual circumstances." But it also held that "a party may establish an unusual circumstance with evidence that the project will have a significant environmental effect." The Third District used this framework in re-examining the Santa Cruz rodeo case, making it the first appellate case to do so. The rodeo case began in 2011, when the Santa Cruz County Deputy Sheriff's Association sought to have a charity rodeo at the county fairgrounds in Watsonville, even though no rodeo had taken place in at least 20 years.  The fairgrounds invoked the Class 23 exemption, which is used for "normal operations of existing facilities for public gatherings for which the facilities were designed, where there is a past history of the facility being used for the same or similar kind of purpose". Local environmental activists sued. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly permitted the event to go forward but the case was appealed because of the legal principles involved. The plaintiffs had claimed that, in adopting a Manure Management Plan to protect nearby Salsipuedes Creek, the fairground managers essentially gave up their claim to a categorical exemption by admitting there was a hazard to mitigate. The environmentalists argued that the court had to compare the rodeo not to other events at the fairgrounds but to public gathering facilities, including "racetracks, stadiums, convention centers, auditoriums, amphitheaters, planetariums, swimming pools, and amusement parks." The appellate court rejected this argument. Writing for a three-judge panel, Justice William J. Murray said: " t would be extremely unusual to have horses or cattle and manure anywhere near a public swimming pool; thus, a comparison of the operations of the public swimming pools to fairground gacilities for usual and unusual circumstances would be unfair." So the court compared the rodeo to other events at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds: "The normal operations of the Fairground included about two dozen equestrian and/or livestock events each year for at least the last three years before the rodeo. The proposed rodeo did not involve more horses or livestock than were used for the other events and no changes to the facility or the operations were necessary." Even if an unusual circumstance could have been established, the court concluded, substantial evidence was not submitted by the plaintiffs that the environment may have been harmed. In particular, the court concluded that the plaintiffs had merely speculated about the difference between the Watsonville facility and "the normal fairground," rather than providing any hard evidence. "As we have noted, once an agency meets its burden of establishing that a project is categorically exempt, the burden shifts to the party challenging the exemption to produce substantial evidence establishing the exception," the court wrote. "Appellants cannot satisfy this burden by speculation.  They must provide evidence." Turning to the other test - that the plaintiffs can establish an unusual circumstance "with evidence that the project will have a significant environmental effect" - the court basically found that the environmentalists' own briefing strategy undercut this argument, mostly because the plaintiffs didn't argue this point in the rodeo case before the Berkeley Hillside case was decided. "Appellants made no attempt before the District's board or in the trial court to prove the rodeo project will actually have a significant effect on the environment," the court wrote. "The entire thrust of appellants' argument below and on appeal is that the rodeo project creates an environmental risk to the Salsipuedes Creek because in their view, there is a reasonable possibility that the project may have a significant environmental effect on the creek." The court added: "We conclude that appellants have failed to establish unusual circumstances based on substantial evidence that the project will have a significant effect on Salsipuedes Creek." The Case:  Citizens for Environmental Responsibility v. State of California ex rel. 14th District Agricultural Association , C070836 The Lawyers: For Citizens for Environmental Responsibility: Douglas J. Chermak, Lozeau/Drury, doug@lozeaudrury.com For Fair District: Randy L. Barrow, Deputy Attorney General, randy.barrow@doj.ca.gov

A group calling itself the Coalition to Preserve L.A.  announced that it is going to shoot for a ballot measure to block "mega-projects" in Los Angeles. The initiative would effectively freeze all development in the city that does not conform to the current General Plan and community plans. The initiative includes several major provisions: 1) halt amendments to the City's General Plan in small bits and pieces for individual real estate developer projects; 2) require the City Planning Commission to systematically review and update the City's community plans and make all zoning code provisions and projects consistent with the City's General Plan; 3) place city employees directly in charge of preparation of environmental review of major development projects; and 4) impose a construction moratorium for projects approved by the City that increased some types of density until officials can complete review and update of community plans or 24 months, whichever occurs first. The initiative's main backers, several of whom have actively protested major developments in Hollywood, say the initiative will help preserve the character of Los Angeles neighborhoods. The measure would apply citywide. "This ballot measure is bad for L.A., and bad for the economy," City Council Member Mitch O'Farrell told the Los Angeles Times . "It's bad for transit-oriented neighborhoods. It will also cost thousands of good-paying jobs." The measure requires 61,486 signatures to qualify for the November 2016 ballot.  Proposed Ballot Initiative Would Shift Funds from Rail to Water Storage Two Republican state senators are backing a proposed ballot initiative that would take billions from the state's bullet train project and spend it instead on generating more water in the state. The initiative would take the $8 billion left of the original $9 billion in train bonds along with $2.7 billion in storage money and spend it on water facilities including two new dams, an expansion of current dams, and recharging aquifers. Hidden within the proposal is an amendment to the state constitution that would make domestic use and crop irrigation the top priorities for California water in lieu of the environment. "It's a very sneaky attack on the environment," Doug Obegi, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the LA Times. Bob Huff and George Runner are the two senators who have supported the initiative, which is targeted for the Nov. 2016 ballot. "If you're down to your last 50 gallons," Huff asks, "would you give it to a person who's thirsty or a fish so it could migrate upstream? People should be No. 1, agriculture No. 2 because it's feeding people." S.F. Adopts Measure to Curb Displacement, Support African-American Residents The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to reserve 40 percent of all new affordable housing units for people living within a half mile of where the units are being built. Passed by a 9-2 vote, the legislation comes as a way to stabilize the city's African American population, which has declined from 13.4 percent in 1970 to 5.5 percent last year, by allowing them to take advantage of new developments in historically black neighborhoods, including the huge Hunters Point Shipyard development. Less than 1 percent of subsidized units built by private developers and sold to low-income residents between 2008 and 2014 went to African Americans. Including rentals, the figure rises to 4.7 percent. Supervisor Katy Tang, whose district has virtually zero subsidized housing units being built, voted against the legislation, saying that residents in her district would be pushed to the "very, very bottom of the waiting list." O.C. Housing Prices May Push New Homebuyers to Inland Empire A new study finds that housing costs in Orange County are pricing out potential millennial homeowners, making it more lucrative for them to buy homes in the Inland Empire and commute to Orange County. The study from online real estate site Trulia finds that Orange County is the fifth least affordable housing market in the nation, with a typical mortgage payment consuming 57.4 percent of a millennial household's income in the first year of purchase. To be considered affordable, the mortgage payment must consume 31 percent or less of a homeowners gross income. The typical Inland Empire mortgage payment would represent 36.1 percent of income in the first year, but given expected wage growth, that percentage drops to 31 percent within just three years. Plans Advance for Las Vegas High Speed Train  The Nevada High-Speed Rail Authority unanimously selected XpressWest as the state's franchisee for construting a high-speed rail that will connect Las Vegas with Southern California. The initial phase of the XpressWest project, which will link Las Vegas to Victorville, Calif. and mostly run adjacent to Interstate 15, will cost $8 billion and take about five years to build. Project officials announced a $100 million investment from state-owner Chinese companies last month, aiding the project's commitment to avoid seeking any public funding from the state. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Environmental Groups File Suit over Farmers' Use of Water in Central Valley An environmental coalition led by the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit against Central Valley farmers and the federal government, alleging that the Bureau of Reclamation is violating federal law by devoting too much water to agriculture and not enough to fish, particularly the Chinook salmon and the Delta smelt. An estimated 95 percent of the salmon juveniles were wiped out last year because of a shortage of cool water. "The federal government's mismanagement of limited water supplies in the ongoing drought is a near death blow for Chinook salmon and the thousands of people whose livelihood is tied to the salmon industry," Kate Poole, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. Farm groups responded by stating agriculture agreed to keep millions of gallons of extra water in Shasta reservoir this year in an effort to keep the releases cold for the salmon, resulting in rice farmers in the Sacramento Valley fallowing about 25 percent of their land. L.A. May Chip in for Part of $1.4 Billion in Sidewalk Repairs Backtracking from previous positions holding that commercial owners should foot the bill for needed sidewalk repairs , Los Angeles City Council members tentatively supported ponying up money for sidewalk repairs both in residential and commercial areas. Tha plan, introduced by Councilman Paul Krekorian and supported by members of two committees on budget and public works, would make the city fund repairs the same way for all while curbing the amount it reimburses property owners, possibly by capping the maximum amount it would shell out per square foot. The city has pledged to spend $1.4 billion over the next three decades to fix its sidewalk backlog in a settlement with attorneys for the disabled. A previous plan would have seen the city inspecting sidewalks in commercial areas and warning owners they needed to be fixed. It would have then fixed the sidewalk itself if they failed to do so and charge the costs to the owners. Napa County Proceeds with Climate Action Plan Napa County has relaunched efforts to craft a climate action plan to reduce the county's annual greenhouse gas emissions after an unsuccessful attempt to create one in 2012. The attempt, to be shepherded by Ascent Environmental with $100,000 from the Board of Supervisors, falls in line with requirements in the county's 2008 general plan calling for a climate action plan as one of its mitigation measures. The 2012 plan sought to reduce emissions -- measured at 443,670 metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2005 -- by 15 percent. The Board of Supervisors declined to pass the previous plan amid apprehensions from the wine industry. S.F. Approves Mega-Development in SoMa The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to approve the four-tower, $1 billion 5M project on Fifth and Mission, finding that the project's benefits outweighed concerns about gentrifying effects on the area. The approval came as the developers -- Forest City Enterprises and the Hearst Corp. -- agreed to increase the percentage of affordable units in a 288-unit rental buildin to 40 percent and decrease the number of parking spaces from 463 to 331 spaces. The project also includes a 614,000 square feet of office space, a 400-unit, 470-foot-tall condominium tower, an 83-unit, 100 percent affordable senior project, and community open space. "There is not a disagreement on any side that there is a crisis of displacement in the city," Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the think tank SPUR told the supervisors as he spoke in support of 5M. "I know these votes are never very easy, but you will almost never get a project this good before you again." Groups File CEQA Suit Against Project at Port of Los Angeles A coalition of environmentalists, community groups, and Long Beach officials is seeking a court order to halt construction of a $500-million Port of Los Angeles rail yard, alleging that the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act by serious understating the pollution that would come from the facility. The 153-acre facility in Wilmington would border schools, playing fields, parks, and low-income neighborhoods in West Long Beach that already have disproportionately high rates of asthma and respiratory illness. The rail yard is predicted to handle up to 8,200 trucks a day and 2.8 million 20-foot shipping containers a year by 2035 to be placed onto trains. Port officials counter the plaintiffs' claim by stating that the project went beyond requirements of CEQA, and that the project will actually reduce truck traffic, freeway congestion and toxic emissions by eliminating 1.3 million truck trips a year along a 24-mile stretch of the 710 Freeway between the port and Burlington Northern's Hobart Yard . Study Shows L.A. Freeway Expansion Gave Little Relief A new study from analytics firm Inrix finds that a 5-year, $1.1 billion expansion project on the 405 Freeway has done little to reduce congestion on the freeway. The project, which added a carpool lane and numerous on- and off- ramps through the Sepulveda pass on the main Westside to San Fernando Valley artery, led to 2011's "Carmaggedon," which closed parts of the freeway for a weekend for construction work. "We cannot build out of this," traffic expert Kenny Morse told CBS Los Angeles. "The only way we can get out of this in Los Angeles would be mass transit."

