Following the announcement two weeks ago of the finalists for $120 million worth of grants through the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities grant program, two metropolitan planning organizations in southern California are calling foul. The five-county region covered by the Southern California Association of Governments, by far the largest metropolitan planning organization in the state, had only 12 of 54 finalists. By contrast, Alameda County alone had eight finalists.  Darrell Johnson, CEO of the Orange County Transportation Authority, and SCAG President Carl Morehouse both wrote letters ( here and here , via CALCOG) to officials at the Strategic Growth Council decrying what they call a selection process that unfairly allocates AHSC funds. "It is unclear how the process for selection on the next step is reasonable or consistent with the legislative intent of the authorizing legislation," wrote Morehouse. He called for SGC to accept full proposals from some of the applicants that had been rejected. Meanwhile, Johnson contended that the grant guidelines inappropriately excluded a streetcar project in Santa Ana that is one of OCTA's high-priority projects. Assuming that the selection process goes forward as planned, SGC and its partner department, Housing and Community Development, may revisit guidelines and consider geographic apportionment for the 2016 grant process. New L.A. City Health Element Uses Planning to Reduce Health Disparities Los Angeles officials have adopted new planning guidelines to reduce sharp health disparities across the city. A joint effort between the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the city's Planning Commission and the California Endowment, the new guidelines include such goals as ensuring 75 percent of all residents are within a quarter of a mile of a park, increasing the number of Angelenos who live within a mile of a farmers market, and improving access to grocery stores. With a city analysis showing that Brentwood resident live 12 years longer than Watts residents, and more than 30 percent of children in South L.A. and Boyle Heights are obese, the guidelines seek to establish targets not traditionally part of health policy. "The built environment has an enormous impact on health," Beatriz Solis, director of the California Endowment's Healthy Communities program for the Southern Region, told the  Los Angeles Times . Report Calls for Orange County to Build More Housing Orange County needs to embrace mixed-use and infill development to fill a desperate housing shortage, according to a new report from the Orange County Business Council. The county today faces a shortage of 62,000 homes; that could increase to 100,000 by 2040 according to job and housing projections. However, there also is no longer enough open land to build more single-family homes.  The housing shortage stunts growth in the county as workers and potential residents are crowded out, according to economist Esmael Adibi. Orange County has already seen its age 25-to-34 population shrink 7 percent over the last 15 years, and nearly 40 percent of workers there commute more than an hour a day. "Everything else being equal, housing costs are a major, major factor to slowing down growth," Adibi told the Los Angeles Times . Monterey County Offers Downtown Vibrancy Grants Monterey County is offering its cities a matching grant of up to $10,000 to work with a consultant in revitalizing and energizing their downtown areas. Funding for the project comes from money the county expects to save from the consolidation of Salinas-area office leases into the recently purchased Schilling Place office complex in South Salinas to help local cities boost their downtown cores. Specializing in downtown retrofitting through zoning an code changes, the consultant, Miami-based Dover, Kohl & Partners, is already working in Monterey County with the city of Fort Ord in a broad urban redesign. Seeing the opportunity of having a big-name consultant in town, Supervisor Jane Parker formed the proposal. "Word is starting to get out and because of Dover Kohl being here, it kind of shined the spotlight and made it more concrete for people. My thought was, �Let's take advantage of a world-class team being in town,'" Parker told the Monterey Herald . L.A. Transportation Authority, Don Shoup Win American Planning Assoc. National Award The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority has received the American Planning Association's National Planning Excellence Award for a Best Practice for its First Last Mile Strategic Plan & Planning Guidelines. The guidelines to improve Los Angeles's first and last mile transportation connectivity, providing a toolbox for localities to build support and resources for developing active transportation infrastructure like sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and clear signage directing users to regional transit hubs. Planners say that public support for the program has been strong because of the simplicity and clarity of the guidelines, which use infographics and imagery instead of complicated and overly technical planning jargon to convey the benefits of a multi-modal system. Meanwhile, UCLA Professor of Planning and "parking guru" Donald Shoup has been named the recipient of the National Planning Excellence Award for a Planning Pioneer; see last week's CP&DR briefs for a note about Shoup's retirement. The awards will be given out at the APA conference in Seattle in late April.  S.F. Think Tank Calls for Seamless Transit A new report by urban think tank SPUR calls for the creation of an integrated transit system in the Bay Area that would make it easier for riders to navigate the labyrinthine transit systems there. The report, titled "Seamless Transit," says that the Bay Area's myriad transit authorities, divergent maps, schedules, fares, and uncoordinated capital planning and investment has made the the system less efficient and less usable. SPUR suggests helping travelers use transit by coordinating marketing and transit information by creating a common regional transit map, standardizing fares, and creating regional passes. L.A. to Spend $1.3 Billion to Fix Sidewalks In a landmark agreement, Los Angeles is  pledging  to spend over $1.3 billion over the next three decades to fix its massive backlog of broken sidewalks and other infrastructure issues in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In the agreement following a lawsuit filed by attorneys for the disabled, the city must spend $31 million annually on sidewalk and other improvements beginning in the next budget year, then increasing to $63 million in future years to adjust for rising costs. The city said that it plans to start by repairing sidewalks around parks, and in areas that are heavily trafficked, close to hospitals or workplaces, or that are requested by people with mobility challenges. It's unclear whether the promised money will completely eliminate the backlog, as about 40 percent of city sidewalks need repairs according to the Bureau of Street Services. The city has not identified any new funding sources for the settlement. Oakland Clears Path for Coliseum City Development By certifying the environmental impact report and voting to accept a specific rezoning plan, the Oakland City Council cleared a path for the Oakland Raiders or other developers to step forward and commit to its new Coliseum City proposal. The approval shows the council's optimal vision for the site: Three new sports venues, 5,750 homes and nearly 8 million square feet of urban retail and office space with convenient access to BART and the highway. However, Oakland's sports teams have shown tepid interest at best, with the Raiders pursuing a joint venture in Los Angeles and the Oakland A's and Golden State Warriors showing no interest. Fruition of the project is highly contingent upon the interest of at least one sports team in moving there. Officials are also not sure how the public could pay for more than $100 million in new streets, utilities and other infrastructure improvements that would be needed to build the homes, offices and shops for the multibillion project.

Sen. Diane Feinstein sent a letter to President Obama asking him to bypass Congress and designate over one million acres of land between Palm Springs and the Nevada border as national monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Two bills previously sponsored by Feinstein to protect the area over the past six years have languished. In her request to President Obama, Feinstein asked that he create three monuments: one, to be called the Mojave Trails National Monument, would cover 921,000 acres of federal land along Route 66 between Ludlow and Needles; another, called the Sand to Snow National Monument, would take 135,000 acres of land between Joshua Tree National Park and the San Bernardino National Forest and protect 24 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail; the last, Castle Mountains National Monument, would include the historic mining town of Hart near the Mojave National Preserve. Feinstein was encouraged to seek presidential action by conservation groups including The Wildlands Conservancy, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Mojave Desert Lands Trust and Friends of the Desert Mountains. Map Tracks Gentrification in Bay Area UC Berkeley researchers have created an interactive Urban Displacement Project map showing that the Bay Area's transformation into an exclusive high-income community that pushes out its low-income residents is only just beginning. Headed by UC Berkeley researcher Miriam Zuk and city and regional planning professor Karen Chapple and the product of nearly two years of community-engaged research looking at gentrification and displacement, the project found that in 2013, more than 53 percent of low-income households lived in neighborhoods at risk of or already experiencing displacement and gentrification pressures. Neighborhoods with rail stations, historic housing stock, an abundance of market-rate developments and rising housing prices are especially in danger of losing low-income households. It also finds that the most stable neighborhoods -- such as East Palo Alto, Marin City and San Francisco’s Chinatown -- have remained that way likely because of tenant protections, rent control, and strong community organizing. “Using our online map allows residents, neighborhood groups and governments to assess where their neighborhoods — or those next door — are in terms of the risk and actual occurrence of gentrification and displacement,” Zuk said in a statement. Light Rail Extension Opens in Sacramento Sacramento Regional Transit officially opened its 4.3-mile Blue Line light-rail extension connecting Cosumnes River College to other area campuses and offering south-county commuters an alternative to crowded Highway 99 and Interstate 5. Coming in about $10 million under the projected budget of $270 million, the extension links the rail line to Elk Grove's doorstep, and the college station includes a 2,000-spot parking garage shared by students and commuters. However, skeptical Elk Grove e-tran bus commuters say they have no intention of switching from buses to rail, saying that the trains will be inconvenient -- possibly taking longer than a typical drive to commute downtown -- and unsafe. However, Regional Transit’s security chief Norm Leong said that crime numbers are down on light-rail trains and at stations, totaling 39 thefts and robberies so far this year. High Speed Rail Targets More Properties for Eminent Domain The State Public Works Board has filed eminent domain resolutions for 12 more pieces of property along the high speed rail pathway in the San Joaquin Valley, bringing the total number filed to 270 since December 2013. Encompassing nearly 800 acres in the four county region of Fresno, Madera, Kings and Tulare counties, the board has been using eminent domain to condemn land when it and property owners cannot agree on price or terms. The resolution, encompassing 53 acres of land, will now go before a judge to decide whether the agency is entitled to the property, and then to a jury to decide the fair market value and other "just compensation" due to the owner. Residents Sue SF Over Flood Damage San Francisco residents affected by a December flood in the Mission District, Excelsior, and South of Market neighborhoods have filed a lawsuit against the city, saying that a lack of maintenance on storm drains and sewage systems led to property damage in those neighborhoods. Residents say that the city knew that repairs were necessary after paying out $5 million for a similar lawsuit stemming from 2003 and 2004 winter storms, but neglected to make needed repairs. The lawsuit alleges that the storms, which dropped 5 inches of rain in San Francisco, brought runoff that mixed with raw sewage and flowed into homes and businesses. It then alleges that Mayor Ed Lee told residents that the city was going to pay for damages, but the city then denied all claims filed. “My only conclusion as to why the city has failed to make good on its promises is because this problem does not exist in one of the more affluent neighborhoods of San Francisco,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mark Epstein, said in a statement. “My clients are your typical hardworking and honest property owners and renters and do not reside in the city’s Marina or Pacific Heights neighborhoods. Apparently, it is easy to ignore the working class.” Transit Center Opens in San Bernardino The new San Bernardino