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SANDAG Adopts $160 Billion Regional Transportation Plan The San Diego Association of Governments' Board of Directors voted to adopt its 2021 Regional Transportation Plan. It  will not include a controversial road mileage tax that would have charged drivers 4 cents for every mile driven. Part of the plan includes a Central Mobility Hub that would directly connect riders to San Diego International Airport and improvements to roads and rural highways. While SANDAG aims to not only expand public transit but make it free in the next decade, it's unclear how they will fund the $160 billion plan. Other potential sources of revenue include sales tax increases, ride-hailing fees, or a "managed lane" system that charges tolls on highways, but all of these sources have also come with significant controversy. Santa Cruz Approves First SB 35 Project The Santa Cruz City Council voted, 4-3, to confirm that a mixed-use project it previously denied does, in fact, meet the city's objective design standards. The council was, essentially, required to approve the project at 831 Water Street -- pending the design question -- because the project complies with Senate Bill 35. The Department of Housing and Community and Development released a memo verifying that the 140-unit, 50% affordable-unit project whose approval process was streamlined is consistent with state law and that the city's rejection of the project was illegal. It is the first such project in Santa Cruz to fall under SB 35. The new vote signals that city staff may file a formal letter to inform the project's developer that it may now begin the design phase. In two previous meetings, the city reviewed the project and on one occasion blocked the project from receiving SB 35 approval. The project also faced concerns that Novin Development was discriminating against low-income people by separating affordable and market-rate units into two towers. While SB 35 allows for this if the developer is hoping to receive grant funding, the law also allows local jurisdictions to set inclusionary ordinances, so affordable housing allocation in the building is still up for debate. (See related CP&DR coverage .) San Diego Formulates Resiliency Plan, Updates Climate Plan The City of San Diego released a multi-million dollar plan with 86 agenda items to prepare the city for climate disasters. The 536-page plan, titled Climate Resilient SD, introduces adaptation policies such as planting trees to resist the urban heat island effect in low-income neighborhoods. While the plan is expensive, officials argue that failing to introduce a strategy would be four to six times more costly. At the same time, the city plans to amplify its mitigation proposal by overhauling its 2015 climate plan and calling for net zero emissions by 2035. The change follows the discovery that the original greenhouse gas accounting system was flawed and reported untruthful greenhouse gas reductions. Going forward, officials are drafting a more detailed version of their 288-page action plan, which includes policies such as the phasing out of natural gas use in homes and businesses and the reduction of transportation emissions. Housing Opponents Suffer Costly Defeat in Livermore Save Livermore Downtown will have to post a $500,000 bond to help offset financial damages that the nonprofit developer, Eden Housing, is facing due to the group's lawsuit to block a 130-unit affordable housing project. An Alameda County Judge and a state appeals court delivered the blow to the lawsuit, which argued that the plan is misaligned with Livermore's downtown standards, and the environmental review process's review of on-site contamination was inadequate. Despite the legal blow, an official ruling is not expected until February, and, in the meantime, Eden Housing may not be able to use the $68 million worth of state and federal tax credit funding until the ruling. The developer also expects to receive $14.4 million in Alameda County Measure A1 affordable housing money, but funding is contingent on starting construction by the end of 2022. Quick Hits & Updates The City of San Diego has entered into a 90-day negotiation period with 5 teams hoping to obtain a long-term lease to redevelop 48-acres around the Midway District's sports arena, leaving 2 behind. Discover Midway, Midway Village+, Midway Rising, HomeTownSD, and Neighborhood Next will all have an opportunity to rebuild or improve the sports arena and build housing, 25% of which must be affordable, on the site. A San Diego Superior Court Judge has blocked Measure E, a ballot measure that would have removed a 30-foot height restriction for new buildings in the Midway District that voters approved in 2020. While many residents support mixed-use development and a new sports arena in the area, the judge ruled in favor of the neighborhood group Save Our Access and required that the city carry out an environmental impact report before allowing residents to vote on the measure. A Los Angeles County legislator will introduce legislation that disallows freeway extensions in neighborhoods with high poverty rates and severe freeway pollution that has generated harmful health impacts across the state. Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, who represents Bell Gardens, is urging other state officials to take action on the racial and health disparities related to freeway construction and use. The City of Sacramento will dedicate $5 million to fund programs intended to prevent or minimize the displacement of Oak Park residents as the UC Davis Aggie Square development, which has been accused of hastening gentrification, is underway. The money would fund affordable housing, local hiring programs, job training, and eviction protections for low- and middle-income people and people of color who may not receive many of the economic benefits the development is imagined to bring. (See related CP&DR coverage .) California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement with the City of Huntington Park to bring the city into compliance with SB 1000, a law requiring local governments to address environmental justice in their land use planning. Huntington Park faces some of the highest pollution levels in the state, and its residents are at increased risk of serious health burdens, but the city failed to meet any of SB 1000's requirements in its 2030 General Plan. To increase affordable housing supply, the San Jose City Council unanimously voted to scrap a requirement that affordable housing projects located in urban villages or near major transit stops include a ground floor dedicated solely to commercial purposes. While the policy was originally intended to encourage job and economic growth near public transit, the city will instead collaborate with nonprofits to encourage commercial use in buildings instead of requiring it and plans to extend this policy to all affordable housing projects. Climate change is 66% to 88% responsible for increased wildfire risk in the western United States, according to a team of California researchers. The researchers found that the severity of global warming's impact on atmospheric conditions has occurred much faster than expected, and their estimate is likely conservative. Labor and environmental groups filed a ballot initiative in San Diego County that would raise taxes to fund a $160 billion public transit expansion, including building a rail connection to the downtown airport and a new line between South County and Kearny Mesa. If passed, the plan would increase the regional sales tax by half a cent. Santa Clara County Supervisors have approved new development restrictions that prevent the construction of large-scale housing on an expansive area of unincorporated Coyote Valley. This move, intended to preserve the area for agricultural use, is the first time the county has limited development on land zoned for agriculture. The city of San Diego and the Padres will have to determine sale and development terms for a four-block, 5.25-acre East Village parking lot, named Tailgate Park, by January 31. The city extended the negotiation window by three months to allow for time to specify project requirements and community benefits that would result from the Padres' urban, office-anchored district, but the team is still working on a geotechnical analysis of the site's fault lines. Federal officials have found that BART's four-station extension in San Jose may cost $9.1 billion, which would constitute twice the original estimate for the total cost. While BART officials have not confirmed the increase, the Federal Transit Administration is contributing $2.3 billion in funds to the extension or a quarter of the final cost, whichever is less. The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is getting closer to achieving federal protection as it moves onto the designation phase. The proposed sanctuary has been in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's nomination phase since 2015, and the NOAA will now discuss its potential boundaries and request public commentary on its scope. Fresno apartment rent prices set another new record last month, reaching $1,472 per month. While the pace of rent growth has mellowed dramatically from its July peak, it continues to exceed pre-pandemic trends, with rent averaging a year-over-year increase of $243 per month, which is nearly 20%.