An audit  (pdf) by Los Angeles's controller finds that the city is failing to charge developers millions of dollars in development impact fees -- frequently used to increase police and fire protection, traffic mitigation, and improve public facilities -- and has left millions in collected fees unspent. Comparing Los Angeles to other cities, the audit finds that Los Angeles had $5.3 billion in permitted construction projects in the 2013-14 fiscal year, but collected less than $5 million in impact fees. These numbers compare with San Francisco's $96 million collected off of $3.6 billion in construction, and Portland's $31 million collected off of $1.5 billion in construction. The audit also identified $54 million in impact fees that have been collected but that has been sitting idle various accounts with balances that haven't changed substantially in three years, indicating the city wasn't spending the money. "The city's haphazard application of the fees today is unfair to communities and to developers," Galperin told the Los Angeles Daily News. "Both have every expectation that the city will apply fees consistently and spend them to mitigate the impacts of development on our neighborhoods." EIR for S.F. Arena Wins Key Approval The Golden State Warriors project to build an 18,000-seat, $1 billion arena in Mission Bay gained a key approval as the city's Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure unanimously approved the project's 2,500 page environmental impact report. Additionally, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency unanimously adopted the findings of the transportation aspect of the report, including adding capacity on the T-Third Muni Metro line by purchasing four new rail cars and adding crossover tracks near the arena. All improvements and $6 million of annual operating costs would e funded by fees collected at the arena from special taxes on ticket sales, parking and concessions. The city Planning Commission will now vote on whether to allocate 580,000 square feet of commercial space next to the arena. Bill to Transfer Native Land Unites Congressional Delegates A bill to transfer 80 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest into a trust for the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians has brought together an unlikely alliance between Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Rep. Tom McClintock. "In what I believe is a first in American history, Sens. (Dianne) Feinstein and Boxer and I all agree on this legislation," McClintock said Wednesday at a House subcommittee hearing. The legislation would transfer the two isolated Forest Service parcels into trust for the tribe, easing management and making it easier to thin overgrowth and prevent forest fires. Gaming operations would be prohibited on the transferred property. $35 Million in Tiger Grants Go to California Three California organizations  received  over $35 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation's  TIGER (Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery) awards. Among the 39 winners, Los Angeles Metro  received $15 million for 6.4 miles of its Rail-to River walk and bike path; the Oxnard Harbor District received $12.3 million for its Port of Hueneme Intermodal Improvement Project to strengthen and expand its commercial port; and the San Diego Unified Port District received $10 million for its Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal Modernization Project, which will increase capacity and improve efficiency at the Port. The winners were chosen from 627 applications requesting a total of $10.1 billion. Tribes Sue Caltrans over Highway Bypass Two Mendocino County tribes are suing Caltrans and federal transportation agencies over a Highway 101 bypass currently under construction in Willits. The suit alleges that the agencies allowed cultural artifacts to be damaged without proper oversight from the tribes. The lawsuit, filed by the Coyote Valley and Round Valley Indian tribes, claims that Caltrans and the U.S. Department of Transportation violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act in failing to properly identify and protect tribal archaeological sites before and during construction. If an injunction is granted, work would stop on the $300 million, 5.9-mile project that is more than 80 percent complete and on which 95 percent of soil-disturbing jobs are done, according to Caltrans. "Caltrans has complied with state and federal laws during the construction of the Willits bypass," officials said in a written response to the lawsuit. The bypass has roused controversy in the area for many years; it is nearly complete. General Plan Update Envisions Larger Half Moon Bay  The city of Half Moon Bay is seeking to widen the geographic scope of its General Plan Update , seeking to include some communities outside of its jurisdiction but which affect the way of life of its citizens. The county has jurisdiction over areas immediately north and south of the city like El Granada, Montara and even the Moonridge apartments just a stone's throw away from the city. The Plan Half Moon Bay update would add the 40-acre Moonridge neighborhood, as well as another 6 acres that run about 2,400 feet east along State Route 92.  "In the case of the Moonridge, the council decided to include the community in its planning document because its residents mostly work, shop, attend school and do business inside the city limits and share concerns with traffic circulation among other issues," Councilwoman Debbie Ruddock told The Daily Journal. Los Angeles to Rescind, Revote on Mobility Plan As a formality, the Los Angeles City Council plans to rescind and readopt its Mobility Plan 2035 in the wake of a lawsuit claiming officials violated City Council procedures in passing amendments during the approval process. Councilmembers noted that the re-vote process will be straightforward and "a simple procedural step that was recommended by the City Attorney out of an abundance of caution," according to Councilmember Mike Bonin. The non-profit Fix the City challenged to mobility plan in court, assertng that the City Council was not permitted to add three amendments pushing for equity and community input during the approval process. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Oakland Looks at New Coliseum Plan As the Oakland Raiders and Oakland A's both failed to support the recently proposed Coliseum City redevelopment plan for their home stadium, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is preparing another stadium plan for the Raiders that she says should be available for NFL review within the next couple of weeks. NFL owners are gathering in December to decide which of three teams -- the Raiders, Chargers, and Rams -- should move to Los Angeles. Schaaf's plan will be sculpted by Mitchell Ziets from Tipping Point Sports of New York and will likely include tax breaks and help with infrastructure for a new stadium at the Coliseum site. South Lake Tahoe Finalizes Airport Plan South Lake Tahoe has determined its final design plan for upgrades at Lake Tahoe Airport, including allowing surrounding land for outside development with hopes for generating revenue. The Federal Aviation Administration, which is funding a $350,000 master airport plan for Lake Tahoe, predicts a modest 1.17 percent growth for the airport over the next 20 years, with the return of commercial airline service unlikely after the last commercial carrier pulled out in 2000. Opponents of Bay Delta Tunnels Gather Signatures Opposition to Gov. Jerry Brown's plans to build twin tunnels carrying water to Southern California from the San-Joaquin Delta have likely gathered enough signatures to put an constitutional amendment blocking Brown's plans on the ballot. Pulling together 933,000 signatures, the initiative would force any revenue bonds for public works involving the state to go to a public vote. Brown's plan to pay for the twin tunnels rests on water users financing bonds to help fund the $15 billion project. The initiative was bankrolled by Stockton-area farmer Dean Cortopassi, who has pumped $4 million into the drive. In other news, four Southern California Water Districts inclusing the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California are working on a joint plan to buy four agricultural islands in the Delta to convert them into reservoirs as a way of moving additional water to Southern California. Anaheim May Lose Streetcar Grant Anaheim's 3.2-mile, $318 million streetcar project is facing the daunting reality that it will likely not receive grants from the Federal Transit Administration to get the project off the ground because it would cater to tourists rather than the impoverished. Without federal funds, the construction costs along with $4.3 million annual operating costs will largely be borne by the local taxpayer. Additionally, a new report from the Orange County Transportation Authority finds that the project probably won't meet its ridership projections by 2035, likely only reaching to 1.25 million riders annually, or more than 2.3 million if high-speed rail comes to Anaheim.

