Los Angeles’s Measure S, which was overwhelmingly rejected , was a monumental ballot measure in an otherwise quiet election statewide March 7. In fact, there were more measures on local ballots in Los Angeles County than there were in the rest of the state combined. This is in contrast with a bumper crop of land use measures, plus a raft of marijuana-related measures, that appeared on November 2016 ballots.

Voters in the City of Los Angeles resoundingly rejected a ballot measure that would have radically reshaped the city’s approach to planning and influenced the city’s urban fabric for generations.

Board members of the San Diego Association of Governments are calling for an independent investigation into the agency’s flawed forecasting  of revenue projections from a tax increase that it sponsored on the November ballot to pay for transportation investments. The agency reportedly over-estimated revenues — by $4 billion out of an estimated total of $18 billion —possibly to make the tax more appealing to voters. When the over-estimation was discovered, it was reportedly withheld from board members. “None of us are suggesting the result of such an examination is a foregone conclusion — it may indeed exonerate SANDAG — but for the public to be well-served an impartial and thorough examination must be conducted,” wrote Poway Mayor Steve Vaus and six other board members, according to Voice of San Diego. Legislators Seek to Shore Up Environmental Protections Responding to expected weakening of federal environmental law under President Trump, members of the California legislature are moving to incorporate existing federal protections into state law. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon introduced legislation that would enshrine federal rules on air quality, water protection, endangered species into California law. He is promoting a related bill that would require the federal government to give the state first dibs on any federal lands that it wishes to sell to private developers. Roughly half of California’s land is owned by the federal government, including national parks and rural land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The bills’ other authors include Sens. Henry Stern (D-Canoga Park), Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara).  PPIC Survey Shows Mixed Support for Road Investments In a recent statewide survey by the Public Policy Institue of California, 61 percent of Californians say that spending more money on the maintenance of roads, highways, and bridges is very important for California’s future quality of life and economic vitality. At the same time, a majority of Californians (54%) oppose the governor’s proposal to do so. His transportation funding plan would provide $43 billion of additional spending for state and local transportation projects, with money coming from a new $65 vehicle fee and an increase in gasoline and diesel taxes. Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to the governor’s proposal and independents are divided. Among Democrats, a slight majority (53%) favor the plan while 42% oppose it. Among Californians who oppose the governor’s proposal, 64% say that the wiser use of existing funds is the best way to significantly improve the quality of the state’s roads. Only 30% say that both wiser use of existing funds and more state funding is needed. North Coast Tribal Site to be Protected An important Native American site on a remote stretch of the North Coast will be protected under a plan announced by the Save the Redwoods League. The plan pertains to 870 acres that includes what is considered the “creation site” of the Kashia people, a tribe that now numbers roughly 1,000, 100 miles north of San Francisco at Stewarts Point. The plan places a permanent conservation easement on the land, preventing development and ensuring that the Kashia have access to the site in perpetuity. The land is undeveloped but currently used for grazing.  Parties Spar Over Accordable Housing Legislation in S.F. A coalition of affordable housing and tenants organizations in San Francisco has voiced opposition to State Sen. Scott Weiner’s SB 35, a bill designed to require local jurisdictions to facilitate the development of more housing and encourage cities to meet the requirements of their respective Regional Housing Needs Assessments. The opponents claim that Weiner’s bill would give too much freedom to developers and would result in an excess of market-rate development at a time when affordable housing is needed. The coalition claims that streamlining “approvals equates to a monetary value conferred to developers, by cutting capital-risk and development timelines” but does not necessarily make housing more affordable. Meanwhile, Supervisors Ahsha Safai and London Breed have introduced an ordinance designed to make the city’s rent-controlled units more available to middle-income earners. It would allocate units according to income tiers to ensure that they do not go only to low-income earners. Berkeley Promotes ‘Micro-Housing’ for Homeless Berkeley City Council approved unanimously the “Step Up Housing” initiative co-sponsored by three council members to encourage “supportive housing” for homeless and very low-income people with city help. In December, the council endorsed a proposal from Mayor Jesse Arreguin and councilman Kriss Worthington to explore supportive housing for homeless, disabled, and veterans in the city and allowing tiny homes to be displayed for a week to a month. The report refers to 160-square-foot MicroPAD (Prefabricated Affordable Dwelling) produced by Panoramic Interests in San Francisco. The approved proposal identifies city-owned parcels for assisted-living modular micro-unit buildings, amends the permitting and approvals process to easy creation of below-market housing, starts a competitive bidding process for development of up to 100 units, arranges for management and operation of the buildings by a non-profit, and establishes need-based criteria for eligibility. While the legislation now is simply about “100 units of housing in an expedite manner” it is assumed to be aimed at microhomes. The two sites being bid on by developers are both parking lots. Stockton Promotes Non-Residential Developments The Stockton City Council adopted an incentive program for non-residential developments. The new program is part of an effort by local officials to generate additional revenue and more jobs. The new incentives will allow non-residential facilities to defer payment on public facilities fees that go towards city projects such as street improvements, fire and police stations, and water and wastewater connections. To qualify for the program, developers must be facing gees that exceed $20,000. The fee deferrals will be extended until a certificate of occupancy is issued to the developer and will last up to a maximum of two years from the issuance of the first building permit. Quick Hits & Updates The California Air Resources Board is hosting  workshops on updates to Senate Bill 375 regional passenger vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets for California's Metropolitan Planning Organizations. The workshops will be held in Los Angeles March 7, Sacramento March 9 (also webcast), and Fresno March 14.  