PPIC Finds Significant Under-Production of Housing California's plans for increasing the housing supply does not make up for decades of undersupply with population growth, according to data from the 2020 Census and analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California. The Census Bureau's data shows that new housing has not matched population growth; the amount of people increased 3.2 times more than housing units over the past decade. Now, California is short of the near 3.5 million homes that Gov. Gavin Newsom believes will be essential by 2025. The Census also proved that coastal housing is the most expensive, but inland regions have experienced the largest percent change in housing values because residents are pushed or attracted to their lower costs. State Says Angel Stadium Redevelopment May Violate Surplus Land Act The Department of Housing and Community Development has issued a Notice of Violation of the Surplus Land Act to the City of Anaheim over its Angel Stadium land sale. While the city has been trying to convince the HCD that its project satisfies California affordable housing law requirements, the state found three violations related to a lack of prioritization of affordable housing developers. Anaheim argued that, in addition to the 466 affordable units promised at the moment, the final project has a goal of 777, and the city will work with Angels owner Arte Moreno's company to provide 518 affordable homes outside of the development. They claim that the state declined their proposal to pair affordable housing with the Angel Stadium project. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Poll: Voters Support Residential Upzoning Most Los Angeles County voters support SB 9 and SB 10, according to a poll from the Los Angeles Business Council Institute conducted alongside the Los Angeles Times that analyzes public response to the new state laws, which go into effect January 1. While multiple homeowner groups and other opponents argued that the bills would destroy single-family neighborhoods, the new poll suggests that many voters support changes to traditional single-family zoning. Countywide, 55% of voters are in favor of SB 9, and 68% of voters support SB 10. However, renters were much more likely to support the bills than homeowners, especially SB 9. Advocates of the laws hope that they will contribute to more affordable prices by encouraging construction in areas that have previously faced higher-density development restrictions. State Compels Santa Cruz to Accept SB 35 Project The Department of Housing and Community Development found that the City of Santa Cruz's rejection of a project that was proposed under SB 35 was illegal after the council noted that the layout reflects a form of segregation. The developer, Novin Development, of the 140-unit 831 Water Street project suggested to separate its two buildings into affordable and market-rate housing, claiming that creating this separation would make it easier to secure grants that would subsidize the development and maintain affordability. Under SB 35, which seeks to simplify the housing construction process, the project would have to be approved because it meets Santa Cruz's objective standards, even though the council voted 6-1 to turn down the project. San Francisco Allows Parklets but Implements Extensive Regulations Though San Francisco Supervisors approved policy to make outdoor parklets popularized due to the pandemic permanent, strict rules and regulations are driving many restaurants to completely cease their outdoor dining operations, according to an analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle. One estimate suggests that as many as 90% of parklets must be removed or severely changed to comply with the over 60-page city guidelines covered in the Shared Spaces policy program, or they may face severe charges. As restaurants receive violation notices, the city is not acting on fine punishments, according to spokesperson for Mayor London Breed's office Jeff Cretan. Meanwhile, worried restaurant owners are working through confusing violation notices and parklet requirements to support their businesses. CP&DR Commentary: On Housing, Political Labels No Longer Apply A few weeks ago, CP&DR covered what was, for many, a shocking rejection of a 495-unit housing development in the heart of San Francisco by the city's Board of Supervisors. It was shocking for any number of reasons. Pragmatically, it calls into question the city's ability to meet its state-mandated housing goals. Politically, it was a rare abandonment of aldermanic privilege. Perhaps most notably, it demonstrated that, ideologically, progressivism is now officially, unambiguously at odds with the provision of housing. The real progressive stories are in San Diego, San Jose, and Sacramento -- to name a few. Quick Hits & Updates The latest proposal for the redevelopment of San Diego's Midway District into a new sports arena would include 4,000 new homes and 20 acres of park space. Developer Zephyr and affordable-housing company Chelsea Investment are spearheading the proposal that would reinvest in the 48-acre space surrounding the existing Pechanga Arena. The Biden Administration is working on reversing a Trump-era decision that allowed Cadiz Inc. to pipe water across public desert land for sale. Though Cadiz claims the project will not damage nearby springs, their idea has faced severe opposition from Indigenous tribes, advocacy groups, and environmental organizations. San Jose City Council is considering expanding on SB 9, the "duplex law," to allow upzoning in historic districts. The policy finds support from city planners and the Planning Commission as an effort to increase the area's housing supply. The Department of Housing and Community Development is reviewing Oakland City Council's delayed approval of a 222-unit residential project across from the West Oakland BART to decide if the city violated state laws. Their investigation comes a week after announcing their review of San Francisco Supervisors' denial of a 495-unit project. The Santa Cruz City Council rescinded its previous rejection of a development located at 831 Water Street and will consider updates from the developer after facing litigation threats. The council had previously denied the project because it felt that dividing the project into two halves — one for market-rate units and another for affordable housing — would contribute to the stigmatization of low-income people, but the developer is arguing that SB 35 would not allow the city to reject the development based on that argument. Long Beach will resubmit its plan to meet the state's RHNA requirements with an amendment that allows for more housing to be built on parcels designated as "high resource" areas. The change responds to state demands and should contribute to the requested construction of 26,502 units over the next 8 years. San Francisco Supervisors are considering a $64 million plan to protect renters that would help nonprofits buy small apartment buildings with high risk of resident displacement. The board is proposing to use funds from a $294 million pandemic reserve to help purchase at least 200 units, though one more supervisor will need to support the proposal to make it actionable. Google announced a plan to construct several hundred homes atop the proposed site for a new San Jose BART station near the Diridon transit hub. Public records show that Google's project within its Downtown West Village would include 500 units and 18,000 square feet of retail and commercial space. Boston Properties, the developer of San Jose's Platform 16 proposal, is "actively" considering restarting construction of a giant tech campus in 2022. The campus is located near the eventual Google transit village and the Diridon train station and will feature 16 terraces overlooking the banks of the Guadalupe River. If completed, the 1.1 million square-foot project would include 3 office buildings and a garage. The Housing Workshop, a housing policy firm, released a new report titled “CEQA: California’s Living Environmental Law: CEQA’s Role in Housing, Environmental Justice & Climate Change,” demonstrating that the 50-year-old law is a critical tool for advancing environmental justice and combating climate change. The report shows that the CEQA is not a significant barrier to the state’s housing production, contrary to critics' contentions. Extensive inequalities exist throughout the southwestern United States according to a study that explores the extent of thermal inequality. Researchers found that the difference reached as high as 6 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit in Palm Springs and the Inland Empire, and California urban regions proved to feature higher thermal inequality than other southwestern states, possibly due to extreme water use in wealthy neighborhoods. Oakland City Council will begin negotiations with the Black Cultural Zone Collaborative and its partners, Community Arts Stabilization Trust and Curtis Development, over a long-term lease of the city-owned Liberation Park in order to increase affordable housing availability and increase commercial and creative space. The 1.2-acre property is currently used as a community hub for shopping, free-meal distribution, outdoor movies, COVID-19 services, and more.

