Tribe Envisions Sports Arena for Palm Springs Palm Springs’  Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians announced plans to build a new sports and entertainment arena on tribal land downtown. This follows a recent announcement from NHL Seattle of plans to create a new AHL team for Palm Springs. Agua Caliente plans to build the 3000,000 square foot, 10,000-seat arena on 16 acres of tribal land north of the Agua Caliente Casino. Local businaess owners have supported this move, and expressed hope this will create a greater year-round tourism market. But it will likely require new infrastructure changes: including possible updates to streets, new access points, and greater police and fire support in the area. The tribe expects the arena to be game and performance ready by fall of 2021. “We are creating a healthy community gathering place for Coachella Valley families and visitors from around the world to celebrate, play, and experience diverse entertainment opportunities in a state-of-the-art arena,” Tribal Chairman Jeff L. Grubbe told the Desert Sun. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Running Afoul of CEQA The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has failed to meets its obligations as a responsible CEQA-compliant agency, according to a state audit. The state agency is responsible for issuing permits for projects affecting lake and stream habitats or endangered species. Under CEQA, the Department must thoroughly review proposed projects and inform stakeholders the public about their potential environmental impacts. However, the audit found the agency deficient in several key responsibilities. First, the audit found that the department has failed to provide consultation and commentary to lead agencies for CEQA compliance, nor has it provided its staff with policies and procedures to do so. Furthermore, it found that the department has not used all of its available funding to fulfill CEQA requirements: it has failed to track the costs of its CEQA filing activities, and has spent $5.7 million in filing fee revenue on non-CEQA activities. Finally, the audit found that the department has created unnecessary delays and costs by mailing CEQA documents rather than submitting them electronically. The audit recommends that the agency should establish a policy for a CEQA review timeline by March 2020, should immediately begin tracking CEQA costs, and should implement a timekeeping mechanism by December 2019 for all CEQA-related activities. California Cities Push for Federal Action on Homelessness Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti is leading a coalition of mayors petitioning Congress to pass a $13 billion measure to combat homelessness nationwide. The so-called Ending Homelessness Act, sponsored by Representative Maxine Waters, would direct funds to high-risk cities to provide shelter and services to homeless populations. The bill provides $5 billion over five years for 85,000 new permanent housing units; $2.5 billion over five years to housing choice vouchers; and $1 billion to the National Housing Trust Fund, which will create 25,000 new units for extremely low-income housing. Mayor Garcetti leads mayors from other California cities – including Oakland, Sacramento, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Riverside – as well as cities nationwide such as Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Honolulu. Los Angeles faces a growing homelessness crisis: it has grown by 12 percent county-wide and 16 percent city-wide to hit an all-time high in the past year. Garcetti will lead the coalition to rally for federal support, and will deliver a testimony in front of the House of Representatives. “Cities are fighting hard every day to turn the tide on this humanitarian crisis – and Washington has to match our urgency, our commitment, and the investment we’re making to confront it,” said Mayor Garcetti, according to a recent press release. Study: $22 Billion Needed for Seawalls to Combat Sea-Level Rise Defending Californian seawalls against rising sea levels would cost about $22 billion statewide, according to a recent analysis by the Center for Climate Integrity and the environmental engineering firm Resilient Analytics. The study, titled “High Tide Tax; The Price to Protect Coastal Communities from Rising Seas,” calculates the cost of seawall construction in areas threatened by inundation. According to its findings, the city of San Diego would have the largest expense, at $357 million, closely followed by Fremont ($348 million), San Francisco ($256 million), Long Beach ($246 million) and Newport Beach ($236 million). The study uses the most conservative model featured in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report, which estimates sea level will rise 11 to 24 inches by the end of the century. And, the report asserts, the cost estimate is also conservative: it represents only about 10 percent to 15 percent of the total cost of addressing chronic seawater inundation. Other preventive measures could include re-engineering infrastructure, to moving roads and rail lines inland – both of which are more costly measures. The authors of the study call California’s projected $22 billion only a “minimum down payment for short-term defense against rising seas.” Calaveras County Adopts General Plan Update  Following a 12-year planning process, the Calaveras County Planning Commission adopted the county’s General Plan update. The commission voted unanimously, following a month of public hearings, to approve the 20-year vision for community growth. The plan builds new land use and housing recommendations around state Department of Finance population growth estimates, and may change with shifting economic demands or new statewide affordable housing laws. The Calaveras Planning Coalition has expressed concerns about the update, including its elimination of community plans for Valley Springs, Arnold, Murphys and Avery/Hathaway Pines – which all had their own plans in the latest 1996 update. The commission, however, argues that many of those community-specific plans were adopted into the larger county plan. The plan will move to the Board of Supervisors for hearings later this month. Quick Hits & Updates The planned High Desert Freeway , connecting Victorville and Palmdale, is a “top national boondoggle,” according to a new study ranking the nation’s costliest highway projects. The report, titled “The Highway Boondoggles 5” released in partnership between CALPIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group, examines the adverse effects of nine new highways on the climate, community, and economy. According to the report, the planned $8 billion, 63-mile High Desert Freeway would directly undermine California’s climate goals by leading to more driving, more pollution, and greater sprawling development. The Department of Conservation is proffering $950,000 for local and regional planning grants to support the integration of natural and working lands, specifically agricultural lands, into local and regional planning documents. Grant applications are due July 31.  San Francisco Mayor London Breed appointed a task force to review the troubled SF Muni rail service and recommend improvements. The working group, formed as the city’s Metropolitan Transit Agency's chief prepares to step down, will comprise of two supervisors and the city controller. This move, which follows the mayor’s repeated warnings against the long-faltering agency, will also put a critical eye on the agency’s structure and methods. A federal court struck down a Bureau of Land Management decision clearing the way to build the controversial Cadiz water pipeline across public land. Last year, the Trump Administration reversed a previous BLM decision in order to grant the water company permission to pump groundwater from its desert property for sale in urban areas. However, environmental groups sued, and a U.S. District judge ruled that the BLM failed to legally justify its reversal. The Anaheim City Council voted against rent control for the second time this year. In April, councilmember Joe Moreno proposed a measure to temporarily cap rent increases at mobile home parks in the city, prompted in part by pleas from residents of the Rancho La Paz park. This week, council members affirmed their stance on rent control by turning down Moreno’s latest proposal for a six-month limit on rent increases at older apartment buildings in the city. The Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority is the most expensive and least efficient in the entire country, according to a recent grand jury report. The report follows a tumultuous period for the bus-and-rail authority: last week, the Amalgamated Transit Union threatened work stoppages. The report claims that the agency has grown too big and too political to make sound decisions to serve the community, and is squandering taxpayer dollars. The VTA Board has 90 days to respond to the report with proposed solutions. A proposal for a new Bay Area ferry service from Larskspur Terminal to the Warriors’ Mission Bay Chase Center stadium is gaining momentum. Transit officials proposed the ferry service in April, anticipating a potential transportation bottleneck to the soon-to-open stadium – which will seat 18,000 and offers only 950 parking spaces. The proposal now faces the board of directors for Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which will hold a public hearing on the special service. The ferry would replicate an existing special event service to Giants games at Oracle Park.  