Transit Center designed to connect all major mass transit systems and connect people to downtown San Bernardino has officially  opened  this month. The $25 million project, located on Rialto Ave. in downtown San Bernardino, came about through a partnership between Omnitrans, the San Bernardino Association of Governments, and the City of San Bernardino with funding from the Federal Transportation Administration and the state of California. The 7,500-square-foot building will connect more than a dozen transit lines, including ten local bus routes, the Green Line, express Omnitrans bus routes, the Victor Valley Transit Authority, Mountain Transit, and the Metrolink San Bernardino Line once it is completed. SF Establishes ‘Green Benefit District' The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to establish a Green Benefit District -- designed to allow residents to directly invest in the maintenance and improvements of neighborhood parks, playgrounds, plazas, sidewalks and other public space amenities in their neighborhoods -- in Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill. With over 76 percent of voters saying yes to the proposal to create the Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District, the new district will last for 10 years with a budget of almost $515,000, at a cost of $0.095 per square foot of building area for residential developments and $0.0475 for industrial developments. Olympic Valley Incorporation Falters A grassroots group attempting to incorporate Olympic Valley, adjacent to Squaw Valley ski area, as a town asked for a state review of a Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis prepared by Rosenow Spevacek Group Inc. that concluded that the proposed town "does not appear to be feasible at this time." In a 6-1 vote, the Placer Local Agency Formation Commission approved Incorporate Olympic Valley's request for review, putting a temporary halt to the town formation process and sending the request to the California State Controller's office for review. Specifically, IOV believes that errors were made in the CFA's estimates of the cost of law enforcement for the valley, expenditures based on comparable contract cities, and calculating the general fund reserve as a percentage of the total general fund revenue rather than the town's operating expenses. California Transit Agencies Pick Fight with U.S. Dept. of Labor Several California transit agencies say that the U.S. Department of Labor is holding  $1 billion  hostage, contingent on the agencies violating a state public employee pension reform law which a federal judge upheld last year. The department is still enforcing a federal prohibition against interfering with collective bargaining rights, which it claims California's Public Employees' Pension Reform Act violated by changing pension rights without negotiating with workers. The department could withhold $91 million for BART, $206 million for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, $700 million for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and millions more for agencies across the state. It said it will release the grants if an agency agrees to restore transit union rights and benefits in effect before the California pension reform took effect. In response, transit chiefs including among others Grace Crunican, BART's general manager, and Perry Woodward, chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority signed a letter to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, stating that "the (Labor Department) is requiring grantees to agree to violate California law in order ... to receive funding." Study Details Peripheral Benefits of SF Transit  In an effort to demonstrate the importance of San Francisco public transportation, a new study from San Francisco's Metropolitan Transportation Agency finds that for every one dollar San Francisco invests in Muni, $2-3 are generated in the local economy. The study, done by SFMTA in partnership with Oakland-based transportation consultant Economic & Planning systems, also found that the economic benefits of Muni exceeded its costs by $634 million to $1.25 billion annually. “This study demonstrates the significant economic benefit we receive when we invest in our transportation system,” Supervisor Scott Wiener told the Examiner . “This is exactly why the transportation fees on new developments we have proposed as part of the Transportation Sustainability Program are so essential.” In order to come up with its numbers, the study's authors had to imagine a scenario wherein Muni did not exist. In that scenario, San Francisco car ownership would increase by 50 percent, and San Franciscans would add 9.3 million to 11.5 million hours to their commutes, along with taking up 27 million to 30 million more parking spaces. L.A. Seeks ‘Zero’ Traffic Deaths In an effort to kick-start his "Vision Zero" plan to eliminate traffic-related deaths by 2025, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an executive directive ordering multiple city departments to report back by Dec. 1, 2015 with specific recommendations for measures that would immediately reduce traffic-related deaths in L.A. by 20 percent by 2017. The directive also calls for the formation of a Vision Zero Task Force as well as an Executive Steering Committee, led by city agencies in coordination with the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. “We have to think big and work hard when it comes to keeping people safe,” said Mayor Garcetti in a press release. “It is tragic that 200 people are killed each year while moving about our city. With more people walking and biking than ever before, we must use every available tool to save lives. I am determined to bring that number down to zero.” Report Details Impacts of Drought on Agriculture A new report titled "Impacts of California's Ongoing Drought: Agriculture," the first comprehensive analysis of the drought on California agricultural revenue and employment through 2014, finds that California's agriculture sector has far exceeded expectations throughout the drought because of massive groundwater pumping that has been devastating to other sectors. Though farmers harvested 640,000 fewer acres last year than before that drought, crop revenue peaked at $34 billion -- the highest in California history -- in 2013. Statewide agriculture-related jobs also reached a record-high of 417,000 people in 2014, and farms have adopted more efficient water management practices, like drip irrigation and switching from lower- to higher-value crops. However, with groundwater pumping serving as a vital force for agriculture, other sectors have suffered, with current and future generations now forced to dig deeper wells, and cities forced to repair infrastructure damaged by subsidence. Pasadena Updates General Plan An update to the City of Pasadena's general plan focuses housing and commercial space in the city's urban core, emphasizing growth and walkability there while attempting to keep increases in density away from the city’s iconic tree-lined neighborhoods. Estimating a modest population increase of about 20,000 people by 2035, the plan focuses 60 percent of new housing and 40 percent of non-residential space in the central district. Part of the plan calls for more infrastructure to encourage walking, biking, and public transportation especially in downtown and on South Fair Oaks, where Marsha Rood, Pasadena's former development administrator said she expects to build "up" rather than outward. Los Angeles Debates Short-Term Rentals Los Angeles officials are trying to hash out the difference between "good" and "bad" short-term rentals as affordable housing advocates, rental operators, and neighborhood activists hotly debate rules over online rental sites like Airbnb. Much of the problems stem from commercial companies turning rent-controlled units into de facto hotels, with nonstop rentals for revolving doors of tourists. Housing advocates bemoan that this practice has taken nearly 11,000 units from the housing market, according to the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, while neighborhood groups complain of noisy parties from tourists. But as they debate the "bad" units, common ground amongst the various groups lies in what Councilman Mike Bonin dubbed "good short-term rentals," wherein a homeowner may rent out a spare room or back house from time to time. Bonin's new proposed rules, backed by Council President Herb Wesson and Councilman Paul Koretz, would bar rentals at rent-controlled units and require them to collect the same kind of city taxes as hotels, which is already legally required but inconsistently done.

Developers in Los Angeles will face more extensive scrutiny if they decide to build near earthquake faults under new rules in Los Angeles. The Westside, the South Bay, and northeast Los Angeles will be the three main areas covered by new scrutiny under a program advanced by Mayor Eric Garcetti. While state law generally says that constructions within about 500 feet of faults zoned by the state require extensive studies, decades of budget cuts have delayed the state's mapping of crucial fault zones in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles Times 2013 investigation found that Los Angeles officials approved more than a dozen construction projects on or near well-known faults without requiring seismic studies because the state had not mapped out the area. Grand Jury Report Faults Management of Irvine Great Park Following a decade of accused mismanagement, a lack of transparency, and an unnecessarily high price tag, the Irvine Great Park plan to create a 1,347 acre park at a former air base needs a strategy for the next 10 years of development, according to a new report released by an Orange County grand jury. As of now, 205 acres of the park have been developed at a cost of $251 million, a price the grand jury said would have been smaller had the city not overreached by crafting a plan to develop the park all at once instead of in phases. The grand jury suggested the dissolution of the Great Park Corporation, because its Board of Directors also acts as the council, and it recommended adopting an ordinance to limit City Council members' influence of city operations. California Cities Fare Poorly in Street Quality; League of Cities Calls for Transportation Funding Seven California cities round out the top 25 cities over population 500,000 with the poorest streets in a new report (pdf) from national transportation research group TRIP. Of those cities, three scored the top three rankings for worst streets: San Francisco-Oakland, with 74 percent of its streets classified as poor; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, with 73 percent; and Concord, with 62 percent. Additionally, the rankings find that those three cities and many of the others listed in the top 25 -- including San Jose, San Diego, Riverside-San Bernardino, and Sacramento -- also have motorists spending the most money annually in vehicle maintenance because of poor roads. Meanwhile, the League of California Cities recently adopted a resolution urging Governor Jerry Brown and the state legislature to provide new sustainable funding for state and local transportation infrastructure. The move followed Governor Brown calling an Extraordinary Session on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the League is also requesting that the state provide a list of projects that could be funded by a new funding package. L.A. Housing Discrimination Suit Dismissed A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the City of Los Angeles against Wells Fargo & Co. accusing it of targeting minority borrowers with predatory lending practices. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II said that Federal Housing Act loans issued during the time period did not violate the law, and that they were intended to overcome precisely the barriers to ownership often experienced by minorities. City Attorney Michael Feuer filed the suit -- among three other suits accusing big banks of the predatory practice -- saying that the practice violated the Fair Housing Act and helped result in 200,000 foreclosures in Los Angeles from 2008 to 2012, causing city property tax revenue to fall by $481 million.  "The city is not a champion of minority rights as it declared in the complaint," Wright said. "While this case began with allegations that Wells Fargo trampled the rights of minorities, it ends with the city's failed attempt to engage in the exact same conduct." Coastal Commission Challenges Long Beach over Fracking The Coastal Commission is attempting to force Long Beach officials and their corporate sponsors to obtain a special permit before beginning to use fracking on 13 local oil wells, though local officials dispute whether the commission actually has permitting authority for the process. Alison Dettmer, the Coastal Commission's deputy director in charge of energy and ocean resources oversight, said her agency has taken the position that any fracking within the state's coastal zone also requires a coastal development permit, but the state's Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal resources has already issued permits for fracking at the Long Beach islands. Meanwhile, officials and managers of the company in charge of oil extraction operations are still deciding whether fracking the oil well would make financial sense. Jacbos Stepping down from Housing Finance Agency The chairman of the Housing Finance Agency -- the state agency in charge of financing affordable housing -- announced that he will not seek reappointment as his development company plans to eliminate a rent-controlled eight unit complex to make way for million dollar homes. Matthew Jacobs, the chairman and the owner Beverly Hills-based firm Bulldog Partners LLC, said that he will not seek reappointment when his term expires on Sept. 26. "Evictors like Jacobs have no place making affordable housing policy in this state," housing advocacy group Tenants Together said in a statement. S.F. Explores Options for Replacing City Jail San Francisco's Board of Supervisors decided in a sharply divided vote to submit a request for $80 million in state funding for a new jail to replace a current, seismically-unfit one, despite a declining jail population. Council President London Breed cast the deciding vote, with the caveat that the jail needs to be smaller and cost less than the $240 million, 384-bed jail currently proposed. The project is part of a larger effort to move workers out of the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St because of its placement on a fault line. Opponents of the measure noted that the population of the city's six jails has declined dramatically in the past decade, from a high of 2,300 in the mid-1990s to 1,285 this year � a historic 33-year-low. L.A. County Loses Housing Discrimination Suit in Antelope Valley The Los Angeles County Housing Authority will pay $2 million to victims of housing discrimination in Antelope Valley after a U.S. Justice Department investigation concluded that housing officials and sheriff's deputies joined with two cities to drive black residents out of the area from 2004 to 2011. In the settlement, five families who lost their housing will have the chance to have their vouchers reinstated, while others will be able to receive compensation up to $25,000 or have their voucher termination wiped from public housing records. The federal complaint alleged that the county Housing Authority and Sheriff's Department subjected black Section 8 voucher holders to "more intrusive and intimidating compliance checks" than their white counterparts and also were more likely to terminate black residents' vouchers. Federal officials alleged that the cities, which provided money to the county for extra enforcement, encouraged the discriminatory practices. Santa Barbara to Revive Desalination Plant The Santa Barbara City Council has decided to reactivate its desalination plant, approving $55 million for the plant in the hopes that it could provide nearly a third of the city's drinking water. Last September, Lake Cachuma, the city's main reservoir, dipped below 30 percent capacity, prompting the city to begin reactivation of the plant as a last resort with hopes that it will be operational by fall 2016. "We recognize it's a big decision to make," Mayor Helene Schneider told the L.A. Times. "We also recognize that desalination is not just for this particular drought -- they are cyclical." S.F. Mayor Proposes Fee on New Development to Fund Transit San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee proposed a new fee applicable to market rate condominium and apartment projects to raise $14 million a year for transit improvements. Known as a transportation sustainability fee, the new proposal would add market rate apartment and condo developers to the city's Transit Impact Development Fee, which currently applies to commercial developments and production, design, and repair facilities. The addition would hopefully raise the revenue of the fee from $720 million to $1.2 billion over 30 years. Affordable housing developers and builders of complexes with fewer than 20 units, along with medical centers and nonprofits, will be exempt from the fee, which will total $7.74 per square foot of residential developments. The money would be spent on expanding the Muni fleet with new buses and railcars, improving reliability on the busiest routes, retrofitting existing trains, investing in the electrification of Caltrain, and making streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. The proposal has not received any outright opposition from development circles or housing advocates. "We don't suffer from a low cost of producing housing, and $7.74 (a square foot) is not a negligible fee." Tim Colen, executive director of the Housing Action Coalition representing developers, told the San Francisco Gate. "But in the end, high-density urban infill doesn't work without excellent transit, and we want to do the right thing." Yuba County Tribes Reach Detente Over Casino Plans After years of litigation challenging the federal government's decision to place 40 acres in Yuba County into the trust of the Enterprise tribe to build a Class III  casino , opponents of the project have said that they would not try to block construction of a scaled-down version without permanent utilities or games like blackjack and slot machines. The scaled-down version would only span 10,000 square feet and would be a Class II casino, mostly favoring bingo, and that it would have to truck water in and out from the facility. The scaled-back plan prompted questions as to whether the tribe would be held responsible for any of $83 million the tribe would owe the county for mitigation of the construction of the larger Class III casino under a 2002 memorandum of understanding. The Enterprise tribe still plans to build the larger, 318,000 square-foot  casino  with slot machines and other casino games, but plaintiffs are seeking an order to require Enterprise to give 60 days' notice if it intends to construct anything beyond the Class II casino.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission advised the City Council to adopt the city's proposed Mobility Plan 2035  (pdf) , update the land use element of 35 community plans, and adopt an ordinance to implement new street standards and complete street principles. Updating the 1999 Transportation Element of the city's General Plan and the 2010 Bicycle Plan, the Mobility Plan 2035 has the goal of creating a balanced transportation system in the city of Los Angeles by prioritizing pedestrian, bicycle, and transit-oriented roads, and contains a five-year implementation strategy for the plan. The plan would promote complete streets, per AB 1358, and include a range of design guidelines to accommodate multiple modes of transportation.  Delta Smelt on Verge of Extinction The delta smelt, a small, three-inch fish found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta-and the symbol of decades-long debates over water management in the delta--is likely headed toward extinction if water-use trends in California continue. In previous years, researchers have caught hundreds or thousands of the fish in surveys of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Basin. "Numbers are down this year. So the March survey we caught six. The April survey we caught one," Lauren Damon, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told Capital Public Radio. The drought has exhausted habitats for many species in the delta, including the winter-run Chinook salmon, which saw 95 percent of its brood die last year. "If we let the smelt go, we're essentially saying we don't really need a functioning estuary, and California is going to be losing something very special if that fish disappears," Peter Moyle told Capital Public Radio. Supervisors Halt Solar Plant near Joshua Tree A solar project in San Bernardino County has been stalled so officials can take a closer look at its problems, after the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted against it in a 3-2 vote. Approved by the San Bernardino County Planning Commission in December, the Bowman Solar Project would be a three-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant built in the community of Landers north of Joshua Tree National Park, with power generated by the project to be bought by Southern California Edison. Opponents of the project contended that it violated a temporary county solar ordinance adopted in 2013 requiring that projects be restricted to less-populated areas with substantially disturbed landscapes, such as old landfills. The ordinance was intended as a stopgap until the county completes an overall renewable energy amendment to its general plan slated for later this year. Gov. Brown Accelerates S.F. Arena Development Governor Jerry Brown fast-tracked environmental approval of the proposed Golden State Warriors arena on Mission Bay in San Francisco, giving courts just 290 days to rule on any lawsuit contesting the arena's environmental impact report. The arena will be just one of five projects granted fast-track review under AB900, a 2011 state law that streamlines environmental review of key projects. A spokesman for the Mission Bay Alliance group fighting the arena, remained undaunted by the governor's action. "It's less expensive for the alliance, and we will have a decision sooner," spokesman Sam Singer told the  San Francisco Chronicle . Court Blocks S.F. Streetcar Extension A state appeals court blocked construction of a new streetcar loop in San Francisco, ruling that opponents raised "substantial questions" about the the project's conformance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The new Muni extension would run on the T-Third Street line in the Dogpatch neighborhood to connect to the planned Central Subway as a part of a light-rail project authorized in September with a $10 million federal grant. Officials expected to complete the work in October, but with the injunction the court will further review a lawsuit brought on by a group of residents who claim that the 15-year-old EIR is now obsolete because of an influx of development in the area. San Jose Debates Rent Control in Downtown Renters and property owners clashed at a San Jose City Council committee meeting over proposals to implement rent control in San Jose's booming apartment market. Two recent proposals from Mayor Sam Liccardo and a few council members, slated to go before City Manager Norberto Duenas, attempt to expand rent control and strengthen tenant protections to avoid tenants getting priced out of their apartments as prices rise. One proposal, from Councilman Raul Peralez, would expand rent control to include 10,000 more units and reduce allowable rent increases from 8 percent to 4 percent annually. However, at the meeting of the council's Rules and Open Government Committee, property owners said that rent control makes it difficult to invest in properties and has not worked in other cities. S.F. Considers Demolition of I-280 in Mission Bay San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is looking for ways to achieve a multi-billion dollar plan to tear down Interstate 280 at Mission Bay and build a new underground rail tunnel with a station between the proposed Warriors arena and AT&T Park. Lee hopes that the plan would bring Caltrain and high-speed rail into downtown and the new Transbay Terminal while opening up a new area of the city to development. Caltrain has expressed skepticism, however, saying that Lee's vision would derail already-planned efforts to place the new transit center at First and Mission Streets, as the new plan to create the center closer to the waterfront along Third Street would cost time and would require tunneling through landfill for an extra 2 to 3 miles. Senator Proposes Expansion of Boards of Supervisors to Seven Members Citing booming populations that underrepresent minority communities,  State Senator Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia)  has proposed an amendment to the state's constitution to expand boards of supervisors of all counties with a population of 2 million or more -- including San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino, among others -- from five to seven members beginning in 2021. Mendoza, who proposed the amendment, said that  an expansion of the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles would help add a second Latino seat in the nearly 50 percent Latino county. However, board incumbent Don Knabe, whose district overlaps with Mendoza's, has insinuated that the proposal is an attempt for Mendoza to take that seat when he's termed out of state office. Newark Approves Massive Wetlands-Adjacent Development The Newark City Council unanimously approved a controversial 856-acre development of 1,260 housing units, public park space, and an elementary school site by developer Newark Partners LLC, despite pleas from environmentalists that the project would damage nearby federally-protected wetlands. The project, located on sites known as "Areas 3 and 4," dates back 20 years and has been the subject of numerous rounds of litigation for allegedly failing to comply with CEQA, as environmentalists have raised concerns including liquefaction, lateral spread, sea level rise, and the need for additional flood control measures, according to Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge Vice Chair Carin High. The developer will provide $3 million in affordable housing fees and $6 million in other impact fees, along with $14 million and 66 acres of land for a potential golf course. Garden Grove Seeks More Urban Town Center The Garden Grove Planning Commission unanimously  approved  a new downtown zoning amendment to add mixed-use and adaptive reuse zones in the city's downtown. Planners hope to promote a bike- and pedestian-friendly downtown inspired by strategies in Orange, Tustin, Anaheim, and Santa Ana, all of which are attempting to create more urban environments in historically suburban Orange County.

