Caltrans released the California Transportation Plan 2040, a long-range integrated approach to transportation planning that is multimodal, sustainable and environmentally responsible. Caltrans describes the plan as taking a "whole system" approach toward the state's transportation system that integrates statewide long-range modal plans and programs with the latest technology and tools to articulate the State's broad vision for a single, seamless transportation system that complements regional transportation plans, sustainable communities strategies and land-use visions for greater mobility choices. The plan included input from governmental agencies, tribal governments, advocacy groups, public stakeholders, elected and appointed officials, and community-based organizations from around the state. The CTP includes recommendations and goals for meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets and how to make transportation in California more sustainable and integrated. More information is available at www.californiatransportationplan2040.org . November Ballot to Include Major Measures Related to Land Use The November statewide ballot, to be finalized this week, will likely include several measures related to land use. California lawmakers proposed a $3.12 billio n bond for the November ballot that would pay for parks, water and climate change actions; 20 percent of the bond must assist disadvantaged communities. Tens of millions of dollars are for specific programs in San Diego, Ventura County, Central Valley and the High Desert/Coachella area. The improvements in state and local parks would improve public safety, health and air quality through added green space. The state parks have maintenance backlog of over $1 billion. The measure was approved in the Assembly, 55-14, and must now go to the senate for a vote. Another measure slated for the ballot is a “No Blank Checks Initiative” which would require a public vote for any state project that spends more than $2 billion in revenue bonds. This initiative could apply to many infrastructure projects, including high speed rail and a plan to construct water tunnels in the Sacramento Bay-Delta. Finally, a measure to legalize recreational marijuana is sure to raise local zoning questions about dispensaries and commercial growing facilities. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Judge Blocks Bay-Delta Management Plan Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny ruled the current management plan for the Sacramento Bay-Delta must be “set aside” because the comprehensive management plan for the estuary is no longer valid. This means a serious delay in Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to build the two water tunnels through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This means for the tunnels to get built, state officials have to prove the project complies with the Delta Plan for managing land use and water exports in the estuary. The Delta Plan balances the “co-equal goals” of protecting the environment in the Delta and providing stable freshwater for the Southern half of the state. Kenny said the plan fails on many of the environmental issues and failed to provide quantifiable targets for achieving reduced Delta reliance. Airbnb Files Suit Against San Francisco Airbnb is suing its hometown, San Francisco, for its decision to fine the company $1,000 a day for unregistered hosts. The fine is intended to compel hosts to register, and may transient occupancy taxes, in accordance with city regulations adopted in early 2015. San Francisco affordable housing advocates have pushed Airbnb to cap its short-term rentals and required hosts to register with the city. However, reports indicate that only 20 percent of the 7,000 hosts registered and Airbnb has not assisted the city. Airbnb is combating the suit by claiming that the city’s regulation violates the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that shields websites from the actions of contributors. Airbnb claims that it is not responsible for content posted by unregistered hosts. Lands Commission to Address Diablo Canyon Closure The State Lands Commission is considering whether to waive an environmental impact report for the closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in order to speed up its planned decommissioning. The Diablo Canyon twin-reactor facility could forego environmental review and close the site by 2025, nine years before the contract is up. The plant, managed by PG&E, is 31-years old and would close 20 years ahead of planned termination. The twin reactors are located in San Luis Obispo County and built near seismic faults that have triggered an environmental movement to shut down the facility. PG&E says the reactors could withstand a strong earthquake, but the electricity is no longer required from this plant. Anaheim Bans Short Term Rentals Anaheim, home of Disneyland and other tourist attractions, has become the largest city in California to ban short-term rentals outright. The Anaheim City Council for the ban during a five-hour special session. Hosts of the 363 permitted STR have 18 months to stop renting. Residents of the city said the vacationers were ruining their quality of life by staying in “mini-hotels” with all-night parties, littering streets and taking up parking spots. STR owners say they invested into turning eyesore properties into beautiful homes. “The sharing economy is exciting and something that gives people a chance to earn extra income but this is not really the sharing economy,” Mayor Tom Tait told the Orange County Register. “These are motels in residential neighborhoods.” Costa Mesa Approves Plan Update Amid ongoing controversy about housing in Costa Mesa, the Costa Mesa City Council voted, 3-1, to approve updates to the general plan through 2035. Included in the plan is a program to incentivize motel owners along Harbor and Newport boulevards to demolish their establishments to build high-density apartments. However, affordable-housing advocates say these motels are last-resort housing for many families and individuals. The city said these new units would be 40 units per acres, and 20 percent required affordable for lower-income households. There may be a lawsuit, as these types of incentives may violate state law because it does not set aside low-income units. Updates & Quick Hits LA Metro released its draft EIR for the Airport Metro Connector 96th Street Transit Station, which will serve trains on the Crenshaw/LAX line, Green Line, buses, cyclists, pedestrians and the Automated People Mover that brings people to the LAX terminals. The Monterey City Council approved a citywide bike share program. The city also approved its Climate Action Plan, after receiving a $250,000 grant from the Coastal Commission and the Ocean Protection Council to update its plan. Richmond has adopted one of the state’s most liberal marijuana regulations. It will allow an unlimited number of permits for commercial cannabis growing operations as well a business permits to produce edibles like cookies, brownies and tinctures. Mayor Tom Butt estimates it will generate $1 million each year. California senators have approved , 35-1, a $2 billion bond to assist counties in offering permanent housing for mentally ill homeless people. The money would come from an existing fund for mental health care financed by a tax on millionaires that was approved in 2004. A Stanford University study found that California has three times more groundwater than was earlier estimated. However, this water is located in deeper aquifers,1,000 to 3,000 feet underground, which would require much more money and engineering expertise to access as drinking water. The water quality is unsure, and may require desalination. The OCTA board  voted unanimously to cancel the 3.2-mile, $300 million Anaheim Streetcar project. The Transportation Authority will now conduct a study of the Harbor Boulevard corridor and come up with less expensive transit solutions for the corridor.  The California Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling that said certain tax increases only need a simple majority instead of two-thirds of voters as required by Proposition 13. Having the court review a case will take months, or even years, before a final ruling is made. The ruling will not affect measures on the November ballot. Supporters of a ballot initiative to approve a new football stadium in San Diego had hoped for the 50 percent threshold. Ocean Avenue South, a mixed-use, mixed income development in Santa Monica, is one of 26 global finalists for the 2016 Urban Land Institute Global Awards for Excellence. Half of the projects 160 units are affordable housing and was funded by the city’s former redevelopment agency. L.A. Metro is recommending a combined development team of Trammell Crow Company and Greenland USA to begin negotiations for development of the 15.6 acre Red/Orange Line station in North Hollywood. The project would be one of Los Angeles’ largest transit oriented developments.

Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose) and Assembly Member Jim Frazier (D-Oakley) have introduced two bills that would dedicate $7.4 billion annually for transportation projects. Approximately $2.5 billion will go to local streets and roads and another significant portion to freight, transit, active transportation, maintenance and rehabilitation of state highways and local roads. The plan would also stabilize the variable gas tax to help generate more revenues by adding a 17-cent per gallon increase. The bills also require local reporting and cities and counties to maintain existing general fund levels for transportation projects. Other parts of the plan include moving “complete streets” design to highways, creating an Office of Transportation Inspector General, and creating an advanced mitigation program for transportation projects. The two bills have been introduced in a special session, which allows negotiations to continue past the regular session’s deadlines. San Jose Sues Santa Clara over Mixed-Use Project The City of San Jose is suing the City of Santa Clara for approving the 240-acre mixed-use City Place project, which that allegedly have a negative impact on San Jose. City Place, also called Related Project, is located across from the Levi’s Stadium and will include retail, entertainment, office space, hotels and residential units. San Jose claims the EIR that was approved by Santa Clara City Council in June failed to adequately address impacts on traffic and housing. According to a letter San Jose sent to Santa Clara in November, the project does not include enough housing within City Place to support the jobs the project will generate. Additionally the City of San Jose commented on the lack of analysis on greenhouse gas emissions, air quality and public services. Cap-and-Trade Auction Again Yields Disappointing Results Revenue generated from the cap-and-trade program last month is estimated to be around $390 million, even weaker than the previous round in May. Around 30.8 million credits were sold out of the nearly 96 million available. The market did have a higher demand for permits than three months ago, which is a measure of success. Gov. Jerry Brown’s high-speed rail will get around $8.4 million this round, but the program needs significantly more. Cap and Trade funds also contribute to planning-related programs such as the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities grants. The Cap and Trade program is still facing a pending lawsuit as to the legality of this potentially unconstitutional tax. And the recent auction was conducted before the legislature approved an extension of the program, thus calling into the question the long-term value of carbon credits.  Planning Reform and Moratorium Initiative Qualifies for Los Angeles Ballot Los Angeles activists have submitted 104,000 signatures to place the anti-development Neighborhood Integrity Initiative on the March 2017 ballot. The measure includes fast-tracking a new general plan, rules that developers cannot meet with city officials and a two-year moratorium on most major development projects. The major group in opposition, Coalition to Protect LA Neighborhoods and Jobs has raised $722,335, half of the money came from CH Palladium. Coalition to Preserve LA, the backers of the initiative, have received $1 million from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, as well as Leonardo DiCaprio, Kirsten Dunst, Lowe Enterprises, Planning Architecture Engineering Alliance, Westfield and Eli Broad, among others. Ride-Hailing Services Collaborate with Public Transit in Dublin In a unique collaboration between the public sector and ride-hailing services, Lyft and Uber riders in Dublin will get subsidized fares for not riding the bus. The Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority has launched a $200,000, one-year pilot project to help pave the way for changes in how public transit serves suburban areas. Fares would be limited to $3 per trip within West Dublin and $5 within East Dublin. Managers of the bus service say offering these rideshare subsidizes will cost less than operating a bus for a few passengers. The pilot program was funded evenly by the Wheels funds and a grant from the Alameda County Transportation Commission. First Public Street Opens in Sacramento Rail Yards The City of Sacramento has opened the new Fifth Street bridge making it possible to drive from downtown into the heart of the old rail yards, which has been the subject of a long-term redevelopment. The property will house a Kaiser Permanente medical facility, major-league soccer stadium, new Superior Court building and up to 10,000 housing units. The city has been pushing for redevelopment of the railyard for 25 years, including ownership changes, toxic cleanup fights, recession doldrums and changing markets. Kelley’s Downtown Railyard Venture LLC bought the yard a year ago, and says the first apartment buildings will be available in 2018. Anaheim Paves Way for Development Near Angel Stadium The City of Anaheim Planning Commission voted , 4-0, to develop a 15-acre site across from the Los Angeles Angels’ parking lot for shops, restaurants, offices, residences and a hotel. The Angels are opposed to the project because, according to Angels’ attorney Allan Abshez “would cannibalize the Angels’ existing food, beverage and retail operations at Angels’ Stadium.” The plans include a 30-story residential tower with views of the stadium as well as an outdoor entertainment center. The Angels have plans to develop a “sports-entertainment-hotel” to help generate profits for the stadium renovations. The Angels, lead developer of the 15-acre site and the city will now try to reach a plan that is beneficial for all. The Anaheim City Council must still vote on the project within the next two months. Soda Mountain Solar Plant Proposal Rejected San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors rejected , 3-2, a solar plant proposed for the Mojave Desert’s Soda Mountains. The supervisors were concerned with the project destroying habitat and blocking ancient trails used by bighorn sheep. The Mojave Desert has hundreds of miles of land that has already been disturbed and can be used for such projects, Soda Mountains was not one of them. Soda Mountain Solar would bring hundreds of well-paying local union jobs, economic benefits to the county and local economy, and the production of clean solar energy. Quick Hits & Updates Executive Director Chris McKenzie of League of California Cities has announced his retirement after 17 years in the position. The board is conducting a nationwide recruitment for his successor. McKenzie will remain director until the Oct. 5-7 annual conference in Long Beach.  Long Beach was one of the six cities nationwide selected from a group of 18 to be part of a tactical urbanism workshop series. The cities receive funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to “advance street safety and placemaking projects such as pedestrian plazas, bike lanes, shared streets, and more.” West Hollywood will be the fourth L.A.-area city to welcome bike-sharing. The WeHo Pedals bike pilot program begins August 30th at four stations. When WeHo Pedals is fully launched there will be 20 stations and 150 bikes. The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society are planning to sue  the Regional Tertiary Treatment and Water Reclamation Authority as well as the cities of San Bernardino and Colton over the alleged repeated stranding and killing of the threatened Santa Ana sucker fish. The Water Treatment plant shuts down its outflows to conduct maintenance, which leaves the fish with 75 percent less water in their critical habitat. San Francisco City Controller released a draft report on affordable housing percentages in the city. The report finds that 18 percent affordable units for renting apartments was the ideal number and 20 percent for condominiums. This study was a feasibility study for Proposition C, the June ballot initiative that tried to raise the affordability requirements from 12 to 25 percent. The California Coastal Commission halted the demolition of three decorative waterfalls at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes last April. The club has since sent four revisions to restore habitat of the protected California gnatcatchers; the most recent draft has been accepted.