Cities tend to be land-rich but cash-poor. So it’s not surprising that – especially in California, where they don’t get much in the way of property taxes – cities are always on the hunt for creative ways to extract more cash from their valuable real estate. And over the past generation it’s been especially tempting for cities to use their real estate not only to generate income but also sales tax revenues, which have been the fool’s gold of municipal budgets ever since Proposition 13 passed more than 40 years ago. But the truth of the matter is that cities, for perfectly understandable reasons, are often lousy real estate investors. They’re highly political entities that are often incapable of making hard-nosed business decisions. They usually don’t have the real estate expertise required to make good decisions (and are often reluctant or too naive to hire that expertise). And they tend to get caught in a vise between trying to exploit long-term real estate assets on the one hand and trying to maximize sales-tax revenues on the other. Which brings us to the tale of Thousand Oaks and Rick Caruso. Thousand Oaks is a famously affluent and well-planned suburban community in Ventura County, just over the line from L.A. County west of the San Fernando Valley. Though the city’s planners have frequently sought to build more of a “downtown” along Thousand Oaks Boulevard, residents and some political leaders have resisted this transition strongly. They often use terms like “rustic” and “semi-rural” to describe the city, which has 127,000 residents and a median home price of around $1 million. Thousand Oaks, which did not impose a property tax in the pre-Prop. 13 era, is also highly dependent on sales tax revenues, the single biggest source of money for the city’s general fund. About 36% of the general fund revenue comes from sales tax, a far higher percentage than most California cities. (By comparison, neighboring Simi Valley, a city of about the same size with a similarly sized general fund, gets about 20% of its general fund from sales tax.) Rick Caruso is, of course, the legendary retail real estate developer who built The Grove in Los Angeles and Americana at Brand in Glendale among other shopping centers. (Caruso is also the beleaguered board chair of the beleaguered University of Southern California, but that’s another story.) Last month, Thousand Oaks City Council voted 3-2 to sell the dirt underlying Caruso’s The Lakes shopping center, which is located more or less next door to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, and allow Caruso to build a six-story apartment building on the site. The decision divided both the council and the city itself and, depending on how you look at it, represents a major step forward in urbanism in Thousand Oaks or the beginning of the end of the city’s rustic atmosphere. But the fact of the matter is that Thousand Oaks didn’t have much choice: The city’s past attempts to exploit its own real estate assets to generate sales tax revenue – combined with the original Caruso deal and rapidly changing retail sales patterns – had put the city in a hole that, basically, forced its hand on the apartment building.

Last week, CP&DR covered what was, for many, a shocking rejection of a 495-unit housing development in the heart of San Francisco by the city's Board of Supervisors. It was shocking for any number of reasons. Pragmatically, it calls into question the city's ability to meet its state-mandated housing goals. Politically, it was a rare abandonment of aldermanic privilege. Perhaps most notably, it demonstrated that, ideologically, progressivism is now officially, unambiguously at odds with the provision of housing. In many ways, the denial of 469 Stevenson was a long time coming. The "radical left," as I have called it, has been protesting capitalist developers for years. In part because of the influence of self-described Democratic Socialist Dean Preston, the current Board of Supervisors has waded deeply into radical territory and into anti-developer activism. Of course, by many accounts, the provision of housing aligns squarely with progressive values: housing is a human right, and governments ought to protect, and even further, that right. A diversity of housing typologies and price points, especially in dense, diverse cities, is the epitome of inclusiveness. San Francisco doesn't seem to get this. But some other cities do -- and not necessarily the ones you'd expect. Though I wrote about San Francisco this time around, the real progressive stories are in San Diego, San Jose, and Sacramento -- to name a few. Let's start with San Diego. The city, which has a heavy military influence, has traditionally worn its conservatism as a badge of honor. It gave us Republican standard-bearer Pete Wilson, and, as recently as last year, it was run by a Republican mayor, Kevin Faulconer (who also made a go at the governor's office). Appropriately, San Diego's urbanism comes straight from the 20th century: single-family homes on subdivsions served by commercial strips, a relatively small downtown, and not much in between. And yet, in just the past few years -- under Mayor Faulconer and now under his successor, Todd Gloria -- the city has aggressively and exuberantly taken measures to promote urbanism, increase its housing supply, and, ultimately, make the city more affordable for people at many income levels. In 2019, it eliminated parking requirements for housing near transit. Just last week, it did roughly the same for businesses. It's trying to redevelop its sports arena, with thousands of units of housing. It just welcomed a major light-rail extension (developed by the county Metropolitan Transit System). Much the same is happening in San Jose. Though not exactly a hotbed of political activism, partisan or otherwise, San Jose's pattern mirrors that of San Diego. It's largely suburban, and it's largely business-focused. Its civic culture and urban fabric couldn't be more different from San Francisco's legacy of hippies and Victorians. And yet, it too is slashing parking requirements, embracing public transit, promoting mega-developments (including 4,000 units associated with a new Google headquarters). Even prior to the passage of Senate Bill 9 , it had signaled a willingness to embrace duplexes on single-family lots. Mayor Sam Licardo has spoken unabashedly about his enthusiasm for housing production. Just the other day, the city confirmed that duplex redevelopment would be allowed in traditionally sacrosanct historic zones. In Sacramento -- which has typically maintained a low political profile, perhaps in deference to state politics -- the council and stakeholders alike have embraced reduced parking requirements, and it was the first city in California to legalize duplexes citywide. On that count, Sacramento vastly out-progressive'd San Francisco, declaring by-right -plexes to be a matter of social justice, reversing the segregation that implicitly accompanies exclusionary zoning. Berkeley -- staying true to its liberal values -- did much the same around the same time, and for the same stated reasons. As Bill Fulton reported a few months ago, production of multifamily housing in both cities is already way up, and that's before many of these new policies have kicked in. Beyond those cities, we have Los Angeles, which is politically too much of a mess to characterize as progressive or conservative but has, nonetheless, accepted its 560,000 RHNA number without protest and recently adopted a housing element accordingly. And we have Oakland, which is, arguably, the country's strongest bastion of social justice. It has embraced thousands of downtown units -- dating back to Mayor Jerry Brown – and its 26,000-unit RHNA goal. Now that it's been chastened by just about everyone short of Karl Marx's ghost, how is San Francisco following up its decision on 469 Stevenson? Well, Supervisor Ahsha Safai just introduced an