Gov. Jerry Brown  issued  an executive order to establish a California greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 - the most aggressive benchmark enacted by any government in North America to reduce dangerous carbon emissions over the next decade and a half. It also orders the state to prepare for adaptation to climate change. California is on track to meet or exceed the current target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as established in the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32). California's new emission reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 will make it possible to reach the ultimate goal of reducing emissions 80 percent under 1990 levels by 2050. This is in line with the scientifically established levels needed in the U.S. to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius - the warming threshold at which scientists say there will likely be major climate disruptions such as super droughts and rising sea levels."With this order, California sets a very high bar for itself and other states and nations, but it's one that must be reached - for this generation and generations to come," said  Brown in a statement. (See CP&DR  commentary  by Josh Stephens and Bill Fulton on the order's potential impact on statewide Sustainable Communities Strategies.) OPR Releases Draft VMT Guidelines, Advisory on Tribal Resources The Governor's Office of Planning and Research announced the availability of two documents related to the Guidelines Implementing the California Environmental Quality Act. The first document summarizes comments submitted to OPR on the preliminary discussion draft of changes to the CEQA Guidelines related to transportation analysis pursuant to Senate Bill 743. All comments that were submitted to OPR on the preliminary discussion draft during the comment period can be accessed through the  summary  (pdf).  OPR is currently developing a revised draft which will be released for additional public review.  The second document is a draft  technical advisory  (pdf) discussing new requirements, added by Assembly Bill 52, related to tribal cultural resources and CEQA.  The provisions of the new law go into effect July 1, 2015.  OPR is accepting input on the draft technical advisory. (See prior CP&DR coverage of SB 744.) Caltrans Releases Strategic Management Plan Caltrans released its new 2015-2020  Strategic Management Plan  (pdf) , a roadmap of how Caltrans will meet the bold goals it has set for itself in order to be a high-performance, efficient, innovative and modern state department of transportation. The Strategic Management Plan describes Caltrans' five goals and their corresponding objectives, adding performance measures connected to each goal. These performance measures will be used by Caltrans as tools to manage from the Plan. The five categories of goals include safety and health; stewardship and efficiency; sustainabilty, livabilbity, and economy; system performance; and organizational excellence. Examples of metrics for each of these categories are, respectively, fewer than .05 fatalities for every 100 million miles traveled on state highways, and reducing pollutants by 85 percent by 2020; increase from 84 to 88 the percentage of roads rated as having "good" pavement; triple the number of trips taken via bike and double the number taken via walking or transit by 2020; slow the growth of hours of commuter delay; improve stakeholder participation. The plan is a culmination of a comprehensive process that builds upon the efforts of the Caltrans Program Review, Caltrans Improvement Project and recommendations of the State Smart Transportation Initiative. Caltrans is in the process of determining and developing baselines for all performance measures. State Audit of BART Describes Need for $9.6 Billion in Capital Improvements The California State Auditor's office reports that the Bay Area Rapid Transit District needs $9.6 billion in capital improvement and reinvestment projects, but that funding for those projects is still up in the air. $4 billion of the needed money would go to the "Big Three" projects: replacing its fleet of railcars (many of which have been in operation since 1972 and which the auditor says will reach the end of their useful lives by 2026), expanding its vehicle maintenance facility, and replacing its train control system. BART's ability to spend on the capital improvements is constrained by an operating budget deficit that is projected to grow from $5.9 million in 2015-16 to $57.3 million in fiscal year 2017-18. Instead, it may have to look to the 2016 ballot for bonds or sales tax increases. Bay-Delta Habitat Restoration Plan Curtailed Gov. Jerry Brown announced that the state would significantly reduce the acreage slated for conservation efforts in the Sacramento Bay-Delta. The plan cuts from 100,00 to 30,000 the number of acres of fish and wildlife habitat that will be restored, dropping the cost from $8 billion to $300 million. Along with that announcement, Brown reaffirmed his support for a controversial $15 billion plan to build water tunnels to deliver more water to the Central Valley. Critics contend that the reduced conservation area, which effectively nullifies the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, is a precursor to an ecologically harmful "water grab." Supporters say that a smaller area will be easier to manage ad restore.  Mixed-Use Project in San Diego May Face Vote Opponents of a large mixed-use project in the mostly-residential community of Carmel Valley in North San Diego have gathered enough signatures to force a 2016 public vote. The project, a 1.4 million-square-foot complex of office buildings, condos, and retail stores called One Paseo, generated public outcry and the ire of a shopping center across the street, who claimed that the project would have an unmitigable impact on traffic and would fundamentally alter the community's character. It got approval from the San Diego City Council in February, but the 61,235 signatures against it along with a pending lawsuit that says its Environmental Impact Report was inadequate will force the development onto the 2016 ballot, which is already packed with five city council races, a minimum wage increase, primary elections for president and the mayor, along with a possible public vote on a financing plan for a new Chargers stadium. Coachella Adopts General Plan Update The City of Coachella has updated its general plan after four years of work, providing guidelines for the next 20 years as the population continues to grow and the city considers large projects like the La Entrada housing development. The plan, which received a $274,000 grant from the California Endowment and was otherwise funded by $625,000 directly from the city, seeks to fulfill community requests for more transportation options, new opportunities for youth, a sustainable environment, and improvement of schools. The general plan won recognition from the Southern California Association of Governments, which plans on presenting the city with an award for its plan. Report Urges Development along L.A. River A recently released report from the Los Angeles Business Council urges the city to meet Mayor Eric Garcetti's goal of adding 100,000 new housing units in part by creating an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District along the Los Angeles River. The report piggy-backs on a billion-dollar plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revamp 11 miles of the L.A. River north of downtown. "If you look at frontiers and underutilized resources, I think the L.A. River is really fertile land with a lot of development potential," report author and UCLA real estate professor Paul Habibi told the LA Times. "There's market-driven demand, a lot of developers who are eager to get in there." To save time and costs in rezoning to include affordable housing, the report proposed a variety of tools, including local design guidelines and expedited permitting. The report estimates that a new financing district along the river, which would allow the neighborhood to capture new tax revenue and funnel it back into public works, could raise between $5-10 billion in the next 45 years. Hollywood Project Halted Over Insufficient CEQA Analysis A judge  halted  construction of the controversial three-tower Millennium Hollywood development, saying that the city of Los Angeles failed to fully assess in its Environmental Impact Report the impacts of the project on surrounding neighborhoods. The project, which was hailed as an appropriately dense project in a transit-rich area, was backed unanimously by the City Council and by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Community groups and Caltrans said that the project would significantly worsen traffic on the 101 freeway and be unsafe. In his ruling, Judge James C. Chalfant said that the details of the project were also too vague, with the developer's summary of the uses only mentioning "some combination" of residential uses along with hotel rooms, offices, and restaurants among other things. "A developer must present an accurate and stable picture of the project so that the public and decision-makers can decide whether its environmental consequences are outweighed by its public benefits," Chalfant wrote. Opponents also raised concerns about the project's proximity to newly mapped earthquake faults.  Santa Monica Restricts Short-Term Rentals The Santa Monica City Council  voted  unanimously to strengthen a prohibition on short-term rentals through the home-share service Airbnb. The new ordinance allows "true" homesharing, wherein a homeowner can rent out rooms or guesthouses to travelers while the primary owner is on-site but prohibits rental of entire units by absentee landlords and managers. Short-term rentals, by which entire apartments or homes are rented out, number from 1,400-1,700 in San Monica and account for about five percent of the city's 33,717 rental units. Residents expressed concerns that with Santa Monica already not filling needed housing supply, the short-term rentals are squeezing even more possible residents out of the market. The ordinance is believed to be the strictest regulation of home-sharing in California.  S.F., Oakland Ranked Highly for Walkability San Francisco and Oakland came in second and eighth place, respectively, on WalkScore's rankings of the 10 most walkable cities in the U.S. with populations exceeding 300,000. San Francisco received a walkability score of 83.9, narrowly losing to New York City; and Oakland received a 68.5, losing to Seattle and beating Baltimore. The rankings look at how walkable a city becomes by seeing how much space they claim for pedestrian traffic from cars, by looking at the opening of restaurants and shopping centers, and by judging improvements in public transportation.