Reversing itself on remand, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled in the Berkeley Hillside case that the proposed home of computer pioneer Mitch Kapor and his wife does not, in and of itself, represent an "unusual circumstances" under the CEQA Guidelines and therefore the  City of Berkeley acted properly in applying a CEQA exemption to the project.  In so doing, the court did not need to move on to the second half of the analysis laid out earlier this year by the California Supreme Court in the appeal of the Berkeley Hillside case, Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley (2015) 60 Cal.4th 1086, which was decided in May.  In 2012, the First District ruled that the city could not apply two different categorical exemptions under the California Environmental Quality Act to the Kapors' proposed home, which would include 6,400 square feet of living space and a 10-car garage on a three-quarter-acre lot located on a steep hillside accessed by a narrow road. Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley , 203 Cal.Appl.4th 656, Berkeley contains very few homes and garages of comparable size.  In that ruling, the First District agreed with a local citizen group that the mere size of the project was an "unusual circumstances" that fell under CEQA Guidelines Section 15300.2, which says that a categorical exemption cannot be applied "where there is a reasonable possibility that the activity will have a significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances."  The city had attempted to apply a Class 3 exemption, which applies to single-family homes in urban areas, and a Class 32 exemption, which applies to infill development.  On appeal, the Supreme Court laid out a two-step process for lead agencies in interpreting Section 15300.2. First, the court said, when lead agency decides that unusual circumstances exist, the substantial evidence rule applies - that is, a reviewing court must find substantial evidence of the agency's decision. In addition, concluded that once the unusual circumstance decision has been made, the  the categorical exemption can be defeated by a "fair argument" that supports a reasonable possibility that significant environmental effects will result from the "unusual circumstances." The court remanded the case to the First District. Writing for a three-judge panel of the First District on remand, Justice Jon Streeter gave great deference to the city's application of the categorical exemptions. He noted that instead of arguing that the Kapors' home does not meet the requirements for a categorical exemption, the appellants argued instead that it should be subject to Section 15300.2 because of its size.  "What their argument boils down to-here again on remand-is that they presented evidence the proposed home will be "unusual" in the sense it will not be -typical', he wrote. "Even assuming they met their burden of production with this argument, they fail to come to terms with the stringent standard of review that Berkeley Hillside directs us to apply at this stage of the proceedings." Streeter noted. He pointed out that the Supreme Court ordered the First District to "resolve all evidentiary conflicts in the City's favor, indulge in all legitimate and reasonable inferences to uphold the City's finding, and affirm that finding if there is any substantial evidence, even if contradicted, to support it." "To be sure," he added, "Kapor and Kapor-Klein propose to build a home that certainly could be considered unusually large, as that term is generally understood by a layperson.  Our concerns about the size and scale of the proposed project are partially what led us to conclude originally that the dimensions of the proposed structure presented unusual circumstances. But we may not substitute our judgment on this point.  Following the Supreme Court's guidance in Berkeley Hillside, we conclude that the size and scale of the home do not present unusual circumstances, as that term is used in Guidelines, section 15300.2, subdivision (c)." "Having concluded that there are no unusual circumstances," he concluded, "we need not reach the next step in the Supreme Court's analysis." Streeter did devote part of the ruling to the appellants' argument that the city's conditions on the project amounted to traffic mitigations under CEQA and therefore the city could not apply a categorical exemption, The Supreme Court had flagged this issue in the appeal and the appellants devoted a third of their brief in the remanded case to this issue. However, Streeter quoted a memo from the city manager's office specifically stating that the traffic requirements were standard conditions for any single-family project of this type and not CEQA mitigations. This last portion of the ruling may be important as the state implements SB 743, which will mean that future "level of service" traffic analyses will take places outside the powerful legal context of CEQA. The Case: Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley The Lawyers: For Berkeley Hillside Preservation: Susan Brandt-Hawley, Brandt-Hawley Law Group, susanbh@preservationlawyers.com For City of Berkeley: Zach Cowan, City Attorney, zcowan@ci.berkeley.ca.us For the Kapors: Amrit Kulkarni, Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson, akulkarni@meyersnave.com  The First District's 2012 ruling was written by Justice Patricia Sepulveda. Justice Streeter was not appointed to the appellate court until 2014. However, the other two members of the three-judge panel were the same.

California's High Speed Rail project is finding more hurdles in the way of the intended 2022 finish  of its first phase from Burbank to Merced. A Los Angeles Times analysis finds that the project's first phase from Burbank to Merced will likely overshoot the $68 million budget and will almost certainly not meet the 2022 deadline because of the difficulty of punching 36 miles of tunnels through mountains north of Los Angeles. The analysis finds that contractors will find difficulty boring a 20 mile stretch of tunnel through the rocks of the San Gabriel Mountains, formed over 1.7 billion years ago and lying on numerous fault lines. "Having looked at a number of these long tunnels, plan is aggressive,"  Herbert Einstein, an MIT civil engineer, told the L.A. Times. "From a civil engineering perspective it is very, very ambitious — to put it mildly." T he Associated Press obtained a questionnaire of 36 private companies by the High Speed Rail Authority which found that private companies are skeptical about investing in the project. "The market cannot absorb a single $20 billion contract ... financial institutions would not invest into a project of such unprecedented scale and cost,"  ACS Infrastructure Development Inc. led other companies in writing.  Additionally, the Rail Authority decided to push a restart button on its segment from Anaheim to Los Angeles in order to get more support from local communities. The new plan would involve a "sealed corridor" fenced off from the community. Officials in 2009 asked for a slow-down of the original plan because of concerns about aesthetics, noise, safety, vibrations from the train and the possible need to condemn homes or businesses. L.A. County to Set Aside $100 Million for Affordable Housing The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to gradually begin setting aside $100 million per year to construct and maintain affordable housing in order to combat growing homelessness in the region. Supported by business leaders, anti-poverty advocates and nonprofit housing developers, the housing fund will start with $20 million next year and expand over the next five years to $100 million to address the area's homeless population of 44,000. The supervisors did not say where the money would come from, but directed the county chief executive to come back with a plan as part of next year's budget process. Supervisor Don Knabe criticized the uncertainty of the funding sources, but Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas said that it is important to begin work soon regardless of funding. "The objective is to get moving and moving now on building more affordable housing, and the formula, the methodology can and will be worked out," said Ridley-Thomas. "... We are not moving fast enough keeping up with the crisis that has enveloped us." Los Angeles Mayor Proposes Linkage Fee for Housing Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced his support for a "linkage fee" on market rate development that would create local funding for affordable housing and potentially generate $37 to $112 million annually, and he signed an executive directive to expedite case processing for housing development projects with more than 20 percent affordable units. The linkage fee study would be handled by a new housing policy unit within the City's Planning Department that would also lead the development of new zoning initiatives to encourage the development of mixed-income housing around transit. The fee is intended to complement Garcetti's goal of producing 100,000 units by 2021. He also announced that the city will seek to build or preserve at least 15,000 units of affordable housing from 2013 through 2021. Los Angeles is considered the most unaffordable housing market in the nation.  (See prior CP&DR commentary .) Governor Fast-Tracks San Diego Stadium EIR; Initiative for Alternative Downtown Stadium  The San Diego Chargers stadium saga continues as Gov. Jerry Brown fast-tracked the judicial review process for the city's Environmental Impact Report, forcing courts to resolve any lawsuit challenging the EIR within nine months of the document's certification. The move allows Mayor Kevin Faulconer to assure NFL owners that the new stadium will be able to open at its current Mission Valley by 2019 even if there is litigation. However, Chargers attorney Mark Fabiani, who broke off talks with the city and has instead been focusing on plans to relocate to Los Angeles, said that the nine month period "is unfortunately irrelevant at this point" and the "quickie EIR is fatally flawed." Further serving as a boon to Fabiani's relocation cause, San Diego attorney Cory Briggs filed an initiative to build a new stadium downtown instead, along with expanding the city's downtown convention center and paying for those projects through a 15.5 percent hotel tax. Far from demonstrating to the NFL the city's commitment to building a viable stadium, Briggs' move could allow Fabiani's camp to show NFL owners that the city's efforts to build a new stadium are as dysfunctional as ever. ABAG Agrees to Explore Merger with MTC Backing down from initial opposition, the leadership of the Association of Bay Area Governments agreed this week to explore the possibility of a merger with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. ABAG had opposed what was originally seen as a "takeover" by MTC. The ABAG vote approves funds to hire a consultant for the purpose of forming an equitable merger plan. The plan is to be completed by June 1. The move seeks to combine the regional planning capacities of ABAG with the transportation planning capacities of MTC, which works in part with local governments; both agencies oversee planning for the nine-county Bay Area.  OPR to Hold General Plan Workshops The Governor's Office of Planning and Research will be holding multiple community outreach events throughout California during the public comment period for the draft General Plan Guidelines update. OPR invites planners, practitioners, and community members are invited to attend and learn about the updated guidelines, ask questions, and share their feedback. Fifteen workshops are scheduled to be held across the state between Nov. 2 and Dec. 9.  L.A. Planning Commission Seeks Strict Billboard Rules Shunning some lawmakers' idea of legalizing hundreds of billboards that currently lack permits in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission laid out a  stricter proposal for how Los Angeles should clamp down on the proliferation of billboards throughout the city. The proposed regulations reduce the "sign districts" where companies can put new billboards to busy corridors including Los Angeles International Airport and downtown, while keeping them out of single-family neighborhoods and state parks. Additionally, the proposal requires that for every square foot of a new conventional billboard, five square feet of existing billboards must be removed, and for every square foot of a digital billboard that is erected, 10 times as much would have to come down. The ratios would be five times higher than the reduction requirements previously vetted by city lawmakers, who are hesitant to trample the rights of outdoor advertising companies. The City Council would now need a supermajority to adopt its less-stringent rules after the Planning Commission rejected them. (See prior CP&DR coverage of L.A. billboards.) Airbnb Ad Campaign Angers S.F. Residents Short term rental company Airbnb is backpedaling in the Bay Area after residents sharply criticized an ad campaign aimed to influence voters on Proposition F, which would limit vacation rentals in private homes to 75 days a year. The ad campaign was an attempt to demonstrate the company's contribution to the city's hotel taxes, with lines such as "Dear Public Library System, We hope you use some of the $12 million in hotel taxes to keep the library open later. Love, Airbnb." However, the campaign backfired, as many resident perceived the ads as snarky. Some pointed out that Airbnb had already spent $8 million fighting Proposition F by the beginning of October.  