The LA Metro certified  the Final Environmental Impact Report for its proposed "LINK US" track expansion project at Union Station. The project’s design expands the central concourse hallway and eliminates loop tracks. The overall project, planned in anticipation of potential greater Metrolink, Amtrak, and High-Speed Rail service, is estimated to cost $2.3 million. Metro has raised $950 million in funds for an elevated track structure. The remaining $2 billion in needed funds will fund the station expansions. A group of conservationists purchased a new 17-mile land tract surrounding the Pacific Crest Trail in Mount Shasta from a logging company for public access purposes. The $15 million purchase, which has been negotiated for five years, combines funds from the Trust for Public Land, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the charitable Wyss foundation. The Forest Service will now manage the land. Previously, hikers were permitted to only pass through specifically marked trails on the private land. Kaiser Permanente may be paying the Golden State Warriors up to $295 million to name the area around its new San Francisco Mission Bay arena “Thrive City,” according to records obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. The deal would grant Kaiser naming rights for the plaza and park adjacent to the Chase Center, as well as ensure the nonprofit healthcare company the team’s official healthcare provider. The team and Kaiser would also partner on community projects. According to an analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle, Google’s plans to build 20,000 Bay Area homes – to which it has pledged $1 billion – would likely require closer to $14 billion. The $1 billion investment comes out to $50,000 per unit. However, the nonprofit San Francisco developer Bridge Housing estimates that the average cost of building a rental apartment in the Bay Area is closer to $700,000. Additionally, Google's pledge doesn’t include actually building the housing itself – the company plans to work with developers and is seeking models to reduce costs. Orange County launched a new joint powers housing authority tasked with finding funds for 2,700 new affordable units over the next six years. The nine-member Orange County Housing Finance Trust, which aims to help solve the area’s growing homelessness problem, will partner with county and state agencies to find and approve developments. The trust will seeks up to $1 billion in funds from private donors and city and county agencies; the county Board of Supervisors just granted $5 million to the agency. Still, the 2,700-unit goal will not close the area’s homelessness gap: the most recent Point in Time counts identify 6,789 homeless people in the county.

Fourth Round of AHSC Funding Doles out $402 Million The Strategic Growth Council has awarded $402 million in 25 community development projects under the Affordable Housing Sustainability Communities (AHSC) program. AHSC, which invests cap-and-trade dollars in affordable housing projects that connect residents to transportation infrastructure and services, has invested over $1 billion total over its four rounds of funding. This round's 25 projects will add over 3,000 housing units statewide, over 2,500 of which will be affordable, and almost 1,000 for extremely low-income residents. All projects will offer residents transit connections, and the AHSC will fund free or discounted transit passes for residents' first three years. The majority of the projects funded in the current round are in Southern Californian (37 percent) and the Bay Area (34 percent). The remaining regions served are the San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento, San Diego, and one project on the North Coast. All approved projects target communities with a high volume of disadvantaged communities. “At a time when the state is struggling with spiraling housing costs, these projects will provide much-needed affordable homes that are also near transit and jobs." said Kate Gordon, Chair of the Strategic Growth Council and Director of the Office of Planning and Research. "These projects truly are a win-win for the future of our state.” (See prior C&PDR coverage .)  Stanford Offers $4.7 Billion Housing, Transit Deal to Gain Approval for Expansion Responding to county-wide pushback against its planned 2.3 million square foot expansion, Stanford University committed to invest $4.7 billion in local housing, transit, and public education. In April, Santa Clara County suspended planning negotiations with the university, claiming that the plans failed to address the local affordable housing crisis. In a recent letter to the county, the University offered $3.4 billion for housing and $1.3 billion for transit and public education for new projects concurrent with its planned expansion. It’s the largest-ever such “benefits package,” and will include 575 affordable units and 1,597 market-rate units – most of which will be built before 25 percent of new academic buildings are constructed over the next twenty years. Transit funds will go to infrastructure improvements and a new transit program, while public education funds will benefit the Palo Alto Unified School District. But Joe Simitan, president of the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors, still does not approve of current plans. “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is,” he said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “It doesn’t address the underlying concerns around traffic, housing, and open space.” After reviewing the proposal, the county Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, and the final vote will come in the fall. Trump Administration Cuts California’s Share of Transportation Grants California’s share of grants from a Department of Transportation infrastructure program has more than halved under the Trump Administration, according to a recent analysis from the Sacramento Bee. In the eight years of the Obama Administration, California received a larger share of funds from the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) and BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) programs than any other state in the nation – at an average of 8.5 percent. However, in the two fiscal years since Trump’s election, the state’s share has shrunk to an average of 3.5 percent. In the past, these awards have funded transformative infrastructure improvements for rail, roads, and bridges statewide. Grant dollars awarded in the largely Democratic states of Illinois, New York, Washington, Minnesota, and Connecticut have similarly shrunk – leading some to guess that such discretionary decisions are politically motivated. “You’ve got a staff that screens these things down to maybe the top three or four dozen,” Tony Boren, transportation planner and Executive Director of the Fresno County Council of Governments, told the Bee. “Then they take those to (Transportation Secretary Elaine) Chao, who I expect consults with the White House. It’s no surprise that more money would be going to those places that favor the president.” Study Equates New Transportation Metrics with Increased Housing Production Switching CEQA transportation impact measurements from Level of Service (LOS) to Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) will likely increase housing development statewide, according to a study from the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. The study precedes a July 1, 2020 deadline for local governments to make this metric switch for environmental review processes. The car-centric LOS metric, which favors projects that make it more convenient to drive, has historically slowed down environmental reviews – particularly for urban developments. By contrast, the VMT metric takes a more holistic view at transportation impact, measuring whether or not a project contributes to state goals like reducing greenhouse gas emissions, developing multimodal transportation, preserving open spaces, and promoting diverse land uses and infill development. By examining the historic timelines for 153 housing development approval processes in Los Angeles in the past 16 years, the researchers found that the change in metric would have significantly streamlined the environmental review process for these developments – particularly those in low-VMT urban areas. From this, researchers extrapolate that such acceleration of the approval process can bring California closer to reaching its housing production goals. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Quick Hits & Updates  U2 guitarist “The Edge” David Evans’s 14-year legal battle for five Malibu mansions came to an end after the California State Supreme Court declined to review his appeal. Following a Sierra Club lawsuit against the $100 million development, a lower court denied his bid to build the mega-complex in the Santa Monica Mountains. Should he still attempt to pursue the development, the musician will have to start at the beginning by reapplying to the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning. Los Angeles City Council members are publicly claiming that neighboring cities are pushing homeless populations into L.A. According to Councilmembers Joe Buscaino and Mike Bonin, many suburban communities are not complying with a 2018 ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that cities cannot stop people from sleeping on sidewalks if they lack shelter. This claim comes a week after L.A. officials announced a 16 percent increase in homelessness within the city. A coalition of environmental groups sued the Trump Administration for its rollbacks of key safety measures from the 2016 federal Well Control and Blowout Preventer Rule. The rule, put in place by the Obama Administration in the aftermath of the fatal 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, regulates oil drilling with strict performance standards, real-time monitoring, and third-party reviews of equipment. The Trump Administration amended the rule after public pushback from the oil and gas industry. The lawsuit claims that the U.S. Interior Department was not transparent when replacing the 2016 rule, and failed to consider the evidence and expert findings behind the 2016 law. UC Berkeley is facing two separate lawsuits for its proposed $126 million redevelopment project on the northeast corner of campus. The proposed Upper Hearst Project, which converts a parking garage into classrooms and housing, attempts to patch the university’s gap in faculty space. The lawsuit from Save Berkeley Neighborhoods claims the university violated CEQA by failing to assess the burdens of rising enrollment on the area – U.C. Berkeley has surpassed its predicted 2020 enrollment by more than 9,000 students. Also citing the over-enrollment, the city of Berkeley wants the university to pay more impact fees for its development plans. However, the city contends that it supports the development plans overall. The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency is considering extending the upcoming Central Subway line to North Beach and the Presidio, according to a recent public interest survey submitted by the agency. The current plans for the line, scheduled to open in mid-2020, extend 1.7 miles from Fourth and Brannan to the northern end of Chinatown. However, the agency’s online survey asks residents about possible terminuses at North Beach, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Marina, Cow Hollow, and the Presidio.  In the spirit of the recently-shelved Senate Bill 50 – which called for greater density near transit – San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer proposed eliminating height limits for new housing projects near transit lines. The proposal, which aims to help solve the city’s housing crisis, lifts height limits in areas already zoned for apartments and condominiums within a half mile of a transit line, excluding coastal zones. The mayor’s proposal follows a similar proposal last winter to eliminate parking requirements for new condo and apartment complexes near mass transit. The Pleasanton City Council agreed to taller height limits and greater density as part of its new 20-year downtown specific plan draft. The council’s recommendations focus on the city’s “mixed use downtown area.” In this area, they support increasing building height limits from 40 feet to 46 feet, and increasing development density to a 300 percent floor area ratio – meaning, for example, that 30,000 square feet can be built on a 10,000 square-foot parcel of land. The recommendations will go to the Planning Commission and return to the City Council for the downtown specific plan’s final approval later this summer. In response to the Cupertino City Council’s scheduled "study session" on the controversial Vallco Mall redevelopment project, Senator Scott Weiner and the project’s developer both publicly commented that the session will attempt to sabotage an approved project. At the study session, the council will discuss a general plan amendment to exclude housing and office space uses at the site. Under the Weiner-authored SB 35 law, cities must approve housing developments such as Vallco’s as long as they include affordable homes and meet zoning and planning rules. The amendment, if passed, may not even affect the already-approved 2,4202-unit development, should a judge uphold it. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Young adults in Los Angeles County who live near medical marijuana dispensaries use marijuana more frequently than their peers and report more positive feelings about the drug, according to a recent study from Rand Corporation. Most notably, the study is the first of its kind show that dispensaries with storefront signs had the biggest impact on local young people’s attitudes. In response to research from the same project, the city of Los Angeles adopted legislation in 2018 to restrict some storefront and billboard advertising. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The L.A. Metro Board revealed its latest proposed alignment of a new 20-mile San Fernando Valley bus rapid transit line. The proposed alignment would connect regional destinations in the San Fernando Valley, as well as other transit services including local bus lines, the Orange Line, Metrolink, and the forthcoming light rail line on Van Nuys Boulevard. The project currently has $180 million from the Measure M half-cent sales tax, and is estimated to cost between $297 and $417 million, depending on the alignment. Services are estimated to begin in 2025, and carry between 27,461 and 28,652 daily riders. The Federal Transit Agency awarded BART $300 million in funds for its planned Transbay Tube project. BART officials expressed surprised at the positive outcome for its funding request, which has been awaiting federal approval since 2017. The “Transbay Tube” project, which will add a new rail line crossing the San Francisco Bay, will increase hourly ridership capacity from 27,000 people to 39,000 people. This move puts BART on track to receive the full $3.2 billion requested for a new line. The new Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve just opened its first park section 15 miles south of downtown San Jose. Made possible by a $300 million 2014 bond measure, the 1,432-acre park includes six miles of trails, a 52-car parking lot, restrooms, thousands of redwoods, and a lake. The park sits at the former site of Alma College, and will retain the old chapel and library sites. The other two sections of the park will open in two phases: the former college site will open between 2020 and 2026, and a final southeast piece after 2026. Over 56 percent of San Diegan solo driver commuters would consider other forms of transportation “under the right circumstances,” according to a recent survey from the San Diego Association of Governments . The survey, which polled 3,945 people from San Diego County and Western Riverside County, found that 84 percent of commuters drive to work by themselves. According to additional questions, “the right circumstances” point toward improved convenience: including faster and more frequent service and free parking at transit stops. The San Francisco Transbay Transit Center and rooftop park will reopen to the public on July 1, the Transbay Joint Powers Commission recently announced. The $2.2 billion center in the East Cut neighborhood closed in September 2018 only six weeks after opening after cracks were discovered in its steel beams. San Francisco and Oakland mayors London Breed and Libby Schaaf called for an independent Metropolitan Transportation Commission investigation, which has now concluded. Muni and Golden Gate Transit plans to resume limited bus service from the plaza. Developers of affordable supportive housing in 37 communities statewide received $179 million in funds from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. This is the first award from the voter-backed 2018 No Place Like Home program, and the first statewide program to directly fund developers. The funds will push projects toward construction that will help approximately 2,100 households permanently exit homelessness.

As legislators lurch forward with a hodgepodge of bills designed to ease the state’s dire housing shortage, Gov. Gavin Newsom has agreed to a controversial plan to fine cities that don’t meet their housing goals.