Water agencies cannot charge water users incrementally more per gallon of use following a  ruling  by the Fourth District Court of Appeals that cited a 1996 law prohibiting government agencies from overcharging for services. The suit came about after San Juan Capistrano charged nearly four times as much per unit of water for users in the highest tier to provide an incentive to conserve, but failed to show that the water was that expensive to deliver. Governor Jerry Brown wanted to use the rates to save water and create strong disincentives for wealthier residents. Other water districts must now review the ruling to make sure that their rates are in step with the court, while still encouraging conservation during the drought. Two-thirds of water districts use some form of tiered water pricing, but now agencies will have to show that hikes are directly tied to the cost of water, according to the court. Change in Leadership at Dept. of Housing and Community Development Claudia Cappio has left her role as director of the Department of Housing and Community Development to head the "Coliseum City" development plan in Oakland. Replacing her as acting director will be Susan Riggs, the former Executive Director of the San Diego Housing Federation. Riggs has been serving as Deputy Secretary of Housing Policy for the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH) since January 2014. Prior to joining BCSH, Riggs served as the Executive Director of the San Diego Housing Federation. In this capacity, her primary goal was to promote the creation of safe, stable, and healthy housing that is affordable to lower income families and people in need. Newly Discovered Fault Puts Ventura at Risk An earthquake fault that runs through downtown Ventura is extremely dangerous and could produce a magnitude 8.0 earthquake every 400 to 2,400 years, according to new research from the California Geological Survey. In contrast with the inland San Andreas fault, an earthquake at the Ventura fault could bring a devastating tsunami to the region that would begin "in the Santa Barbara Channel area, and would affect the coastline � of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, down through the Santa Monica area and further south," according to Southern California Earthquake Center director Tom Jordan, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times . Up until the study, experts believed that California's biggest threat of tsunami would be a mega-quake in Alaska, which would still give Californians hours to evacuate. Services for Homeless Cost L.A. $100 Million Annually Five members of the Los Angeles City Council proposed that the city take a new approach in dealing with 23,000 people living on the streets. Reacting to a scathing report indicating that homelessness costs the city $100 million per year and saying that the city's response has been fractured and dysfunctional, the council members want to create a new council committee focused just on that problem. In the report, City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana said that $87 million of indirect costs go to the Los Angeles Police Department for arrests, patrols and mental health interventions. "What's happening in the city and county is unconscionable and unacceptable," Councilmember Mike Bonin said at the meeting. "For the most part we're wasting our money." Waze, Los Angeles Establish Partnership for Data-Sharing In a new private-public partnership, the City of Los Angeles and the traffic app Waze will share data on traffic patterns and roadway conditions. The partnership will allow people using the traffic app to see alerts about hit-and-runs and abducted children, and several government departments will send Waze information about construction, film shoots, and road closures. In return, the app will send the city real-time data about traffic patterns and roadway conditions. Police officers had previously worried that the Google-owned app, which has about 1.3 million users in the city, would put police officers in danger by giving their location and allowing people to track them down.  Napa County Parks In Dire Financial Straits A new financial report brought disappointing news to the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District: a planned expansion of the county's park and open space system doesn't have nearly enough funding and could take a century to complete unless a new tax speeds up the process. Currently, the district has enough funds to maintain existing amenities, but it only has about $100,000 annually available for expansions. Completion of the Bay Area Ridge Trail alone could cost the city $15 million. To raise the funds, the district's advisory committee is looking at the possibilities of a parcel tax, property tax, or sales taxes. "We're not trying to buy the whole county," District General Manager John Woodbury told the Napa Valley Register . "That's not the idea. But those special places that would benefit from being owned publicly, that's where we come in." Laguna Woods Begins General Plan Update The City Council of Laguna Woods agreed to begin work on a comprehensive update of the city's General Plan to map out the city's direction for the next 25 years. Estimated to cost $315,000, the update will focus on transportation, housing, land use, noise, open space, and fiscal development to provide direction on attracting and retaining industries. Adoption of the plan is projected for spring of 2017.  Rents Keep Rising News reports have recently been focusing on the state of rental markets across California. Among the highlights:  San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose were respectively named the three worst cities nationwide for renters by Forbes. The rankings looked at the jumps in rent from 2014 to now, as well as vacancy rates, median household income, and other factors. The best cities for renters included Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Las Vegas. The influx of tech money into San Francisco shot the city's rental rates up 14.8 percent since last year, averaging more than $3,000 a month in some areas. The increase dwarfs the nationwide average of 3.7 percent. Homes in Orange County are flying off the shelves, as the city has become the fifth-fastest in the nation at selling homes. 59 percent of the homes listed through the real estate company Trulia this year came off the market in two months or less, compared with 40 percent nationwide. "Expensive markets � including many in California � have tight housing supplies because of limited construction in the face of growing demand. So homes get snapped up quickly," the report said. Report: Bay Area Ill-prepared for Superstorm Flood Waters A new report shows that, despite the persistence of drought in California, the Bay Area is extremely susceptible to a superstorm that occurs every 150 years. The study, released by the nonprofit Bay Area Council, says that flooding from this type of storm could produce $10.4 billion in economic damage, and it calls for the implementation of infrastructure projects ranging from levees to sea walls to wetlands to prepare for the storm. Eighty percent of the flooding damage from a 150-year storm would be concentrated in Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In the Bay Area, 355,000 residents and $46.2 billion in assets are situated in areas that are susceptible, according to the report. "The drought is a function of extreme weather, but it's only one side of the coin, and we know what's coming next," Adrian Covert, policy director for the council, told the San Mateo County Times . "With this report, it shows that we can't say we weren't warned, and the time to prepare is now." The last major storm of this type occurred in the Great Flood of 1862, when 34 inches of rain fell on San Francisco in about a month.  BART May Seek 2016 Property Tax Increase  Officials at Bay Area Rapid Transit are considering putting a property tax increase on the 2016 ballot to fund badly needed upgrades to the system, according to Daniel Borenstein at the Contra Costa Times. The district is expecting operating shortfalls of $35-50 million in the years 2018-2024 due to costly employee compensation, and it lacks money to replace or improve 306 of its train cars. All in all, the district estimates that it would need about $4.8 billion in the next 10 years. However, with a tax increase requiring two-thirds of voters' approval, Borenstein warned that such an effort could torpedo the upgrades, and possibly even other unrelated transportation improvements. "Making matters worse, the district is aiming for the same presidential election ballot that Contra Costa Transportation Authority officials are eyeing for a measure to double their current half-cent sales tax for road and transit improvements," Borenstein told the Contra Costa Times . "By loading up the ballot, BART risks dividing the more fiscally conservative, tax-sensitive suburban vote between the two measures and killing both." PPIC Establishes Water Policy Center Amid the state's worst drought, the Public Policy Institute of California is launching a $9 million Water Policy Center with funding from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. The center will be headed by Ellen Hanak and will focus on research to promote public policy that would ensure clean and reliable water supplies, build healthy and resilient ecosystems, and prepare for future droughts and floods. "If California's water is managed well, it can support a vibrant economy, society, and environment now and in the future," Hanak said in a  statement . "But we will need new approaches that are practical, evidence-based, and scientifically sound.

As anticipated, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has approved the application by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians to have its 1400-acre Camp 4 property taken into federal trust. The Tribe has stated intentions to build housing, a community center and related buildings on the property. Local critics have expressed fears about what could happen after trust status takes the property out of state and county jurisdiction and exempts it from local taxation. The Santa Barbara Independent reported county officials were preparing to follow through on the Supervisors' prior decision to appeal such a ruling. A December 30 report by the Lompoc Record quoted at length from antagonistic comments by two central spokespersons in the matter, Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta and Santa Barbara County Supervisor Doreen Farr. The "Stand Up for California" organization, which monitors California gaming issues, has posted a copy of the Notice of Decision . The text includes extensive rebuttals to public comments critical of the fee-to-trust application. For CP&DR's pre-approval news feature on of the fee-to-trust controversy see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3650. Brown, at Fourth Swearing-In, Talks Climate Preservation Gov. Jerry Brown took the oath of office for his fourth term as Governor on Monday, with a speech calling for increased uses of renewable energy . His text expressed pride in the balancing of the state budget and in the passage of Propositions 1 and 2, and called on the state to work toward deriving 50% of electricity from renewable sources. The same day Brown swore in Justices Mariano-Florentino Cu�llar and Leondra Kruger, returning the state Supreme Court to its full complement of seven Justices. Moreno Valley May Create Foreclosure Registry The Riverside County city of Moreno Valley is considering requiring registration of foreclosed properties . The proposal would require lenders to register properties with the city "as they go into default," to report periodically on the properties' status, and to provide contact information for use "if criminal and property maintenance issues arise." The Press-Enterprise says the city saw a peak of 6,239 foreclosures in 2008 but the foreclosure rate "dropped" to 605 counted in 2014 as of mid-December. The proposal calls for contracting with Nationwide Cost Recovery Services , which already runs foreclosure registries for the Southern California cities of Carson, Eastvale , El Monte, South El Monte, Pico Rivera and West Covina. Other California cities with existing foreclosure registry ordinances include Los Angeles , which recently toughened its rules after criticism ; Fresno , Oakland , San Diego , Long Beach , Fountain Valley and San Bruno . (A few details as of 2012 are here .) Also in Moreno Valley, Maven's Morning Coffee noted efforts to solicit Riverside County business support for a gigantic warehouse complex , the "World Logistics Center." The Press-Enterprise said the complex would create 14,600 to 29,000 truck trips per day, though it reported the city of Riverside was questioning some figures in the traffic portion of last year's draft EIR on the project. Two Unusual City Hires in San Francisco Profiles appeared this past week of new city staff in San Francisco who have unusual job descriptions. Urbanful.org interviewed Patrick Otellini, a former permit expediter and city "earthquake czar," now working as " the world's first chief resiliency officer " -- though he's actually only the first of 100 CROs being hired by cities around the world funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. (Oakland has also hired one.) And the city Department of Public Health hired an epidemiologist to study pedestrian fatalities and injuries in traffic collisions. San Jose Buyer Makes Steep Resale of Redevelopment Property A San Jose real estate company has apparently made a tidy profit buying and selling a 1.25-acre former redevelopment property. Nate Donato Weinstein reported in the Silicon Valley Business Journa l that Next Realty bought a parking lot on Fountain Alley from the San Jose Redevelopment Agency for $6.2 million in 2011 and resold it in December 2014 to System Property Development Co., which he described as "a parking lot owner and operator based in Southern California." A few days later on Twitter, he reported the new sale price was $16 million . Also: CP&DR 's own Bill Fulton wrote an opinion piece for UT San Diego with  some afterthoughts on his time as Planning Director in San Diego . California's High-Speed Rail project officially starts construction with a groundbreaking in Fresno January 6 . And San Francisco Twitterers have been drawing faces on a mouth-like balcony in the rendering for a tower to replace the All Star Donut shop at Market and Van Ness. The tower design, by SoloCordBuenz and Sn�hetta, otherwise got a favorable review from Chronicle architecture critic John King. The "mouth" midway up the structure has a purpose: King writes that it's part of a design "intended to diffuse the downdraft" on one of the windiest parts of Market Street.