The California Natural Resources Agency’s  Urban Greening Grant Program has released its application and guidelines and is hosting eight of technical assistance workshops around the state between March 13 and March 28. Each workshop will include a formal presentation and breakout sessions designed to provide help and guidance in preparing grant applications. Bay Area Rapid Transit reports that ridership was down 5.2 percent in December and 4 percent in January, foretelling a budget deficit for the year of $15 million to $25 million. The board is considering ways to cut costs and increase revenues, possibly by increasing base fares. Los Angeles Metro's Expo Line Phase 2 Light Rail, a 6.6-mile-long project with seven stations has received recognition for sustainable performance from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI). The project earned the Envision rating system’s highest award level—Platinum. It is the first Metro project that is Envision-verified. This week the Coastal Commission will consider a plan to restore a group of cottages at Crystal Cove in Orange County. The cottages, which predate the Coastal Act by decades, fell under public control in 1979, and are considered historic.  Los Angeles Metro has released four alternatives for “run-through” tracks at Union Station. The tracks would enable Amtrak, Metrolink, and future high-speed rail service to provide continuous service to points both north and south of Los Angeles.  The City of Glendale is considering options for a streetcar line, funded by a $200,000 planning grant from the Southern California Association of Governments. The proposed route would run diagonally through Burbank and then run north-south along Glendale’s Brand Boulevard.  The Los Angeles Conservancy has awarded Survey LA its Chairmans Award for 2017, the organization’s highest honor. Conducted by the L.A. Department of City Planing, Survey LA is a multi-year project to analyze and catalog the city’s historic resources. It has analyzed over 800,000 parcels and is believed to be the largest such effort of its kind in U.S. history.  Responding to changing commuting patterns in the Sacramento region, Sacramento Regional Transit is considering a wholesale redesign of its bus system. A new design would serve employment centers such as Rancho Cordova and Folsom and have less emphasis on downtown Sacramento. A study will begin this summer.  Facing a threat that the federal government may withhold a promised $647 million to electrify the Caltrain corridor, Caltrain officials have extended the contracts of contractors set to work on the project. Though funding is still uncertain, the extension prevents the automatic termination of the contracts.  An investment group has submitted a roughly $1.3 billion proposal that would keep the Raiders in Oakland to the NFL. Details of the proposal have not been released but it reportedly calls for a combination of public and private funds to renovate the Oakland Coliseum.  San Francisco supervisors rejected , 9-1, an appeal filed against a plan to manage roughly 1,000 acres of natural areas in the city. the vote means that the plan, which calls for strategic removal of up to 18,000 trees, can go forward. the appeal had been filed by the San Francisco Forest Alliance, which felt that the plan went too far.  The Clear Lake City Council unanimously adopted an update to the city’s general plan that is designed to guide development through 2040. the plan is designed to accommodate population growth of 1.4 percent annually and the development of over 600,000 square feet of retail in the city of 15,000.

In an extraordinary action, President Donald Trump has issued an executive order calling for a reframing of federal wetlands regulation in a way that would in effect overturn a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and include policy considerations that extend far beyond those contained in the text of the Clean Water Act. Among other things, the executive order calls for the Trump Administration to balance water quality against “minimizing regulatory uncertainty” and instructs federal agencies to interpret the Clean Water Act in a manner consistent with Justice Antonin Scalia’s plurality opinion in the 2006 case Rapanos v. United States . Scalia’s opinion called for the Clean Water Act to be interpreted narrowly, requiring a federal wetlands permit only if the wetland has a “continuous surface connection” to a “relatively permanent, standing, or continuously flowing” body of water. But Scalia’s opinion only got four votes. The deciding vote in the Rapanos case came from Justice Anthony Kennedy, who said a permit would be required “if the wetlands, either alone or in combination with similarly situated lands in the region, significantly affect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of other covered waters more readily understood as navigable.” Ever since Rapanos , the Environmental Protection Agency has been flummoxed trying to interpret the case. Ironically, the “Waters of the United States” rule represented the Obama Administration’s attempt to eliminate the resulting uncertainty. Seeking to slipstream in between the Scalia and Kennedy opinions, the WOTUS rule does appear to bring marshes, peat bogs, vernal pools, and other small and sometimes disconnected wetlands into federal wetlands. The vernal pool aspect of the rule is especially important in California. But the Trump executive order essentially instructs federal agencies, including EPA, to ignore Kennedy’s opinion. It also orders agencies to use a balancing test that goes far beyond the Clean Water Act’s language, which was reflected in Kennedy’s opinion. The first paragraph of the executive order declares his administration’s “policy” on water quality, saying that it is in “the national interest” to keep the nation’s waters “free from pollution,” but also “promoting economic growth, minimizing regulatory uncertainty, and showing due regard for the roles of Congress and the States under the Constitution.” Such a statement is remarkably far-reaching compared to the typical presidential executive order. The Clean Water Act itself calls on federal agencies “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters” and that discharge of pollutants into “the nation’s waters” be eliminated. It is the definition of “the nation’s waters” that has been subject to constant debate since the Reagan Administration. Implementation of the new rule  was halted in late 2015 by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals , which issued a stay. The litigation was brought by several attorneys general, mostly in the Midwest and Plains states, including Oklahoma’s Scott Pruitt, who is President Trump’s new EPA administrator. The Sixth Circuit  has now halted the litigation temporarily  while the U.S. Supreme Court considers another case that poses the question of whether federal district or appellate courts have jurisdiction over Clean Water Act issues.