The San Diego City Council unanimously approved a new  Climate Action Plan , one of the nation's most ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions by creating legally binding mandates for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plan requires annual emissions be cut in half during the next two decades based on a strategy to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. The plan will also require that the city boost the urban tree canopy by 15 percent by 2020 and 35 percent by 2035, recycle or compost 75 percent of all solid waste by 2020 and 90 percent by 2035, and cut car trips in key transportation areas by 20 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2035. Importantly, since the plan is a legally binding mandate, the city opens itself up to lawsuits from environmental groups and the state attorney general if it doesn't follow through on the plan's promises. The most controversial decision could be whether to implement community choice aggregation, a program that would take control away from the local electric utility when deciding how much renewable energy a city uses. L.A. Approves Sale of Ontario Airport The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a $250 million agreement to return control of Ontario International Airport to the city of Ontario. The move comes in the wake of a 2013 lawsuit that Ontario filed against Los Angeles claiming that the city, Los Angeles World Airports, and the airport's board of commissioners had made administrative moves  since 2007 that cut flight service and cost millions of passengers and billions of dollars to the local economy. Though the Los Angeles vote concludes local government and airport board approvals for the agreement, no transfer can take place without Federal Aviation Administration approval. If the FAA decides to approve the transfer, the city of Ontario will reimburse Los Angeles World Airports about $60 million for all outstanding Ontario bonds. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) U2's The Edge Gets Blessing from Coastal Commission for Five Homes U2 guitarist the Edge received approval from the California Coastal Commission to build five homes atop an undeveloped ridge in an unincorporated area of Malibu despite a decade of protest from environmental groups and residents who say the project would needlessly despoil sensitive habitat and mar the visual landscape. Each house will be more than 10,000 square feet and feature its own swimming pool. However, the approved plan is a step back from original plan. It includes efforts to use exterior colors that help the structures blend in with the environment, won't contain as much glass as originally proposed, and the guitarist will conserve 140 acres of the property as open land and allow a hiking and equestrian easement linking to the Coastal Slope Trail. Construction of the homes, on just over five acres, of the property will require 63,390 cubic yards of grading and disturb 17 acres of habitat classified as environmentally sensitive. Bakersfield Moves Ahead with Station Area Planning The Bakersfield City Council unanimously approved spending $750,000 to hire a Chicago-based urban planning and engineering firm to plan a downtown station for the state high speed train project. The council voted to hire Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, whose projects include the expansion of Denver's historic Union Station into a regional transportation hub; a master plan for Philadelphia's 30th Street Station Precinct; a high-speed rail terminal in Tianjin, China; and three stations for the All Aboard Florida passenger train network. "They impressed us with their planning and urban design experience. The fact that they've worked on some rail and transit-oriented projects," Community Development Director Doug McIsaac told Mass Transit Magazine. "The main premise is how the city can best leverage and take advantage of the station being located here, for the benefit of the surrounding area and the entire downtown." Bakersfield will contribute $200,000 in staff time to help create the station area plan, but most of the $550,000 to hire Skidmore comes from federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.  Los Angeles River Seeks Federal Planning Funds Thirteen Los Angeles-area members of Congress have signed a letter asking President Obama to include $4.2 million in the fiscal 2017 budget for planning and redesigning the proposed 51-mile Los Angeles River Ecosystem Restoration project. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said last year the federal government would split the cost, putting the the city on the hook for about $500 million, but a report by L.A.'s chief legislative analyst stated that the city's share of the estimated $1.3 billion cost could rise to as much as $1.2 billion. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Downey) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) were the original signers of the letter, and were joined by 10 colleagues from the Los Angeles area. "The progress of this project is the product of several years of collaborative work by citizens, stakeholders, and elected leaders to reestablish Los Angeles River as a source of Angelino pride and vitality," they wrote to Obama. "Your leadership to move this transformative project forward will not only improve our communities for today, but the world we leave for our children tomorrow." Court Rejects Malibu Anti-Chain Store Measure  The Superior Court of California overturned Malibu's Measure R, which voters approved to enact a 30% cap on the number of chain stores in shopping centers citywide and to create a voter-approval requirement for new commercial centers if they measure over 20,000 sq. ft. After their case against the City of Malibu was declined to be seen by a federal judge, opponents of the measure filed the suit in state court. Carson Considers NFL-Inspired Development Moratorium  In an attempt to entice the National Football League to move both the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders to a shared stadium in Carson, the City of Carson is considering putting a development moratorium on about 600 acres of land adjacent to the proposed stadium. Carson Mayor Albert Robles said the moratorium, affecting land west, north and east of the 157-acre stadium property, will help the city bring appropriate development to the area. Controversial Hollywood Project Gets Boost The Los Angeles City Planning Commission officially backed the proposed Palladium Residences development, which would bring two 30-story residential towers and 731 housing units to Hollywood on a stretch of Sunset Boulevard served by bus routes and the nearby Metro Red Line subway. A spokeswoman for Palladium developer Crescent Heights told the LA Times that the company will restrict rents in 5% of the project's apartments for tenants who earn 120% of the region's median annual income. The neighboring AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has said the project is too big for the neighborhood and will accelerate the gentrification of Hollywood, promises to keep fighting as it heads to a City Council vote next year. Mixed-Use Transit Center Proposed for N. San Diego County The North County Transit District heard four developers present competing plans to build a mixture of parking, retail, shopping, and residential buildings with the upcoming renovation of the Solana Beach Transit Center. All developers agreed on the basic outline of the project, which includes preserving the hut-shaped train station, expanding parking, adding new uses and fitting in with nearby architecture and activities. Chestnut Properties of Solana Beach proposed The Station Solana Beach, based on "lifestyles and beach culture"; the Strategic Assets Group led by two local businessmen proposed three levels of underground parking and an additional bridge across the below-grade railroad tracks; the Creative Housing Associates of Los Angeles proposed a boutique hotel, which the community currently lacks, and automated parking; the Dahlin Group of Solana Beach proposed an iconic restaurant, 96 apartments, and a park-like area for the community. Anaheim Streetcar Plan in Jeopardy Dealing a significant blow to Anaheim's beleaguered streetcar project, a committee of the Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors is recommending that Anaheim officials drop their plans for a 3.2-mile streetcar system. Citing the over $300 million cost and the likelihood that federal funding won't materialize, the ad-hoc committee is recommending that the city quit the streetcar project and instead explore alternatives, like enhanced bus services. "This is not a project that's in the best interest of Orange County taxpayers, who are ultimately going to be asked to pay for the entire project, which will be, including operations and maintenance, $400 million to $500 million,"  board Chairman Jeffrey Lalloway said, according to Voice of OC.  Rents in San Francisco See Rare Decline For the first time in eight months, San Francisco's rental market saw a decline in prices, as the city's rent fell by 4.6 percent to $3,500 per month for a one-bedroom in November, according to research from Zumper. Oakland, on the other hand, jumped to become to the fourth-most expensive city,  as one-bedroom rents surged to $2,190, a 19 percent increase over the past year, which is the biggest jump anywhere in the country. "East Bay migration is definitely a compelling argument � the fact that Oakland rents continue to outpace San Francisco. in percentage terms shows there's a healthy appetite for property there, even as prices are now ahead of Washington, D.C. and San Jose," said Devin O'Brien, head of strategic marketing at Zumper. "I think there's also a certain threshold at which it doesn't make sense for people anymore. Once rents hit a certain percentage of income, people just will refuse to pay and look for alternate options, perhaps with a commute." One caveat of the data is that it focuses on one- and two-bedroom units, and San Francisco and Oakland both have a large percentage of their stock as single-family homes, which are often rented out to multiple tenants. $11 Million at Stake for Oakland Transit Village Oakland may finally realize its long-awaited transit village next to the Coliseum BART Station, but not before contributing an $11.6 million subsidy to the project with no guarantee of ever getting it back. The Oakland City Council's Community and Economic Development Committee will vote on Dec. 22 on whether to sign a development agreement with Oakland Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit corporation that has consisted of a transient cast of businessmen and whose non-profit tax status was earlier revoked for failing to file tax forms for at least three consecutive years. Until recently, the development was planned as a market-rate project, but now the developers say that half of the apartments on the 1.3-acre lot would be affordable.  The plan requires Oakland to provide public funds via an $11.6 million loan with a 55-year term and a stipulation that Oakland Economic Development Corp. won't have to pay a cent back if half the apartments remain affordable. BART would have to agree to lease the parking lot to the developer. Riverside Considers Streetcar Line Riverside officials are looking to Arizona for evidence that a long-awaited 12-mile streetcar line could revitalize the city's ailing downtown area through an influx of development and college-aged students into the area. Several Riverside officials, including Mayor Rusty Bailey and three City Councilmembers, took a trip to Arizona to see the cities of Tucson, Tempe, and Phoenix, all of which have thrived with new streetcar lines near millennial hubs, which helped convince them that a new streetcar would be directly followed by private building projects. The trip could help sway the opinion of several officials that have been on the fence about Riverside's project. The city's study is six to eight months behind schedule because city planners aren't satisfied with the estimates of how many people might ride a streetcar, and officials acknowledge that  laying tracks would be years away and cost hundreds of millions. Kings Seek EB-5 Funds for Development Around Arena The Sacramento Kings are utilizing a federal program that trades green cards for hefty investments that create jobs to lure Chinese investment dollars to finance redevelopment of the site around the new Sacramento Kings downtown arena. The Kings and their development partner, JMA Ventures of San Francisco, are planning to build more than $300 million of development in the Downtown Commons, including a hotel-office tower and a shopping and dining district. The EB-5 program, which provides permanent U.S. residence to foreigners who provide investments of at least $1 million, is a source of controversy, with many members of Congress seeking reforms to the program after it sunsets on Dec. 11. The program has produced $11.2 billion in investments in the United States since its launch in 1990 and has provided investors with as many as 10,000 green cards a year, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Developers in California may have a more difficult time creating mitigation plans in wetland areas as of this year. The US Army Corps of Engineers released a new set of guidelines adding more rigorous requirements to mitigation plans, which "will undoubtedly complicate and significantly increase the cost of preparing and implementing mitigation plans for new development." The guidelines are intended to keep up with 25 years of research since the last update, placing greater emphasis on preservation of California's wetlands. San Francisco Loses $1 Million of Impact Fee Funds Officials in San Francisco  are puzzling  over the disappearance of $1 million of public funds intended for park and pedestrian developments- possibly ending up in the hands of a developer. Officials in the mayor's office argue that a portion of the city's Market Community Stabilization Fund was incorrectly given to the developer of One Rincon Hill without permission from the mayor's office. However, an Association of Bay Area Governments official said that the developer was entitled to the money as a reimbursement for bonds sold to a special tax district designed to improve public spaces. HCD Invites Applications for $120 Million in GHG Reduction Funds The Department of Housing and Community Development announced the availability of approximately $120 million in funding for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program. The AHSC Program furthers the purposes of AB 32 and SB 375 by investing in projects that reduce GHG emissions by supporting more compact, infill development patterns, encouraging active transportation and transit usage, and protecting agricultural land from sprawl development. Funding for the AHSC Program is provided from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, an account established to receive cap-and-trade auction proceeds. A complete original concept proposal must be submitted to HCD using the Financial Assistance Application Submittal Tool (FAAST) system no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 19, 2015. The AHSC Program's full application forms, workshop details, and related program information, will