The city of Bakersfield reached a settlement December 19 with the California High-Speed Rail Authority in which the rail agency agreed to consider a different route than originally proposed. The L.A. Times reported the new route "travels through the northern section of Bakersfield, arriving at a downtown station a few miles from the existing Amtrak station." The paper quoted the rail authority's spokeswoman, Lisa Marie Alley, as saying the settlement was unrelated to the December 12 decision by the federal Surface Transportation Board saying the California Environmental Quality Act didn't apply to high-speed rail projects. For the STB decision click here , courtesy of the California High-Speed Rail Blog , which advocates for the project. As CP&DR partly noted online last week , the issue of railroad preemption of CEQA has been raised in an implicit conflict between the First District Court of Appeal's Friends of the Eel River v. North Coast Railroad Authority -- which the state Supreme Court has now accepted for review -- and the Third District's Town of Atherton et al v. California High Speed Rail Commission , to which the state Supreme Court denied depublication in October . Monterey Downs EIR Delayed After Mistaken Release of Water Supply Document The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Monterey Downs Specific Plan was expected out December 19. But the Monterey Herald reports the previously delayed document has been delayed again, following the unintentional release of a confidential legal document in which outside counsel advised the city of Seaside to address "uncertainties" about water supplies for the project in the EIR. The Monterey Downs project would create a racetrack and surrounding real estate development on a portion of former Fort Ord land. Cal American Goes Ahead With Test Well The Monterey Herald reported that California American Water was at work on its desalination test well although the Ag Land Trust and Marina Coast Water District were both suing to stop it. The Coastal Commission gave its permission for the project in November . Marin County Wins Landfill Expansion Litigation Marin County has defeated a CEQA challenge to the EIR for expansion of the Redwood Landfill, which receives most of Marin's solid waste. The decision, which followed extensive litigation, was in an unpublished First District appellate ruling, No Wetlands Landfill Expansion v. County of Marin . Among other unpublished holdings, the court found it was acceptable for the project proponents to present an off-site alternative landfill location in unidentified, hypothetical form, though opponents argued they couldn't comment meaningfully on a site that wasn't physically identified to them. It also found the EIR did not fail sufficiently to address sea level rise, groundwater effects, air pollution health effects or greenhouse gas emissions. Marin County's statement on the case is here . Los Angeles Creates Barriers to Demolitions of Older Buildings The Shepherd Mullin law firm has noted that, as of 2015, the city of Los Angeles will be imposing new  notice requirements for demolitions of most buildings more than 45 years old. Before demolishing such older buildings, property owners must post a notice on the property, write to abutting neighbors, and advise the office of the local City Council member. Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell said on his blog that the ordinance "will go a long way toward protecting non-designated local landmarks and architectural gems that are significant to the rich history in the 13th District." The City Council Web page for the legislation is here . L.A. Streetsblog panning 'Option 1A' for Glendale-Hyperion Bridge Writer Joe Linton at L.A. Streetsblog is in full dudgeon over a renovation proposal by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation for the Glendale-Hyperion Viaduct between Silver Lake and Atwater Village. He writes that the currently proposed version of the plan, "Option 1A", jams together bicyclists and pedestrians, redesignating the sidewalks as "shared use paths," in order to keep enough room for four auto lanes. The viaduct project has its own city Web site at http://www.glendalehyperion.com/ . Gate at Paradise Cove is Open Again The Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission have settled with the Paradise Cove Land Co., owner of a beachside mobile home park where non-resident surfers complained they were being charged $20 "walk-in fees" and blocked from carrying surfboards across the sand. Complaints had included some from members of the Black Surfers Collective. The L.A. Times has details . The agencies' press release is here . California King Tides Project Documents a Future of High Water Some of the highest tides of the year washed the Pacific coast at the winter solstice, and a network of cell phone photographers were waiting for them. The California King Tides Project , a partnership of nonprofits and agencies including the Coastal Commission, invited Californians to photograph how  exceptionally high "king tides" looked on the waterfront landscape. The project works on the prediction that the current highest tides of the year should look a lot like the ordinary daily tides of the global-warming future. For images see #KingTides on Twitter.

Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles announced his new " Sustainable City pLAn ," a far-reaching decree that seeks to make Los Angeles sustainable in ways ranging from water to solar energy to waste. Among other things, the plan seeks to reduce daily Vehicle Miles Traveled by 5 percent by 2025, to implement the Vision Zero policy to reduce traffic fatalities, to have zero days in which air pollution reaches unhealthy levels by 2025, and to complete 32 miles of Los Angeles River public access by 2025. The plan defines sustainability broadly, to include not only ecological goals but also broad goals of social and economic sustainability. The plan seeks to reduce driving and pollution, increase walkability within neighborhoods (using WalkScore), improve pedestrian safety, promote development of affordable housing and transit-oriented development, support the re:codeLA initiative to update the city's zoning code, revitalize the L.A. River, and support environmental justice, among other goals. Garcetti also signed a mayoral directive that requires all city departments to incorporate pLAn goals into their programs, and establishes sustainability officers in applicable departments and bureaus. At a signing event, he pledged that this "is not a plan for the shelves." San Diego County Rescinds Climate Plan In a long-awaited move, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors officially rescinded the county's Climate Action Plan, which had been the subject of a lawsuit from the Sierra Club since 2012 asserting that the plan violated CEQA and didn't do enough to combat global warming. On April 11, the California Supreme Court ruled against the county on the plan, denying its request to review and appeals court decision against the county and legally requiring the county to rescind the plan within 30 days. The 4th District Court of Appeals had ruled that the plan lacks the necessary specifics and enforcement mechanism to achieve the goals. "The Sierra Club wants to see a climate action plan that has meaningful and enforceable measures to achieve greenhouse gas reduction targets," Davin Widgerow, a representative of the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. National Planning Achievement Awards The American Planning Association announced its 2015 National Planning Achievement Awards, recognizing the work of three California organizations among the 12 nationwide recipients. Among the winners: Lake Tahoe Sustainability Action Plan, which provides a toolkit to local agencies in two states and five counties to rebalance the region's environment and economy while confronting climate change.  Pop-Up Outreach efforts in San Diego, which seek to connect neighborhoods that have historically low levels of trust in local government with urban planners through simple outreach efforts, including a chalkboard chat, street sign survey boxes, and pop-up feedback trees. Tongva Park & Ken Genser Square: a new urban park in Santa Monica that was once a parking lot. It covers 7.4 acres, features a lush landscape including rolling hills and gardens, overlooks the Santa Monica Pier, and is just two block away from the future terminus of a new light rail line. Awards will be given out at the national APA conference in Seattle next week.  Lennar Preserves $1 billion Judgement in Suit against a San Diego Developer A San Diego developer must pay $1 billion to Miami home builder Lennar Corp. following an appeals court ruling that the developer, Nicolas Marsch III, defamed Lennar and improperly deleted emails. The ruling is the culmination of a five-year lawsuit, which began when Marsch claimed that Lennar cheated him out of millions of dollars in a development of a private golf community. Marsch had hired Barry Minkow, a notorious con man now in prison for his involvement with Marsch, to back his claims. The Appeals Court cited in its ruling Marsch's "deletion of relevant emails, the concealment of material witnesses, lying during depositions, providing false testimony before the trial court and much more." Navy SEALs Release EIR for $1B Campus A proposed new Navy SEAL campus - a 1.5 million square foot development on the northern edge of Imperial Beach in South San Diego - took a step forward with the recent release of its final Environmental Impact Report. Built over a decade, the new campus would move the SEALs' center of activity from Coronado Island, where it has been since 1962, south to a largely empty piece of the Silver Strand beach. The main headquarters and the training centers will remain in Coronado, but the new campus would provide logistical support buildings, equipment-use and maintenance-training facilities, classroom and hands-on tactics instructional space, among other buildings. Residents of Coronado Cays, an upscale housing development just north of the proposal, told the San Diego Union-Tribue that they are concerned that loud helicopter traffic could impact their quality of life. UCLA Gives L.A. County C+ on Environmental Issues UCLA issued its first comprehensive environmental "report card" for the city of Los Angeles, giving the city an overall grade of C+ and indicating that there is "tremendous room for improvement in all six environmental areas" of water, air, ecosystem health, waste, environmental quality of life, and energy and greenhouse gases. Among other things, researchers from UCLA's Sustainable L.A. Grand Challenge and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability said in the report that L.A.'s air quality regularly fails federal standards for pollution, that excessive levels of pollutants are found in virtually all the region's bodies of water, and that the county's waste recycling program is robust but lacks data on how much is actually recycled. Judge Invalidates Take Permits for Logging Plan A federal judge invalidated incidental take permits that officials granted to Fruit Growers Supply Co. which allowed the company to harm threatened species in logging private land on 150,000 acres in Siskiyou County. U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins said that that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrongly factored conservation efforts by the U.S. Forest Service into the company's plan to conserve spotted owl populations, adding that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should have also factored the timber operations' short term effects on coho salmon. Group Lists Rogue-Smith Rivers as �Endangered' American Rivers' 2015 list of "America's Most Endangered Rivers" includes the Rogue-Smith Rivers in Oregon and California as one of the ten most endangered rivers in the U.S. in need of immediate governmental help. The report says that proposed nickel mining in the headwaters of the Northern California rivers would threaten the rivers' salmon runs - with an average of 100,000 fish returning each year - plant biodiversity, and recreation. The report recommends that the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Department of Interior withdraw the area from mining immediately. Bay Area Bike Share Program Announces Ambitious Growth Plan The Bay Area Bike Share program could see a massive influx of bikes to its program, expanding tenfold from 700 to 7,000 bikes under a proposal announced by the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Emeryville. The proposal would extend the program for the first time into the East Bay. In San Francisco, the number of bikes would jump from 328 to 4,500; in San Jose from 129 to 1,000. In the East Bay, 850 bikes would go to Oakland, 400 to Berkeley and 100 to Emeryville. However, Redwood City, Palo Alto and Mountain View, which participated in the two-year pilot program, are cut out of the new proposal, based on low ridership numbers. Motivate, the company that operates the bike-share program, bought out previous owner Alta Bike Share, which had significant management problems that hampered cities from expanding their programs.