A proposed Napa County initiative designed to protect oak woodlands should not be placed on the ballot because the attachments did not contain complete information about all the new legal requirements it would impose, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.

The sun was still 20 minutes from rising when he crossed Broadway south of downtown Los Angeles early one February morning. The police offered few details about what happened next. The 69-year old, who went unidentified in news reports, was struck and killed by a motorist who fled the scene.  There area where he was walking, part of a six-mile stretch of Broadway that runs between Adams and Century Boulevards, is among the most dangerous in Los Angeles for pedestrians and bicyclists. In fact, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, just 6 percent of the city’s streets — including that six-mile stretch — account for 65 percent of deaths and serious injuries for pedestrians involved in traffic collisions. And, to be clear, these incidents are indeed “collisions,” not “accidents,” said Nat Gale from LADOT. Whether through engineering, enforcement or education, he said, “they are preventable tragedies.” That’s the idea behind the city’s Vision Zero program. Borrowed from Sweden, the strategy has the ambitious goal of eliminating all traffic deaths and severe injuries and has been adopted in roughly two dozen cities, according to the national Vision Zero Network . For years, streets were designed with the goal of moving as many cars through as quickly as possible. (See prior CP&DR commentary  on Vision Zero.) But as cities look to become increasingly multi-modal, they have to confront the uneven consequences that this logic has had for pedestrians and bicyclists. Though the majority of collisions in Los Angeles — 85 percent — occur between two vehicles, roughly half of all traffic deaths involve people walking or biking. New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles each have official Vision Zero plans, but many large cities have not approved a plan. Los Angeles, which released its action plan in January, is hopeful that it can transform its sprawling, car-focused streets into safe place for everyone, starting with the 6 percent of streets identified by LADOT as the city’s  High Injury Network . “Los Angeles is a big city...so 6 percent of our streets is still 450 miles,” added Gale, who is heading the Vision Zero effort for the department. He said the city would focus first on roughly 80 miles of priority corridors. In addition to reworking dangerous intersections and other engineering changes, cities also look to enforcement and education to reduce traffic deaths. In New York City for example, to combat the spike of collisions during the darker winter rush hour, the city added more lighting to crosswalks. It also stationed more cops at hot spots to catch drivers who sped through crosswalks. During first two months of the effort, “pedestrian deaths dropped to half of what they had been during that stretch the year before,” according to Governing magazine. In Los Angeles, the city has set two goals. It aims to reduce traffic deaths by 20 percent by 2017. By 2025, it wants to eliminate them. The city has already started making changes to its streetscape to achieve those goals, like adding a “scramble crosswalk” at a popular intersection in Hollywood that allows pedestrians to cross from every street corner while car traffic remains stopped. The city has also added curb extensions that effectively restrict the turning space for cars in an intersection, forcing them to reduce their speeds. Other tools like pedestrian medians in the middle of streets, new signage and striping, dedicated bike lanes and pedestrian intervals that give people crossing the street a head start at traffic lights have all been put to work on the city’s streets. And Los Angeles has taken a particularly data-driven approach, looking at not only collision data but neighborhood level disparities. By doing that, LADOT found that nearly half of the city’s High Injury Network sits inside some of the poorest communities with the worst health outcomes. “In L.A., as in most cities that have analyzed their data closely, some communities are disproportionately impacted by traffic crashes,” said Leah Shahum, founder and director of the organization Vision Zero Network, “This includes seniors, children, low-income people, people of color, people with disabilities, and those walking and bicycling.” Gale put it bluntly: “We can prove that where people are dying are in communities already overburdened with other conditions.” But he said the data also point to the need to tread carefully, particularly around enforcement. “It can’t mean that we’re criminalizing walking and biking or overburdening them with law enforcement,” said Gale. Most Vision Zero plans require governments to work simultaneously in very local contexts and at a broader systemic level. “Traditionally, we have over-emphasized the education or training of individuals to ‘do the right thing’ with very mixed success,” said Shahum. “Vision Zero holds that, while education and training still have a role to play, this is not as effective as focusing on the systems level changes that will have far greater impacts.” That means both changes to the built environment but also a collaborative approach between city departments, particularly law enforcement, health and transportation, and updated policy. In Los Angeles, said Shahum, “They have set clear benchmarks with years and measurables and named which agency is responsible, which is important. Not all Vision Zero plans by all communities have done this.” “In the end,” said Shahum, “Vision Zero acknowledges that people will make mistakes, and there will always be crashes. But, it is the speed that kills. By managing speed effectively, we can prevent the most serious crashes and, hence, fatalities and severe injuries. People can still get where they need to go, of course, but in a Vision Zero community, safety is prioritized over fast speeds.” A version of this piece originally appeared on the  Kinder Institute/Urban Edge Blog .. Further CP&DR coverage: Mobility Plan Nudges Los Angeles Towards New Transportation Modes A Plan with 'Zero' Chance of Success

In a year of electoral upheaval stretching from the United Kingdom to Washington, D.C., voters in the City of Los Angeles have one more paradigm-shifting question to consider.