be posted on its website at http://www.hcd.ca.gov/fa/ahsc . Inglewood One Step Closer to a Pro Football Stadium The City of Inglewood  cleared its first hurdle  to building a new 80,000-seat football stadium for a possible move by the St. Louis Rams. Backers of the stadium plan gained over 20,000 signatures in a petition drive to put a question about rezoning the proposed stadium site on an upcoming city ballot. By going through the initiative process, developers are hoping to avoid doing a costly and time-consuming environmental review for the 238-acre site, which is the location of the shuttered Hollywood Park race track. Much of the Hollywood Park site is already being redeveloped as a residential community. Veterans Administration to Dedicate West Los Angeles Campus to Homeless The US Department of Veterans Affairs will provide permanent housing for homeless veterans on its 387-acre campus in west Los Angeles a result of a legal settlement . A suit alleged that the VA was misusing its property by giving leases to private corporations and non-veteran related companies. The ACLU Foundation of Southern California sued in 2011, alleging that "the VA was misusing the campus while failing to care for veterans" by neglecting to provide adequate housing and to use the campus for the direct benefit of veterans. As a result of the settlement, the VA will hire a homelessness expert to craft a master plan for the campus. The parcel, which was deeded to the VA in 1888, has long been coveted by developers. Oil Project Abandoned in Carson Oil company California Resources Corp.  abandoned a huge drilling project  in Carson in the wake of community opposition and a drop in oil prices. Residents near the proposed site had expressed concerns that the company, a recently spun-off subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, would use controversial drilling methods in its operations. The City Council went as far as to issue a moratorium on all oil drilling in the city last year as lawmakers studied the effects of fracking and acidization. With depleting capital budgets because of the fall in oil prices, the company abandoned the project for now. Glendale Sues State Over Redevelopment Agency The city of Glendale  sued the state for over $30 million  in lost funds from its now-defunct redevelopment agency. The redevelopment program was shut down in 2011 as part of Gov. Jerry Brown's efforts to return tax increment monies to state coffers, and Glendale was still owed millions of dollars for loans it had given for revitalization projects. However, the city alleges that also it should have received payment of interest based on a rate that existed at the time of the origination of the loan. The state claims that Glendale is only entitled to a 0.28% interest rate, cutting the amount they would receive from outstanding loans by over $30 million. Report: State Parks System Needs Overhaul California's parks  are deteriorating and need a new source of funding  to be fixed, according to a report by the California Parks Forward Commission. The report links the failing conditions of the parks system � denoted by increasing fees to hikers, outdated technology, and a lack of accountability � to shrinking budgets, a backlog of $1.3 billion, and money source of the parks. Right now, funds for the parks system come from the state's general fund, making the budget subject to the whims of the state budget. To fix the system, the state needs to allocate a specific funding source outside of the general fund, according to the report. SPUR Opens Oakland Office The urban policy think tank and advocacy group San Francisco Planning and Urban Research has extended its reach further by opening an office in Oakland. Based in San Francisco's Financial District,  SPUR  also has a location in San Jose. According to a statement, SPUR is committed to both regional and local planning in the Bay Area and will use the Oakland office to focus on issues specific to the East Bay.

Plans to build a $5 billion, 6.3-mile tunnel to close the "gap" of the 710 freeway are gaining headway as both the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments  recommended that project as the best option. The tunnel, which would have two lanes in either direction and would be completely underground for 4.2 miles. It would shave 7-14 minutes off commute times, providing a benefit of $1.5 to 1.6 billion over 20 years at a cost of $3.15 billion to build. Additionally, the SGVCOG voted to support the tunnel plan over surface-street alternatives, saying that the plan is in line with the Southern California Association of Governments Regional Transportation Plan of 2012. A recently released draft environmental impact report describes five alternatives for closing the gap, considered by some to be a crucial link between the ports and the warehouses of the Inland Empire. A previous version of this brief incorrectly stated that the California Transportation Commission had endorsed the tunnel; the CTC, in fact, has issued no comments on the DEIR.  Tribes Sue to Block Solar Plant A group of Native American tribes filed a lawsuit to stop construction of the Blythe Mesa Solar Project in the Mojave Desert, saying that the 3,660-acre project's Environmental Impact Report failed to take into account the project's impact on traditional tribal lands. The suit comes after Riverside County Supervisors approved the project, which covers nearly six square miles of developer land. "The project is located in the ancestral homelands of the Colorado River Indian Tribes' Mohave and Chemeheuvi members, in a region rich in cultural resources that have been used since time immemorial," tribal Councilwoman Amanda Barrera told the Press-Enterprise . L.A. Study Seeks to Promote Manufacturing Economy Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti along with Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and Dun & Bradstreet have partnered to form a survey contacting Los Angeles businesses to identify the businesses that support the design, manufacture, and retail sales of physical goods in the greater Los Angeles area. The results of the survey, called " Make it in L.A. " will be used to determine the ways that City Hall can support the manufacturing ecosystem. "Producing physical goods is essential for the health of our economy and for creating quality skilled jobs," Garcetti said in a press release. "For the City of Los Angeles and its partners to make a positive impact, we have to know which businesses play a part in turning an idea into a product that consumers and corporations want and need. Having this information will help L.A. hold its position as king of the nation's manufacturing mountain." Grand Jury Finds S.F. at Risk of Rising Tides San Francisco faces risks of rising tides in the San Francisco Bay due to climate change, and efforts to stanch the problem before it worsens have been hampered by a lack of coordination to find a regional solution, according to two grand jury reports . Measurements at the Golden Gate show that San Francisco Bay rose eight inches over the past century and could rise another 16 to 55 inches by 2100. Experts at a conference on the subjet agreed that the most damage won't be done by incremental encroachment of water, but by major storms and extraordinary "king tides," and that San Francisco authorities should coordinate and begin constructing or modifying levees, elevating structures, changing building codes, restoring wetlands and abandoning low-lying areas to prepare for a catastrophe. L.A. Identifies 660 Acres for Urban Agriculture The Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan -- a plan to develop mixed-use, modern neighborhoods in a 660-acre sector along the Los Angeles River -- would be a prime location for urban agriculture, according to a study by the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation. KCET describes the CASP area as a "food desert," or an area without access to fresh produce and other food, making the area ripe for community-based agriculture. The LARRC study suggested dividing the neighborhood into nodes for specific agricultural activities, and then working around the infrastructure of the area by implementing creative solutions like renovating areas like the Lincoln Heights Jail into a community hub, aquaponics facility, and brewery/restaurant. Survey: Bay Area Residents Warm Up to Housing Half of residents in the Bay Area now support building more housing in the area, even if it means increasing density and building more affordable housing in their own neighborhoods, according to a new poll by the Bay Area Council. With San Francisco's jobs sector booming and seeing an historic housing shortage, 76 percent of resident also want policy makers and developers to direct their efforts toward the creation of housing for low- and middle-income people. "Water isn't the only thing that is in short supply in the Bay Area," Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, told Inside Bay Area . "Our region is growing, our economy is humming, but the housing shortage could be our Achilles heel." Los Gatos Approves Specific Plan The Los Gatos Town Council approved its North 40 Specific Plan to guide development of 44 acres between highways 85 and 17, the last large undeveloped parcel of land in the town. The plan includes a 35 foot height limit for most buildings, a 30 percent open space requirement, and 501,000 square feet of commercial, retail, and office space. Vice Mayor Barbara Spector, who voted no on the plan, wanted more information on conditional-use permit requirements for businesses. "Show us how uses--i.e. a super drugstore--are controlled in other parts of town," she said at the council meeting, according to the  San Jose Mercury-News . National Trust Identifies Two Endangered Places in California Two structures in urban California are listed on a list of "11 Most Endangered Historic Places," released by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. They are The Factory in West Hollywood and the Old U.S. Mint in San Francisco. The Factory, which famously became a pioneering gay disco in 1974, is in danger of demolition for a large-scale hotel project. The Old U.S. Mint, which was one of the few downtown buildings to survive San Francisco's 1906 earthquake, "stands shuttered, deteriorating, and at risk of being forgotten," according to the Trust's website. L.A. Reveals Master Plan to Capture Stormwater The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officially presented its Stormwater Capture Master Plan , an initiative to collect stormwater runoff on a wide scale for city use. Among other, smaller-scale initiatives, the plan would include three large aquifer recharges in the San Fernando Valley to collect rainfall in basins and then slowly feed it into the city's primary underground water source. Under the plan, the city could collect 100,000 to 200,000 acre-feet of water by 2035 at a cost of $600 to $1,100 for each acre-foot of water captured. That would come in addition to the 27,000 acre-feet it already collects in flood control dams and spreading grounds. Bike Share to Finally Arrive in L.A. The board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority  approved an $11 million contract with Bicycle Transit Systems, Inc. (BTS) to bring a bike share program to Downtown Los Angeles. Part of a planned countywide system, the first phase will bring in nearly 1,100 bikes at 65 stations by next Spring. Following the downtown launch, plans are to expand the program into Pasadena in 2017, and then to eight more communities to bring the total number of bicycles to 4,000. In the first phase, bicycles will be available at of downtown locations such as Union Station, L.A. Convention Center, Staples Center, Grand Park/Music Center, 7th Street/Metro Center , Grand Central Market, Pershing Square, and the Arts District. BTS recently launched a bike share system in Philadelphia. Bike share in Los Angeles has been long-awaited by delayed by problems with previously considered vendors.  Anaheim Anticipates Major Development at Stadium Chinese development company LT Global formally filed an application for a $500 million mixed-use development adjacent to the Anaheim Angels stadium. The proposal, which would build 600 condos and apartments, 65,000 square feet of office space, 387,000 square feet of retail space, and 250 hotel rooms, is reliant on using 1,300 parking spaces at Angels Stadium -- parking spaces which the team has nevertheless repeatedly refused to hand over for the development. "It is unclear how a project could file an application relying on land and parking they do not have the right to use," Angels spokeswoman Marie Garvey told the Orange County Register . "The stadium parking is a critical part of the fan experience and our operations, and is legally bound to the Angels as part of the lease with the city." Los Angeles Streetcar Plan Loses Speed Two years after downtown Los Angeles residents overwhelmingly approved a new property tax to fund a streetcar line through their neighborhood, progress on the project has stalled . The estimated cost of the line has increased to $282 million, far exceeding the $62.5 million secured and possibly forcing officials to cut part of the route. Additionally, new estimates that the trains would only go 3.5 mph in rush hour and 4.5 mph overall has caused politicians to hesitate, with City Councilman Mike Bonin asking "Doesn't the average person walk 3 or 4 mph?" at a City Hall committee meeting. Officials in charge of the project hope to secure a $75 million federal grant, but to do that they must keep the project below $250 million. To close the $32 million gap, planners could eliminate the portion that passes the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Grand Avenue, reduce the costs of utility work, or seek a private company to build and operate the line. The setback follows Sacramento's recent decision to pull back on its plans for a streetcar .  Manhattan Beach Considers Curbs on Short-Term Rentals The City of Manhattan Beach has joined a growing number of municipalities throughout California in opting to restrict its short term rental market. Citing quality of life issues in the wealthy community of 35,000, the City Council there voted 4-1 to outright ban short-term rentals of 30 days or less in residential areas -- one of the strictest bans passed yet. "The residential nature of our community, the peace and quiet of our residents � that rules over someone's profits," Mayor Wayne Powell said at the City Council meeting. Billboard Companies Sue L.A. Two Southern California companies have filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, alleging that the city's billboard laws allow big companies like Clear Channel Outdoor to maintain billboards while permits are denied to other firms. Federal judges have previously upheld the city's right to enforce its 2002 ban on outdoor billboards, though in one recent case with Louisiana-based company Lamar Outdoor currently in the Court of Appeals, a judge ruled that the ban violates the state constitution. The lawsuit states that the city allowed CBS Outdoor, now Outfront Media, and Clear Channel to put up signs following a 2006 agreement but denied permits to other companies, thus discriminating against smaller companies with less financial resources.