CP&DR Vol. 34 No. 6 June 2019

Google to Invest $1 Billion in Bay Area Housing  Google pledged $1 billion to create 20,000 new homes in the Bay Area – in an unprecedented move to solve the housing crisis that many believe it helped cause. In a recent blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that these funds will target three major investments: first, it will repurpose over $750 million of its own land to build 15,000 units of housing “for all income levels”. Second, Google plans to create a $250 million fund to incentivize developers to build 5,000 units region wide. Finally, it is setting aside $50 million toward solving homelessness and displacement. This announcement comes amid backlash against the company for its major development plans near Diridon Station in downtown San Jose – which a recent report shows will cause major rent spikes throughout the region. The move also follows the example of tech giant Amazon, which similarly pledged funds to support affordable housing in Seattle. “As we work to build a more helpful Google, we know our responsibility to help starts at home,” Pichai wrote in his post. “For us, that means being a good neighbor in the place where it all began over 20 years ago: the San Francisco Bay Area.”  Wiener Introduces Gut-and-Amend Housing Streamlining Bill With Senate Bill 50 on suspense for the remainder of the legislative season, Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a new housing bill through the gut-and-amend process. SB 592 , The Housing Accountability Act, is designed to streamline housing approvals by complementing the Permit Streamlining Act. It would "provide that the applies to any form of land use decision by a local agency, including a ministerial or use by right decision and a discretionary approval” to prevent local agencies from unduly delaying approvals of certain housing developments. It also includes provisions to prevent local agencies from requiring lower densities than existing plans and zoning allow for. Critics have referred to SB 592 as a partial resurrection of SB 50 and have criticized the use of the gut-and-amend tactic (the original SB 592 referred to cosmetology). SB 50 referred largely to density increases, especially around transit; SB 592 makes no such references. (See prior CP&DR coverage .)  Poll Finds Opposition to Building in Wildfire Zones  Three-quarters of Californians support restricted development wildfire zones, a recent survey found. The poll, conducted by the UC Berkeley Center for Government Studies on behalf of the Los Angeles Times, shows broad bipartisan support for imposing state-wide limits on new housing development in high-risk wildfire areas. According to its findings, at least 66 percent of respondents in every region of the state back the idea – enough to approve a bill on the issue. Still, it’s not clear what such legislation would look like, or how it would reconcile with the statewide affordable housing crisis: a recent Cal Fire report said that one in four Californians live in areas considered high-risk for fires. Last year, the recently-retired head of California’s Department Forestry and Fire Protection stated that the government should stop building in high-risk areas. However, Governor Gavin Newsom publicly rejected this suggestion, and instead has focused on public utility companies’ financial responsibility for past fires and future fire safety. "There's something that is truly Californian about the wilderness and the wild and pioneering spirit," Newsom said in an interview with the Associated Press. "I'm not advocating for no building.” Report: Cities Failing to Provide Affordable Housing  Major California cities are falling far short of affordable housing demand, according to a new report by nonprofit California Housing Partnership. Most accepted measures consider a home “affordable" when it costs no more than 30 percent of a household’s gross income. Notably, the report found that fewer than a third of low-income families in Southern California have access to affordable housing – amounting to a shortfall of nearly 759,000 available low-income units. These findings point to twin issues statewide: limited housing drives up livings costs, and wage gaps drive down residents’ ability to afford housing. For example, Sacramento County has a shortfall of 63,000 affordable units, which has caused the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment to jump from $950 a month to $1445 a month over just two years. Similarly, according to the report, in L.A. County, the minimum income needed is over $8,200 a month to afford the mid-priced asking rent of $2,471. For this reason, the biggest impact of these shortages fall on the state's poorest renters. The report urged the state to replace the redevelopment funding slashed in 2012, and called for expanding the affordable housing tax credit program by $500 million a year. It also urged cities and counties to adopt rent caps and tenant protections while also granting developers density bonuses to incentivize new housing construction. California Leads Nation in Rental Rates  Nine out of ten of the nation’s most expensive counties for renters are in California, and seven are in the Bay Area, according to a recent report . The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach” report measured the “fair market rent” for jurisdictions across the nation, or how much a family relocating today can expect to pay for a modest rental home and utilities. Using this number, the researchers determined a resident’s minimum possible salary to afford a home without spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. The report found that in the nation’s three least affordable counties – Bay Area counties San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin – you have to make $127,000 a year to afford to rent a modest two-bedroom home. Also topping the rankings were Bay Area counties Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Cruz. By comparison, the average Californian has to make $72,165 to afford a similar home; and the average American has to make only $47,756. “On the one hand, it’s shocking,” said Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of California, according to Mercury News. “And on one hand it’s affirming of the reality that Bay Area residents and Californians are seeing every day." Quick Hits & Updates The Coastal Commission fined the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Half Moon Bay $1.6 million for blocking public access to beaches. According to California law, all beaches are open to the public. However, the commission found that the hotel – which charges $1,000 a room – failed to provide adequate signage and parking to direct the public toward its beach. This is the second-largest fine in the history of the commission.$1 million of the fine will go toward a fund for signs, trails, and stairs near beaches. The remaining $600,000 will go toward helping a land conservation group purchase property north of the hotel. San Francisco median rent listings have reached an all-time high, according to a Curbed SF analysis of five popular rental platforms. The analysis, which examines the cost of a single bedroom apartment on Zumper, Rent Jungle, Apartment List, Rent Cafe, and Adobo since 2014, found median rents uniformly over $3,500 and as high as $3,777. The numbers differ from U.S. Census Bureau estimates, as they do not include rent-controlled units or older homes that do not appear on apartment listing sites. Google’s San Jose campus will need to include thousands of affordable homes to avoid causing extreme rent spikes, according to a recent economic analysis. Last December, Google bought $110 million of public land from San Jose and plans to create office space and housing for 20,000 new tech employees and 8,000 service workers. San Jose nonprofit Working Partnerships USA found that unless Google builds 5,000 new affordable homes and more than 12,000 market-rate homes, it will cause one of the most expensive areas in the nation to get even less affordable. (See prior CP&DR coverage .)  Housing costs in Riverside and San Bernardino counties were up 4.3 percent in May, outpacing the local 2.9 percent inflation rate, according to the latest regional Consumer Price Index data. This new bimonthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also revealed that the Inland Empire’s average 2019 rent increase of 4.4 percent was fifth-highest among the 23 metro areas tracked by the CPI nationwide. Stanford Universit y is pushing back against Santa Clara County’s demands to build more housing in its planned expansions, claiming that the county itself has not done enough to fix the region's housing shortage. In a recent letter, the university’s Vice Provost objected to the county’s requirement that Stanford quadruple the amount of on-campus workforce housing, and asks that the county grant it permission to build more off-campus housing. Currently, the county requires that it build 70 percent of new housing on campus. The letter comes ahead of the second hearing on a general use permit for the Stanford expansion, the largest-ever development application in the county. Weeks after the Mid-Market business tax break officially ended, San Francisco supervisors expressed regrets about the 2011 decision to pass the 1.5 percent payroll tax holiday to companies that moved into Mid-Market buildings. At a recent committee hearing to assess the policy, supervisors agreed that the so-called “Twitter tax break” failed to achieve many of its intended goals, including reducing homelessness, crime, and empty storefronts in the area. The hearing concluded with a caution against future handouts to the tech sector. California's Congressional delegation introduced a bill to safeguard federal funding for disaster-recovery transportation projects statewide. House Resolution 3193, or the Transportation Emergency Relief Funds Availability Act, is designed to prevent the Trump Administration from targeting disaster-recovery funding. Current regulations allow the federal government to recover such funds if they are not used within two years of being granted. The Bay Area Measure 3 bridge toll increases were legally approved by voters and thus cannot be overturned, according to a San Francisco judge’s ruling . This is the second such ruling in the past year, after two separate lawsuits were filed against the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to attempt to kill the measure. The measure, approved by voters in 2016 by a 55 percent margin, aims to generate $4.5 billion for mass transit and infrastructure improvements. The Governor's Office of Planning and Research's  Wildfire Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery has released an Executive Summary Discussion Draft to the public. The Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery was created in 2018 to provide recommendations to the governor and legislature on how to manage the long-term costs and liabilities associated with utility-caused wildfires. The Executive Summary provides an overview of the work of the commission to date, including key findings and recommendations.