Reversing an appellate court decision, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday that a “delisting petition” may move forward in an effort to de-list a species under the California Endangered Species Act, even if the petition does not contain any new information that emerged after the original listing of the species. “ o provision of CESA directly establishes that the Commission may not base a decision to delist on new evidence showing that the listed species does not qualify for listing,” wrote Justice Ming Chin for a unanimous court. In particular, Chin noted, Section 2077, subd. (a) of the Fish & Game Code requires the Department of Fish 7 Wildlife to review the status of endangered species every five years and states: “Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the ommission or the epartment may review a species at any time based upon a petition or upon other data available to the epartment and the ommission.” The opinion is a victory for the lumber industry, which is trying to de-list the coho salmon in certain parts of California. The case arose from an attempt by the Central Coast Forestry Association and Big Creek Lumber Company to de-list the coho salmon, but only in areas south of San Francisco. (the coho salmon is also listed in areas north of San Francisco.) The Third District Court of Appeal ruled the other way on the issue, concluding that a provision contained in the ESA’s implementing regulations require that a delisting petition be “directed to events that occur after the listing of the species.” The case emerged from the Fish & Game Commission’s 1995 decision to list the coho salmon south of San Francisco as endangered. After the Commission found the coho salmon north of San Francisco to be endangered seven years later, the Central Coast Forestry Association and Big Creek began challenging the 1995 decision on several fronts, one of which was that “a petition to delist a species may not be employed to challenge a final determination of the Commission.” The commission’s decisions were initially challenged by the California Forestry Association, which lost its case in 2007. ( California Forestry Assn. v. California Fish & Game Commission (2007) 156 Cal.App.4th 1535.) Central Coast and Big Creek filed a separate lawsuit claiming that the listing of the coho salmon south of San Francisco violated the ESA’s requirement that endangered species be indigenous. The plaintiffs claimed that the coho was not native to streams south of San Francisco. After lengthy proceedings in front of the Fish & Game Commission and in court, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Gail D. Ohanesian ruled that the Commission “has authority and discretion to decline to provide CESA protection to coho populations south of San Francisco if they did not have a historical presence there and if their current presence is not the result of natural expansion of their range.” On appeal, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled that administrative mandamus was the only means available to review a final decision on listing by the Fish & Game Commission and that a delisting petition could only be used to address the status of a species at the time the delisting petition was filed – not to challenge a final ruling from the past. The Supreme Court reversed. Noting that the appellate court’s ruling was based primarily on a regulation, not the actual statute, the court concluded that the Fish & Game Code provides three ways for a species to be delisted: First, “an interested person may petition the omission to . . . remove a species from” the list of endangered species (§ 2071); Second, “ he epartment may, in the absence of a petition from an interested party, recommend to the ommission that it . . . remove a species from” the list (§ 2072.7); and Third, “ he epartment shall review species listed as an endangered species . . . every five years to determine if the conditions that led to the original listing are still present” (§ 2077, subd. (a)). The court noted that the third code provision permits the Fish & Game Commission to rely on a petition or any available data in considering the five-year review. The Court of Appeal relied on Fish & Game Regulation 670.1, which says that de-listing is warranted “if the Commission determines that its continued existence is no longer threatened ” – implicitly suggesting that de-listing can occur only if conditions have changed since the original commission decision. “We do not agree with the Court of Appeal that this provision’s use of the phrase “no longer threatened” was intended to preclude delisting where new evidence shows that the species never qualified as endangered, and to permit consideration only of ‘events that occur after the listing of the species,” Chin wrote for the court. In light of the considerations discussed above — the Act’s language, structure, and legislative history — the language of the regulation cannot carry the weight the Court of Appeal gave it.” The Case: Central Coast Forest Association v. Fish & Game Commission, No. S208181 (February 27, 2017) The Lawyers: Tara L. Mueller, Deputy Attorney General, tara.mueller@doj.ca.gov James Buchal, Murphy & Buchal, jbuchal@mbllp.com

Recently appointed Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has ordered a stop payment on the $647 million grant for electrification of the Caltrain right of way in the Bay Area until a full audit is done on high-speed rail. The move essentially kills the electrification process for the foreseeable future as contracts were set to be issued March 1. The current Caltrain system runs on diesel and is costly to operate and slow. Officials had seen electrification as a way to increase ridership and save money on operating costs. Caltrain has already spent $150 million on the project but needs the federal funding to move forward. Electrification of Caltrain is also a crucial component of the state’s planned high speed rail system, which will share the Caltrain right of way from San Jose to San Francisco. Withholding of these funds is seen as a significant blow to that project.  