ordinance that lets homeowners build fourplexes as long as two of the units are deed-restricted affordable. This approach essentially ensures that zero such units will be built in the city, since no one is going to build four units just so two of them can operate at a loss. To top it off, San Francisco is doing something similar with pandemic-inspired parklets: "allowing" them de jure, but imposing regulations so burdensome that they are, de facto, impossible to get permitted. San Francisco is thus living up to the traditional definition of "conservative": it doesn't necessarily mean that you vote MAGA, but it does mean that you value the status quo above all else. So, what's going on here? Broadly, these trends illustrate that political ideologies that inhabit manifestos, speeches, and lawn signs have yet to catch up with the reality of actual bodies occupying actual built environments. Much (though not all) of progressivism in city politics comes from older Californians and, in particular, older homeowners. These are people who came of age in the 1960s, when urban development looked very different than it does today. At the time, cities were emptying out. Many of the hippies who lived in the Haight probably replaced residents who had decamped for the Peninsula, Marin County, or Contra Costa County, leaving abundant vacancies and low rents. Meanwhile, the state government, led by Gov. Pat Brown, was spending money on all sorts of projects, most notably the expansion of the University of California and building of interstate and suburban highways. That's probably one reason why many people assume that the public sector can and should pay for affordable housing. Fast forward to today, and those two historical trends give rise to the progressive assumption that government can and should provide affordable housing--market-rate, for-profit developments be damned. Ideology aside, many of these people are in a personal bind. If they've owned property for years, they've enjoyed the twofold benefit of appreciation and Proposition 13 protections. And, of course, geographically constrained cities, like San Francisco and Santa Monica, make real estate development feel (correctly or not) like a zero-sum game. Conversely, I can't help thinking that the San Joses and San Diegos of the world want to get in on the fun. For pretty much as long as California has existed, they have been considered less urbane, less fun, and less attractive than rivals like San Francisco and Los Angeles. They missed out on the dense urbanism that developed before World War II and then contentedly took advantage of suburbanization in the latter half of the 20th century. Now that urbanism is back -- because of the creative class, antipathy towards long commutes, revolts against suburban living, or what-have-you -- they're grown tired of their own dullness (one of the more outlandish examples: San Jose's proposal for a weird monumental tower ). And, importantly, they have relatively more land with which to try new things and seem unafraid of welcoming new residents. When a Navy town, a state capital, and the world's largest suburb are all leading the way on housing, you know it's probably time to retire political labels, at least as they relate to housing. Pro-business vs. anti-capitalism; social justice vs. freedom; incumbent tenants vs. aspiring residents; density vs. open space; my property rights vs. your property rights; local control vs. sharing responsibility -- it's all just a mess. For those of us who need labels, at least as shorthand, there is an alternative. A few years ago, when (super-progressive) Santa Monica was deep in a battle over a slow-growth ballot measure, opponents of the measure put it best: the question is not "liberal vs. conservative" but rather "open vs. closed." Cities can be open to change and open to new residents, in whatever configuration suits them best. Or they can be closed, choosing to serve their own and hope that other people will find refuge in other places. Neither position bears on a city's attitude towards peace and love--just on the number who can be loved. In San Francisco, 495 more was, apparently, 495 too many. Image credit: Jerome Strauss, via Flickr .

Agreement Paves Way for "Net-Zero" Mega-Development North of Los Angeles Tejon Ranch Co. and environmental group Climate Resolve have come to an agreement on the construction of a "net-zero" greenhouse gas community with 19,300 homes located along the southern rim of the Tehachapi Mountains bordering Kern County. The agreement will make it easier to construct the 6,700-acre Centennial project, which faced several economic obstacles and environmental concerns, including wildfire risk and vehicle-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Going forward, Climate Resolve has committed to dismissing its legal argument that Los Angeles County violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it voted for the project because they believe the new development will both minimize climate risk through fire-resilient planning and help tackle climate change by installing 30,000 electric vehicle chargers and powering buildings with solar energy. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) San Francisco Considers Competing, Complex Schemes for Upzoning Single-Unit Lots The San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved a plan that will authorize fourplexes to be built on over 110,000 sites that are currently intended for either single-family homes or duplexes. Going forward, 75,000 single-family and 36,000 duplex parcels on both corner and mid-block lots could be rezoned, and the Planning Commission is hoping that the city will permit six-unit complexes on corner lots. About 80% of residents at the meeting voiced their support for the plan, hoping that it would increase housing stock through a medium-density approach. The Planning Commission has recommended a few amendments to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman's legislation, though city planners are hoping to pass the legislation before SB 9 goes into effect in order to supplement the state policy with provisions that it lacks. Supervisor Gordon Mar announced an alternative ordinance that would require new units produced by upzoning to be both larger and affordable to middle-income households. Mar plans to expand on fourplex legislation by ensuring its affordability to households earning less than 100% of area median income and to have at least two bedrooms. However, the housing would not be set aside for the "missing middle," allowing anyone to move into the units. Meanwhile, Supervisor Ahsha Safai is proposing an ordinance that would require two out of every four units and one out of every three units created by upzoning to be affordable. Report Gives California Cities Low Marks for Affordable Housing Production The Southern California News Group's third annual housing report card found that California is struggling to build state-mandated affordable housing, and authorized projects are largely unaffordable to a majority of residents. The report card grades all California cities and counties on their housing achievements. The group found that only 16% of approved homes were affordable to the state's low-income households, and 73% of the 109,000 housing permits issued in 2020 that would help build homes are only affordable to high-income residents or would contribute to rent burdens for everyone else. In the grading system, most areas earned C's or D's, and twice as many areas earned F's than they did A's. Additionally, only 20 out of 538 jurisdictions with housing mandates were on track to meet their housing and affordability goals. Los Angeles Approves Housing Element for Half-Million New Homes The Los Angeles City Council approved revisions to the city’s Housing Element that would establish one of the most ambitious rezoning programs in the nation and address systemic inequity in planning