As the general press has reported widely , last week the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1980s land-use case, Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City , 473 U.S. 172 (1985), and ruled that property owners with a taking claim can skip state court and go directly to federal court to litigate those claims. The case, Knick v. Township of Scott , involved the question of whether a local law requiring access to cemeteries during daylight hours created a taking a property for a property owner who has a private family cemetery on site.

Ninety-three years ago, when the population of the United States was about a third of what it is today, a very conservative U.S. Supreme Court shocked everybody in the planning and development world by ruling that zoning is constitutional in the now-famous case of Euclid v. Ambler . To understand what a surprise this was, imagine Chief Justice John Roberts joining with his conservative colleagues on today’s court to strengthen the power of the Environmental Protection Agency. It was that out of character with the conservative, business-oriented 1920s court.

Bay Area Groups Promote $100 Billion Transportation Tax Bay Area transportation officials are considering a cross-regional transportation overhaul tax measure to raise over $100 billion over several decades. The plan, devised from a partnership between the Bay Area Council, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and SPUR, will raise money from all nine Bay Area counties to provide comprehensive transit improvements. Dubbed Faster Bay Area, the proposal follows similarly ambitious transportation tax measures passed in Seattle and Los Angeles in 2016. The need for such improvements is clear: data from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission shows that vehicle congestion region-wide increased by 80 percent from 2010 to 2016. Details of the plan have yet to be determined, but will likely include overhauls of both the BART and Caltrain systems. Both systems were built as commuter trains, not urban rail systems – and both have trouble supporting growing demand. The plan may also focus on revamping highway toll lanes and an expansion of the region’s ferry network. Some officials and advocacy groups have also suggested adding affordable housing funds to the bill. “The farther people travel, the more demand there is for bigger solutions,” Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, told the Mercury News. “There is no question that this region has to address housing, but how we do that, that is still to be discussed.” Trump Eviction Plan Could Displace 936,830 California Residents The National Housing Law Project released data suggesting that a Trump Administration plan to evict undocumented family members from public housing could cause nearly one million people to lose their homes. In April, the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) released a proposal for a $327 million policy to systematically remove non-citizen family members from public housing. The federal government argues that this policy will help provide more affordable housing to citizens. However, the housing advocacy group found that such a policy would force either family separation or total eviction for residents nationwide, citizen and non-citizen. Their analysis found that California would be the second-most impacted state – after only New York – with approximately 936,830 people impacted by the law. Of those potentially impacted, 846,670 are citizens. The public has until July 9 to submit comments on HUD’s policy proposal. Local and statewide lawmakers alike object to the affect this will have on residents. “If finalized, this rule would effectively evict households with mixed immigration status or force families to choose between their housing and keeping their family together,” said Preston Prince, executive director and chief executive officer for the Fresno Housing Authority, according to reporting from the Sacramento Bee. San Francisco Considers Overhaul of Waterfront Concluding three years of planning, the Port of San Francisco unveiled its first waterfront plan update in 22 years. Key recommendations for the 7.5 mile stretch between Fisherman’s Wharf and Heron’s Head Park in Bayview include: offering the dilapidated Piers 30-32 to private developers; adding a privately-funded “true piazza” to the paved area behind the Ferry Building; continuing to seek a ship repair firm to reopen Pier 70 facilities and thus restore as many as 800 jobs; and shortening leases of historic waterfront buildings to as little as 11 years. One cited benefit of shortening property leases is that any restoration effort triggers necessary seismic upgrades for waterfront structures. Similarly, the plan acknowledges the need to rebuild much of the Embarcadero seawall to accommodate rising sea levels. The port will seek public comments on the new plan this summer, followed by an environmental impact study. The state’s Bay Conservation and Development Commission must also review and approve the plans. The 222-page plan deliberately omits the words “land use” from its title, aiming to take a more holistic approach and account for both urban demands and rising sea levels. Coastal Commission Sued over Waivers for San Onofre Nuclear Plant A San Diego lawyer is suing the Coastal Commission over alleged technicalities and breaches of policy related to the seawall at the now-decommissioned San Onofre nuclear power plant. In 2015, state regulators allowed Southern California Edison to temporarily store millions of pounds of spent fuel at the San Onofre nuclear site as long as the company agreed not extend or replace the sea barrier. However, records show that the commission has granted Edison two administrative waivers that allowed the company to protect the seawall from further erosion. The plaintiff claims that the commission is undermining its own rules, as well as refusing to release emails and other communications with Edison. It accuses the commission of concealing the waivers from the public. “The waiver was not placed on the commission’s public agenda,” the lawsuit writes. “The public was given no fair opportunity to oppose the issuance of the waiver." The suit asks the court to order the commission to immediately release records related to the $950,000 building project. Long Beach Unveils Aggressive Climate Plan The City of Long Beach released a draft of its Climate Action and Adaptation Plan for public comment, joining a trend of cities statewide planning to keep on pace with Paris Climate Agreement goals. The Long Beach plan cited research that found that transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions citywide, followed by energy and waste. Accordingly, the plan targets improvements in transportation and energy, including: more connected transit options, better bikeway infrastructure, access to renewable energy, access to community and solar microgrids, and compliance with recycling and organic waste diversion requirements. The plan also included scientific research projecting future effects of climate change on the area. In response, the city devised “adaptability actions," which aim to reduce the impact of climate change on communities. These action plans targeted four major “high vulnerability” sectors countywide particularly at risk for extreme heat, poor air quality, drought, and flooding. Dept. of Conservation Offers Planning Grants for Agricultural Lands, Coastal Adaptation  The Department of Conservation (DOC) has $950,000 for local and regional planning grants to support the integration of natural and working lands, specifically agricultural lands, into local and regional planning documents. – grant applications are due July 31. $17 million is also available through DOC's Agricultural Land Mitigation Program (ALMP) for the purchase of agricultural conservation easements on important farmland within Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties. ALMP has no match requirement and includes funding for direct acquisition costs, associated costs, and stewardship funds. Eligible applicants include counties, cities, nonprofit organizations, resource conservation districts, and regional park or open space districts. Similarly, the Coastal Conservancy’s Climate Ready Program is helping natural resources and human communities along California’s coast and San Francisco Bay adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Conservancy will support multi-benefit projects that use natural systems to assist communities in adapting to the impacts of climate change. It is accepting applications for the sixth round of Climate Ready grants until July 1. Quick Hits & Updates The California State Senate’s Housing Committee unanimously approved a State Constitutional Amendment of Article 34, a controversial measure that has slowed down affordable housing projects statewide since the 1950s. Article 34 mandates a local ballot referendum to approve any affordable housing project subsidized mostly by the public. The recently-approved bill has gained cross-factional support as a promising measure to drive down inflated costs for subsidized housing projects. The proposed repeal will now appear on the 2020 state ballot for voter approval. Following the $41.2 million purchase of a fire training station from the San Jose Fire Department, Google's spending topped $350 million on downtown San Jose properties. These purchases, which began in 2016, come as part of its plans to build a mixed-use transit-oriented village near the Diridon train station. The proposed community will consist of office buildings, homes, restaurants, shops, and open spaces where 25,000 people would work – including 20,000 Google employees. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Department of Conservation has $950,000 for local and regional planning grants to support the integration of natural and working lands, specifically agricultural lands, into local and regional planning documents. Grant applications are due July 31.  The City of Anaheim launched RideArt , a resort transportation system formed in a partnership between parks and the city. RideArt links major destinations in downtown Anaheim – including the Disneyland resort, the Angels Stadium, and the Anaheim Convention Center – with common destinations outside of the city. The service funnels buses from Los Angeles Union Station, the parks at Buena Vista, Costa Mesa, and Orange into Anaheim and between these destinations. As San Francisco legislators consider a significant fee increases on tech building downtown, a new feasibility study suggests that drastic “jobs-housing linkage fee" increases will strain developers and slow down building. Such linkage fees are designed to provide funding for affordable housing for each square foot of office space built. The study responds to San Francisco affordable housing advocates who believe that developer fees should increase far beyond the current $28.57 per square foot. It finds that any fee increase above $10 per square foot may prevent projects from reaching completion. In a much-need vote of support, San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Chair Georgette Gomez affirmed a united vision between MTS and SANDAG Director Hasan Ikhrata. Ikhrata, who unveiled plans for an ambitious and comprehensive transportation overhaul earlier this year, has received pushback for his apparent abandonment of voter-approved road improvements funded by the 2004 TransNet tax. In a joint press conference with Gomez, Ikhrata asserted that TransNet in fact has a $10 billion shortfall and cannot fund promised projects. Following nearly a year of negotiations, Kings County settled its lawsuit against the California high-speed rail project. In a recent board meeting, the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority expressed confidence that the rail line will be adjusted to accommodate slower Amtrak trains, and will thus close a more immediate gaps in the Central Valley transportation system. Currently, Amtrak is a popular service in the valley, but shares a line with freight trains. This more-pragmatic vision for the line belies Governor Gavin Newsom’s persistent vision for a Merced-to- Bakersfield 220 mph high-speed train, which requires $20.4 billion by 2027 to successfully complete. The San Francisco Planning Commission approved plans for a massive three-building office complex in SoMa, which will accommodate nearly 5,000 workers. Developer Tishman Speyer’s 598 Brannan Streey project includes 711,136 square feet off office space, 65,322 square feet of light industrial and retail space, a child care center, open space, and land donated to the city for future affordable housing. This approval comes as part of a series of new projects in SoMa, including major redevelopments of the Flower Mart and San Francisco Tennis Club. Still, construction is unlikely to begin until lawsuits against SoMa's new zoning laws – which allow buildings over 400 feet – are settled. The San Diego City Council officially severed ties with the controversial downtown planning agency Civic San Dieg o. In a 5-2 vote, the council agreed to a settlement that leaves downtown planning decisions to the council, and leaves Civic as an unaffiliated public benefit company. Civic San Diego was formed in 2012 after the statewide dissolution of redevelopment agencies. However, 2015 and 2018 lawsuits alleged that the agency engaged in corrupt and illegal practices, currying favor with the private sector with major planning decisions downtown. Under a limited five-year agreement, Civic will act as a part-time consultant to the city for projects already in progress. Ride-sharing company Lyft sued its hometown city of San Francisco, alleging the city reneged on a deal giving the company exclusive rights to street-rented bikes. The lawsuit responds to the city’s recent solicitation of vendors to offer free floating dockless bikes for hourly rentals, and asks for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order to prevent the city from issuing permits to other vendors. Lyft operates the Ford GoBike service in the city, and says that it invested millions of dollars under the assumption that it would be the only bike-rental service on city streets. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority says the exclusivity only applies to docked bikes, not to free-floating ones. In response to the city’s growing housing and homelessness crises, Los Angeles City Council members proposed penalizing landlords who keep housing vacant. Several members of the city council jointly proposed an “empty homes penalty,” or vacancy tax, citing U.S. Census Bureau data that as of two years ago, the city had over 100,000 vacant units. By contrast, a recent point-in-time count shows a 16 percent homeless population increase in the past two years. Councilmembers hope to get a measure in front of voters by March of next year. Joining more than a dozen California municipalities regulating rent prices, Inglewood approved a five percent rent increase cap. The unanimous city council decision lowered the increase cap from eight percent. Still, they backtracked on a key section of the ordinance: a requirement that landlords pay a relocation free for any tenant who can’t afford an increase. This ordinance responds to skyrocketing housing prices in the area: some residents reported as much as a 140 percent increase in rent. In March, Inglewood adopted an emergency ordinance to limit rent increases to five percent until this ordinance could be passed.

The California Legislature has 3.5 million reasons to try to ease the state’s housing crisis. That’s the estimated number of units by which the state currently falls short of sustainable, affordable levels. And it is, seemingly, the number of housing-related bills that have come up in the legislature this year.

Poll Finds Broad Support for Upzoning Near Transit Sixty-two percent of Californians are in favor of forcing cities to permit apartments in areas currently zoned for single-family homes near transit, according to a recent survey from the Public Policy Institute of California. The survey, which paraphrased goals outlined in the recently-shelved Senate Bill 50, asked voters statewide whether they would support a bill requiring cities and counties to permit apartment construction in communities that now comprise only single-family homes if they’re near rail stations or in job-dense areas. Every region in the state reported at least 60 percent support of the bill. And, surprisingly, 51 percent of homeowners were in support of the bill – despite vocal opposition from homeowner interest groups. This suggests that these interest groups don’t necessarily represent majority interests. “This really demonstrates that housing is truly a crisis today,” Mark Baldassare, the institute’s president, told the Los Angeles Times. “Every survey we’ve done this year, something comes out that just points to the fact that Californians are deeply concerned about housing. These findings say that they want something to get done and they want the Legislature to go boldly.