Developer Proposes Thousands of Units, Soccer Stadium for Qualcomm Site A La Jolla-based investment group, FS Investors, presented the most detailed proposal yet for the redevelopment of the Qualcomm Stadium site to the city. The proposal includes a new river park, commercial development, and a Major League Soccer stadium. Additionally there would be 480 units of on-site affordable housing, 800 units of on-site student housing, and 3,520 units of market rate residential. The group has also planned for $50 million worth of mitigation to balance the traffic impact. The $1 billion redevelopment, dubbed “SoccerCity” would either include an MLS stadium with seats for 22,000 or a combined San Diego State Univ. football and soccer stadium with up to 40,000 seats. FS Investors would set aside 15 acres for an NFL stadium to be built in the next five years if another city’s team wants to relocate and replace the Chargers. The plan will be presented to the City Council soon. Developers will ask to fast-track the process, rather than refer the initiative to voters, in time to meet MLS deadlines for granting new franchises this year. Meanwhile, San Diego developer Doug Manchester has contacted the NFL expressing a desire to build a privately financed 70,000-seat NFL stadium at the Qualcomm Stadium site. Tahoe Regional Transportation Plan Seeks to Reduce Car Use The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency released the draft 2017 Regional Transportation Plan/ Sustainable Communities Strategy, calling it “ Linking Tahoe ” (pdf). The plan addresses congestion and environmentally friendly alternatives to the current car-centric approach. TRPA wants to prioritize spending on bicycling, walking and transit in the coming decades to allow more seamless around-the-lake bus service. New initiatives considered under the plan include a $44 million water taxi between north and south shores, $74 million to realign Highway 50 through South Lake Tahoe and Stateline, and $44 million to improve car, bicycle, and pedestrian travel through Fanny Bridge area of Tahoe City. The goal is to have free transit throughout the lake Tahoe Basin, with service every 30 minutes, by 2021. Area officials estimate Tahoe will have access to $2 billion in federal, state and local transportation funds over the next quarter century. Former Palm Springs Mayor Ensnared in Development Scandal Former Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet has been accused of accepting bribes of $375,000 from two developers whose projects he promoted. The three men were charged with a combined 30 felony counts of corruption, including bribes, conflict of interest, perjury, and conspiracy to commit bribery. Ex Mayor Steve Pougnet served for eight years and stepped down in 2015. Pougnet could face up to 19 years in state prison, while the two developers each face up to12 years. The money was sent from the developers through Union Abbey or Mitchell-Brix Design group, the first company having very little corporate footprint. Many of the major developments in downtown Palm Springs must now be untangled and evaluated. These projects are worth between $500 million and $1 billion and include the revitalization of downtown and the new Dakota Community. The projects that have been approved by the city and will move forward are Kimpton Hotel, Virgin Hotel, Block A, B, and C, and downtown park. Proposal for Linkage Fee Advances in Los Angeles The City of Los Angeles Planning Commission voted unanimously to support a plan to make real estate developers pay a linkage fee to generate funds for affordable housing. The fee is estimated to generate $75-$92 million per year that would fund construction of new units, and rehabilitation and maintenance existing housing. In 2014, the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing found Los Angeles County was short 490,340 affordable housing units. Other cities in California including San Francisco, Oakland, and San Diego impose linkage fees to spur new development of lower-income housing. LA’s fees would apply to both residential and commercial developments, although exception such as small mixed-use projects and single-family homes exist. Developers in city of LA would have to pay $5 per square foot of commercials pace and $12 for residential. Draft Guidelines Issued for Agricultural Lands Program The Strategic Growth Council (SGC) and the Department of Conservation (DOC) released draft program guidelines for the third round of funding for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALCP). Part of the SALCP funds easement on agricultural lands at risk of sprawl and rural ranch development, as well as funding for local governments adopting land use policies that protect at risk agricultural lands. The funding levels for SALCP are not yet decided, as a portion is dependent on auction fares from the cap-and-trade auction. Public comments on guidelines are due March 17 and DOC will host a workshop on March 2. The SGC will meet on April 11 th in Sacramento to discuss SALCP program guidelines and funding levels for 2017. LAO Evaluates Brown’s Transportation Funding Package The Legislative Analysts Office released a report  Transportation Funding Package, which addresses several transportation system challenges the state faces. They include aging highways, aging local roads and transit systems, increased traffic congestion, increased demand for transportation alternatives, and increased goods movement, and realizes that there will be a lack of funding. The governor’s proposed Transportation Funding Package for 2017-18 is estimated to generate an annual average increase in transportation funding of $4.2 billion over the next ten years. The funds would come from a mix of sources including a new $65 vehicle registration tax, increases to gasoline and diesel excise taxes, cap-and-trade auction revenues, and the early repayment of certain transportation loans. S.F. Makes Peace with ‘Google Buses’ The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency directors voted unanimously to adopt a permanent plan to accommodate  corporate shuttles in the city. These tech-industry private buses, most notoriously those run by Google, are praised for taking cars off the streets, but are also represent gentrification in the changing city. The approved plan allows shuttles to use a maximum of 125 bus stops, some shared with Muni, in exchange for a $7.31 fee charged every time they stop to pick up or drop off passengers. The new policy also restricts larger buses to wider streets and requires operators to phase in newer, less-polluting vehicles, provide tracking data to MTA, and avoid labor disputes. MTA Director Joel Ramos noted that the program gives the city control in exchange for use of Muni stops and city curb space. Tribe Granted Sovereignty, Moves Ahead with Casino in Elk Grove The Wilton Rancheria Native American tribe has been granted sovereignty by the federal government, clearing the way for the tribe to build a casino on recently purchased land in Elk Grove. The U.S. Department of the Interior considers the property sovereign tribal ground for the Wilton Rancheria tribe. The 36-acre parcel was part of the 100-acre plot that was planned to be an outlet mall but wanted a larger casino to drive traffic to the area. The tribe may now build its casino along Highway 99 without city approval. Boyd Gaming, which runs 24 casinos in seven states, financed the $36 million land purchase and will pay for the development. The tribe will repay its partner with profits from the casino’s operations as well as $132 million over 20 years to the city for infrastructure, police, schools and nonprofits. The grand opening of the casino is scheduled in three to five years. Quick Hits & Updates Democratic Assemblyman Miguel Santiago has drafted AB 943, which would increase the threshold from a simple majority to a two-thirds supermajority for passage of any local ballot measure that would block or delay development. Santiago says the legislation would help address the housing supply issue in the state. More than two-thirds of coastal communities in the state