and land use policies that has contributed to the city’s current housing crisis. The rezoning program plans to allow for over 250,000 new housing units within three years of the plan's adoption and would put the city on track to meet the state’s request for nearly 500,000 new units by 2029. The Housing Element also includes anti-displacement strategy studies, eviction defense programs, inclusionary zoning studies, a Citywide Housing Needs Assessment, and a focus on rezoning in higher opportunity areas near jobs and transit. CP&DR Coverage: Fulton on Effectiveness of New Housing Laws CP&DR’s analysis of the Census Bureau’s survey of building permits suggests that new housing laws are making a difference, albeit a small one. New housing has been stuck in the range of 100,000 to 110,000 per year for the last several years and actually declined in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first year in office. But the trend line for 2021 suggests that new housing could hit 120,000 this year, which would be the most since 2006. That’s a long way from the 200,000+ that experts say the state needs in order to catch up to the deficit created over the past 30 years, but it’s a start. Quick Hits & Updates  The Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, LLC, a subsidiary of the non-profit Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO), filed a petition to block the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Plan Bay Area 2050. TODCO is arguing that the plan does not align with the CEQA. (See related CP&DR coverage .) YIMBY Law has filed its petition to challenge Los Angeles County's interpretation of the Housing Accountability Act that rejects the HAA's approval of housing developments constructed at the density that is permitted in the General Plan, even if zoning only authorizes lower densities. The county believes that a project located at 5353 Del Moreno Drive should adhere to zoning requirements. A state appeals court rejected a lawsuit intended to cease plans for California's high-speed rail project, finding that the project does not violate the state constitution in its piecemeal approach to constructing the project. While the project has made it through multiple legal challenges, it has been impacted by several issues regarding financing, permitting, engineering, and land acquisition. A federal judge is requiring that all seven Richmond City Council members appear in court to respond to allegations that they attempted to undermine a settlement agreement by complicating efforts to redevelop the 193-acre Point Molate site, even though they had already approved the project. The Guidiville Rancheria of California tribe and Upstream Point Molate LLC believe that Richmond is violating a legal ruling that requires the city to respond to environmental groups that have sued Richmond. The pandemic has impacted Californians' vision for the state's future workforce, as 42% of Californians noted their preference to work full-time outside the home, 24% wanting to work full-time remotely or from home, and 33% interested in a mix, according to a statewide survey from the Public Policy Institute of California. Analysis also found that preferences are region- and demographic-dependent, and those working remotely full- or part-time experience slightly higher job satisfaction. Los Angeles City Council is looking to prevent tech companies like Zillow from purchasing single-family homes in the city and flipping them for profit. The motion, co-authored by Nury Martinez and Nithya Raman, claims that "iBuying" is making housing more expensive and displacing city residents. California metros earned all five top spots on the list of the least affordable major housing markets. In order, Los Angeles-Long-Beach-Glendale, Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine and San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, San Diego-Carlsbad, and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura were the most expensive markets for purchasing a home. A new report from the NRDC examines the environmental impacts of Uber and Lyft in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. to understand the place that transportation network companies (TNCs) hold in sustainable futures. The report found that TNCs contribute to a car-reliant city with significant greenhouse gas emissions, but equitable road pricing, low-carbon transportation construction, car electrification, and fair labor could give TNCs a place in our future. In San Diego's next move to call off the lease-to-own deal for the Sempra Energy headquarters, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who advocated for the lease, has been subpoenaed to appear for a deposition next month. While Faulconer claimed that the deal would save the city $44 million by providing a 19-story offie space for hundreds of city employees, the building cost the city tens of millions of dollars to maintain a vacant tower troubled by asbestos and other issues. According to new data, Sacramento residents are enjoying their time out on the town, as vaccine availability and reduced COVID-19 cases has led to increased foot traffic in almost all area ZIP codes over the last 18 months. Safe Graph's interactive map tracks foot traffic's changes since the beginning of the pandemic, including one ZIP code that saw a 369.01% change. Four conservation groups have sued the US Forest Service over its gold drilling operation in California's Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains after the agency approved Canada-based Kore Mining Ltd.'s proposal to drill for gold and build roads on public land. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project, Friends of the Inyo, and the Sierra Club are arguing that the drilling could devastate local ecosystems. The U.S. Geological Survey released a report detailing the impacts of a hypothetical 7.0 magnitude earthquake on the Bay Area that suggests 1.45 million people will be removed from their homes, and 500,000 jobs will be lost. The Hayward Fault earthquake would impact the Bay Area for months or even years due to extremely minimal preparedness. Palo Alto City Council voted 5-2 to increase the cost of building commercial and research and development projects in order to pay for affordable housing construction. The city's "impact fees" will increase from $39.50 to $68.50 per square foot. The Hayward City Council issued an apology for its decision in the 1950s that redeveloped a 12-block area known as Russell City that flourished as a near-shoreline space for Black and Latino residents into an industrial park. City council members apologized to Russell City residents, their descendants, and those impacted by the city's forced displacement of residents and racist policies. Thousands of California State University students may lose access to affordable housing due to a system error that misunderstood the fine print of the new student housing program. While Cal State thought that it could only use $2 billion in funds that Gov. Gavin Newsom reserved for student housing, the school system can actually use the money alongside outside funds that would contribute to more affordable student housing construction. The Watsonville Pilots Association (WPA) filed a lawsuit against the city of Watsonville over its approval of a 21-condo project located across the street from the Watsonville Municipal Airport. The WPA is arguing that the city did not adhere to CEQA guidelines, the State Aeronautics Act, and a court order from a previous lawsuit in order to push the project through. A Bay Area school district is hoping to increase funding by finding a developer who will build over 1,100 apartment units on one of its campuses. The Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City is imagining a large multifamily housing project that would stand alongside retail, restaurants, parks, and trails on the 22-acre Serramonte Del Rey campus.