Another group has arisen in the long-running battle to challenge Proposition 13. A coalition of several public employees unions and other interest groups, the Make it Fair organization seeks to place a measure that would upend Prop. 13 on the 2016 statewide ballot. The proposed measure would seek a "split-roll" solution, taxing commercial properties at market rates while leaving residential tax rates frozen according to purchase prices. Prop. 13's freeze on property taxes has long been cited as a complicating factor in local government finance, particularly for school districts. Supporters of the measure say that its passage could result in an additional $9 billion in annual tax revenue. "California is losing billions of dollars every year thanks to problems in the law that allow some big corporations and wealthy commercial property owners to avoid paying their fair share," campaign spokesman Anthony Thigpenn said in a statement quoted by the Sacramento Bee . "By continuing to raise taxes, the state is forcing businesses out of California, and they're taking our jobs with them," Rex Hine of California Business Properties Association told the Bee.  L.A. Metro May Seek to Raise $120 Billion Via Ballot Measure The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is exploring another ballot measure to raise billions of dollars for the county's transportation system. Dubbed by non-profit Move L.A. as "Measure R2," the new sales tax would require two-thirds voter approval to pass and would likely go on the 2016 presidential ballot, hoping to get a better turnout to reach the needed supermajority. Metro's wish list totals about $300 billion; the agency estimates that Measure R2 could raise as much as $120 billion over 40 years by raising the county sales tax to 9.5 percent and extending the expiration of the 2008 Measure R sales tax by an extra two decades. The funds could be used for major transit projects such as a rail and automobile tunnel under the Sepulveda Pass, a rail link to LAX airport, and the extension of the subway to Santa Monica. According to the Los Angeles Times, a recent Metro poll suggests that the proposal has considerable support - as much as 79 percent depending on how the question was posed and how much information the respondents had.  Audit Finds Improved Richmond Housing Authority Three years after employees were implicated in illegal activities and a federal audit wrote a scathing report calling its leader "ineffective," the Richmond Housing Authority has made improvements. It is now considered "adequate," according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The agency implemented procedures to keep proper records, follow reporting requirements, and have the finance staff work directly under the city's finance department, all designed to help catch fraud that previously ran rampant in the department. The Richmond Authority came under fire when an audit flagged it for lacking internal controls resulting in ineligible expenses, poor record keeping and debt the reached $6.8 million.  Water Company Cadiz Hit with Suit over Groundwater Pumping In an attempt to block a Los Angeles-based Cadiz Inc. from shipping Mojave Desert groundwater out of San Bernardino County to Orange County residents, three conservation groups have filed opening briefs in an appeal of a Superior Court decision upholding the project. The project would involve pumping 16 million gallons of Mojave groundwater through a 43-mile pipeline for up to 50 years, averaging about 50,000-75,000 acre-feet per year. Critics said the Santa Margarita Water District improperly seized control of the environmental review process, which San Bernardino County officials should have overseen. They also state that the pumping would eliminate crucial desert habitats like springs and lower the water table, potentially having disastrous environmental consequences. "Let's call this what it is: a water-privatization scheme that will ship San Bernardino's water resources, essential to the health of the ecosystem, off to fuel suburban sprawl in Orange County," Adam Keats, head of the Center for Biological Diversity's California Water Project, told the San Bernardino Sun . S.F. Mayor Asks for $1 Billion for Muni Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco unveiled a $1 billion budget for the Municipal Transportation Agency in the coming fiscal year, giving it a $48.1 million boost to the previous budget. With the goal of adding 18 new buses and 40 new Muni Metro cars, bike and pedestrian signal improvements, and hiring 244 new employees, the mayor wants to bring in $31.4 million from the city's general fund and $16.7 million in developer fees to modernize the nation's eighth-largest transit system. Ruling Complicates Efforts to Build A's Stadium in San Jose Another roadblock has come up against San Jose in its bid to lure the Oakland A's to a downtown ballpark. A judge recently ruled that under local laws the city should have gone to voters first before entering into a land-purchase agreement with the team for a site, thus invalidating the latest version of the deal between the city and the team. The San Jose City Council voted to appeal the court's decision, but the setback is just one of several for the planned move to Silicon Valley: the San Francisco Giants also have protested the move, asserting territorial rights to the South Bay, and a federal appeals court sided with the Giants in an antitrust case.  State Adopts Guidelines for Desalination Plants California became the first state last week to adopt environmental guidelines for building and operating desalination plants, hoping to make seawater potable without killing fish or emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases. The rules represent a significant move in trying to monitor environmental impacts while heading off the water crisis, as construction of the state's first desalination plant is now underway in Carlsbad with seventeen more plants in the planning stages. The new rules seek to regulate the downsides to the desalination plants: that they kill fish as they suck in briny water and use too much energy to run, spewing greenhouse gases into the air. The rules will require plant operators to use screens if open ocean intakes are necessary to keep from killing fish, and water salinity of areas near discharge sites may not increase by more than 2 parts per 1,000. Lemon Grove Votes to Dissolve Planning Commission The Lemon Grove City Council voted 3-2 to dissolve its city's planning commission and to transfer its duties to the City Council, with the possibility of forming an advisory group that would act as a quasi planning commission without the official title or responsibilities. The city said that the move was provoked by cost-saving considerations, estimating that the planning commission meets four to seven times per year at a nonrecoverable cost of $7,500 for staff time and work. "Lemon Grove is a small town, and we just don't have the size or resources to support the commissions and committees larger cities do," City Councilman Jerry Jones told the U-T San Diego . The dissenting votes came from City Councilors who were both former planning commissioners. Sacramento to Dispose of 77 Redevelopment Properties The City of Sacramento is offering up for sale several high-profile parcels of land near the construction site of the new Kings basketball arena, taking its first step to sell off its 77 properties that were formerly part of its redevelopment agency. The sales will bring cash to the city and county, and will benefit Sacramento in the development of land that has long been underutilized. However, complicating matters, the Sacramento Kings have a right of first refusal on the downtown properties as a part of the city's subsidy of the arena project, allowing the Kings to match any offer in kind. Mixed-Use Development to Complement AT&T Park The San Francisco Giants' ownership revised its plans to build a massive new mixed-use development across the street from AT&T Park, opting for shorter buildings and more affordable housing at the development in response to changing winds in California land-use politics. Voters recently passed Proposition B, a ballot measure requiring voter approval of any development on port property exceeding height limits, and Mayor Ed Lee has set goals for affordable housing in the city. Sensing these changes, the Giants decided to lower the building heights from 380 feet to 240 feet, and to increase the percentage of below-market-rate units from 15 percent to 33 percent. The proposal, known as Mission Rock, would be a 28-acre redevelopment including 1,500 units of housing, eight acres of parkland, and 1.5 million square feet of commercial space. S.F. Arena Backers Fend Off Criticism Developers of a new Warriors basketball arena in Mission Bay are standing firm amid new criticism that the development could have significant impact on hospital traffic and parking. The group Mission Bay Alliance recently cited concerns that traffic for the development will impede emergency access to UCSF's hospitals, and that shared use of 950 parking garage spaces with two 16-story office towers that will also be built on the site. Officials with the Warriors, however, said that they have been studying these effects for the past year and have determined that their project won't have any significant effect on traffic or parking, as most sporting events take place at night, while the office towers will be used during the day. Report: Sprawl Costs U.S. $1 Trillion Annually A new report  (pdf)  from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute and LSE Cities states that urban sprawl costs the U.S. economy over $1 trillion each year, with people living in sprawled communities bearing $625 billion in direct incremental costs and the governments, businesses, and other households bearing an extra $400 billion in external costs. The study, coming from the New Climate Economy, a global commission on economy and climate, said that providing public infrastructure and services costs $750 annually per capita in the most sprawled fifth of American cities, 50 percent more than in the least sprawled cities. The report also stated that residents in compact communities save more money and have greater economic mobility, spending on average $5,000 less per year on transportation expenses, and that children who grow up in these communities tend to be much more economically successful in the future. Los Angeles Seeks to Figure Out New Transportation Technologies Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a new fellowship at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to create a citywide strategy that outlines the future of road safety, traffic regulation, and traffic enforcement, and will, supporters say, create a policy plan for a sustainable future for Los Angeles. The technology advisor, serving in a one-year fellowship, will work with city staff to mold Los Angeles as a model in sustainable, tech-enabled transportation. "It's about time the car capital of the world planned for the future of transportation in the digital age -- moving beyond the car to bikes, ride shares, and autonomous vehicles," said Garcetti. Recent discussions in the city have centered on the potential for ride-hailing services and even self-driving cars to relieve traffic congestion and reduce the need for parking in the city.