have adopted growth-limiting measures such as caps on population or height limits on buildings. The Orange County Transportation Authority has begun a study to  analyze  12 transit options along the Central Harbor Boulevard Transit Corridor. The study will look at bringing a streetcar or more effective rapid bus system to a section of Harbor Boulevard that runs through Garden Grove, Anaheim, and Fullerton. The San Francisco Planning Commission voted to lower a proposed five-story, 28-unit condo development by 5 feet to prevent a bar’s backyard from losing sunlight. The commission also directed the developer to make the building’s rooftop parapet transparent, to further reduce the shadow it casts on Zeitgeist bar. This vote was significant because CEQA only requires cities to analyze shadows cast on public spaces. Oakland DOT’s Progress Report: Telegraph Avenue Complete Streets shows huge benefits from the project, which was implemented last year. The report cites zero pedestrian crosswalk collisions and 40 percent reduction in collisions along the corridor. The redesign included parking-protected bike lanes. There has been a 78 percent increase in people biking and 100 percent increasing in walking along the corridor. Advocacy group Fix The City is suing the City of Los Angeles over approval of a Frank Gehry-designed development on Sunset Bl. The group claims to have found decades-old covenant on the property that limited development on the site to no more than 45 feet. City Council had allowed a portion of the residential and retail project to reach 178 feet. Costa Mesa Councilwoman Sandra Genis plans to ask the City Council to remove a newly reappointed planning commissioner Chair Stephan Andranian. In January, the City Council voted to dismiss all commissions and appointed new members in early February with a 5-0 vote. Genis now claims she market her nomination forms incorrectly, and Andranian should not have made it onto the commission and instead Teresa Callo Drain would be appointed. Angels owner Arte Moreno told reporters that he’s committed to remaining at Anaheim Stadium through 2029 and he would continue investing in improvements. This year, the club spent $1.5 million on installing new lights. Other improvements would be paint, concession stands, bathrooms, and new players. Inrix, a transportation analytics firm, ranked Los Angeles as the most congested city in the world with a driver spending 104 hours per year during pea travel periods last year. Moscow was second at 91 hours, New York City next with 89 and San Francisco was fourth. The authors of the study find the stable U.S. economy, urbanization of big cities, employment growth and low gas prices have led to increased traffic and congestion worldwide. The 2017 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence has announced  five finalists for the $50,000 award. La Kretz Innovation Campus + Arts District Park in Los Angeles is one of the finalists for a demonstration facility promoting clean technologies and the city’s green economy. The RBA prize seeks to recognize “transformative places that positively impact the economic, environmental, and social make-up of American cities.” A report released by the City of Santa Monica shows the city has struggled to meet its affordable housing quota for the third year in a row. Of the 175 brand new apartments for rent in 2016, only 34 were below market-rate or 19 percent. Proposition R requires 30 percent of all new multi-family housing go to middle or low-income households.

When Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, issues its first round of public stock in two weeks, it will likely raise between $19 billion and $22 billion. That valuation will make it the most valuable tech company in Southern California and one of the most valuable of all L.A.-based companies. Many of its 1,900 employees will make fortunes overnight.  One senior vice president of engineering stands to make $110 million. That’s enough to cover rent for 10,000 or so of Los Angeles’ working-class residents for a year.  Of course, Snap money probably won’t be going into rent. As the New York Times reports , Snap’s millionaires-to-be are going to have long wish lists of things to buy. Near the top of those lists will be real estate.  Back when Snapchat was just a sketchy platform for kids to send, um, silly photos to each other, the fledgling company operated out of a cottage in Venice Beach. As it grew into a social media juggernaut, it didn't follow convention by renting space in a high rise or building a mega-campus in the suburbs. Instead, it colonized its own neighborhood, expanding  from cottage to cottage, scooping up small office spaces, and oozing its way through Venice.  Venice Beach is regarded almost universally as “funky.” By Los Angeles standards, Venice has history in spades, with its share of hippies, beach people, drifters, and artists. They fit in well with the early-20th century bungalows and brick. The rise of Snap and its brethren in the so-called Silicon Beach scene has led to a miniature culture war as ambitious millennials have displaced old-timers, forced longstanding businesses to close, and gleefully disrupted the neighborhood.  (In that sense, Snap occupies far different territory than does its counterparts in Silicon Valley. While tech money has driven cost of living in Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Cupertino to insane levels, there’s more history on one block in Venice than in an entire zip code on the Peninsula.) Despite all pressure to the contrary, coastal cities and neighborhoods have refused to add housing. Los Angeles has done so in places, but housing supply on the Westside is growing at rates somewhere between 0 and negative-22 billion percent. Home prices are already bonkers. We can only imagine what will happen when the Snap folks get real money in their bank accounts. Real estate agents are salivating. Many longtime Venice locals are terrified.  There at least one demographic group in the Los Angeles area that's even more terrified . Not necessarily of Snap — though Snap doesn’t help.  On the very same day that the New York Times reported on Snap’s impending riches, President Donald Trump announced his intention to fulfill his promise to aggressively deport undocumented immigrants. Let’s estimate the impact of this lunacy on California. Some 2.7 million undocumented immigrants call California home — by far the largest such population in the nation. More than 800,000 live in Los Angeles County alone.  A perverse notion occurs to me as I consider Trump’s vile solution to a nonexistent problem . If it succeeds, 800,000 people in Los Angeles County could disappear like so many Snap messages. That’s 800,000 lost workers. 800,000 lost customers. 800,000 lost mothers, fathers, siblings and friends. 800,000 lost taxpayers. It’s also 800,000 bedrooms that will open up.  From a purely numerical standpoint, Trump’s crusade could put a serious dent in housing costs. After all, demand for rental housing would go down. The thought gives me chills. I don’t want to say any more about it other than that deportation is — to say the least — the most perverse way to solve a housing crisis.  