Developers are awaiting a federal decision that may allow them to start building again in the Natomas region of Sutter and Sacramento Counties. The region, which sits between the Sacramento and American Rivers, was one of the most active areas of development in the Sacramento metro region in the early and mid-2000s. Based on concerns over levees whose solidity has been likened to that of toothpaste, the Federal Emergency Management Agency imposed a moratorium on the area in December 2008. That order put a halt to the development of up to 5,000 homes that had been issued building permits. Improvements to the levees reportedly have satisfied FEMA criteria for lowering the moratorium. The Sacramento Flood Control Agency has spent $410 million to upgrade 18 miles of levees, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers set to spend $760 million on 24 remaining miles. Developers are expected to revive many of their plans when the moratorium is lifted in June, though many do not expect demand to be as robust as it was prior to the moratorium's imposition. Some in the Sacramento area , including Sacramento City Council Member Angelique Ashby, see the resumption of development in the area as an opportunity to pursue more sustainable development, as opposed to the traditional low-density subdivision model that had been pursued there in the past. State Budget Proposal Offers Financial Caution, Criticized on Equity Governor Jerry Brown's January 9 budget proposal was greeted with praise for financially cautious state spending, including paying down debt, but was criticized by some advocacy groups for doing too little on equity issues. Reactions from state political figures showed water projects, parks, education and In-Home Support Services (IHSS) came out relatively well. The budget assumed cap-and-trade proceeds would produce about $1 billion in revenue, of which $250 million would go to High-Speed Rail and $200 million to the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program. LOCUS Calls for Federal Real Estate Reforms A national advocacy group has announced an ambitious plan to pressure the federal government into addressing social equity and housing nationwide. LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors is calling on federal agencies to promote a series of reforms that, the group claims, could save the government $33 billion annually while helping cities and communities. The proposed reforms include: Eliminate some rate subsidies from the National Flood Insurance Program. Reform the Federal Housing Administration's single-family home program. Better target real estate tax expenditures. Preserve and increase the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. Improve the Rehabilitation Tax Credit. Establish individual Mortgage Savings Accounts. Create an Innovative Financing for Infrastructure Rehabilitation Program The recommendations are spelled out in LOCUS's report, " A Call to Action ". LOCUS is a project of Smart Growth America. (Disclosure: SGA is a former employer of CP&DR Publisher Bill Fulton.) Activists Fighting Chiquita Canyon Landfill Expansion Opponents of the Chiquita Canyon landfill expansion on Highway 126 in Los Angeles County were seeking a hearing in early January on the proposal. They circulated a statement January 5 saying the county had chosen not to schedule a hearing on the draft environmental impact report, instead planning to hold the hearing when the final EIR was up for review. The Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning's page on the project shows the comment period on the DEIR was extended twice, closing October 23, 2014. Groups seeking the hearing were the Val Verde Civic Association, Citizens for Chiquita Canyon Landfill Compliance and the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE). The landfill is close to the Landmark Village phase of the much-litigated Newhall Ranch community near the Six Flags amusement park in northwest Los Angeles County. L.A. Considers Fix for Housing Trust Fund The Affordable Housing Trust Fund for the City of Los Angeles, which was never particularly robust, has shrunk to the point of irrelevance. Since 2000, the fund has gone from $108 million to a current $19 million, as the fund's two biggest sources of contributions have both been curtailed. Contributions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) dropped from $54 million in 2008 to $19 million this year, and contributions from the local Community Redevelopment Agency evaporated with the dissolution of redevelopment in 2011. The fund's crisis comes at a time when rising rents and stagnant wages have made Los Angeles the most unaffordable rental market in the country, according to a 2014 UCLA report . Los Angeles City Council Members Felipe Fuentes and Gil Cedillo recently proposed that funds collected in former redevelopment project areas be directed, as they once were, to the trust fund. Strategies using these so-called "boomerang funds" are being considered in several California cities hit hard by the loss of redevelopment. The City Council is expected to discuss the proposal this month. Displacement Civil Rights Complaint Cites Lack of Spanish Translation Low-income Latino tenants facing displacement from ten houses on a future development site in Walnut Creek have filed a HUD civil rights complaint alleging disparate-impact violations of federal fair housing law. The Monterey Herald reported the families said the city had not given them information or interpretation in Spanish at meetings on their possible displacement. The project recently approved for the site is The Landing , a complex of 178 luxury apartments. The paper reported it's disputed how hard the city tried to help the tenants obtain housing in the new Third Avenue Apartments affordable housing project. The Landing project's public review process had been portrayed in 2013 as an early start on the larger public process for the proposed West Downtown Specific Plan near the Walnut Creek BART station. Once Developers' Promises Are Made, Who Enforces Them? The L.A. Times has an investigative report out on cases of promises made by developers to win approvals that are afterward kept slowly or not at all. Instances mentioned include two already-famous fights: over facade preservation at the Old Spaghetti Factory building in Hollywood that was in fact demolished , and promised extra-strength air filters at the Da Vinci apartment complex next to the 110 freeway, -- the latter being arguably a moot point, since the project recently burned to the ground . In Case You Missed Transportation Camp The annual transit nerds' Transportation Camp event in Washington D.C. posted a public list of data sources and tools as part of a hackathon during the event. More material from the conference, some of it California-focused, is available at https://tcamp2015dc.hackpad.com/ Time to Learn Lessons about Water from Australia? So what if the drought doesn't really end? Experts and legislators planned to talk about unhappy scenarios January 12 at the Public Policy Institute of California's "Managing Drought" one-day conference . Registration to watch the webcast has closed but some presentation materials are available online. Questioning Crumb Rubber on Playing Fields After All? State Sen. Jerry Hill has introduced a bill, SB 47 , that would suspend use of crumb rubber on publicly installed artificial turf playing fields while a public study is conducted on the safety of using shredded tire rubber as a padded base between artificial grass blades. Crumb rubber safety was a campaign issue for opponents of San Francisco's Golden Gate Fields renovation, a subject of dueling ballot measures last November. In the South Bay, Segregation Predated Silicon Valley Bay Area social media are buzzing over Kim-Mai Cutler's extended news feature on the history of residential and educational segregation in East Palo Alto and surrounding South Bay towns -- and what that might have to do with the state of employment inequalities in present-day Silicon Valley.

The Air Resources Board held workshops August 25 and 26, and rescheduled a third for Oakland on September 3, on how to define "benefit" to a "disadvantaged community" for purposes of programs distributing cap-and-trade auction proceeds. The discussion will include efforts at a formal answer to one of the most important urban planning questions of the past half-century: when does money spent in a place that is defined as disadvantaged actually benefit disadvantaged people? The new Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program will be among those affected by the outcome. See http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/auctionproceeds/upcomingevents.htm for details, including a discussion document on how CalEPA's updated CalEnviroScreen 2.0 mapping project may be used to identify disadvantage, and a draft released August 22 of proposed interim guidance on what constitutes a "benefit" to a disadvantaged community. The workshop notice sets a deadline for written comment of September 9 but the proposed interim guidelines document states a comment deadline of September 15. Oakland releases Coliseum Area Specific Plan, EIR Oakland released the draft specific plan and accompanying draft EIR for the mega-development proposed to surround a rebuilt Oakland Coliseum. See http://bit.ly/1wyvMa7 for the city's main page linking to the extensive related planning documents. The SF Chron 's Michael Cabanatuan sets out main details at http://bit.ly/1v8Onry. The plan still calls for three separate sports venues, to potentially host professional football, baseball and basketball teams respectively, even though the Golden State Warriors have announced plans for a new arena in San Francisco. Earlier in the month, the Chron 's Will Kane wrote that Oakland would have to raise "at least $1.75 billion" to keep both the A's and the Raiders in town. See http://bit.ly/1owlOAg. Budget activists caution against 'race to the bottom' for Tesla factory The Mercury News reports five "budget watchdog" groups have asked the governments of five states not to let the Tesla company draw them into a "race to the bottom" in competition for Tesla's new "Gigafactory" battery plant. See http://bit.ly/1ASRWTj for the news report and http://californiabudgetbites.org/ for the letter. Los Angeles buys Taylor Yard parcel for LA River project Streetsblog LA has a news feature, and links to documents, on the purchase by the City of Los Angeles of a 41-acre parcel that formed part of the former Taylor Yard rail yard along the LA River. It reports the property is to form a major part of the $1 billion project to clean up 11 miles of the river and make it a center for recreation and investment. See http://bit.ly/1vjUdqf. The Curbed LA history file at http://la.curbed.com/tags/taylor-yard includes past coverage showing the property's site between Rio de Los Angeles State Park and the river. The state park's site, at http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=22277, explains that the park is another former portion of Taylor Yard, closed to railroad use since the 1980s. Future of SB 270 plastic bag bill still in doubt The SB 270 plastic bag ban fight went high-profile again in late August as the measure neared its final chance at passage this session. A vote was imminent as of August 27. On Monday, August 25, the United Food and Commercial Workers yanked support from the bill. On the #SB270 Twitter hashtag meanwhile, the @YesonSB270 account and conservationists did battle with @BagTheBan and grocery and business representatives. The @YesonSB270 account links to a pro-ban lobbying coalition's site at http://www.yesonsb270.org/ that ironically was still displaying the UFCW logo on August 26. The @BagTheBan account is described at http://www.bagtheban.com/about-us as "a project of Hilex Poly." In a vote August 25 the bill fell narrowly short of passage in the Assembly, as reported thoroughly by Capitol Public Radio's Ben Adler via Twitter. Per Adler it can return to the floor once more for reconsideration before the end of this year's session and that return may be on August 28. The Sacramento Bee covered the August 25 vote and the UFCW withdrawal at http://bit.ly/1qffyN8. Readers who want to watch this one to the bitter end may want to follow @AdlerBen on Twitter or watch the #SB270 hashtag. AB 52, CEQA bill on Native American sacred sites, advances with significant amendments AB 52, the Native American sacred sites bill that was among the few possibilities this year for a legislative change in CEQA law, was moving forward as of this writing with amendments that in part appeared designed to reassure landowners. The bill would strengthen tribes' rights to involvement in consultation processes under CEQA where a newly defined category of Tribal Cultural Resources would be affected by a proposed project. The League of California Cities tracking page at http://bit.ly/VR4w5r shows the bill passed the Senate August 27. On that same page, the League links to a letter dated July 9, in which it expresses "concerns" about the definition of a tribal cultural resource, about the time(s) for required consultation in the environmental review process, and about tribal notification rules. An August 25 letter then states the League's concerns have been removed. Amendments since July change the definition of a "California Native American tribe" to define it by reference to the state's Native American Heritage Commission contact list rather than per federal recognition. They add a great deal more specificity about process. And they appear to give the lead agency reviewing a project the primary say in defining whether a cultural resource is significant for purposes of the statute. Assemblymember Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, published an op-ed in support of the bill at http://bit.ly/1lcCXzB. Legislative analyses available through the bill tracking page at http://bit.ly/1wyoe7e shows endorsements from tribal governments and conservationists but opposition from the California Chamber of Commerce, a smaller number of tribes, and utility, solar, business and construction organizations. The Chamber of Commerce is cited in the analysis as arguing the bill would "create a disincentive to invest in land" by creating uncertainty on which places might be defined as Tribal Cultural Resources. CA Housing Partnership Corporation reports on affordable housing defecits The California Housing Partnership has posted reports at http://chpc.net/ describing failures to meet affordable housing needs in major California metro areas. Separate reports are posted for Alameda, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. A combined summary report is at http://bit.ly/XRmsyU. Individual findings include defecits of 118,895 units in Orange County and 490,340 in Los Angeles County (KPCC coverage at http://bit.ly/1AS8SsV) and a defecit of 40,800 units in the City and County of San Francisco (see http://bit.ly/1mQouVH).   