An environmental group has purchased $10.1 million worth of Lake Tahoe land including scenic meadows, forests, and trout streams in order to preserve wildlife there and increase California's water supply. The purchase amounts to over 10,000 acres. Planning to remove old logging roads and restore the landscape, Palo Alto-based Northern Sierra Partnership also hopes to prove that thinning out some of the trees in densely populated forest areas there would increase California's water supply, of which the Sierra Nevada provides 40 percent. Theorizing that California's firefighting efforts after 1850 prevent naturally occurring fires that thin out dead trees and brush, UC Merced and UC Berkeley scientists have done research indicating that if these forests are thinned it could increase the amount of water flowing from the Sierra Nevada into streams, rivers, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay. By thinning about 25 to 50 percent of the trees in many of these areas, UC Merced Professor Roger Bales said, the amount of water flowing into streams could increase from 9 to 16 percent. Sierra-wide, that could increase the water running off by 500,000 to 1 million acre feet a year, enough for up to 5 million people for a year. Massive Warehouse Complex Approved in Inland Empire In a split vote, the Moreno Valley City Council approved a 40 million-square-foot warehouse project to be built on the eastern edge of the city. Councilors in favor of the World Logistics Center -by far the largest of countless large warehouses and distribution centers being built in the Inland Empire - mostly touted the estimated 20,000 jobs that the project would bring to the city, a number that also prompted the Planning Commission to approve the project 6-1 in June. However, detractors including the California Air Resources Board have called the project's Environmental Impact Report inadequate to fend off lawsuits, and the 14,000 trucks a day that the project will likely draw into the city will worsen air pollution in a region plagued with some of the worst air pollution in the nation. "We've already been told if this is approved, lawsuits are going to be filed," Councilman George Price said during the council meeting, according to the Los Angeles Times . PPIC Contemplates Future Drought The Public Policy Institute of California has released a new report titled "What If California's Drought Continues?" chronicling the state's unpreparedness for a long-term drought worsened by climate change. Specifically, the report says that sustained investments in diversified water portfolios and conservation have put urban areas in the best position to sustain a long drought, but that the greatest vulnerabilities lie in low-income rural communities and in the biodiversity of wetlands rivers, and forests, with 18 native fish appearing to be at high risk of extinction. The report suggests building drought resilience through diversified water portfolios, coordinated emergency response, and better regional infrastructure across multiple agencies. Sacramento Arena Secures Financing; Soccer Stadium Proposed Sacramento's basketball and soccer stadium proposals are making waves as they seek expansions in the city. The Kings and the Republic Football Club have joined forces for a social media campaign dubbed "Fix My Ride 916" to encourage the Sacramento Regional Transit District to implement a stronger transit system by October 2016, when a new downtown arena is scheduled to open. The campaign comes in the wake of another big gain for the Kings as the city of Sacramento officially became a partner in the construction of a new arena, closing on a short-term $300 million bond sale and eventually contributing $255 million to the arena. Additionally, as a part of Mayor Kevin Johnson's effort to show Major League Soccer that Sacramento is ready to join its ranks, Sacramento Republic Football Club is seeking fan input on design and entertainment ideas for a proposed stadium in the downtown railyard. The railyard was once considered as a site for the basketball arena. "This vital feedback from the community will not only assist us in the design of the stadium but also garner ideas on how it will serve as a catalyst towards our goal of making Sacramento a better place to work, live and play," Republic FC team president Warren Smith said in a statement. More Funding Committed to O.C. Streetcar The Orange County Transportation Authority agreed to commit $56 million to a new streetcar line between Santa Ana and Garden Grove in a bid to get a matching federal grant of $144 million for the project. The $289 million project, called OC Streetcar, is expected to be running in 2017 for commutes along a four-mile route through densely populated neighborhoods and the Santa Ana train station, holding an estimated 6,000 riders per day. Critics, however, have said that those estimates are overly optimistic, and fares from the project are only expected to cover 30 percent of the estimated $5 million annual operating cost, with Santa Ana paying 10 percent of the balance, while OCTA  will cover 60 percent. OCTA CEO Darrell Johnson pronounced the authority's prospects of receiving the grant "very good," but money could still come from Measure M to build the rail even if they do not receive the federal grant. Coastal Commission Holds Firm on Affordable Housing in S.D. The Coastal Commission rejected plans to build three hotels on Harbor Island in San Diego because the project won't meet its demands for affordable lodging along the water. The projects, which would be located on public tidelands overseen by the Port of San Diego would build a 175-room hotel on the eastern end of the peninsula and 325 additional rooms on Harbor Island. "It is a form of segregation when we take the public land and develop it for people who can afford $250-and-above hotel rooms and we develop land (further) away for cheaper (hotels) for the public who can't afford it," Commissioner Mary Shallenberger said at the hearing. "This isn't all about money. It's about making our coast accessible to all people." Since the California Coastal Act came into being 40 years ago mandating that facilities along the coast be provided with lower cost facilities, the commission has had mixed success implementing the mandate. Some $19 million in affordable lodging fees have been collected over the years, but close to $10 million remains unspent. Escondido May Expand The Escondido City Council will likely begin updating and expanding the city's sphere of influence, which identifies land outside the city limits the it might eventually want to annex, in hopes of absorbing a piece of property where a developer hopes to build 550 luxury homes. The developer of the 350-acre Safari Highlands Ranch development in the rugged hills of the San Pasqual Valley hopes that the city will absorb the property in order to extend vital municipal services there. Annexation would also allow the developer to skirt county zoning restrictions, which would allow only 27 homes on the land. A year ago the City Council - indicating the city needs more upscale housing - told the would-be developers they could move forward planning the project, although no guarantees were offered that it would be approved. Critics have said that the resulting traffic and noise from the project would ruin the quiet character of the surrounding communities. National League of Cities to Hold Resilience Workshop The National League of Cities will host a Resilience Leadership Workshop to promote environmental, economic, and social vitality within Southern California municipalities. Hosted in Redlands on Sept. 21-22, the workshop will be attended by -City Teams,' composed of at least two attendees who are either elected officials or full-time city staff from each participating municipality. The primary goal is to help bring the innovative near tools and planning practices into the mainstream to the benefit of communities of any size through expert speakers. Bay Area Commuters Embrace Alternative Transportation Commuters in the Bay Area made the nation's most dramatic shift away from using private automobiles in a seven year period, dropping from 73.6 percent of workers in 2006 to 69.8 percent in 2013, according to a new Census Bureau report. In absolute terms, it also boasted the third lowest rate of use of private cars in commutes in 2013, only falling behind New York City and Ithaca, NY. Overall, 76.4 percent of the nation's workers drove alone to get to work in 2013, the Census Bureau's survey found, followed by those who carpooled, 9.4 percent; used public transit, 5.2 percent; worked at home, 4.4 percent; walked, 2.8 percent; or used "other means of travel," 1.3 percent. Bicycling was the least popular method of commuting, used by just six-tenths of one percent of workers. Plan for Office Park Unveiled at Controversial Site in Santa Monica Plans that once involved building a mixed-use neighborhood in Santa Monica across from the Expo Line 26th Street Station are now moving forward as a 204,000 square foot suburban-style office park after opposition to the original project launched a successful referendum. The original plan from developer Hines would have created more than 400 apartments and about 400,000 square feet of office space and included the city's most aggressive traffic demand management program. Director of MoveLA Denny Zane, a former Santa Monica mayor and current co-chair of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR), joined forces with local no-growth groups like Residocracy and Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, to kill the project. The new, scaled-down project will remain within the envelope of the defunct PaperMate pen factory that has long occupied the site. It will now go to the Architectural Review Board for design approval. The project's announcement follows the recent down-zoning of the city's general plan.  State of Jefferson Movement Eyes El Dorado County Over 400 citizens of El Dorado County gathered at a Board of Supervisors meeting there to voice their support for a plan to secede from California and join the proposed state of Jefferson. Supporters in 16 counties -- mostly across rural Northern California -- are trying to get supervisors to approve a "declaration of withdrawal" from the state, with El Dorado being the group's first attempt to garner an endorsement in the Sacramento region. The group hopes to convince a state legislator to introduce a sure-to-fail bill in January calling for the formation of the state, after which Jefferson advocates will take their movement for statehood to the courts, Mark Baird, a spokesman for the movement, told the Sacramento Bee. Supporters of secession have claimed that a new government would prevent the imbalance of power produced by heavily-populated, largely Democrat-leaning cities over rural areas like those in far-northern California.

Fresno's 2035 General Plan proposal has been moving through packed public meetings toward final approval this month. The city's Planning Commission approved the proposal December 8 . The City Council took it up in a packed public discussion hearing November 11. Mayor Ashley Swearengin has personally identified herself with the plan, which includes proposals from canal-side trails to increased infill development . The plan returns to the City Council December 18 for an approval vote. Ninth Circuit Enjoins Amphitheater Project In Homeless Vets' VA Suit The Ninth Circuit on December 15 issued a short-term order barring the Veterans' Administration from allowing continued construction of the "Hollywood Canteen Amphitheater" on its West Los Angeles veterans' hospital campus. The amphitheater's builder, the nonprofit Veterans Parks Conservancy (VPC), is one of several groups whose agreements to use parts of the park-like campus were invalidated by Judge James Otero last August in Valentini v. Shinseki . The December 15 order consolidated four separate appeals of the August decision and sent the matter temporarily back to Otero so he can decide whether to issue an order preserving the status quo on the campus pending the rest of the appeal. In the Valentini case, homeless veterans represented by a strong team of Los Angeles poverty lawyers and pro bono counsel argued that the VA was improperly allowing use of the campus by third parties for purposes including athletic facilities, gardens, and an industrial laundry for hotels. The plaintiffs argued these uses were providing only indirect or attenuated services to veterans, while the VA's priority should be housing for homeless veterans with disabilities. Otero's August order invalidated VPC's agreement for use of the property, but while the case was under appeal the VA authorized VPC, in a new agreement, to continue work on its already-begun construction project. For CP&DR's fuller coverage as of December 1 see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3634 . Lynch Seawall Case Accepted By State Supreme Court The state Supreme Court has granted review for the Pacific Legal Foundation's seawall case, Lynch v. Coastal Commission . The property-rights organization has championed two property owners who have sought a permanent rather than temporary permit for a seawall to prevent bluff erosion. See http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3572 for CP&DR's prior coverage of the Fourth District appellate opinion, which backed the Coastal Commission's decision requiring a permit to rebuild the seawall after storm damage, and its refusal to issue seawall permits for any more than 20 years at a time. The Pacific Legal Foundation's celebratory announcement of the review opportunity was picked up by the San Diego U-T and the local Fox News station . L.A. Issues Earthquake Resilience Plan Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles released a plan December 8 to strengthen the city's resistance to future earthquakes by strengthening water pipes and other infrastructure, and retrofitting buildings, especially those with soft first stories or non-ductile reinforced concrete. The New York Times ' Adam Nagourney wrote an impressed account of the "Resilience By Design" report setting out the plan, which has been directed by celebrity seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones. National Housing Trust Fund To Be Funded At Last Six years after its formal creation, the federal National Housing Trust Fund will finally be receiving contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, per an order last week from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Affordable housing groups including the National Community Reinvestment Coalition were cheering the news. Reuters has details . O'Connor Out As L.A. Metro Board Member The Los Angeles Metro system's board of directors was rebalanced last week when officials from cities on the Southwest Corridor replaced former board chair Pam O'Connor, of the Santa Monica City Council, with Mayor James Butts of Inglewood. StreetsblogLA has details . The comments section to the article included an argument between John Mirisch, a former Beverly Hills City Council member who the article mentions as a rumored