Fortunately, Californians are leading the charge to protect their undocumented neighbors. Indeed, many of us hope marginalized people from around the country will  join us , even if we’re short on space. Even so, we should be making space. We should be solving the housing crisis the old-fashioned way and the humane way: by building ourselves out of it.  This convergence of wealth, poverty, xenophobia, and exclusivity is no mere coincidence. See, these issues — immigration, housing, gentrification, Trump — are intertwined. Economic booms like that of the past seven years naturally come with echoes of desperation. Blue-collar workers in the Heartland want to protect their jobs from immigrants. Wealthy homeowners at the beach want to protect their property values from competition. The Snap IPO completes the process of turning Venice into a superstar neighborhood in a superstar city – which, as Richard Florida describes in The New Urban Crisis , is marked by inequality, unaffordability, segregation, and economic dysfunction. It’s also marked, I’d argue, by political apathy. Hillary won got 71 percent of the vote in California. The president didn’t break double digits in some Venice precincts . I bet you can count on two hands the number of those 1,900 employees who voted for Trump.  And yet, I’d also wager that scarcely more than ten Snap employees plan on voting in the March 7 Los Angeles election. That’s the one with the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative on the ballot. It’s a slow-growth initiative that, critics contend, could cripple the city’s ability to approve new housing. If that critique is true, then young professionals should vote for it like the second coming of Barack Obama. But they probably won’t.  Last year Santa Monica, which the northern quarter of Silicon Beach, was considering a slow-growth measure. Back then, I wrote how the young professionals of Silicon Beach were, as far as I could tell, disengaged from local politics — even though they stood to suffer mightily from further restrictions on housing development in a market already tighter than a noose.  Essentially, the tech crowd has tolerated high rents while hoping that their ships would come in rather than agitate for the type of development and planning policies hat would have benefited not only them but also many of their less wealthy, less flashy neighbors. Now that Snap is going full steam ahead, that’s 1,900 more people who can blithely let the other 10 million of us in L.A. County to fight over the scraps. Or 9.2 million of us, depending how bleak things get.  So, we have two opposing forces. Deportation could lower housing costs A massive influx of cash may raise housing costs. Clearly Snapchat is doing something right. Good for them. But the other half of that equation threatens to morally bankrupt all of us. Of course, formerly apathetic citizens are resisting, mobilizing, and donating in record numbers. I'm sure Silicon Beachers are too. And I hope some of them will hold off on an extra bedroom or a Wolf range and instead make some timely donations. America can right itself, and California -- with its energy, innovation, and, yes, wealth -- can lead the way.  For now, in this tale of one city, it is both the best of times and the worst of times.

Despite its rocky start, the Trump Administration seems likely to weaken – and perhaps muddy – federal clean water rules, which could give farmers in California more leeway and put more pressure on state environmental laws to regulate wetlands and water discharges.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s “Planning 2.0” rule, which took effect in December. The rule governs all planning for future uses of 250 million acres of federal public land, primarily in western U.S. The House lawmakers also voted to eliminate the federal methane rule that requires oil and gas companies using public lands to control air pollution. Both measures now move to the Senate, and if approved the rules would be eliminated and the BLM banned indefinitely form developing similar rules. The BLM rules would increase public involvement and incorporate more current data and technology to decide whether and where to drill, mine, and log on public land. The rollback could affect up to 15 million acres of land in California, or 14 percent of the state’s landmass.  Los Angeles General Plan Amendments Approved in 90 Percent of Cases A Los Angeles Times analysis found that of nearly 1,000 cases of general plan amendments to accommodate individual projects since 2000 — sometimes known as “spot zoning” —  about 90 percent of general plan amendments, zoning or height district changes heard before the Planning Commission have been approved. Critics, such as those promoting the Measure S ballot measure, contend that this practice has led to an erosion of the role of zoning regulations as an accurate guide of the city’s development. City officials and developers argue the exceptions are essential to increasing housing supply and to working with outdating zoning codes. The Times review found when planning commissioners raised objections to some projects, developers included more affordable housing or other conditions to receive approval. The Times did not analyze projects that may have been proposed but withdrawn from consideration when developers realized that they would not receive Planning Commission support.  Ainsworth Named Permanent Coastal Commission Director Jack Ainsworth has been selected as executive director of the California Coastal Commission. Ainsworth has served as acting executive director since last February and has worked at the commission for nearly 30 years. The Commission voted unanimously for Ainsworth. He has received positive feedback from leaders across the state and will be able to guide the agency if it ends up battling the Trump administration, especially over offshore drilling. Environmental groups had been critical of the commission and strongly opposed the departure of former executive director Charles Lester . A nationwide search was conducted for the position with over 1,000 individuals contacted. Chan Zuckerberg Foundation to Support Housing Initiatives in Bay Area The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, established by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan, is  giving $3.1 million to Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto to support programs to counter the eviction and displacement of families. The grant will allow the group to hire five more full-time lawyers, adding to the current 16 full-time attorneys, five of which are devoted to housing. The foundation is also donating $500,000 to the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley to help generate long-range solutions to the region’s housing predicament. Tech companies such as Facebook have been accused of exacerbating the housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area. (See prior CP&DR coverage .)  