Los Angeles Adopts Housing Element to Accommodate Quarter-Million New Units The Los Angeles City Council approved revisions to the city’s Housing Element that would establish one of the most ambitious rezoning programs in the nation and address systemic inequity in planning and land use policies that has contributed to the city’s current housing crisis. The rezoning program plans to allow for over 250,000 new housing units within three years of the plan's adoption and would put the city on track to meet the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation requirement for nearly 500,000 new units by 2029. The Housing Element also includes anti-displacement strategy studies, eviction defense programs, inclusionary zoning studies, a Citywide Housing Needs Assessment, and a focus on rezoning in higher opportunity areas near jobs and transit.  Plan to Upzone Single-Unit Lots in San Francisco Moves Forward The San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved a plan, authored by Sup. Gordon Mar, that will authorize fourplexes to be built on over 110,000 sites that are currently intended for either single-family homes or duplexes. Going forward, 75,000 single-family and 36,000 duplex parcels on both corner and mid-block lots could be rezoned, and the Planning Commission is hoping that the city will permit six-unit complexes on corner lots. About 80% of residents at the meeting voiced their support for the plan, hoping that it would increase housing stock through a medium-density approach. The Planning Commission has recommended a few amendments to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman's legislation, though city planners are hoping to pass the legislation before SB 9 goes into effect in order to supplement the state policy with provisions that it lacks. 11-Mile Trolley Extension Serving Northern San Diego Opens San Diego launched its 11-mile trolley line that connects Old Town to La Jolla, for the first time connecting La Jolla, UC San Diego, Mission Bay Park, Pacific Beach, and Clairemont via light rail. The $2.2 billion project is the most expensive infrastructure endeavor in the region's history. City officials are celebrating its potential to connect jobs, homes, and access to education and healthcare, specifically through its stops near UC San Diego; the region's largest employment center, University City and the Golden Triangle; and other popular destinations. Local leaders agreed to make all rides free for the new system's first day in an effort to convince San Diegans to use the new system and witness its quick commute times. (See related CP&DR commentary .) Developer Sues Santa Clara over Blocked Housing Project Developer Republic Metropolitan filed a claim against the City of Santa Clara, claiming that the city violated state housing laws after it deferred plans for a mixed-use project near El Camino Real. The developer was supposed to build housing, 12,000 square-feet of retail, and 32,670 of recreational space on the parcel owned by the city and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Of the 240-units proposed on the 2.6-acre site located between the CalTrain Station and Santa Clara University, 170 would have been for students and workers, and 70 would have been affordable. The developer argues that its $3.5 million and lengthy time investment in the project was wrongly and unjustifiably terminated in October 2020 when Republic Metropolitan met with the city council in closed session. HCD Names Head of Housing Accountability Unit The California Department of Housing and Community Development has named David Zisser as the new leader of its new Housing Accountability Unit. The new unit will play a critical role in ensuring that local leaders fulfill their legal responsibility to plan, zone for, and permit their share of the state’s housing needs. HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez hopes that Zisser, formerly associate director of advocacy group Housing California, will promote housing policy accountability. Zisser will, going forward, lead a team dedicated to generating prohousing incentives and planning grants supporting local jurisdictions to comply with state housing laws, education and technical assistance to help jurisdictions understand state law, and accountability actions for non-compliance as needed. (See related CP&DR coverage .) CP&DR Coverage: Rejection of Tower in San Francisco Sets off Renewed Housing Debates A residential tower of nearly 500 units at 469 Stevenson in San Francisco's South of Mission district had received approval from the city’s Planning Commission. But a neighborhood group called the Yerba Buena Consortium filed an appeal based on the California Environmental Quality Act, leading supervisors to vote the project down, 8-3. The decision has set off renewed debates over San Francisco’s willingness to address its housing crisis and to uphold the city’s famously progressive values. This approach to housing production, to the extent that it represents a widespread view among San Francisco Supervisors, puts the city out of step with other expensive, housing-constrained cities such as Berkeley, San Jose, and San Diego.It has also caught the attention of the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s accountability unit, which is launching an investigation with support of the state Attorney General’s Office. Quick Hits & Updates The Transformative Climate Communities Program's (TCC) Draft Round 4 Program Guidelines and updated TCC Mapping Tool is available for public comment until December 15. The Round 4 Program Guidelines will expand eligibility to under-resourced unincorporated communities, California Indigenous tribes, and the top 25% of disadvantaged communities according to CalEnviroScreen. The Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, LLC, a subsidiary of the non-profit Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO), filed a petition to block the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Plan Bay Area 2050. TODCO is arguing that the plan does not align with the CEQA. While the Oakland A's have been flirting with a plan to develop the team's waterfront ballpark project in Jack London Square for years, the team has officially placed an offer to purchase a piece of land in Las Vegas to potentially host the ballpark site. Though negotiations are still underway, news broke the same day that Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff confirmed that the city would receive federal funds for infrastructure improvements at Jack London Square. Bakersfield is participating a pilot program that will select 100 vulnerable, young residents to participate in a year-long study that examines how free access to public transit and electric scooters and bikes impacts their lives. The program reflects a nationwide interest in the concept of universal basic mobility, which would guarantee a minimum level of transportation accessibility. The Wildlands Conservancy closed escrow on a 26,600-acre ranch in Northern California and will transform the space with a 10-bedroom lodge into an open space with mountains and valleys for the public. The family of investment giant Dean Witter sold the plot on the Eel River for $25 million to the conservation group that plans to welcome hiking, biking, kayaking, swimming, and camping on the site. Burbank City Council is proposing an ordinance that would allow city council to have control over final ministerial design review and approval authority for projects eligible under SB 35. The 2017 housing bill simplifies the process for housing construction, including the review process, if cities do not meet certain RHNA requirements. The Inland Empire city of Chino, which is home to several large industrial projects, enacted a 45-day moratorium on future warehouses and logistics centers located north of Schaefer Avenue. In the meantime, officials will study the impact of truck traffic and air pollution on Chino residents and consider if northern Chino should welcome other purposes. (See related CP&DR coverage .) San Diego County released a plan to significantly reduce carbon emissions across the region, the first step of which is its "Regional Decarbonization Framework," which proposes net zero emissions by 2035. The framework is intended to meaningfully change the way San Diego residents power transportation, buildings, and land use. The Institute for Local Government presented  its Platinum 2021 Beacon Vanguard Award to city of Fremont and a Silver to the city of Thousand Oaks for their cumulative success in energy savings, natural gas savings, agency greenhouse gas reductions, community GHG reductions, and sustainability practices. Several other cities, including Piedmont, San Rafael, and Alameda, also received Beacon Spotlight Awards for their triumphs within specific categories. Three people have been charged with counts of fraud and embezzlement for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Los Angeles funds intended to help the city's unhoused population. According to Attorney General Rob Bonta, the three people, two of whom worked for nonprofit People assisting the Homeless, applied for the nonprofit to use fraudulent financial assistance to help people who were not eligible for assistance because they have homes. The Sacramento region has the least affordable new home market in the country, according to a report released Thursday by real estate technology firm Knock. The report found that 80% of households cannot purchase a newly constructed home, which would cost residents $128,447 to afford the down payment, and the median income is $76,706. Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a plan to look into prioritizing 100% affordable housing projects in neighborhoods with abundant public transit, green space, education, grocery store, and health access. The vote comes after a report presented in front of the council found that 14% of affordable units approved in the last decade are located in high-resource areas, while the remaining 86% are in low-resource and low-income communities. Implementation of a $1.3 billion plan to introduce rail service from Sacramento to the Central Valley and San Jose is already three years behind schedule and over budget. Officials are now discussing plans to let go of some of the 16 train stations that would have been part of a larger regional expansion of rail service until they can get additional funding. Community group Downtown Crenshaw is fighting a plan to redevelop the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles after Harridge Development Group, known for its high-end housing projects, bought the property. While Harridge purchased the plaza, which has long been a part of the predominantly Black community of South Los Angeles, for $111 million, Downtown Crenshaw's $115 million offer to grow co-ops, green space, and small businesses on the property was rejected, signaling that systemic racism will propel gentrification in the area.