also-ran candidate, and commenters (including one signing as "Fakey McFakename") on issues including whether the article fairly described him as opposing the Westside subway extension. Mirisch insisted he in fact supported the extension but opposed "the routing of a portion of the Purple Line". Federal Budget Talks Kill California Foothills Easement Proposal Congressional Republicans have reportedly killed a proposal out of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create the California Foothills Legacy Area . The project would have bought conservation easements on 200,000 acres of ranchlands in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The Fresno Bee has details . As of December 12 the paper also quoted Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, as saying the federal omnibus appropriations package "ensures no additional federal dollars for California High Speed Rail" and said the package did not include legislative language tentatively negotiated between House Republicans and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The "Cromnibus", so named because it included a continuing resolution (CR) for Department of Homeland Security programs, passed the House Thursday night and the Senate on Saturday, in negotiations that Roll Call viewed as suggesting the formation of a "new governing coalition" in Congress. Khosla May Be Defying Order To Open Martins Beach During the week after a court order to open public access to Martins Beach, the gate remained closed at Vinod Khosla's disputed access road from Highway 1 on the San Mateo County coastside. The San Mateo Daily Journal and San Jose Mercury News reported the Coastal Commission was threatening Khosla with fines of $11,250 per day. The Mercury News noted the Thursday after the ruling was stormy, creating a legitimate reason to close the gate, "but the weather over the previous five days was mild and dry." CEQA Preemption Case Accepted For Review A state ruling on federal CEQA preemption has been accepted for review by the state Supreme Court. In the case of Friends of the Eel River v. North Coast Railroad Authority , the First District Court of Appeal upheld a contract for use of railroad tracks against a CEQA challenge to its EIR on the grounds that a federally regulated railroad deal was outside the purview of CEQA. If upheld, the ruling could allow lumber shipping by rail to resume in Willits . Attorneys Nicole Martin and Donald Sobelman of Barg Coffin Lewis & Trapp, LLP posted a detailed commentary last month on reasons why the appellate court's decision, if affirmed, could help advance freight rail expansions throughout the state. USSTB Says CEQA Review Is Preempted On High-Speed Rail In another railroad preemption move, the Fresno Bee reports the U.S. Surface Transportation Board ruled 2-1 on December 12 that CEQA review of the High-Speed Rail project's Fresno-Bakersfield route "is categorically pre-empted". The paper counts seven lawsuits that could potentially be blocked by the order -- which will presumably be litigated. Riverside County Settlement Allows Use Of Post-Redevelopment Funds Riverside County has reached a settlement with state officials allowing it to use up to $10 million in former redevelopment money on a shopping center rehab project in Jurupa Valley. The Press-Enterprise has details . Warriors' New Design Less Lavatorial The Golden State Warriors have released a redesign of their San Francisco arena plan, this time in more symmetrical form to answer critics' comments that the roof resembled a toilet lid. The smart San Francisco real estate blog Socketsite has details and renderings . The design is for a site near the corner of Third and 16th Streets in San Francisco's otherwise too-quiet Mission Bay tech neighborhood, south along the Bay waterfront from the Giants' AT&T Park. Procedural Tangle On EIR Resolved In Aggregate Mine's Favor In Friends of the Kings River v. County of Fresno , the Fifth District upheld dismissal of a CEQA petition that had challenged the EIR on the reclamation plan for a proposed new aggregate mine in Fresno County near Sanger and Reedly. The plan discussed how the property would be divided into 40-acre mining cells, each cell dug down 50 feet and the remaining ground restored. Petitioners had argued that the trial court dismissed their case when it was not ripe for review because by the time the court's decision emerged, the plan they were contesting was no longer in effect. Petitioners had filed their court petition against the Board of Supervisors' approval of the EIR while they also had an appeal pending with the State Mining and Geology Board. While the court appeal was still pending, the mining board granted petitioners' administrative appeal; the county Supervisors responded by approving a revised EIR, and when petitioners took the revised EIR back to the mining board, it approved the revised EIR. The mining board conducted its hearing on the revised EIR November 14, 2013, and on that same date the trial court denied the writ petition on the original EIR. The appellate court found the dispute was "neither unripe nor moot" and rejected several challenges to the substantive adequacy of the EIR. De Le�n As Pro Tem Ends Government Oversight Research Office The Sacramento Bee reports that new state Senate president pro tem Kevin de Le�n has eliminated the State Senate's Office of Oversight and Outcomes, a research unit whose reports included two 2010 reports that criticized redevelopment agencies during their last year of existence. Homeowners' Association Fees Case Goes To Oral Argument In January The case of Tract 19051 Homeowners Association v. Kemp goes to oral argument in San Francisco before the California Supreme Court on January 7, 2015. The case concerns whether Cal. Civil Code Sec. 1354 entitles prevailing parties to attorney's fees in a dispute with a homeowners' association where the win followed from a showing that the association had not been adequately maintained as a legal entity. The CalAttorneysFees Web site wrote up the case after it was granted review in August 2013. The original Second District opinion, which was unpublished, is at http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/revnppub/B235015.PDF .

In the first phase of a landmark redevelopment deal many years in the making, the U.S. Navy transferred nearly 300 acres of its old Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island naval base to the City of San Francisco to redevelop the campus into 8,000 homes in exchange for $55 million to the Navy. The city has approved plans to build 2,000 affordable units, along with 300 acres of parks and open space on the campus, and will create a new ferry service to become a cornerstone of the island's transportation program. "It's taken almost two decades to get to this point, and we're eager to transform this former naval base into a vibrant community with more housing, jobs and economic opportunities for our residents," Mayor Ed Lee announced. High Speed Rail Identifies Properties for Eminent Domain The California High-Speed Rail Authority has  listed  over 200 properties in the Central Valley for possible eminent domain proceedings to accommodate construction of the first two segments of its network. The State Public Works Board, made up of the heads of the state's Transportation, General Services, and Finance departments, recently voted to adopt 23 resolutions declaring a public need and authorizing the acquisition of properties in Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare Counties. Since December 2013, the Public Works Board has adopted 230 such resolutions covering more than 625 acres of land in the four counties in anticipation of the $68 billion project planned to be fully operational by 2028. Now a Superior Court judge will decide if the agency is entitled to the property, and, if the judge rules in the train's favor, a trail will determine the fair market value due to the owner. Sacramento Voters Reject Streetcar Plan Advocates for a new streetcar line in downtown Sacramento suffered  defeat  when a small group of voters in the surrounding neighborhood rejected plans to create a $30 million streetcar tax district to help finance the project. Property owners had formerly expressed enthusiasm for the project, with sixty-eight percent approving the idea to finance the $150 million plan. But with both renters and owners opining in the most recent vote, that number skewed to 52 percent voting no. Advocates have stated that they will not give up the quest to build the 3.3-mile system, though they have no Plan B to grab the necessary funding for the project. The city of West Sacramento has already agreed to put in $25 million, and the federal government has agreed to finance half the project, though that money could disappear if local officials can't nail down the other $75 million. Bay Area Bike Share to Expand The Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved a plan to expand the Bay Area's bike share program tenfold, spanning eight cities and making it the second-largest program in the nation. The plan would expand San Francisco's fleet from 328 to 4,500 bikes and San Jose's from 129 to 1,000. It also would bring the bikes to the East Bay cities of Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley for the first time. MTC has committed $4.5 million in capital costs to expand the program to emerging communities, and the expansion comes free to taxpayers as the costs are paid off by memberships.  Sacramento Region Initiates Marketing Partnership A group of 15 communities in the Sacramento region agreed to an economic marketing partnership in an attempt to draw business to the region. Under the auspices of the nonprofit Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council, the group developed a process for promoting residential and commercial real estate and other assets that would appeal to companies considering a relocation or expansion. Additionally, if a company seeking relocation decided that a certain community wasn't the right one for relocation, officials from that area would help the company find a proper fit elsewhere in the region. In return, that community would be given an opportunity to help design the Greater Sacramento's regional marketing plan. "I think it will certainly open up more much more incentive -- if we cannot accommodate a company's needs -- to ensure they will find an option within the region," City of Woodland community development director Ken Hiatt told the Sacramento Business Journal. S.F. Supervisor Seeks to Undo Giants' Stadium-Area Plan San Francisco's Supervisor Jane Kim is gearing up for a battle with the San Francisco Giants on the November ballot, proposing a building height limit and affordable housing amendment that flies in the face of the Giants' long-planned development just south of AT&T Park. The Giants are paying for the project, but under Proposition B, which requires voter approval of any development on port property exceeding current height limits, they decided to put the 28-acre mixed use development on the November ballot.  The Giants' proposal includes buildings that reach 240 feet, and they have committed to making 33 percent of the 1,500 units "affordable," which they define as families earning up to 140 percent of the area median income, or $122,000 per year. Kim's proposal would cap the height limit at 120 feet and require half of the residential units to be dedicated to affordable housing. "It's kind of like a wild pitch from a pretty good player," former Mayor Art Agnos said of Kim in the San Francisco Chronicl e. "It flies in the face of progress we have made on affordable housing in the southeast waterfront." Rick Cole Named Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's deputy mayor and top aide on budget issues, is stepping down from his post to become city manager of Santa Monica. Becoming the third deputy mayor to leave the offce in recent months, Cole said that he had expected to stay with Garcetti until the end of his administration but found that the city manager position was too good to pass up, partly because of the coming arrival of the Expo light-rail line with its terminus near the Third Street Promenade. He told the Los Angeles Times that Santa Monica is "a progressive city. It's a well-run city. It has the resources to do some incredible things. And with the coming of the Expo line, it's got some once-in-a-lifetime opportunities." Cole was city manger of Ventura while CP&DR Publisher Bill Fulton was mayor.  Desalination Plant Seeks to Fast-Track Coastal Commission Review California American Water is asking permission to take its Monterey Peninsula desalination project past local cities directly to the state Coastal Commission for a necessary permit, but one local city is putting the brakes on the proposal. Cal Am claims that bypassing the cities could save up to four months in time that it calls "critical" because of "severe restraints" that the state-ordered cutback in pumping from the Carmel River will have on the Peninsula's water supply and its economy. But the city of Marina's mayor, Bruce Delgado, said that he doubted that the city would surrender its oversight of the project, seeing parallels to an early test well project for Cal Am, which the city declined to approve until a full environmental impact report was produced. Poll: Support Wanes for �Split-Roll' Prop. 13 Reform A new poll shows that taxpayer support for removing commercial properties from tax limits imposed by Proposition 13 has dwindled. Proposition 13, the 1978 landmark property tax initiative, limited annual property taxes to 1% of the appraised property value and prohibited counties from increasing a property assessment more than 2% a year. Under the measure, property can be reassessed only after a change in ownership.  The proposal to change Proposition 13 would require the regular reassessment of commercial properties while keeping tax protections for residences in place. In January 2012, 60 percent of California voters favored the changes. Now only 50 percent do, and the results show a partisan divide, with Democrats favoring changes and Republicans in opposition. Unions and grass-roots organizations are considering offering statewide ballot measures amending Proposition 13 along with Proposition 30 to extend a tax increase passed in 2012. Group Sues Over Diversion of Bay-Delta Waters An environmental group has sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the State Water Resources Control Board, accusing them of violating environmental laws by divvying up too much water for agriculture throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. The lawsuit, brought by the California Sportfishing Protection Association and others, alleges that excess diversions of waterways have brought the Delta smelt to near extinction. It also alleges that 95 percent of recent generations of Chinook salmon are dying in the waterways, as agencies of skewing water distribution heavily toward farmers over delta residents, fisherman, and wildlife. Officials have said they expect to order further water cuts by farmers and others in coming days.