San Diego to Break Ground on Major Bicycle Upgrades The San Diego Association of Governments is gearing up to break ground on $200 million of bicycle infrastructure throughout San Diego County over the next decade, officials announced at the California Bike Summit. The bike routes will be paid for by the countywide TransNet half-cent sales tax, through which officials can borrow money to pay for the bike projects now, although Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins said that she doesn't want cyclists to pay special taxes or fees for the projects. Projects include an extension of the Bayshore Bikeway, hugging the eastern side of the San Diego Bay from Imperial Beach to downtown, and a route along to San Diego River, among others. San Diego to Keep 42 Former RDA Properties The City of San Diego will retain ownership of 42 properties formerly owned by its now-defunct redevelopment agency after the California Department of Finance approved its plans for the properties. Included are the historic Balboa Theatre along with 18 properties that will be used for public uses, such as parks, streets, and a future fire station. "Our attorneys devoted more than 1,500 hours over three years to formulating the best strategy for managing these properties within the framework of the redevelopment dissolution laws, and to help protect the properties against state overreach," City Attorney Jan Goldsmith told the Times of San Diego. "We can all be proud of their work on behalf of the city, and to the benefit of some of our oldest urban neighborhoods." (See prior CP&DR coverage .) EIR for Warriors' Mission Bay Arena Released The City and County of San Francisco released the 2,500-page final environmental impact report for the proposed Golden State Warriors arena in Mission Bay, including a $60 million transportation plan to be funded by fees collected at the arena from special taxes on ticket sales, parking, and concessions. The improvements would include among others a light-rail boarding platform, increased transit capacity, and four new rail cars for the T-Third line. However, opposition group Mission Bay Alliance says that the final EIR contains 50 "significant violations of the California Environmental Quality Act," including severe traffic congestion, blocked emergency access and seismic safety threats. The commission of the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure will vote on whether to certify the EIR on election day, Nov. 3. Berkeley Seeks ‘Green' Affordable Housing The Berkeley City Council endorsed a "Green Affordable Housing Package" that will ease parking requirements particularly for affordable housing built new mass transit, streamlining the approval process for residential buildings with two or more units. The proposal, which one public commentator described as building "housing for people" over "housing for cars," was sent to the Planning Commission and city manager to mold the Council's recommendation into a body of specific rules and precise calculations that councilors hope will deliver affordable housing rather than just provide a windfall to developers.

Report: Wetland Restoration Crucial for Health of S.F. Bay Bay Area officials need to restore 54,000 acres of wetlands in the San Francisco Bay over the next 15 years if they want to stave off billions of dollars of damage from rising seas , surging tides, and extreme storms driven by climate change, according to a new report from 100 scientists and 17 government agencies. While experts have said that some places in the bay need seawalls, the study, titled "The Baylands and Climate Change: What We Can Do," nevertheless advocates working with nature rather than against it, adding that seawalls and levees would destroy many marshes and probably cost taxpayers more in the long run. " start to erode," said Letitia Grenier, one of the report's main authors. "We'll have bigger waves coming in on high tides and storms -- and more flooding. We'll lose our wildlife. And eventually the wetlands will be gone. You'll see levees and concrete seawalls. The water in many places will be higher than the land, like it is in New Orleans." A 2012 study by the National Academy of Sciences found that melting ice and expanding warming water will raise the sea level of the bay by one foot over the next 20 years, two feet by 2050, and five feet by 2100. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Veterans Administration Drafts Master Plan for West L.A. Campus The Department of Veterans Affairs released the draft master plan for its West Los Angeles campus, proposing to transform the 388-acre campus into a center for permanent housing with clinical services, and to cease leasing VA facilities to private entities. The plan resulted from a legal settlement on behalf of more than 4,000 chronically homeless veterans in Los Angeles, who alleged that the VA was illegally leasing land to corporations, schools, and other organizations without providing adequate care for veterans. "This is a good start and reflects hard effort," Gary Blasi, a professor of law emeritus at UCLA who works with the VA to end veteran homelessness, told the Los Angeles Times . "There is still more work to be done, particularly to make sure all voices of veterans and the most important stakeholders have been heard and responded to." Interested parties will have 45 days to submit comments before a final document is ready in early 2016. Los Angeles Subway EIR Upheld A California appeals court upheld Los Angeles' Final Environmental Impact Report for the Purple Line Extension, rejecting a challenge from the city of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Unified School District over a section of the subway to run under the Beverly Hills High School Campus. The project will extend the subway from its current terminus at Wilshire/Western to Westwood. The first section of the project between Wilshire/Western and Wilshire/La Cienega, is under construction. The second section to downtown Beverly Hills and Century City is in the pre-construction phase and remains on schedule. Coastal Commission Wades into Sea World Dispute; Faces Suit Facing a rising tide of criticism over its treatment of killer whales, the parent company of SeaWorld San Diego has said that it will sue the California Coastal Commission for conditions tied to a land-use permit that would ban killer whale breeding in the theme park. SeaWorld had proposed a $100 million project to expand the enclosure for the park's 11 killer whales, but the commission panel added a condition to approval that would force SeaWorld to stop breeding whales and import no new whales. "It simply defies common sense that a straightforward land-use permit approval would turn into a ban on animal husbandry practices -- an area in which the commissioners have no education, training or expertise," Joel Manby, president and chief executive of SeaWorld Entertainment, said in a statement. SF MTA Endorses 'Google Buses' San Francisco's Metropolitan Transportation Agency will recommend that Google's bus and commuter shuttle become permanent and continue to use Muni bus stops, with some new conditions. Calling the pilot program a success, MTA nevertheless requests in its plan that the buses stay off residential streets, pay a fee of $3.67 every time a shuttle visits a Muni stop and avoid labor disputes by increasing wages. Critics of the pilot program, which mostly transports the city's elite to and from Silicon Valley using existing bus stops, say that the program is exacerbating the city's housing crisis by increasing rent and is worsening air quality in neighborhoods. Housing Costs Leading to Overcrowding in L.A. A new report finds that Los Angeles' steep housing costs are forcing the city's poor -- comprising more that one quarter of residents -- to overcrowd into homes, resulting in health issues, lower student achievement, and psychological issues. The report, issued by the California Housing Partnership Corporation, finds that a household must earn four times the state minimum wage to afford the average asking rent of $2,016 per month, forcing those who cannot meet those costs to pack more people into units. To accommodate low-income renters, the report finds that Los Angeles County would need an additional 527,722 homes, though the loss of redevelopment funds has made affordable housing development more difficult. Train Manufacturer Eyes Sacramento State high-speed rail officials are calling for bids from high-speed rail companies to build about $3.2 billion worth of rolling stock for the system. German company Siemens is currently in a good position for a bid at its Sacramento plant, as it opened a 125,000-square foot manufacturing facility this year on French Road and set up a full-size mock-up of a bullet train car on the state Capital lawn. "It would be fabulous for the region if we could get this additional business,"  Armin Kick, the executive in charge of Siemens' Sacramento bullet train development efforts, told the Sacramento Bee. "It would set up Sacramento as the (national) hub for high-speed technology. And these hubs, like Silicon Valley, don't move around. It would bring additional employment and technology-driven jobs." If Siemens got the bid, it would likely bring along hundreds of jobs to Sacramento. Other competitors may include Bombardier of Canada, Alstom of France, Talgo of Spain, Italy-based AnsaldoBreda, Japan's Kawasaki, South Korea's Hyundai Rotem and two major Chinese companies. The California High Speed Rail Authority will ask for the bids to build the trains in mid-2016. CARB Endorses Shasta SCS The California Air Resources Board has determined that the Shasta Metropolitan Planning Organization's Sustainable Communities Strategy meets the board's greenhouse gas reductions target for the next 20 years. The goals, implemented by the sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, set standards for the state's Metropolitan Planning Organization to meet regional greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2020 and 2035. Costa Mesa to Use Zoning to Curb Vice In order to shut down problem motels that have become hot-spots for drug use and prostitution, the city of Costa Mesa is looking to revise its property zoning rules to allow motel owners to change their zoning from commercial to high-density residential, hopefully clearing the way for large apartment complexes to be built in place of the run-down motels. In doing so, officials hope that the changes would boost property values and incentivize the motel owners to sell their properties. In a 3-2 vote to begin the process of incorporating the changes into the city's general plan revision, the City Council hopes to save more than $100,000 in costs due to mounting police calls in recent years. "We're looking at ... properties that have been a cancer to the city," Councilman Jim Righeimer told the Orange County Register. "This is using the general plan to fix a crime issue." The zoning changes, if approved, would apply to 12 regions, centered around 14 of Costa Mesa's 17 older motels, which are largely remnants of an the 1950s and '60s, when inland families would vacation in a city that offered cheaper rates than Newport Beach. Santa Ana Kills Moratorium on Short-Term Rentals Santa Ana officials surprisingly declined to extend the city's 45-day emergency moratorium on short-term rentals for an additional 10 months and 15 days. City Councilmembers, taking a turn from residents' uproar over an out-of-control short-term rental in West Floral Park neighborhood, instead heard from residents who spoke against extending the ban. Councilwoman Michele Martinez, who brought up the moratorium last month, led a unanimous City Council in moving the short-term regulation issue for consideration by the Development and Transportation Council Committee. "My goal is not to be restrictive, prohibitive and overreaching," Martinez told the Orange County Register. Major L.A. Redevelopment Finally Moves Forward After three decades of false starts and financial woes, the long-awaited Marlton Square redevelopment in Los Angeles is one step closer to coming to fruition as Kaiser Permanente broke ground on its new $90 million, 100,000 square foot community center there. The facility is included in an 8.65 acre property bought by Kaiser in 2012 to build a Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw medical facility. The Kaiser project joins several other redevelopment efforts in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area, including a $2-billion light rail line that will connect Crenshaw to the Los Angeles International Airport is slated to open in 2019. A new residential and retail village is also planned around the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. The 22-acre site was first tapped for redevelopment in 1984. SunCal Reported to Look at Oakland Coliseum A new developer is poised to take on a larger role in the development of a new Oakland Raiders stadium. The developer, Southern California firm SunCal, recently met with city officials to discuss closing the $400 million funding gap needed for a new stadium at the O.co Coliseum site. Officials with the team and the city are remaining publicly mute about this prospect.