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Homelessness Surges in Los Angeles County Homelessness in Los Angeles County is on the rise, according to a recent count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). LAHSA's three-day annual count of homeless people living in shelters, in vehicles, and on the street found that nearly 59,000 people go homeless on any given night – a 12 percent increase from the 2018 count. The authority also found that since last year, nearly 55,000 people living in the county became newly homeless. Experts attribute the increase to the housing affordability crisis: research from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that approximately one-third of all the renting households in Los Angeles and Orange counties pay more than half of their income on housing. And the problem is escalating. LAHSA also found that about a quarter of the people on the street today became homeless for the first time in their lives in the past year, and about half of those people cite economic hardship as the primary cause. Since Los Angeles County passed the 2017 Measure M sales tax increase toward homelessness services, $400 million annually has been committed to bring people into housing. Still, LAHSA argues that these services cannot support the increase in homelessness: last year, LAHSA and other public programs housed only 21,631 people. Breed to Dedicate Much of S.F. Budget Windfall to Housing, Homelessness San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a 10 percent increase in city budget to $12.3 billion this year – the largest budget in city history. City officials claim extra funds came from a county education fund and “better than expected” gains from property-transfer and business taxes. In her announcement, the mayor made it clear that the increased funds will prioritize supporting homeless services and affordable housing. Breed’s proposed budget sets aside over $100 million in additional funding to increase homeless services over two years, helping her meet her campaign goal of 1,000 new shelter beds by 2020. Breed also proposed over $118 million to buy land and build 100 percent affordable housing, as well as $10.5 million to fund a five-year rent subsidy program for 350 low income households and seniors. “It’s all about housing,” Breed said in her announcement, according to reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle. “We all know the cost of housing is too high. We all know the problem did not happen overnight and will not be solved overnight. ”Breed’s plan also increases funding to mental health services, equity programs, transportation, small businesses, and street cleaning. It will head to the Board of Supervisors for a two-month review, and will be approved and signed by August 1st. Santa Monica Climate Plan Seeks to Go Carbon-Neutral, Mitigate Sea Level Rise Joining a growing trend of cities setting climate goals absent federal standards, the Santa Monica City Council passed an $800 million climate action plan to reach net carbon neutral by 2020. The Climate Action and Adaptation plan, unanimously approved by the council, priorities buildings and transportation through eight main objectives. These objectives include converting 50 percent of vehicles to electric or zero emission cars and converting 50 percent of local mobility to trips taken on foot, bike, scooter or skateboard. The plan also calls on the city to achieve 100 percent renewable grid electricity, install 100 megawatts of local solar energy and reduce fossil fuel use in existing buildings by 20 percent. The plan also addresses mitigating future threats from climate change: including extreme weather, sea level rise, drought and wildfire, and worsening air quality. The plan will keep Santa Monica on track to meet the goals of the United Nations Paris climate change agreement. "We can talk about the absolute amount of money it's going to cost us to do this,” said Santa Monica chief sustainability officer Dean Kubani during the council meeting. "It's going to cost an awful lot more if we don't do this." District Attorney Faults Inglewood City Council over Clippers Arena Negotiations The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office found that the Inglewood City Council violated state law by failing to report a June 2017 special meeting with a Clippers-controlled company to explore building an arena. The D.A. sent a letter finding that the council violated the state’s open meetings law by not providing sufficient description of the meeting’s events. The June 2017 special meeting with Murphy Brown LLC, which is controlled by the Clippers, resulted in a unanimous city council vote approving a three-year agreement to lease a 22-acre property to the team. However, the complaint finds that the lone agenda item for the meeting does not mention the Clippers team. “It should be noted that the deficiency of the agenda description appears to have been part of concerted efforts between representatives of the city and the Murphy’s Bowl LLC to limit the notice given to the public,” the letter said. “Furthermore, the generic name of Murphy’s Bowl LLC was used intentionally to obfuscate the identity of the proposed project and those associated with it.” Still, the D.A.’s office failed to take any action on this finding. Quick Hits & Updates The proposed Oakland A’s stadium at Howard Terminal could generate over $7.3 billion in economic benefits over ten years and create more than 6,100 permanent jobs, according to a recently released report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The report, commissioned by the A's, expands upon a 2017 estimate that projected $3 billion in benefits. The new report includes economic benefits of the greater commercial and housing project beyond the proposed 35,000-seat waterfront park, and breaks down the estimate into $902 million per year for the next ten years. Critics of the stadium expressed fears that a large ask for public funding will soon follow the report. California senators urged the federal Department of Transportation to take immediate action on a $1.25 billion grant request to increase BART capacity. In a recent letter, the senators cited a recent crash on the Bay Bridge that added 10,000 unexpected passengers to the rail line, and asked federal officials to expedite the eighteen-month-old request. Currently, the BART system runs 23 trains for 27,000 total passengers. The proposed expansion adds new rail cars, lines, and a new train-control system to increase capacity to 39,000 passengers. Caltrans executive director Laurie Berman will step down following a 36-year tenure at the agency and one year as its chief. Berman is leaving during a transitional period for transportation statewide: the state is grappling with a $137 million road maintenance backlog, and Governor Gavin Newsom recently downsized the state’s high-speed rail project to focus on a Merced-Bakersfield segment of the high-speed rail project. As part of his new transportation agenda, the governor also recently appointed David Kim secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, and appointed Brian Annis chief financial officer of the California High Speed Rail Authority. Berman’s replacement has not yet been named. San Jose city officials are considering a new property transfer tax to help solve the city’s affordable housing and homelessness crises. Such a tax is paid by either the buyer, the seller, or split when a property is sold or ownership transfers – excepting inherited property. Unlike a bond measure – which city officials have also considered – this tax will only need a simple majority to pass, rather than a two-thirds majority. If it passes, San Jose will join several East Bay cities to approve or amend new property taxes in the past year. A new House of Representatives bill would accelerate the expansion of Riverside County protected land under the 2004 Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. At the time of the plan's passage, 347,000 acres were already set aside, with hopes that state and federal money would help acquire the remaining 153,000. But the rate of land acquisition slowed in recent years and only 61,000 have yet been preserved. The new bill, HR 2956, would open another federal funding source to buy more land. Oakland’s Planning Commission will review plans for a massive development near the West Oakland BART – the largest development project that the area has seen in decades. Approval of the plans would greenlight the development of more than 1,000 apartments, eighty-five of which are affordable housing units for families earning less than 50 percent of the area’s median income. Plans also include 59 parking spaces, as well as space for retail, parks and offices. The plans face little opposition from city residents, in part because developer Panoramic Interests fielded community input, and plans to revitalize the area’s jazz scene and accommodate small businesses.