Officials with the Imperial Irrigation District have proposed a smaller plan for restoration of the Salton Sea, reducing the cost from $9 billion to $3.15 billion. That money, gained through mitigation funds from companies that emit greenhouse gases and from a $7.5 billion water bond, would fund new, shovel-ready projects and geothermal energy development around California's largest lake, which is dying due to diversions and drought. "It's a bargain compared to $9 billion, which everyone agrees has only served to impede any real discussion about what to do," Kevin Kelley, the Imperial Irrigation District's general manager, said at a board meeting. Specifically, the plan calls for $150 million in immediate funding from the $7.5 billion water bond as a stop-gap measure while local officials develop a long-term plan. That money would pay for pilot projects designed to cover parts of the lakebed with small pools, which would suppress dust and provide habitats for fish and birds. Once a prime destination for outdoor recreation, the sea has been shrinking for 12 years because of a massive rural-to-urban water transfer deal in 2003. The decline could become a public health and environmental disaster costing as much as $70 billion if nothing is done to slow sea's degradation, according to the Pacific Institute. Cities Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Reconsider Plan to Save Santa Ana Sucker Fish Two cities and ten water agencies have  asked  the Supreme Court to take up a case against a plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to save the endangered Santa Ana sucker by designating critical habitats. The request comes on the heels of a Ninth Circuit Court ruling holding that federal agencies can unilaterally add land to Habitat Conservation Plans under the Endangered Species Act (see CP&DR coverage 29 June 2015). The cities and agencies argued that the designation would unfairly restrict water uses on the Santa Ana River, limiting the agencies' ability to recharge groundwater aquifers with captured runoff from rainstorms in those areas and flood control operations that affect more than 1 million Southern California residents. The designation of more than 9,000 acres of land -- particularly in the northern reaches in the 96-mile-long Santa Ana River watershed-- as critical habitat requires federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service before they carry out, fund or authorize any local action that could destroy or alter the habitat's functionality. The Santa Ana sucker, a five-inch-long bottom-feeder, was listed as a threatened species in 2000, and since then it numbers have continued to decline because of diversions, dams, erosions, pollution, and species invasion. Opponents of the expanded HCP have said that the designation does little to help the sucker's complex life cycle. Oakland Businesses Take Issue with Public Art Fee A business group in Oakland filed a lawsuit against the city contesting a development fee used to fund public art. The City Council approved the fee in November 2014 to require developers of projects costing more than $200,000 either to install public art on site or to devote one percent of a commercial project's budget to public art and one-half percent for residential projects, with the ordinance stating that public art is "important for the vitality of the artist community as well as the quality of life for all Oakland residents." The two plaintiffs, the Business Industry Association of the Bay Area and Pacific Legal Foundation, called the fee unconstitutional, saying that the requirements violate the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against "uncompensated takings" because funding art has no connection to the effects of development. "I would interpret this lawsuit as a preemptive strike against the current administration, with the goal of preventing the upcoming development fees from being too onerous," Alex Ludlum, a land associate at Polaris Pacific who works with developers to identify building sites in Oakland, told the San Francisco Business Times . Feinstein Introduces Federal Proposal for Drought Relief Sen. Dianne Feinstein unveiled legislation to combat California's water crisis, introducing a $1.3 billion proposal for water storage, desalination, and other projects that will likely come into conflict with a rival proposal in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. While the House's plan heavily favors San Joaquin Valley growers by rolling back environmental protections and pumping more water there, the two sides could come together over common provisions like storage projects and control of invasive predator species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Feinstein, who is known for deal-making and has connections to agribusiness, said she consulted with 12 environmental groups in crafting the bill after facing criticism last year from environmentalists who said that she failed to include them in negotiations with growers. Feinstein said her bill would not alter the Endangered Species Act, a key objection that environmentalists had to previous legislation."It's definitely a big boost in federal support. It's almost 10 times more than what the feds have provided so far, which is not a lot," Ellen Hanak, a senior fellow at the  Public Policy Institute of California and director of its Water Policy Institute, told the L.A. Times . Comment Period Closes on S.F. Arena EIR A proposed Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco's Mission Bay is making progress as the ownership closed public comment on its draft Environmental Impact Report and gained the endorsement of a key medical center nearby. Despite the fact that the project will have significant, unmitigable impacts on traffic in areas like the Bay Bridge and as many as 11 key intersections in the South of Market, the University of California, San Francisco endorsed the project under the condition that the city negotiate a traffic "trigger" mechanism that would kick in during large dual or overlapping events. UCSF, which owns a six-story hospital complex across the street from the project, said that the Warriors' plan to beef up public transit and funnel arena-bound cars onto certain streets and hospital vehicles onto others created a workable plan, so long as the trigger mechanisms lead to a plan that will make the hospital accessible at all times. A powerful coalition of opponents of the project, known as the Mission Bay Alliance, said that the project is "fatally flawed," and that its effects on neighborhoods and traffic would "threaten patient access to lifesaving care and be a disaster for the Mission Bay neighborhood, the hospitals and city as a whole," as Bruce Spaulding of the Mission Bay Alliance told the S.F. Chronicle . Poor Air Quality Plagues California National Parks A new report by a national conservation group gives a handful of California's national parks an 'F' grade for pollution based on air quality, visibility, and climate change. The National Parks Conservation Association flunked Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Joshua Tree and Yosemite for routinely having unhealthful levels of ozone -- a lung-damaging pollutant in smog -- during the summer season, with the air quality at Sequoia and Kings Canyon rated worst in the nation as haze blocked 50 miles of scenery on average at the two parks. While levels of ozone within cities have tapered off dramatically in decades because of new regulations, parks face a different challenge as the ozone can be pushed by the wind over long distances and into high-elevation areas far from major pollution sources. The conservation group recommended strengthening federal regulation of the EPA's regional haze rule, wherein states must restore the clarity of more than 150 national parks and wilderness areas to natural levels by 2064. Many parks are off-track by several decades, including Joshua Tree, where natural visibility is not expected to be achieved until 2106. SPUR Recommends Strategy for Downtown San Jose Bay Area urban think tank SPUR released six recommendations for revitalizing downtown San Jose as a city center with people who live and work in walkable, livable neighborhoods. Citing decades of investment and trends of youths working and living in urban centers, SPUR consolidated six ideas to bring more people to downtown San Jose: welcoming all uses of space while holding out for jobs near regional transit, making sure that developers follow key urban design principles, promoting a larger area of Central San Jose with downtown as the core, making the area easier to get around without a car via public transportation, retrofitting the area to be more pedestrian-oriented through placemaking and road redesigns, and building downtown as a cultural and creative center of the South Bay. Transportation Connections Considered for Burbank's Bob Hope Airport A new study outlines potential transportation improvements to improve traffic congestion and air quality at Bob Hope Airport as it hopes to begin extensive improvements, replacing a terminal and building a high-speed rail station at the airport. The study, paid for mosty by a $5.4 million federal grant, found that the airport is ideally situated to be the "epicenter for multi-modal connectivity for the San Fernando Valley," but that it has a lack of direct connection to Metro trains, bus or light rail, and about three-fourths of airport employees and passengers drive their own vehicles to the airport. A 58-acre airport-owned property is currently being marketed for sale, hopefully making room to fund short-term improvements like increasing frequency of Metrolink trains serving the airport along with longer-term improvements like an extension of the Metro Red Line, which could likely come 20-30 years down the road. Carlsbad Plan May Be Retooled in Favor of Cars The Carlsbad Planning Commission recently approved an update eight years in the making to the city's 1994 General Plan, with a caveat. The commission forward the plan to the City Council with the recommendation that the council adjust it it to better accommodate car mobility and reduce housing estimates in its northeast quadrant. In particular, the Planning Commission took issue with the mobility section of the plan, which emphasized pedestrian- and bike-friendly streets in compliance with California's Complete Streets Act of 2008. "I'm tired of hearing about how everything is about the bikes," Commission Chairwoman Victoria Scully said at the meeting. "We need to keep these major streets a priority for the cars." Explaining that aspect of the update, city traffic engineer Doug Bilse said that the city had to stress additional roadway safety in lieu of driving efficiency in making car lanes smaller while widening bike lanes. L.A. Metro Considers New Relationship with Developers Los Angeles's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has proposed changes to its Joint Development Policy concerning the way that the agency partners with developers for development of project on the land it owns. Mostly including provisions regarding affordable housing, the proposed update increases from 31 percent to 35 percent the amount of joint development housing that would be affordable. It also would discount the price of Metro-owned land for a developer willing to build affordable housing up to a maximum of 30 percent equal to the percentage of affordable housing developed. Additionally, it would place emphasis on projects that would provide first/last mile facilities like walkways and bike parking. Hermosa Beach Announces Plans to Go Carbon-Neutral The Los Angeles County beach city of Hermosa Beach released plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to become carbon neutral by 2020. Specifically, the city has implemented a new app by consultant Brendle Group that can calculate the carbon output of every bit of energy the city consumes. It then plans to identify some of the cheapest, quickest routes to reducing carbon output -- including replacing all streetlights and lighting in city facilities -- to get started. The City Council also allocated $50,000 to invest in electric vehicles for parking-enforcement officers and staffers who carpool to office, a chunk of around $420,000 in carbon offsets the city would need to buy in order to become carbon neutral by 2020. "The South Bay is becoming a model for working together to create and implement programs to address greenhouse gas emissions and resource conservation," South Bay Cities Council of Governments Executive Director Jackie Bacharach told the  Daily Breeze .  L.A. Officials Want to Reopen Historic Funicular Calls are growing for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board to reopen the Angels Flight funicular, a 298-foot transportation system akin to an uphill streetcar ride between Bunker Hill and Downtown that has been shut down since 2013 because of safety issues. Seeing the system as a vital historical landmark as well as a valid form of transportation, downtown business and cultural leaders urged Metro to help fund the reopening, saying that the 50-cent fares provide an important connection between the Historic Core and Bunker Hill. Advocates say that the Metro could easily make room in its budget for the funicular's $360,000 annual operating costs. The transportation system has been variedly shut down and reopened over the past several decades. In one accident in 2001, one of the rail cars careened down from the hill and killed and 83-year-old tourist. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation following a 2013 derailment found that the operators had been using a small tree branch to override the train's emergency stop settings.