Santa Monica Considers Strict Seismic Retrofit Ordinance  The City of Santa Monica is considering an ordinance that would require as many as 2,000-earthquake-vulnerable buildings to be retrofitted. It would likely be the most intensive such seismic retrofit law in the nation. While neighboring Los Angeles requires wood and concrete buildings to be retrofitted, Santa Monica will also require steel-framed structures. While these are less likely to collapse in an earthquake, past earthquakes have shown that these buildings are still vulnerable to irreparable damage. Mayor Ted Winterer does not want to take those changes and said: “We are very committed here in Santa Monica to make sure that we are resilient in the face of possible catastrophe.” The northern half of the city is located along the Santa Monica fault. The city has released its list of possibly vulnerable buildings. Long Beach Plan Promotes Cycling, Walking Long Beach City Council unanimously voted to approve updates to its pedestrian and bicycle master plans. The plan is called: Communities of Excellence in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Prevention Pedestrian Plan (Cx3) and focuses on low-income neighborhoods. The Cx3 study area includes ten neighborhoods in Central and West Long Beach that lack strong pedestrian connections and are primarily served by private cars. The update to the bicycle master plan will continue to connect its bike paths to make them more continuous and inviting to users. Quick Hits & Updates The California Coastal Commission voted , 9-1, against the proposed Banning Ranch development in Newport Beach last September. Last week the commission confirmed its reasons for denying the project. While this move was largely procedural, it formalized the panel’s reasoning for rejecting the large development. The commission is concerned that he development does not comply with environmental laws that protect the area’s species and habitats. In 2016, Los Angeles Metro saw a 9 percent drop in bus ridership with the opening of the Gold and Expo rail extensions. Metro found 25 million fewer rides systemwide last year compared to 2015, a 6 percent drop. One explanation for the nationwide trend of dropping ridership is that riders are walking, biking or using ride-sharing apps instead of buses. As well, an improved economy means that commuters can afford their own vehicles.  A report by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office suggests that the state extend the Cap-and-Trade program calling it the most cost-effective way for the state to fight climate change. The program is facing a lawsuit challenging its legitimacy as businesses argue the program is a tax and therefore requires two-thirds vote and not a simple majority. Democrats suggested they would support the extension if more funding and benefits reached lower-income communities that often have much more air quality. The LAO suggests getting two-thirds votes to ensure legitimacy of the program. The Irvine Company has dropped a lawsuit against supporters of the 25-story Museum House condominium project in Newport Beach. The company accused the supporters of circulating petition on its shopping center properties without permission. The lawsuit was filed in December and was a restraining order against developer Related California from going onto Irvine Company properties for anything other than commercial activities. The City of San Diego hopes to open a center to temporarily house hundreds of homeless people while helping them find permanent housing within the next few years. The city plans to spend $12.5 million in Community Development Block Grant funding for the center. The city has put out a Request for Statement of Qualifications. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee signed legislation to authorize the phased redevelopment of the Potrero Terrace and Annex and Sunnydale public housing sites, both part of the city’s HOPE SF initiative. The communities will be mixed-income, affordable to more than 3,000 low-income and middle-class families, and developed according to non-displacement principles in the Mayor’s HOPE SF initiative. HOPE SF initiative is the nation’s first large-scale public housing transformation and reparations effort aimed at creating healthy mixed-income communities without mass displacement. The California High Speed Rail Authority has received authorization from the State Public Works Board to purchase two parcels in Los Angeles along the Hollywood Freeway in Downtown LA. The entire Union Station project is estimated to cost $2.75 billion, according to LA Metro. Six aviation interest groups asked a federal appeals court to review a recent agreement between the City of Santa Monica and the FAA to shorten the runway immediately and close the facility by 2028. As Ed Bolen, business association’s president and CEO told the LA Times:“Santa Monica's airport is a vital asset to our aviation system, both locally as well as nationally, and serves as a critical transportation lifeline for the entire Los Angeles Basin.” The Mojave Desert Land Trust announced it would donate more than 3,000 acres of desert land to the Mojave National Preserve. The Trust has been buying private land that survived within the boundaries of the Mojave National Preserve, Joshua Tree National Park, and Death Valley National Park. Over the past decade, the Trust has donated more than 23,000 acres of land to the National Park Service. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has called out backers of the Measure S ballot measure for using his image in a campaign message. Mayor Garcetti called the move a “dirty trick” and is strongly opposed to the measure that would restrict city lawmakers ability to approve changes to the General Plan. A ruling by Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Judith Craddick will allow the City of Richmond’s new rent control law to remain in effect. The California Apartment Association, which represents landlords, requested a permanent injunction to overturn the “unconstitutional” voter-approved law. The injunction was denied on the grounds that the association could not prove that its members would suffer “irreparable harm” if rent control remained in effect pending a hearing on the merits of the case. California Treasurer John Chiang is exploring a ballot measure committee suggesting he plans to tie his campaign to a long-planned yet unspecified initiative on affordable housing. Creating more affordable housing, will resonate with vote-rich cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Chiang’s campaign said: “While California has recovered from the great recession, there are millions of Californians who are still economically dislocated and not within reach of the opportunities enjoyed by past generations of Californians.” Los Angeles Metro is reviewing a technical study for a proposed bus rapid transit line that would link the Red, Purple, Expo and Green Lines via Vermont Avenue. The 12.4-mile proposed system operates the second busiest bus corridor in the Metro network with 45,000 daily boardings between two lines. Four concepts are currently being considered for the project.