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Deep down in President Biden’s “Jobs for America” infrastructure plan – so far down it’s easy to miss – there’s a surprisingly strong statement about the need to “eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies”. It’s the kind of statement you’d traditionally expect from a Republican White House. But typical of the post-Trump world, the statement is indicative of how the Trump Administration has turned things upside down.

A wave of cities throughout California, including Sacramento, Berkeley, and Oakland, have pledged to do away with single-unit zoning and permit duplexes by-right. It's a seemingly simple principle, but a potentially vast planning challenge. Bill Fulton and Josh Stephens discuss this latest trend in planning and what it means for cities that have already adopted it and for cities that might be considering it. Meanwhile, the legislature is considering a raft of land-use bills that are as diverse as they are numerous. Bill and Josh  look at some of the highlights.   For other platforms, including Spotify, click here .  Related CP&DR Coverage  Ending Single-Family Zoning Is Only Step One How Berkeley Will Move Away From Single-Family Zoning Sacramento Moves Forward With Abolishing Single-Family Zoning Proposed Legislation Would Give Cities Fewer Excuses for Blocking Housing COMMENTS:

Biden Infrastructure Plan to Include California Investments, Address Housing Inequity President Biden’s recently released $2 trillion infrastructure plan addresses , among many other needs, exclusionary zoning laws – like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing – have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities. California cities have already begun to reassess this type of zoning; a national movement could hasten California’s efforts. Biden is calling on Congress to enact an innovative, new competitive grant program that awards flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing. The grant program is just one of the many elements of Biden’s Infrastructure plan that could impact California in substantive ways. In addition to California’s share of repairs and upgrades to existing infrastructure, the plan could include improvements for the 351-mile rail corridor between San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, and San Diego. A map released by Amtrak includes a plan for a new passenger rail service along existing tracks connecting Los Angeles with Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson. Federal funds might also be used for local projects such as extension of BART to San Jose or a network of carpool lanes in the Bay Area.  Santa Monica Considers Sweeping Pro-Housing Policies The Santa Monica City Council adopted  an an aggressive set of principles to increase housing, and housing equity, in the city, which, despite demand, has scarcely grown in the past two decades. Among other principles, the city will explore upzoning along boulevards, an “affordable housing overlay zone” throughout most of the city, incentives for accessory dwelling units, and the possibility of allowing multiple units on lots currently zoned for single-family housing. The policies include an interim zoning ordinance (IZO) banning non-residential developments in Santa Monica and single-family dwellings in commercial districts for 45 days as staff identifies potential housing sites, as part of the Housing Element Update. For the 2021-2029 planning period, Santa Monica has been mandated to build 8,873 housing units, 70 percent of which are affordable units. With only 3% of the city’s total land area currently available as the highest potential for housing, the turnover of even a handful of sites to non-residential development instead of housing projects would greatly impact the city’s ability to have sufficient sites for the SSI and would very likely hamper future Housing Element updates, said city officials. (See related CP&DR coverage .)   HCD launches Efforts to Update California Statewide Housing Plan A few years ago, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) announced it will rebrand the California Statewide Housing Assessment, which lays out the state’s housing challenges and opportunities, and produce a Housing Action Plan with strategies and long-term goals. Citing longstanding policies that create barriers to housing and the catastrophic impacts of COVID-19 on housing and homelessness, HCD is rebranding the assessment as the Statewide Housing Plan for all Californians. The new Statewide Housing Plan will include housing goals, policies, and objectives; Data and analysis of 10 years of housing need for all residents, including vulnerable populations; details about current housing conditions; recommended actions for government and private sector to achieve housing goals; Housing assistance goals, including for people experiencing homelessness; identification of constraints and recommendations to remove barriers; evaluation of data priorities and needs to support housing goals; and strategies to coordinate housing assistance and activities.  CP&DR Coverage: State Updates CalEnviroScreen Amid Calls for Environmental Justice In March, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) released the draft of its fourth iteration of CalEnviroScreen (CES). First released in 2013, CES is a database of environmental hazards that forms the basis of myriad state and local efforts to limit human exposure and strive for environmental justice. One of its most significant impacts on urban planning is that of identifying disadvantaged communities for the purpose of drafting environmental justice elements for cities’ and counties’ general plans, as required by 2016’s Senate Bill 1000. The most dramatic change to CES is the addition of a new indicator — risk of lead poisoning — bringing the tool's total number of indicators to 21. The other 20 indicators have been updated with recent data. Several indicators, including those relating to water quality, pesticide use, and chrome plating facilities, have been tweaked. OEHHA is currently taking comments on the draft. The deadline is April 30. Quick Hits & Updates  According to a Los Angeles Times review of environmental cases brought by state attorneys who have jurisdiction of Los Angeles, prosecutors have made more nonprosecution agreements with companies that flout environmental regulations than any other U.S. Attorney’s Office in the nation. In some cases, companies declare bankruptcy and dissolve after making the deal, effectively leaving no responsible party to prosecute. Once a paved roadway, a block on the east side of downtown San Diego has been converted to a pedestrian promenade. Officially called the “14th Street Greenway,” the project is the first of six interconnected greenways planned for surrounding city blocks, as envisioned by the Downtown San Diego Mobility Plan. Following up on an earlier council action, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to start removing single-family zoning from the city and update the city’s general plan. Along with the zoning changes, council members approved prioritizing projects in Priority Development Areas and transit and commercial corridors. The new rules allow up to four units on lots currently zoned for just one unit. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Amid concerns about displacement and gentrification, the developers behind Aggie Square , a proposed $1.1 billion satellite campus for UC Davis in Sacramento, are offering new guarantees to fund affordable housing, workforce development and opportunities for nearby businesses. The new agreement, would create legally enforceable mandates for affordable housing construction and local hiring. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) A new study from researchers at UCLA and Santa Clara University that examines the opportunity cost of parking requirements found that 13 percent of Silicon Valley is devoted to parking, and that more than half of the average commercial parcel is parking space. The team ran a simulation in which parking requirements from the year 2000 forward were reduced and showed that under conservative assumptions the region could have added space for nearly 13,000 jobs, equivalent to a 37 percent increase over the actual job growth that occurred during that time. San Diego County is teaming up with the U.S. Navy to purchase 2,151 acres in Campo that will expand San Diego’s conservation land. Acquiring the property will help officials link nearby reserves and wildlife corridors and may provide connections to nearby regional trails, such as the Pacific Crest Trail, county staff said. The Clovis City Council unanimously voted to study the feasibility of annexing 1,050 acres that includes roughly 825 acres of new housing the council approved in October. The city’s contribution to funding the environmental review is less than a quarter of the nearly half a million in contributions from developer groups.