If you read CP&DR on a regular basis, you know that we’ve been trying to cover individual situations where developers are using the state’s new housing production laws to push through projects that might previously been denied by local officials. Like the clever L.A. developer who got an affordable housing project in Marin County approved using SB 35 and AB 1763. Or the developer that forced Los Altos to fold its opposition to a five-story downtown building. Or the so-far-successful legal challenge to Huntington Beach’s denial of a 48-unit condo building just off Beach Boulevard. So the anecdotal evidence is coming in. But does that mean more housing is being built – in particular, more multifamily housing, which is the main target of the housing production laws? CP&DR ’s analysis of the Census Bureau’s survey of building permits suggests that it is making a difference, albeit a small one. New housing has been stuck in the range of 100,000 to 110,000 per year for the last several years and actually declined in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first year in office. But the trend line for 2021 suggests that new housing could hit 120,000 this year, which would be the most since 2006. That’s a long way from the 200,000+ that experts say the state needs in order to catch up to the deficit created over the past 30 years, but it’s a start. Yes, single-family permits are up about 10%. But units in apartment projects (5+ units according to the Census) are up 20%. And new apartment projects are up 35%. It’s impossible to determine from these statistics whether the new laws are playing a role, but the jump in apartment buildings suggests that something is going on. In both 2020 and 2021, single-family units account for about 57% of all new housing. That’s a long-term trend, as both single-family stock and home ownership rates have been in the high 50s for a long time. At the same time, construction of “plexes” – duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes – has been bumping along at about 3% of total production. (We’ll see if that changes with the passage of SB 9 .) But the real action is with the apartment projects – the housing type that developers are advancing most frequently using SB 35 and other new state laws. There a lot of ways one could slice the numbers, but the bottom line is this: Something changed in the Fall of 2020. The number of multifamily projects and multifamily units being permitted went up significantly – and has stayed up.

CP&DR Vol. 36 No. 11 November 2021

The approval of a 495-unit, 27-story high-rise apartment building—with roughly 25% deed-restricted affordable units--by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco was assumed to be a sure thing in the famously expensive, housing constrained city. Except San Francisco has become equally famous for rejecting projects, including, recently, everything from a branch of a locally beloved burrito restaurant to a 13-story, 316-unit building in the Tenderloin. The apartment building, at 469 Stevenson, met the same fate—for now—on a 8-3 vote in late October. Developer Build, Inc. had proposed 422 market-rate and 73 deed-restricted affordable units (plus several dozen off-site affordable units) on a prime site of roughly 25,000 square feet is located one block from Market Street, the city’s main transit artery, and is surrounded by high-rises and next door to a steam plant. Its current use: an overflow parking lot for a Nordstrom department store. “Five-hundred units is…huge, especially considering the existing conditions of the parking lot. It’s much, much needed,” said Nicholas Foster, senior planner at the San Francisco Planning Department. The project would have represented a full 10% of the city’s housing annual production goals.

Last weekend, San Diego’s Blue Line Extension opened, connecting Downtown San Diego to UC San Diego, 12 miles to the north, for the first time. Despite the amount of rail transit construction in both the Bay Area and L.A., perhaps no rail project in California holds as much potential to reshape a major city. But whether the Blue Line actually will reshape San Diego remains to be seen.