In 2013, 34 pedestrians died on the streets of Denmark. The city of Copenhagen, roundly hailed as the world's pleasantest city for walking and biking, has about 10 percent of Denmark's population of 5.6 million. We can extrapolate that exactly three pedestrians died in Copenhagen in 2013, for a rate of about 0.5 per 100,000. To be sure, those three deaths deserve due lamentation, scrutiny, and sympathy. On the other hand, they deserve celebration. Copenhagen's pedestrian fatality rate is about as low as it gets. The lowest pedestrian fatality rate of any major American city is 0.76. Copenhagen's rate is a full five times lower than that of the City of Los Angeles, which, at 2.57  (pdf) is towards the high end. If you divide Copenhagen's fatality rate by Los Angeles', you get 19 percent. The question that some in Los Angeles are now asking is, what happens when you divide by zero? Founded in Sweden in 1997, Vision Zero is an international movement dedicated to reducing pedestrian fatalities to nil. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti supports Vision Zero enthusiastically. He made it is one of inspirations behind the new Los Angeles Mobility Plan 2035 , which I reported on this month. In loose affiliation with a handful of other cities around the world and around the state -- including San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco -- Los Angeles has pledged to calm traffic, improve sidewalks and crossings, enhance public transit, and do a host of great things that are, directly or indirectly, designed to make walking safer. Safer is admirable and good, just as 2.57 is not good at all. Safer is especially good when it comes with collateral benefits and when multiple goals -- such as placemaking -- are achieved at once. But  zero ? The trouble with Vision Zero is that, from the moment it was devised, it was destined to fail. Even before I covered the Mobility Plan, Garcetti's embrace Vision Zero made me uncomfortable, for its both grandiosity and fantasy. How can Los Angeles -- or any other city in the civilized world -- ever hope to live up to such a stark, uncompromising goal? Accidents are going to happen, even in Copenhagen. Someone is going to bust an inner tube and hit the curb. Someone is going to slip on a carelessly discarded smørrebrød and faceplant into an oncoming bus. Someone will get tangled in his scarf and end up in a canal. Even perfect cities aren't perfect. The fact is, planning can never eliminate all bad things -- whatever the thing happens to be. In the case of pedestrian safety, it can absolutely reduce  deaths. It can, if you go back to high school calculus, approach zero. But this is still a free country. Unless Los Angeles bans cars entirely and replaces all its pavement with compacted marshmallow, it can never reach zero. Not in 2015, not in 2035, not ever. In the battle between absolutes and public policy, policy never wins.  As much as I admire the Swedes' approach to urbanism, Vision Zero strikes me -- in its rhetoric, it not necessarily in its strategy -- as a paternalistic extension of parents' paranoia over germs, dirt, boogeymen, and walking home from school. Should public policy look out for citizens' safety? Of course, but not maniacally so. And, more to the point, not inefficiently so. Planning Commissioner Richard Katz notes that Los Angeles really shouldn't worry about traffic deaths. It should worry about  all  deaths.  There are four million ways to die in the naked city, from lung cancer to drug overdoses to gang shootings. Public policy should be prejudiced only by those cases that will yield the most lives saved. Then again, we can't repeal the Second Amendment, so we might as well fix our streets. Laura Lake, who heads a group that is suing the city over the Mobility Plan, takes the Zero Paradox a step further. She notes that by slowing traffic on certain streets, the plan might impede ambulances that are responding to fires and medical emergencies. For every pedestrian saved, someone else might expire in a gurney on the way to the hospital. Lake's hypothetical is, possibly, a bit out there. But these potential unintended consequences are surely worthy of discussion, especially when the Vision Zero movement is gaining so much momentum. That's a lot of preordained failure. The planning field hasn't had much luck lately with vague, ominous slogans. ( Agenda 21 , anyone?) Let's hope that, unlike Agenda 21, Vision Zero faces not unhinged opposition but rather a more nuanced, thoughtful strategy than its name implies and a willingness to strive for realistic goals.