Is there any city that illustrates California’s developmental and demographic trends more exquisitely than the City of Dublin? Dublin — an outer suburb in Alameda County of 60,939 — normally wouldn’t merit much of a mention. It’s an achingly ordinary place stuck between the chaotic vibrancy of the Bay Area and the pastoral constancy of the Central Valley. It engages in fierce battles to distinguish itself from its neighbor Pleasanton, which wins if only because of its ridiculously cliched name. Generic though it may be, Dublin grew faster — at 4.5 percent — from 2017 to 2018 than any other city in California. It was the only California city to rank in the top 15 nationwide. This comes against the backdrop of a statewide slowdown caused largely by high housing costs statewide (see CP&DR commentary ). Granted, 4.5 percent of 60,000 isn’t much, amounting to a whopping 2,706 residents. Leading the state in absolute growth, San Diego added 12,000 residents and grew 0.91 percent. But, in many ways, Dublin is the obvious, quintessential choice for California’s fastest-growing city. It is, literally and figuratively, right in the middle of California’s housing wars. Dublin really shouldn’t be in such high demand. It’s a full 24 miles from Oakland, and another 16 miles from San Francisco. Its immediate region has its share of jobs and its share of amenities, but no one would mistake it for Silicon Valley. And if you’re not a nuclear family, Dublin probably isn’t your scene. Dublin hits some sweet spots, though. It’s just close enough to the Bay to afford access to jobs and amenities for people willing to commute, but not close enough to feel included. It can’t compete with Tracy or Mountain House on price, but it’s still affordable for mere middle-class mortals. It has a freeway interchange, but it also has a BART station. Most importantly, it has just enough space and just enough appetite for growth. And yet, Dublin is the kind of place that makes planners and environmentalists recoil in horror. By any rational account, center cities such as Los Angeles, Oakland, and, of course, San Francisco ought to be growing the fastest -- or at least fast enough to take growth pressures off places like Dublin. Center cities are, generally, where prices are highest and demand is fiercest. Center cities are where the jobs are, where the infrastructure is, and where the people are. If Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose acted more like their counterparts in Texas, where center cities are adding huge numbers of new residents (see my recent interview with the planning director of Fort Worth), alongside suburbs whose growth rates are in league with Dublin, housing costs would likely level off and the benefits of density might come to fruition. But, in most center cities, the forces opposing growth are even stronger than those promoting it. Homeowners protest against upzoning. Construction costs prevent projects from penciling out. Complex rules and bureaucratic delays drive developers crazy. For-profit and nonprofit developers chase after too few sites. Indeed, any discussion of development in center cities has to include housing for low-income residents. Meanwhile, Dublin’s housing boom includes "just a handful of units for families with very low, low and moderate incomes." Of course, there are plenty of places where the powers-that-be would be delighted to grow even more radically than Dublin has. Mega-developments continue to be approved in the Central Valley and Inland Empire. But those places lag so far behind coastal cities economically, they might as well be in different states. That’s how Dublin ends up staking out California's radical middle ground. California center cities will never reach 4.5 percent. They’ll probably never reach the 2 percent growth rates of their Texas counterparts. But, surely they can do better than San Diego's 0.91 percent or Los Angeles’s abysmal 0.02 percent. If supply even remotely kept up with demand, they’d absorb enough residents that places like Dublin would probably grow more slowly. As for the Tracys and Mountain Houses: maybe they wouldn’t grow at all. City boosters might not like to hear it, but regional planners and anyone concerned about traffic and pollution would rejoice. Again, Dublin seems like a pleasant enough place. But if California’s growth is ever going to pick up again, we have to do a little better than “pleasant" to accommodate a growing, increasingly dynamic population. And I don’t mean Pleasanton. Image courtesy of Wikipedia user Pi.1415926535.

The paradox of Napa Valley is that its famous vine-ripened pastoral character, marked by a pleasing mix of small towns and agricultural land, is appealing and prosperous enough to attract more than just wine-tasting day trippers. Indeed, Wine Country has a housing crisis of its own. That crisis has landed in the City of St. Helena, one of many Napa County towns aiming to accommodate growing populations while remaining small towns. These tensions played out in a general plan update that included outsized controversies for a town of just 6,196. The St. Helena Planning Commission unanimously voted April 16 to recommend that the city council adopt the revised 2040 General Plan; the council voted to adopt it, 3-1, May 14. The votes came nearly a decade after the commission first recommended adoption of an earlier version of the plan, drafted in 2010. Modifications to that plan dragged on for nearly a decade, in part due to disagreements over the city’s water supply. The new plan replaces a 1993 update that was adopted when the town had over 1,000 fewer residents. The updated plan primarily focuses on preserving agricultural lands, improving and enhancing pedestrian and bicycle areas throughout the community, and modernizing policies to maintain the city’s historic buildings and open spaces. It also strives to allow just enough housing to accommodate some new residents without overwhelming the town. Complicating this provision was a multi-year lawsuit, recently settled, over infill development that demonstrated just how sensitive some St. Helena residents are to even relatively small developments. “Maintaining the community character while also ensuring enough growth occurs to maintain a healthy community is a top priority of this City Council,” said Noah Housh, Planning & Community Improvement Director. “Adoption of the 2040 General Plan Update is the first step toward modernizing the city’s land use policies to ensure this balance is met.” The most noticeable proposals in the revised plan suggest extending an avenue and removing plans to rezone land in a residential neighborhood. Planning Commission Chair Lester Hardy recommended that the commission review the plan in coming months. Some St. Helena residents may not support the city’s ­­­­response to growth pressures, however. In McCorkle Eastside Neighborhood Group v. City of St. Helena , Citizens filed suit against the city in 2017 after the city invoked an infill exemption to grant an eight-unit project proposal. The council’s action was in keeping with a 2016 update to the city’s housing element and zoning ordinance, making it only necessary for the city to review design aspects for projects intended for the High Density Residential zoning district. Plaintiffs claimed that St. Helena violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not holding the project to stricter environmental review standards. (See prior CP&DR coverage.) The trial court ruled in favor of St. Helena, and the appellate court upheld the ruling Dec. 18, 2018. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs contended that plaintiffs saw themselves as watchdogs policing the city rather than activists with an ideological agenda. “The residents of St. Helena were generally supportive of the recent General Plan update,” said Matthew D. Hinks, partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell. “The case was not animated by ‘anti-growth’ sentiments, but rather the actions of various city officials that we continue to believe were unlawful.” The court dismissed these claims, writing, “There was no improper delegation of the city’s authority under CEQA…. he City Council in this case did act—just not in the way that appellants had hoped.” According to Hardy, however, the rise of anti-growth “hopes” in St. Helena is not a recent development. “Limiting population growth has been a priority for many residents and voters in St. Helena for the last 30 years or more; this sentiment is always a factor in the city's land use policy decisions, of varying significance depending on the particulars,” said Hardy. “Comparing the 2040 General Plan Update with the 1993 General Plan…I would say that anti-growth sentiment has as much influence today as it did then.” With the lawsuit settled, the new plan further ingrains the council’s 2016 infill exemption. According to Housh, City Council has made housing development in St. Helena a priority, and the council expects to initiate a citywide housing strategy by mid-summer. The updated General Plan estimates that the city will construct roughly 330 new housing units, increasing housing units by approximately 10 percent. To maintain the city’s character, to the plan calls for the creation of a mixed-use land use designation and reclassify select properties located in the city’s downtown commercial center. St. Helena has started drafting the Citywide Design Guidelines, which will offer nuanced direction on the overall architectural and landscape designs in St. Helena. The guidelines should be completed later this year. These developments amount to a more progressive general plan than the previous version, which has been described as more of a plan for “tourist management” than for true city-building. * * * In related Napa Valley planning news, St. Helena’s neighbor and fellow tourist destination Yountville also recently adopted a general plan that gingerly invites growth. Yountville’s previous general plan was also a product of the early 1990s, having been adopted in 1992. Most notably, the new plan for the town of 2,924 permits the development of three-story buildings in the downtown area for the first time while imposing a limit of two stories on residential properties. The regulations are tighter than the previous 30-foot height limit. To build three stories, developers must prove a public benefit, such as inclusion of affordable housing, storefronts for locally serving businesses, or accommodations for “under-represented” activities. The plan also provides for slightly higher residential densities in certain areas. Contacts & Resources City of St. Helena General Plan McCorkle Eastside Neighborhood Group v. City of St. Helena: Infill Exemption Upheld for 8-Unit Project Yountville General Plan Noah Housh , Planning & Community Improvement Director, NHoush@cityofsthelena.org Lester Hardy , Commission Chair, lhardy@cityofsthelena.org Matthew D. Hinks , partner of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP, MH2@jmbm.com