San Diego Eliminates Many Commercial Parking Requirements In an effort to make San Diego less car-centric and more climate-friendly, the city council voted unanimously to eliminate parking requirements for businesses in neighborhoods located near ample transit or in small plazas near dense residential areas. Under the policy, new businesses will not have to account for parking for customers or staff, and existing businesses may use their parking spaces for other purposes, such as outdoor dining or additional retail space. The move finds support from both businesses and environmentalists, who hope that less reliance on cars will help San Diego meet its climate action plan goals. Opponents are concerned that San Diego's transit system is too inadequate, which will just burden people who are forced to rely on cars as well as seniors and disabled people who can't easily take transit or walk places. Federal Infrastructure Act to Bring Billions to California; Transit Funding in Limbo Among the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act bill package passed by Congressed and signed by President Biden, California stands to receive roughly $45 billion in funding over five years, including the following: $25.3 billion for federal-aid highway apportioned programs and $4.2 billion for bridge replacement and repairs; $9.45 billion to improve public transportation; $384 million to support the expansion of an EV charging network; a minimum of $100 million to help provide broadband coverage across the state; $84 million to protect against wildfires; $3.5 billion to improve water infrastructure across the state and ensure clean, safe drinking water for California communities; and $1.5 billion for infrastructure development for airports over five years. The federal government declared that California is ineligible for $12 billion in public transit funding due to changes in state law changes that reduced pensions for employees. Federal law requires state and local agencies to protect employee interests to be eligible for federal public transit grants. The Biden administration disagrees with the changes because they were implemented by law and not determined by public employee unions. This means that the state would be ineligible for the infrastructure bill's $9.5 billion intended for public transit agencies. Critics note that, while California will receive the most funding overall, its per capital share of $1200 is relatively small compared to other states. Hoped-For Bay Area Parkland Purchased by Private Buyer Dashing hopes of conservationists, Danville entrepreneur Bill Brown recently purchased a 50,500-acre property in the East Bay, making it the largest private land listing in California. The property had been eyed to become a future state park. A cattle ranching family from Southern California listed the property, N3 Ranch, that they had owned for 85 years but hadn't used frequently. The property, which was listed for $68 million, stretches across four counties, Santa Clara, Alameda, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus, and features canyons, trout streams, meadows, and oak woodlands. N3 Ranch also includes the 4,089-foot Eylar Mountain and part of Mission Peak and is home to mountain lions, bobcats, foxes and a herd of elk. Brown, founder of Walnut Creek wholesaler Central Garden and Pet Co, identified his commitment to "preserving ranch lands in California." Historic Segregation Persists in Bay Area Segregation in the Bay Area remains high, particularly in neighborhoods populated by people of color as a result of discriminatory policy and in mid-sized to smaller suburbs with a predominantly white population, according to a report released by UC Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute. Researchers found that six of the ten most segregated Black neighborhoods and five of the ten most segregated Latinx neighborhoods are in Oakland, while Marin County, the most segregated county in the Bay Area, includes eight of the ten most segregated white neighborhoods. Segregation in large, diverse cities is more neighborhood-specific, while largely white suburbs are more segregated in the context of the entire Bay Area. Neighborhoods with minimal historical and existing exclusionary practices are the most integrated. CP&DR Coverage: Fulton on San Diego's Blue Line Extension Last weekend, San Diego’s Blue Line Extension opened , connecting Downtown San Diego to UC San Diego, 12 miles to the north, for the first time. Despite the amount of rail transit construction in both the Bay Area and L.A., perhaps no rail project in California holds as much potential to reshape a major city. But whether the Blue Line actually will reshape San Diego remains to be seen. The uncertainty arises from a variety of factors, including the uncertain role that downtown San Diego will play in the region’s economy in the future; the fact that the stations themselves are build hard alongside Interstate 5, diminishing the potential for transit-oriented development; and sheer NIMBYism along the line, especially in Clairemont, a traditionally suburban neighborhood that is now in the path of growth. Quick Hits & Updates The Strategic Growth Council (SGC) released its 2020-2021 Annual Report that details its approach to partnering and serving California communities. The report analyzes the SGC's accomplishments over the past year, including funding for Indigenous tribes for clean energy projects, the Transformative Climate Communities framework, and the BOOST Pilot Program. Oakland City Council  approved an exclusive deal to negotiate with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, who wants to redevelop the Coliseum site into a cultural hub with affordable housing, Black-owned sports teams, a Black business district, and some form of an academic center. The group will have 18 months to find an agreement to buy or lease the city's share of the 100-acre site. Clovis City Council rejected a proposal for a 40-unit development near Old Town Clovis due to residents' concerns regarding traffic congestion, excess parking, and the "monolithic" height proposed for the project. Council members denied amendments to the city's general plan and rezoning that would have allowed for the three-story multifamily apartment complex to be built on land zoned for medium density residential single-family homes. Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin is calling for the city's sidewalk repair program to be improved, urging that city workers are finding difficulty making repairs required due to major legal settlements. Galperin asked the Department of Public Works to change its approach to fixing city sidewalks by working on smaller segments of broken sidewalk at a time in order to reduce costs and time spent working. The Transformative Climate Communities Program's (TCC) Draft Round 4 Program Guidelines and updated TCC Mapping Tool is available for public comment until December 15. The Round 4 Program Guidelines will expand eligibility to under-resourced unincorporated communities, California Indigenous tribes, and the top 25% of disadvantaged communities according to CalEnviroScreen. In order to ease its housing crisis, Truckee Town Council voted unanimously to extend its moratorium on new short-term rentals, which will impact housing availability during the Tahoe winter ski season. During the pandemic, many long-time residents and employees were forced to leave their homes due to an increase in wealthy residents in the area. (See related CP&DR coverage .) A Santa Clara County judge denied a petition to preserve San Jose's decades-old CityView Plaza, which will allow for the demolition of an old bank and the construction of a massive office campus that would bring 14,000 jobs. In its petition, the Preservation Action Council of San Jose argued that San Jose City Council's environmental review was flawed and that the new development would not be able to incorporate the "brutalist" architectural style of the original 1973 Bank of California building. Los Angeles is taking an aggressive approach to building affordable housing: by committing to constructing 250,000 housing units over the next eight years. In its "Plan to House LA," the city includes options for how to build the nearly 500,000 units it must meet according to the state Housing Element but believes that only about half of that are likely to be built. Los Angeles, according to LA City Planning Assistant Betty Barberena, is both the most rent-burdened and overcrowded major city, has the fewest units per adult of any domestic region, and features housing costs that surpass income growth. LA Metro is hoping to build new rail and bus rapid transit lines throughout the county using revenue collected through a sales tax approved by voters in 2008 and 2016. Their effort is intended to confront the affordable housing crisis by constructing 10,000 units over the next ten years. The San Diego Association of Governments is proposing to make public transportation free while charging a per-mile fee to drivers as soon as 2030. The $160 billion idea includes sectioning off highway lanes for buses and carpools and expanding a high-speed transit system. Brightline West will add an extension along the Cajon Pass to Rancho Cucamonga to its proposal for a high-speed train route from Victorville to Las Vegas. The new station connects with an existing service between San Bernardino and Los Angeles and would extend along 48 miles within the 15 Freeway. Opponents of a high-speed rail project across California are urging a state appeals court to squash the project by denying billions in bond funds for construction, which has already begun in Fresno County and the central Joaquin Valley. The court will decide if a piece of 2016 legislation contradicts Proposition 1A, which approved a $9.9 billion bond for the project. Los Angeles City Council voted 12-2 to approve a ban on sitting, sleeping, and lying at 54 locations in 3 districts. While officials who voted yes asked for expanded outreach resources near these locations, other council members and advocates for the city's unhoused population are concerned that there are not yet enough resources to help people before ban is introduced.