The state Office of Planning and Research has released a public draft of the update to its General Plan Guidelines for the state, beginning the public review period of the draft. The "general plan guidelines package," when it is completed, will include new guidelines for general plans, along with a GIS data mapping tool that will allow communities to access large amounts of free data in crafting their general plans, and an easily navigable website. The draft does not incorporate any changes from legislation in the current cycle, such as SB 379. These changes will be incorporated after the public comment period, prior to finalizing the draft. The  general plan guidelines document  updated with sections on visioning, community engagement, social equity, resilience, economic development, healthy communities, and climate change, as well as links to data, tools, resources, and model policies throughout. The  general plan guidelines GIS based data mapping tool , currently in beta being updated during this review, will allow all users access to large amounts of free data, organized by elements and by themes, for creating their general plans. Public comment period ends December 5. (See CP&DR's preview of the general plan guidelines.) Affordable Housing Sought for Treasure Island San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim is pushing the Treasure Island development of over 8,000 residences to include 40 percent affordable and middle-income housing, a significant increase from the currently-approved 27 percent. Kim's proposal hinges on this year's AB 2, which establishes a Community Revitalization and Investment Authorities, allowing cities to invest property tax funds into affordable housing. Lennar Urban, the developer of the site, is unlikely to budge to 40 percent, but it could up the ante to 30 percent if it works out a deal with the state. "We have an existing development agreement in place with specific provisions for affordable housing and community benefits. If we and our partner, the city, mutually determine that this legislation creates additional funding opportunities for the project, we will move toward the 30 percent goal as outlined in our agreement,"  Lennar Urban  regional vice president Kofi Bonner told the San Francisco Business Times. (See CP&DR coverage of Treasure Island's EIR.) S.D. Supervisor Horn Accused of Conflict of Interest Over Development Approval California's Fair Political Practices Commission has advised San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn to recuse himself from a key vote on a 1,700-home development in Lilac Hills because he has a conflict of interest stemming from a property he owns near the project. The letter could spell bad news for the project, as Horn has received contributions from the developer and could prove the key vote to approval of the project, which would vastly increase the city General Plan's call for little more than 100 homes to be developed. The FPPC letter states that he has a conflict of interest because his property lies 1.3 miles from the nearest boundary of the proposal. "Under these facts, a reasonable inference can be made that the financial effect of such a major development in a relatively undeveloped, rural area would have a reasonably foreseeable material financial effect on the market value of your real property," the letter states. Though he originally stated that he would indeed recuse himself from the vote, Horn has now said that he is seeking clarification of the FPPC letter and a reconsideration of their decision. Sacramento Streetcar Seeks New Life Bouncing back after voters within three blocks of Sacramento's proposed downtown streetcar project rejected the financing plan, officials are now hoping to ask several hundred downtown property members to put in $30 million for the estimated $150 million project. Though the original voting group of about 1,200 within three blocks of the project were not being asked to contribute to the project costs, they had a legal right to make a call on whether to set up the community facilities district at the time. However, under the new structure, a benefit assessment district, advocates must provide a detailed engineer's report to show the project's economic benefit for each property owner along the corridor. The federal government has indicated that it would likely provide Sacramento with a $75 million grant for the 3.3-mile project, and the remaining funds would likely come from the city of West Sacramento, Sacramento County, the city of Sacramento and the state. (See prior CP&DR coverage: here and here .) S.F. Makes Evictions Harder San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee allowed legislation to pass that will make it more difficult for landlords to evict tenants for minor transgressions. Lee had previously indicated that he might veto the legislation because of a provision that would allow tenants to take on more roommates than their lease allows, but his office refused to take a stance on the bill, instead allowing it to pass without his signature. The legislation, drafted by Supervisor Jane Kim, is largely aimed at curbing widespread evictions over lease violations like improperly painting walls. Warriors Complete Purchase of Arena Site The Golden State Warriors have finalized plans to purchase a 12-acre site in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood to build a new $1 billion stadium development within the next two years. The deal, reportedly brokered with owner Salesforce.com Inc for $150 million, shows that the Warriors have a level of confidence to break ground soon even as the project faces a potential legal challenge from the opposition group Mission Bay Alliance. However, Mayor Ed Lee has stated that a complex traffic deal recently cut between the Warriors, the University of California, San Francisco, and the city will undermine the popular arguments of the opposition group. The traffic deal creates an annual $10 million fund fed by Warriors arena revenue for extra traffic control officers, additional light-rail cars and other fixes for potential traffic issues. The Warriors expect to have the arena up and running in time for the 2018-19 NBA season. Report: Segregation in L.A. Declining A new report finds that segregation in the Los Angeles area is is on the decline, as homogenous white neighborhoods and homogenous black neighborhoods have been on the decline from 2000 to 2010. The report from the London School of Economics and Political Science finds that overall the amount of people living in strongly segregated neighborhoods has decreased from 40 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2010, while percentages of whites living in homogenous white neighborhoods has declined from 32 percent to 21 percent by gaining significant population shares of Hispanics and Asians. Percentages of blacks living in homogenous black neighborhoods has declined from 15 percent to 11 percent, with many neighborhoods becoming black/Hispanic neighborhoods. The study used geo-computational software EquiPop to create neighborhoods by expanding a buffer around a given location until it encompasses the nearest hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands neighbors and then computes the demographic composition of the buffer population. L.A. Metro Touts TOD Sites Seeking to dot Los Angeles with " transit-oriented communities " where developments occur within a two-mile radius of transit stations, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority has picked seven locations where it wants to see affordable housing connected to transit. Choosing locations in Burbank, Duarte, Willowbrook, Crenshaw, El Monte, Union Station, and North Hollywood, Metro will now work with local governments, community groups, and private developers to expand its development goals. While it doesn't have the power to change zoning laws or the money to develop the land itself, officials said the program is the beginning of a years-long process to tie together transportation and Los Angeles communities. Port of Los Angeles Falls Short of Pollution Goals The Port of Los Angeles admitted that it has not completed 11 of 52 measures it had agreed to implement a decade ago to reduce air pollution in exchange for expanding the 130-acre China Shipping terminal. A decade ago, community groups settled a lawsuit against the terminal expansion, requiring the port to put $50 million in a fund to offset the effects of more trucks, ships, and cargo equipment on nearby neighborhoods. Environmental groups and the port have pointed to the changes required at the China Shipping terminal as a model for how to reduce air pollution and public health effects at seaports. "This whole time we've been led to believe that this is a much cleaner project than it has been," said Mark Lopez, who heads East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, told the L.A. Times. Nevertheless, the Port still says that even though it did not complete several of its required measures, it still has met overall air-pollution reduction targets. Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka told the L.A. Times that the port's air-quality measurements show pollution has declined to "levels that were even better than what we attempted to produce." Judge Strikes Down S.F. Eviction Law A Superior Court judge struck down a San Francisco ordinance forcing landlords to pay evicted tenants the difference between their current rent and the market rate for a similar unit in the city for two years, up to $50,000. In the ruling, Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay said the required payment exceed the Ellis Act's reasonable relocation assistance, which he said are those which would offset the immediate costs of eviction, including first and last month's rent, the tenant's security deposit, and moving expenses. He said additional charges to "subsidize the payment of rent that a displaced tenant will face on the open market, regardless of income ... have no relationship to the adverse impact caused by the landlord's decision to exit the rental market." Nevertheless, Supervisor David Campos, the author of the ordinance, said that the city would appeal the ruling. "I think that in the midst of the worst housing crisis in the history of San Francisco, adjusting relocation payments to reflect the crisis in which we are is a reasonable step," he told the SF Gate. L.A. River Greenway Gets Boost The City and County of Los Angeles will provide a joint investment of $6 million in the Los Angeles River Valley Greenway, a project related to the city's ambitious master plan for the river. The greenway will fill in 12 miles of gaps in the Valley portion of the river project to allow Angelenos to walk and bike from Canoga Park to Elysian Valley. The city and county will split the costs evenly, with the city's $3 million contribution coming from funds dedicated to open space preservation and park facilities. "With this investment, we take one more step in linking our communities to each other and to the backbone of our region — the Los Angeles River," Garcetti said in a press release.