Defending a federal agency's discretionary authority, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 22 upheld a 2009 restriction on water pumping meant to protect chinook salmon and other fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The ruling was a victory for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and other federal agencies, and for environmental groups backing the federal position. It was a defeat for Southern California water agencies that had challenged the restriction, including the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, Westlands Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Kern County Water Agency and State Water Contractors, backed by the California Department of Water Resources as intervenor. Judge Richard Tallman issued a ruminative, painstakingly illustrated and contextualized opinion . It quoted John Steinbeck's East of Eden on the heartbreaking effects of dry conditions in California farm country, yet concluded: "People need water, but so do fish." Tallman was joined by the other members of the three-judge panel: Judge Johnnie Rawlinson and temporarily sitting district judge Thomas Rice. As the opinion's first footnote explains, the ruling was separate from, but "informed" by, the Delta Smelt opinion issued earlier this year by Judge Jay Bybee in San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Auth. v. Jewell , 747 F.3d 581 (9th Cir. 2014). That ruling also emphasized deference to agency discretion in reaching scientific conclusions. (See http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3448.) The two opinions had one panel member, Judge Rawlinson, in common. The L.A. Times ' Bettina Boxall has more details , including suggestions that the recent opinion was an unsurprising sequel to the Delta Smelt opinion and that, although some of the water agencies have sought review of the smelt opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court, the high court is unlikely to take up the matter. The case is San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority v. Locke . Bills Effective January 1, 2015: a Rundown of Rundowns It's surprisingly tough to find a public list of all new laws taking effect January 1, 2015, or of all those affecting land use. Local papers will offer grab bags of important new provisions on drivers' licenses, drug sentencing, sick leave, and prevention of cruelty to interns. But about land use? Here are some sources: The League of California Cities' 2014 Legislative Report provides a 208-page description of new statutes relevant to city officials, placed in the League's context, as of November 2014. All bill texts and histories can be found on the Legislature's official site , and laws likely to take effect January 1, 2015 can be found by searching for bills from the 2013-14 session bearing the 2014 statute year . Unless another date is specified in its text, a new law is likely, but not certain , to take effect on the January 1 following its enactment. The Littler employer-side law firm reports Governor Jerry Brown received 1,073 bills from the Legislature and signed 931 in 2014. For new laws specific to land use, many that were in the last crop to win approval are in CP&DR's own summary of the Governor's late-September signing decisions affecting California land use, and in Governor Brown's September signing and veto announcements . Another important land use law collection, excerpted as part of the CP&DR summary, is the "Greatest Hits" list prepared by the Senate Committee on Governance and Finance. It shows the whole year's complement of major bills handled by that committee. Among other legislative tallies, the Housing California list shows fates of bills affecting homelessness, housing funding, and landlord-tenant relations. (Per apparent error, that site shows AB 1537 , on default housing densities in Marin County, as having been vetoed. In fact that bill was signed into law.) Some bills from 2014 are already in effect -- notably the June budget bills, which enacted policy legislation as well as spending decisions. For example, SB 861 imposed new safety and cleanup rules on the petroleum industry and gave the Coastal Commission's staff new enforcement authority to impose fines administratively. SB 862 extensively redistributed the state's cap-and-trade revenues and created the new Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities cap-and-trade program. (The Governor's signing announcement on the June budget bills lists the rest of the bill numbers.) Phase-in provisions apply in some cases, e.g. the SB 270 statewide ban on single-use plastic carryout bags has phase-in dates running from January 1, 2015 to as late as 2020. Plastic Bag Promoters File Signatures to Challenge Statewide Ban Opponents of recently enacted SB 270 said they had submitted more than enough signatures December 29 to qualify a statewide ballot challenge against California's new ban on single-use plastic bags. The petition's sponsors, the American Progressive Bag Alliance, had to collect at least 504,760 California voters' signatures to qualify the measure. The Sacramento Bee reported the group claimed more than 800,000 signatures. County elections officials have eight days from submission of the signatures to verify them. The League of California Cities wrote that if the measure qualified it would prevent implementation of SB 270 until a statewide election in 2016. The Sacramento Business Journal reported earlier that the chief funder of the campaign was bag manufacturer Hilex Poly. SB 270 passed the Legislature in August after fierce multimedia and legislative lobbying and a last-minute reversal by the United Food and Commercial Workers (see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3564 ). Many localities have created their own plastic bag restrictions, in part because SB 270 has a grandfather clause for existing local laws on the subject. Governor Jerry Brown delayed signing the bill until September 30 but signed it with a high-visibility statement announcing the first statewide ban of its kind. Kruger Confirmed to State Supreme Court Leondra Kruger , a respected litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who has argued a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, was confirmed to serve on the California State Supreme Court by the state Commission on Judicial Appointments. The Sacramento Bee described the commission's review as a "brief, friendly hearing" though it did include a query from Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye regarding her limited practice experience in California. A Month for Large Projects The news this month was thick with major construction plans, largely residential, in and around California urban areas. A few of the stories: Oakland's Brooklyn Basin project , with 3100 units, is about to start construction. (Via CACities) CSU-Sacramento is working with developer Westpark Communities to revive plans for a satellite campus at Placer Ranch north of Roseville. SPUR and Socketsite were celebrating the findings of a San Francisco municipal report saying more than 50,000 units of new housing, in 958 different projects, were in the "pipeline" for future construction in the city. L.A. Curbed reported on a plan "to turn Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza into a 24-hour community" including 961 residential units and a hotel. In the city of Alhambra, a former Mervyn's department store is headed for replacement by a mixed-use complex with extensive retail and 260 luxury housing units . The ARTIC transportation hub in Anaheim -- not residential, but legitimately huge -- opened in early December . Meanwhile, some current uses are being pushed to peripheries. The Sacramento Bee followed some of the low-income, troubled tenants being evicted from the downtown Hotel Marshall through their efforts to find and keep new housing. The paper reported the building was to be replaced by a market-rate hotel.

Two environmental groups have sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Secretary of the Interior for opening up 400,000 acres of public land in Southern California for fracking, which they claim violates the National Environmental Policy Act.  The groups, The Center for Biological Diversity and Los Padres Forestwatch, claim that the federal government's environmental report erroneously analyzed impacts to air quality by assuming that only 40 new wells will be drilled each year, though the plan estimates that 4,000 wells will be drilled in the plan's lifetime. The suit alleges  that fracking, which involves high-pressure injection of water and chemicals into shale rock to fracture the formations and extract oil and gas, pollutes groundwater and can cause earthquakes. California's oil producers are increasingly turning to fracturing to extract oil, with Kern County containing 2,361 fracked wells in 2014 and Ventura County containing 456 of them, according to the lawsuit. San Diego Loses Ground in Effort to Keep Chargers Possibly undermining months of work to create a viable proposal for a new pro football stadium in San Diego, the San Diego Chargers issued a statement that a Dec. 15 public vote on a new stadium would be impossible because the city won't be able to craft a legally defensible Environmental Impact Report within that time.  "The various options that we have explored with the city's experts all lead to the same result: Significant time-consuming litigation founded on multiple legal challenges, followed by a high risk of eventual defeat in the courts," Chargers' special counsel Mark Fabiani said in a statement.  The timing of the vote is important because the NFL could move a team to Los Angeles by 2016, and city officials have emphasized that they could indeed meet the Dec. 15 deadline, but that the Chargers have been unwilling to play ball. "It appears the Chargers have pulled the plug on San Diego even though the city and county have gone out of their way to try and accommodate the team," Mayor Kevin Faulconer's Task Force spokesman Tony Manolatos told the Union-Tribune . "Instead of working collaboratively on a solution, the Chargers have thrown up one road block after another in San Diego while working aggressively on stadium plans in Carson." Santa Ana Considers Downtown �Wellness District' The Santa Ana City Council took a step to establishing a "wellness district" for the preservation of Latino commerce in the city's downtown, voting to begin drafting a resolution and figuring out how much it will cost to implement. Supporters cite a study last year by The California Endowment that said the city could bring in an additional $137 million in spending to the downtown by bringing back Latino customers who, despite living so close to the downtown, have been lost to big-box retailers. Among the proposals aimed at promoting community wellness and supporting local vendors, the council vote directs city staff to draft an implementation plan for branding Fourth Street as "Calle Cuatro," supporting the creation of microfarms and a mercadito, and creating a community advisory committee on economic development. L.A. Considers Legalization of Street Vending; Curbs on Homeless Encampments The Los Angeles City Council passed a preliminary measure that would make it easier for law enforcement to break down the city's homeless encampments by reducing the amount of warning time that homeless people are given before authorities seize their belongings from public sidewalks and parks.  The measure would reduce the warning time to 24 hours from 72 hours, and it would also allow authorities to seize bulky items like couches, tables and larger tents -- anything that won't fit in the city's 60-gallon trash bins -- without notice. Through the ordinance, the city would store the belongings for 90 days in a skid row warehouse, complying with a court injunction from 2012 barring the city from seizing and immediately destroying homeless people's unattended property. "We spend $100 million on homelessness, and 85% of our response is law enforcement," Councilman Gil Cedillo, who cast the sole dissenting vote, told the L.A. Times . "That tells us our strategy is not working." The Los Angeles City Council is also weighing whether or not to legalize street vending , possibly becoming the biggest city next to New York to have a legal street vending program. Southern California Public Radio took a look at cities in the LA metropolitan area where it is already legal for policy comparisons. SPCR finds that some vendors hop over to Pasadena, pay about $400 a year in city fees, and obtain a city permit to stay in the lucrative market. Additionally, Santa Ana allows up to 200 pushcart vendors to legally operate, but they must remain mobile. L.A. Mayor Garcetti Co-Launches National 'Climate Action Agenda' Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, an organization he co-founded with Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and Mayor Annise Parker of Houston, has called on President Obama to fight for the strongest possible climate agreement at the upcoming 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris. The nationwide coalition of mayors also announced that 27 mayors from across the country have signed on to support the President and the U.S. delegation in Paris in pushing for strong action on climate change. Other California members of the organization include the mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Monica.  S.F. Giants Revise Housing Plan; Downtown S.F. Towers Face Opposition The San Francisco Giants have revised plans for a large mixed-use project next to AT&T Park to include an unprecedented amount of affordable housing, garnering the endorsement of all 11 supervisors and prompting Supervisor Jane Kim to withdraw her threat to draw up a countermeasure lowering allowed building heights and require half of all residential units to be designated affordable. Kim's opposition had drawn scorn from fellow supervisors who had worked on the deal with the Giants. The new proposal for the 28-acre project built on land controlled by the Port of San Francisco will include 40 percent of its 1,500 apartments priced to various levels of affordability, with 12 percent available for people making $32,000 to $39,000, 21 percent for people making $64,200 to $85,000 and 7 percent for people making $108,000. Community organizers are gearing up for two battles over plans for high-rises near San Francisco's waterfront, with former mayor Art Agnos rallying neighbors of the 160 Folsom and 75 Howard developments to oppose them based on the shadows the buildings would throw on nearby Rincon Park. 160 Folsom is set to be designed by architect Jeanne Gang with a twisting, staggered condo tower reaching up 400 feet, 100 feet higher than the limit and requiring an amendment to the Redevelopment Plan for the Transbay Project Area. Backed by developer Tishman Speyer, the full version would contain 399 condos, 141 of which-- roughly 35 percent -- would be below market rate, and a reduced version would stay within the 300-foot limit and include 318 units. Opponents of the tower have referred to it as a "wall on the waterfront." Meanwhile, the 75 Howard development hasn't been able to get community support for its project, even after offering additional affordable housing and offering to reduce its tower height to 220 feet.  Anaheim Approves Controversial Hotel Tax Break In an attempt to attract larger conventions and high-spending tourists to the city, the Anaheim City Council passed a tax break projected to be around $133 million for developers wanting to build luxury resorts there. Under the plan, developers of hotels that meet AAA's guidelines for four-diamond ratings would get to keep 70 percent of their bed taxes for up to 20 years. Of the remainder, 10 percent of the taxes would go to city coffers, while 20 percent would pay off bonds that funded improvements to Anaheim's city resort district in 1996. Mayor Tom Tait, an opponent of the measure, said that room taxes, which account for nearly half of the general fund's revenue, would be kept by hotel developers rather than going back to Anaheim's coffers to help pay for city services. "We are giving checks to hotel developers, but we have better needs for our money," Tait said at the Council meeting, according to the O.C. Register . San Diego Gives Boost to Recreational Area The San Diego City Council helped solidify plans for a 55-mile hiking and bicycling route on a "coast to crest trail" from Del Mar to Julian by approving a new 50-year agreement to continue jointly funding the project with the county and four North County cities.  San Diego officials had previously threatened to stop participating in the San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority, but following a long list of policy changes primarily related to control over the park's financial decisions, the city agreed to a pact along with Escondido, Poway, Solana Beach, and Del Mar. Since the formation of the JPA in 1989, 34 of the park's planned 55 miles have already been acquired and preserved. Navy Plans $1 Billion Campus in Imperial Beach The Navy issued its record of decision to relocate its Coronado-based Navy SEAL command center from Coronado Island to a 600-acre, $1 billion campus along the Silver Strand near Imperial Beach.  SEAL officials have said their current World War II-era buildings are mostly obsolete and force them too often to train away from home, on top of frequent deployments. Built over a decade at a cost of $700 million for new buildings and $300 million for infrastructure improvements, the new project has prompted concern among nearby residents and those interested in birds and plants there. Tesla Expands Presence in East Bay Tesla Motors Inc. closed a deal leasing the Page Technology Center in Fremont, absorbing the last remaining vacancy related to the implosion of solar panel-maker Solyndra in 2011 and beginning its biggest expansion in Northern California since it leased a 431,000-square-foot former Chrysler assembly plant in Lathrop last year. The deal will aid Tesla's manufacturing sector as it preps to start deliveries of its Model X crossover in 2017. Tesla's and other companies' new leases in Fremont have driven the city's industrial vacancy rate down from 5 percent at the end of the first quarter to 2.1 percent, Cushman & Wakefield analyst Sethena Leiker told the San Francisco Business Times .