Groundwater bills still headed toward vote The groundwater bills, SB 1168 and AB 1739 (by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills and Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, respectively), were still nearing passage as of this writing. The League of California Cities has both measures on its "Hot Bills" list for August with a "no position" notation at http://bit.ly/1tRpiOc. Conservation groups were supporting the bills. Reuters reported Monday at http://reut.rs/1vgEeZY that many farm groups, but not all, opposed it. Meanwhile the Desert Sun was headed into litigation with Coachella Valley water officials over access to records of landowners' groundwater use (see desert.sn/VqAAgx), the Fresno Bee reported volunteers were delivering drinking water to households where the wells had run dry in Tulare County's East Porterville (see http://bit.ly/1wy2xnY), and celebrities were shipping in water by tanker truck to their estates in Montecito (see http://bit.ly/VPC6sH). Plea from mayors to enact relief bills for Inland Empire towns As of this writing, SB 69 and AB 1521, relief bills for new and newly expanded Inland Empire towns, had passed the Legislature and were awaiting Governor Brown's signature decision. Frank Johnston and Karen Spiegel, mayors of Jurupa Valley and Corona respectively, published an op-ed in the Press-Enterprise asking Governor Jerry Brown and the Legislature to save Jurupa Valley's incorporated status and protect other towns with the bills. See http://bit.ly/1tIhC1y. The two mayors claimed endorsements from 17 other Inland Empire mayors in asking the Legislature for the temporary financing lifeline that the bills represented. Together the bills would provide relief for cities that completed incorporations or annexations just before the Legislature took expected Vehicle License Fee income out of their local budgets in 2011. For past coverage see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3515 on SB 69 and http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3516 on AB 1521. AB 1537 to redefine Marin as 'suburban' goes to Governor AB 1537, to redefine Marin County from "metropolitan" to "suburban" for affordable housing density purposes, passed the Legislature in late August and was before Governor Brown as of this writing. Its proponent, Assemblymember Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, posted an August 22 statement celebrating the bill's passage, by a unanimous vote of the Assembly, at http://bit.ly/XQdh1P. Levine earlier joined Marin County Board of Supervisors President Kate Sears in an op-ed arguing its case at http://bit.ly/VPO71f. Their argument said the bill would only apply for eight years, would not limit local jurisdictions' power to make their own density decisions. A June I-J writeup at http://bit.ly/1x2WZi6 provides more background on the bill, which would reduce default densities for affordable housing in the county from 30 to 20 units per acre. Also in the Legislature -- The Orange County Register reported AB 1102, to protect the use of fire rings on Orange County Beaches by requiring a Coastal Commission permit for their removal, failed in the Senate in mid-August. See http://bit.ly/1qKpagc. Supporters of SB 1199, which would have designated the Upper Mokelumne River as "wild and scenic," told the Stockton Record it had failed in the Legislature. See http://bit.ly/1onHhXK. The Sacramento Bee is reporting at http://bit.ly/1q2t0oJ that the vigorous anti-"gas tax" campaign to postpone the calendared AB 32 expansion into fuels taxation is "finished for the year" with the postponement bill, AB 69 by Assemblymember Henry Perea, D-Fresno, now "sidelined" by outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. The Bee reported SB 1183, authorizing localities to vote in fees for bike facilities by initiative petition, was on the Governor's desk. See http://bit.ly/1q3b5go. In recent legal rulings -- The State Supreme Court on August 20 denied a request for partial republication of the underlying Fifth District appellate opinion that it reversed in City of Los Angeles v. County of Kern . The Supreme Court's July 7 decision concerned a challenge by the City of Los Angeles to a Kern County ballot measure that barred the city government from using biosolids from sewage to fertilize land that it owned in Kern County. The actual decision interpreted the federal grace period statute at 28 U.S.C. �1367(d) to bar Los Angeles from filing a state suit in the matter 78 days after a federal court dismissed its case on preemption grounds. For the State Supreme Court's online docket in the matter, see http://bit.ly/1BTPXj0. California's Fourth District ordered publication and modification, by orders August 13 and 14, of its opinion in San Diego Gas and Electric Company v. Schmidt , No. D062671. The court upheld a jury verdict setting the compensation amount, rejecting SDG&E's petition for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and also awarding litigation expenses to the defendant property owners. The property's "highest and best use" was said to be an open-pit aggregate mine. The decision is at http://bit.ly/1vOJDJ5 and the online docket at http://bit.ly/1p57aMh. The Ninth Circuit ruled that a citizen suit under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act was not a proper means for neighbors of railyards to redress alleged harm from diesel particulate pollution, because "Defendants' emission of diesel particulate matter does not constitute 'disposal' of solid waste" under the statute. The case is Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice v. BNSF Railway Co. For the opinion, see http://1.usa.gov/1peSyyY. In Sierra Club v EPA , the Ninth Circuit held petitioners had associational standing to challenge a permit issued by the EPA for construction of a gas-fired power plant. It found the EPA wrongly allowed Avenal Power to build the plant in accordance with grandfathered prior air quality standards that were in effect when the company first applied for the permit. Instead, the court found "the Clean Air Act unambiguously requires Avenal Power to demonstrate that the Avenal Energy Project complies with the regulations ineffect at the time the Permit is issued." For the opinion, see http://1.usa.gov/1oH6T1G. A Ninth Circuit opinion by Judge Jay Bybee upheld decisions by the city of San Diego to deny conditional use permits for cell towers run by the American Tower Corporation. The case is American Tower Corporation v. City of San Diego , No. 11-56766, opinion at http://1.usa.gov/1rbUydI. And in other news -- The City of Rosemead scheduled public meetings this fall, beginning September 10, on the proposed Garvey Avenue Specific Plan. See http://www.cityofrosemead.org/index.aspx?page=436. A federal judge refused to enjoin the new San Francisco ordinance increasing relocation payments to tenants by landlords who elect to empty their buildings under the Ellis Act. See http://cbsloc.al/1wyKE8y. We still don't know which fault exactly caused the South Napa earthquake, but Scientific American discusses how geologists will go about finding out: http://bit.ly/1zGlMb8. Also, this may have been California's first major earthquake with an early damage patrol filmed by drone: http://lat.ms/1pCujLe.

Google unveiled a  "whimsical" proposal  for a massive new headquarters in Mountain View designed by architect Frank Ghery. The plan, which would include new office space and public trails, has been met with skepticism by the Mountain View populace, wary of the increased traffic in the city of 75,000. The city has already approved 3.4 million square feet of expansion for Google, but now it is requesting 2.5 million more of "bonus floor area ratio," potentially allowed by the city in exchange for community enhancements. Now,  it's in competition with social media site  LinkedIn, which may set up an expensive and politically-charged fight in Mountain View's North Bayshore. Oakland Welcomes S.F. to Export Affordable Housing With San Francisco's housing pressures getting worse by the day, the City of Oakland may encourage its Bay Area neighbor to consider outsourcing its rental housing. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf wants to allow San Francisco developers to fulfill their requirements by building some affordable housing in Oakland. Such an arrangement could take the form of a regional housing partnership, though details now are slim. A spokeswoman for San Francisco's Mayor Ed Lee said that they are committed to making one-third of a planned 30,000 new housing units affordable in the next five years. The definition of "affordable" varies by city, with an affordable housing unit in San Francisco translating into about $500,000 for a two or three bedroom house in Hunters Point. Oakland has, historically, been considerably less expensive. Miriam Chion, ABAG's director of planning and research, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "I think Oakland and San Francisco have taken the current economic growth and development pressure as an opportunity to collaborate and address some of the pressing housing needs and needs for planning for regional job growth." Fresno Approves New Water Source Project Fresno's city council  approved a visionary new plan  to secure a steady supply of clean water for the city after several years of groundwater depletion due to the drought. The $429 million project initiated by Mayor Ashley Swearnegin would replace miles of old pipes and build a new surface water treatment plant. To fund the project, officials would have to raise water costs - possibly doubling the costs for a single-family residence from around $25 to $49 in 2019. Today, about five out of every six gallons used by Fresnans come from groundwater sources, which has helped to contribute to a sinking of land in the Central Valley. New Transit Center to Sell Naming Rights for Construction Costs San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center is taking a page from Chicago's book  and trying to sell naming rights  to some of its public spaces. In an attempt to raise some of the $300 million in construction of the center slated to open in 2017, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority is seeking to sell naming rights to private companies for various parts of the center. Sponsors can opt for a five-year deal to name certain areas of the center - including an amphitheater, the main plaza, and at least 13 gardens - or a 10-year deal to name the whole park. Peninsula Watershed Could Open Its Trails to the Public The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission  unveiled a new proposa l to expand public access to the Peninsula Watershed, hoping to allow more hikers and bikers to use the Fifield-Cahill Ridge Trail. The proposal shows a split within nature enthusiasts, some of whom have been clamoring for a loosening on the strict management of the watershed, and others who fear for the conservation of local wildlife and water quality.  The new proposal comes as one piece of a larger system of improvements to the trail system in San Francisco in an attempt to plug a major gap in the 550-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail going around San Francisco Bay. VA to Develop Permanent Housing for Homeless Vets Following a lawsuit, the US Department of Veterans Affairs  has pledged to open  its West Los Angeles campus to permanent and temporary housing for the area's homeless veterans. It will also place returning service members in subsidized apartments in the city.  "The challenge for L.A. even if we end veteran homelessness is we're going to have to maintain sufficient resources so we're not just creating housing but maintaining  housing," said the executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. The secretary of the VA said that he will be sending $50 million and 400 workers to the region to improve veterans' conditions. The plan also calls for the VA to hire an urban planning firm to draw up a new master plan for the West Los Angeles property. San Diego Reacts to Charger Stadium Deal in L.A. San Diego officials are scrambling to find a way to raise funds to build a new stadium to keep the Chargers in town following a surprise announcement that the team was looking into a deal to build a joint stadium with the Oakland Raiders in Carson.  The latest proposal  for the $1 billion project: a county "bridge loan" proposed by Supervisor Ron Roberts, in which the county would front the money for the part of the project requiring public funds. The money would not need to be paid back until surrounding developments begin to generate a cash flow. Roberts said that the proposal would likely work better at the existing Qualcomm Stadium than at a new stadium downtown. San Diego taxpayers have, thus far, been reluctant to support funding for the stadium with public dollars. Officials Want a Plan for Redevelopment of Kings Stadium Officials in the North Natomas area of Sacramento  are becoming anxious  as the owners of the Sacramento Kings still have not announced plans for how to redevelop its current home when the team moves downtown. City Council Member Angelique Ashby recently requested that the team announce a timeline for redevelopment. A team representative told the City Council that the team planned to step up its efforts to find a use for the 200 acres surrounding the Sleep Train Amphitheater. "I don't want to wait until 2016 and the team is gone and that engine is gone for Natomas before we have a plan for how we're moving forward," Ashby told the Sacramento Bee. The Kings will move into their new $477 million arena downtown next fall. Many locals have advocated for a new hospital on the premises.