OAKLAND, Oct. 4 -- The California Chapter of the American Planning association announced its awards at the 2015 installment of its annual conference.  Opportunity and Empowerment Award of Excellence Courtyard at La Brea, West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation Comprehensive Plan Award: Large Jurisdiction Award of Merit Harbor Mixed Use Transit Corridor Specific Plan, City of Santa Ana Planning Division Award of Excellence Jordan Downs Urban Village Specific Plan, City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning Comprehensive Plan Award: Small Jurisdiction Award of Merit:  National City SMART Foundation, City of National City Award of Excellence: Comprehensive Plan Award: Small Jurisdiction North Bayshore Precise Plan, City of Mountain View Implementation Award: Large Jurisdiction Award of Merit Devil's Slide Coastal Trail, San Mateo County Award of Excellence Glendale Downtown Specific Plan and Mobility Study, City of Glendale Community Development Department Implementation Award: Small Jurisdiction Award of Merit City of Piedmont Rent-Restricted Second Unit Program, City of Piedmont Innovation in Green Community Planning Award Award of Merit City Heights Urban Greening Plan, City of San Diego Planning Department Award of Excellence CAPtivate Western Riverside County, WRCOG's Subregional Climate Action Plan, Western Riverside Council of Governments  Economic Planning and Development Award Award of Merit Salinas Economic Development Element. City of Salinas Transportation Planning Award Award of Merit North Coast Corridor Public Works Plan and Transportation and Resource Enhancement Program, Caltrans District 11 Award of Excellence Measuring Mobility in Pasadena -- Beyond Level of Service, City of Pasadena Best Practices Award Award of Merit Climate Change and Extreme Weather Adaptation Options Pilot Project for Transportation Assets in the Bay Area, Metropolitan Transportation Commission Award of Excellence People Streets, City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation Public Outreach Award of Merit At Home in Encinitas: Developing Housing Solutions, City of Encinitas Award of Excellence Land Use Planning Awareness Project, County of Riverside Department of Public Health Urban Design Award Award of Excellence  Warm Springs/South Fremont Community Plan, Perkins + Will Planning Advocate Award of Exellence James Rojas Planning Agency Award  of Excellence City of West Hollywood Community Development Department Advancing Diversity and Social Change Award (in Honor of Paul Davidoff)  of Merit:  Jurupa Valley Environmental Justice Element, City of Jurupa Valley Academic Award Award of Merit Cultivating Economic Prosperity and Creating Identity along Historic South Main Street in Santa Ana; Kristin Kaczmarek, University of California, Irvine, Planning Policy and Design Award of Excellence Walking and Cycling in San Francisco: Identifying Underserved Locations that are Particularly Receptive to Non-Motorized Transport via the Pedestrian and Bicycling Survey; Rebecca Walters, San Jose State University, Urban and Regional Planning Communications Initiative Award  of Excellence "Visualizing the Code" Video Series, City of Anaheim Planning Department Hard-Won Victory Award  of Excellence Barrio Logan Gateway Sign, City of San Diego Planning Department 2015 Scholarships Outstanding Student Award?? Jessica Medina, USC Outstanding Student Award, Runners Up?? Ryan Sclar, UCLA; Alison Ecker, UCB; Kate Bridges, UCLA Diversity in Planning Award ??Mimi Morisake, SDSU Merit Scholarship? Brenna Callero, UCI; Nicole Bourgeois, UCI; Erick Tucker, SJSU CPR Memorial Scholarship ? ? Cassandra Gutierrez, USC?; Ellen Keating, SLO; ?Paul Donegan, SLO David Wilcox Scholarship ?? Sam Blanchard, UCB Ken Milam Scholarship ?? Logan Philippo, USC; Paul Wack Sustainability Scholarship  ?Andrew Stricklin, UCLA ?Richard H. Weaver Scholarship  ?Michael Shilstone, USC Section Student Awards Central Coast Section Jana Schwartz, SLO; Vivon Crawford, UCSB; Marie Laule, UCSB ?Inland Empire Section ?Nicole Bourgeois, UCI?; David Mach, Cal Poly Pomona ?Los Angeles Section? Nour Chaaban, CSUN; ?Camille Stewart, UCLA?; Cassandra Gogreve, USC?; Joanne Wong, UCLA ?Northern Section? Evelyn Saint-Louis, UCB?; Alexandra Ball, CSUMB?; Jaime Scott, SJSU; Mariaclara Zazzaro, SJSU?; Colleen Courtney, CSUMB  ?Orange Section  ?Joseph Cryer, UCI; Maria Christina Martinez, UCI ?Sacramento Section? Jeffrey Graham, UCD ?San Diego Section Ginger Stout, UCSD; Georgiana Hale, SDSU

The SANDAG Board of Directors voted unanimously last week to adopt the final version of its Regional Transportation Plan, called San Diego Forward : The Regional Plan. The plan will invest $204 billion into transportation infrastructure projects over the next 35 years, including provisions for 1 million more county residents and 300,000 more jobs. The RTP calls for investment in in transit projects, bikeways, pedestrian improvements, and a Managed Lanes network between now and 2050. It designates half the region as open space, and exceeds greenhouse gas reduction targets set for the region by the California Air Resources Board. New infrastructure includes five new trolley lines, 32 new Rapid lines, and significant increases in transit frequencies; 160 miles of Managed Lanes to existing freeways for the specific purpose of allowing transit, carpools, and vanpools to be more efficient and bypass traffic; and 275 miles of bikeways. "What that means is that in the two or three decades before, where the region was stretching out, it kind of stretched to the limit now," SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos told the Los Angeles Times . "Now what it is doing is growing up. The reason I think that's important is that as our transportation plans evolve, we need to take that into account." Some critics have said that the plan focuses too much on freeways, while others say that some areas of the county will not benefit from the plan soon enough. The plan is linked to the 2011 regional Sustainable Communities Strategy (see prior CP&DR coverage ); it has been mired in lawsuits over its measurement of greenhouse gas emissions (see prior CP&DR coverage ). Coastal Commission Willing to Entertain Banning Ranch Proposal  The Coastal Commission has decided to give a developer 90 days to alter its plan for a mixed-use development at Banning Ranch, a 401-acre site that is one of the largest privately owned pieces of undeveloped land in Orange County. The plan would build 1,375 homes, a 75-room boutique hotel, 75,000 square feet of retail and several parks on about 95 acres of the property (see prior CP&DR coverage ). It is currently used for oil operations. Coastal Commission staff had previously recommended denial of the project because it would affect the sensitive habitat, including wetlands, of coastal species including the threatened California gnatchacher. "There has to be a project that is less invasive," commission vice chairwoman Dayna Bochco said to the developer. "You chose a place that is very, very sensitive." Coastal Commissioners were hesitant to outright deny the project, as it would condense the oil operations to about 16.5 acres near the center of the project, include extensive mitigation of the oilfields, and would retain about 261 acres of open space. Report: Scorecard of California's Transit Stations A new report from the nonprofit Next 10 and prepared by the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) at the UC Berkeley School of Law grades the state's various transit stations, judging which stations perform the best overall when it comes to connecting riders to key amenities, cutting the environmental impact of transportation and contributing to a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly community. Among other highlights, San Francisco MUNI's Market and Church Street station scored a chart-topping A+ for near-perfect walkability score while San Diego's Gillespie Field Station, located in a car-dependent area, received an F. The Santa Clara VTA's Japantown/Ayer Station performed the best system wide, receiving a B+ from the researchers, while the Middlefield Station, located in a low-density area toward the edge of the system's service area scored low across all indicators.  Of the six transit systems evaluated, MUNI scored a B, followed by BART, which earned a B-, Los Angeles Metro Rail and Sacramento Regional Transit, both of which scored Cs, and San Diego Metropolitan Transit and Santa Clara VTA, both of which scored C-. "Stations serving walkable neighborhoods with plenty of conveniently located homes and businesses scored highest," Ethan Elkind, lead author and associate director of the Climate Change and Business Program at CLEE, said in a press release. "Neighborhoods that provide these local amenities encourage ridership. And the more demand, the better the economic performance of the transit system." U.S. Supreme Court Threatens San Jose Stadium Plans The U.S. Supreme Court shut down San Jose's request to review baseball's exemption from antitrust laws in an attempt to lure the Oakland A's to San Jose (see prior CP&DR commentary ). In refusing to hear San Jose's appeals, the court allowed to stand an appeals court ruling that upheld baseball's unique exemption from federal antitrust laws. The court's refusal effectively kills plans to build the stadium. Now, the City of San Jose is moving on from the legal battle, seeking other ways to develop the site right in the heart of Silicon Valley near the region's largest transit hub, the Diridon transit station. The A's, however, will still retain control of the proposed stadium site until November 2018. The court decision is viewed as a boost to backers in Oakland who are seeking to build a new stadium at the Coliseum site, which will now likely only include a baseball team, instead of the previous plan that would house both the Raiders and the A's. Concord to Reconsider Proposals for $6 Billion Naval Base Redevelopment In the wake of accusations that a developer improperly lobbied city officials for a favorable vote on a development in Concord, the Concord City Council will choose between two companies for the rights to redevelop the former 5,000-acre Concord Naval Base. The council previously cancelled the final vote on the $6 billion project after Catellus Development Company --one of the two companies fighting for the rights to develop the project -- accused the other company, Lennar Urban, of improperly lobbying Mayor Tim Grayson, who will vote on the developer selection. Catellus cited Lennar's relationship with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, who is working with Lennar at Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco and met in August with Grayson. The final vote on the project, which could support up to 12,000 units of housing and over six million square feet of commercial space, will be held Oct. 15. National APA Honors Two ‘Great Places' in California San Diego's Balboa Park and Los Angeles' Olvera Street were honored this year American Planning Association's annual Great Places in America program, which highlights places that offer better choices for where and how people work and live and that have a true sense of cultural interest. Olvera Street was highlighted as a "Great Street" for its position as a hub of historic significance in the oldest section of Los Angeles, with crafts, artisan shops, and eateries all highlighting the city's Mexican culture. "There is a striking contrast between Olvera's tight quarters in the sprawling context of what has now become of the second largest city in the U.S. Olvera Street continues to be a living monument to the city's history, with a festive atmosphere of celebration that adds to an unmatched and authentic liveliness reflecting the city's birthplace," the APA states on its website. Balboa Park was highlighted as a "Great Public Space," with its 1,200 acres of land containing the San Diego Zoo, 15 major museums, indoor and outdoor performance spaces, lush gardens, and restaurants. "Balboa Park exemplifies the considerable traffic and allure that a large, urban park can achieve when a variety of uses are planned and maintained within the space as a whole," the APA website states. Survey Registers Support for Bay-Delta Tunnel A private survey of 1,500 registered voters finds strong support for the Bay-Delta tunnel project to transport water to Southern California cities, in spite of vocal opposition from groups in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Specifically, the survey from advocacy group Californians for Water Security found that 55 percent of voters across a broad political and ideological spectrum supported the project, and that after voters were read "an explanatory statement" that frames the issue, support jumped to 79 percent. The survey also found that 36 percent of voters said the drought is the state's most important issue, double the percentage in early 2015. High Speed Rail Seeks Private Investors Following criticism over a lack of private investors lining up to finance the $68 billion high speed rail project, the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced it has received 35 responses from companies interested in financing, building, and operating the first 300-mile segment of the project. The firms include, among others, London-based Barclays Bank, the Chinese High Speed Rail Delivery Team, Siemens industry Inc., Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation, and AECOM. "Until now we have been saying, 'There will be private sector interest.' Now the private sector is saying 'There will be private sector interest,'" California High-Speed Rail Authority Chief Executive Jeff Morales .  Voters have already approved nearly $10 billion in bonds for the project. The federal government has also committed $3.5 billion in matching funds, and the state legislature agreed to provide the first ongoing source of financial support to the project, including a quarter of all revenues from the state's greenhouse gas emissions program. Report: Bay Area En Route to Full Employment UCLA economists predict that the Bay Area's unemployment rate could fall below 5 percent in 2016, reaching "full employment" and further exacerbating the area's housing crisis. The study from the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy finds that home and rental prices will likely rise as the area reaches full employment, with more jobs meaning more people moving to the Bay Area, which leads to more traffic and higher rents. "It's good news on the job and wage front for everybody," Stephen Levy of the UCLA center told CBS. "The problem is that unless you make ... a lot of money your rent or home prices are far outpacing the gains that you're getting in income."

The San Diego Association of Governments is expected to adopt a plan to guide the city's transportation infrastructure for the next 35 years, emphasizing densely populated neighborhoods and putting skyways and light-rail stations in the county's beach communities. Some transportation activist groups are saying that the plan doesn't adequately match up with the city's Climate Action Plan. The SANDAG plan, called New Climate for Transportation, has the goal of 15 percent of San Diegans commuting without a car by 2035, while the Climate Action Plan's goal is to have 50 percent of the population commuting without a car by the same year. With two major supporters of the Climate Action Plan -- Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Councilman Todd Gloria -- also sitting on the SANDAG board, activist groups Climate Action Campaign and Circulate San Diego say that the city has already given up on its Climate Action Plan before it even gave it a shot. "SANDAG's own projections show that it is mathematically impossible for the city of San Diego to achieve its transit and active transportation goals with the transportation network SANDAG is currently planning," the joint report from the two transit advocacy groups concludes . The plan envisions $204 billion in transportation spending, half of which would go to public transit like new light-rail lines, skyways and buses. Some $42 billion would go toward highway construction, and in particular, managed lanes, along with $5 billion to encourage biking and walking. Sacramento Railyard Redevelopment Clears Hurdle  A Sacramento development firm has finalized the purchase of the city's 240-acre downtown railyard, the development of which would effectively double the size of Sacramento's downtown. The land will likely be developed into a Major League Soccer stadium, a hospital, a new institute for the University of California Davis, and thousands of homes. The purchaser, Downtown Railyard Venture LLC, is owned by veteran developer Larry Kelley, and the purchase was held up for over a year over negotiations of financial responsibility for cleanup of toxic materials. The city's official plan for the site, adopted eight years ago, calls for construction of as many as 12,000 homes. Additionally, Kaiser Permanente announced plans to build a hospital at the northwest corner of the railyard in the next seven to 10 years; the city's minor-league soccer club could build a 22,000 seat, $100 million soccer stadium in the northwest corner; and UC Davis is considering building an extension campus there focused on research into global food supply issues. Group Advocates Endangered Status for Joshua Trees In the wake of scientific modeling that suggests Joshua Trees could lose 90 percent of their range by the end of the century, a conservation group known as WildEarth Guardians is petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the desert succulents as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The trees, which grow up to 40 feet high, live more than 200 years and are the namesake of the 800,000-acre Joshua Tree National Park, were subject to large-scale brush fires in the 1990s along with replacement by development in desert boom towns in the 1980s. Some conservationists have proposed translocation efforts and habitat restoration programs to save the trees from widespread extirpation. Google Collaborates on Air Pollution Monitoring Aclima, a company that builds air pollution sensors announced a deal to put its equipment on Google's Street View cars to measure smog levels in California and post the detailed information on Google Maps. The sensors will record and report everything from levels of soot to nitrogen oxides to greenhouse gases in greater detail than the stationary air pollution monitoring equipment that government agencies already operate on top of buildings. "We have a pretty large network of air monitoring stations throughout the Bay Area. But we don't have a lot of measurements in between them," Eric Stevenson, director of meteorology, measurement and rules for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in San Francisco, told San Jose Mercury News. "So this technology gives us the ability to get a better understanding neighborhood by neighborhood what the differences are." Data from the Bay Area will be posted starting in 2016. Beginning next year, cars with the sensors will be on the roads in Los Angeles and the Central Valley. Eventually, if the system is successful, the readings could affect real estate values, highlight health risks around schools, hospitals and parks and even advise cities where to plant trees or synchronize traffic lights to reduce smog. State to Chip in for Key L.A. River Parcel The state of California has agreed to pay the $25 million majority purchase price for a parcel that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called the "crown jewel" of the Los Angeles River restoration project in Cypress Park. The parcel, spanning 40 acres in Taylor Yard, is the largest remaining piece of undeveloped riverfront land and is currently owned by Union Pacific Co. City and federal officials are in the final stages of working out a cost-sharing agreement for what is expected to be a $1.4-billion restoration of 11 miles of the river in northeast and downtown L.A. -- an area including the Taylor Yard parcel. "For decades we've been talking about revitalizing and restoring the L.A. River, to no avail," state Senate leader Kevin de León announced a recent event. "But now we have real money, and real vision." SF Mayor Proposes Density Bonus San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has proposed a density bonus that would ease the city's building height limit in exchange for including more affordable units. Under the proposal, developers would be allowed two extra stories of height on projects with 30 percent of affordable housing, and an extra three stories on 100 percent affordable developments. Within the 30 percent sector, it calls for 18 percent of the units to be affordable to families making between 120 and 140 percent of area median income, which is $122,000 to $142,000 for a family of four. The remaining 12 percent would cater to low- to moderate-income residents. High Speed Rail Authority to Test in Angeles National Forest The California High Speed Rail Authority has asked for permission to test-drill deep into the federally-protected Angeles National Forest to determine the feasibility of an alternate-route rail tunnel through the San Gabriel Mountains. The request comes as residents in the cities of Acton, Santa Clarita, and San Fernando protested the original route along the 14 Freeway Corridor, prompting the rail authority to add three other possible tunneled routes for the bullet train to be constructed under the Angeles forest, connecting Burbank and Palmdale. If allowed to perform its tests, the rail authority will drill down 900 feet to 2,500 feet below the surface in up to eight locations of the northwestern portion of the Angeles, only along existing forest roads. By examining the test borings, the rail authority can determine the soil, water content and locate earthquake faults, all necessary to complete an Environmental Impact Report on the high-speed train's alignment from Palmdale to Burbank. Now, the U.S. Forest Service is asking the public for their thoughts on whether to allow the rail authority to proceed with its tunnel study. HUD Awards $30 Million Grant to Sacramento Sacramento's Housing and Redevelopment Agency will receive a $30 million federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement the Neighborhood Transformation Plan (NTP) for the River District, which will allow a complete replacement and redevelopment of the 218 distressed public housing units within the Twin Rivers Neighborhood. Twin Rivers, one of Sacramento's oldest public housing development, has long been isolated and disconnected from its surrounding community, providing limited access to vital services. The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Choice Neighborhoods program, which supports locally driven strategies to address distressed public housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. "The housing and infrastructure at Twin Rivers is old and must be replaced," Congresswoman Doris Matsui announced. "This grant will help us replace the housing, improve the transportation connections to the neighborhood, and implement a number of social services that will benefit the area's residents. I am confident that this grant will truly transform our community." FTA Awards $19 Million in Grants to Four Calif. Agencies Four California transportation organizations became recipients of a share of $19.5 million in grants to support planning projects that improve access to public transit through the Federal Transit Administration's Transit-Oriented Development Planning Pilot Program. Among the recipients , the Sacramento Area Council of Governments received $1,118,720 to develop a toolkit of policy and regulatory changes to implement its Downtown Riverfront Streetcar; the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board received $600,000 for its Caltrain Electrification Project; the San Diego Association of Governments received $429,635 to implement its Mid-Coast Corridor Light Rail Project connecting to colleges and medical facilities north of downtown; and Oakland's Bay Area Rapid Transit district received $1,100,000 to reinforce the BART system through the Transbay Core Capacity Project. $9 Billion School Bond Gains Support Supporters of a $9 billion statewide school-construction bond have gathered enough signatures to put it on the November 2016 ballot, the first potential bond measure since $10.4 billion was approved in 2006. The current pot of bond money is almost tapped out, and the state faces an estimated $20 billion backlog of applications. The building industry association and the Coalition for Adequate School Housing bankrolled efforts to collect the necessary 365,880 signatures. Lawmakers tried to put a school bond on last year's ballot during the final days of the 2014 legislative session. The effort fizzled as the Brown administration made clear that it opposed the legislation, saying that local agencies could do the job more efficiently. Organizers can withdraw the initiative up until June 30, 2016 – allowing time for possible negotiations with the Legislature and Brown on a substitute. UCLA Report: Housing Costs Trending Upwards A UCLA economic forecast predicts that housing in California will become even less affordable over the next two years, and that existing affordable housing policy will be unable to keep up with demand as the economy grows. "The economics are clear," UCLA Anderson Forecast Senior Economist Jerry Nickelsburg wrote in the forecast. "When affordable housing is provided, say by requiring developers to have a fixed percentage of their new units ‘affordable,' then the demand for that housing will be in excess of the supply." He added that just building more housing is unrealistic because such a move would require major changes in zoning codes, environmental requirements and building regulations. "This being the case, affordable housing policy needs to be explicit about who the housing is for," he wrote. "For example, one might advocate affordable housing so that teachers in public schools can purchase housing that would otherwise be difficult for them to acquire." He predicted a total employment of 2.7 percent this year and 2.2 percent next year. Chinese Company Backs L.A.-Las Vegas Rail Project A potential high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas gained a boost as a Chinese rail company committed $100 million in initial funding to the project. The rail link, which would make the 230-mile trip last about 80 minutes on electric trains that travel around 150 mph, could have important environmental and traffic impacts on a crowded highway corridor that generates an estimated 3 million car trips per year. The partnership between XpressWest and China Railway International USA is vital as China has considerable expertise with about 10,000 miles of high-speed rail track. Construction of the line could begin as early as September 2016.