I know next to nothing about commodities trading. But I do know this: people who buy pork bellies do not make bacon. Whether they end up on a breakfast plate, on a bun, in a McRib, or as the centerpiece of a celebrity chef's paleo-inspired menu is immaterial to the people who own them. Investors buy commodities (or, rather, the financial idea of commodities) not for what the commodities do but for the simple fact that they exist. They profit when demand grows relative to supply or supply shrinks relative to demand.  To the person who owns pork bellies, the fewer pork bellies there are in the world the better.  How, then, is a house like bacon?  Investors buy a commodity when it is A) relatively scarce; and B) undervalued relative to its scarcity. Homes are undervalued when the cost of purchasing them is relatively less than the cost of renting them (accounting for carrying costs, value-add improvements, etc.). If investors can buy homes such that the value of rent exceeds the cost of ownership ,then they make a profit. This is Real Estate Investing 101. (Not to be confused with Real Estate Developing 101.) This capitalist axiom makes Los Angeles a ripe target, since the city has some of the highest rent-to-income rates in the country. Over the past few years, concerns about “Wall Street ownership” of houses in California has grown increasingly serious, with the The Blackstone Group being the poster child for a handful of finance companies that buy up single-family homes, often in disadvantaged areas, only to kick out tenants and increase rents. They charge as much rent as the market will bear, with little concern for communities and the urban fabric. As absentee landlords, they probably aren’t going to get involved in civic life. Maybe they’re outbidding real people who want their pieces of the American dream and would be better stewards thereof. Maybe they’re going to distribute their profits to horrible human beings who each already own five homes of their own. They are surely displacing and evicting vulnerable residents. All of those things are bad. But those bad things are all made possible by the opportunity that Blackstone has been given. And, yet, somehow the (justified) ire against Blackstone leads many stakeholders to conclude that, to really stick it to The Man, we need to limit new development. This is completely backwards. Blackstone deserves derision. Unfortunately, much of the derision comes from a loose alliance of anti-growth homeowners and far-left, anti-Wall Street activists that, rather than solve the problem on which Blackstone is capitalizing, plays right into Blackstone’s hands. The 80,000 or so homes in Blackstone’s nationwide portfolio and the few thousand homes in its California portfolio do not drive the 3.5 million-unit Los Angeles market. Blackstone did not create a shortage of 3 million units statewide (give or take). Blackstone did not impose restrictive zoning laws. Blackstone did not kill California’s redevelopment system. Blackstone did not drive up rents in the 2010s when recession-stricken millennials emerged out of their parents’ basements.  Blackstone did not create California's insane real estate market. It is capitalizing on California’s insane real estate market. The housing market is complex . But, fundamentally, the way to decouple speculation and commodification from housing — whether you own one, ten, or 10,000 houses — is to make housing less scarce.  That is, generally speaking, what the YIMBY movement is trying to do. It’s what many planners in California are trying to do. It’s even what some elected officials are trying to do, at the state and, sometimes, at the local levels. But it’s rarely what incumbent homeowners are trying to do.  Many homeowners are their own little Blackstones. Many of the same people who decry the purchase of thousands of homes by Wall Street are the same people who protest the development of new homes in their neighborhoods. Why? Sure, some of them care — a little — about “neighborhood character.” But California’s NIMBY movement has not endured the decades, beginning with its Prop. 13 temper tantrum in 1978, because of neighborhood character. It’s because they don’t want to endanger their property values.  Last year’s SB 50, this year’s SB 9 and SB 10, and other municipal- and state-level pro-density regulations warrant plenty of scrutiny and criticism. All’s fair in politics. But, in the debate over growth, Blackstone is a red herring.  See, Blackstone is not a developer. It’s a landlord .  As I've written before, landlords and developers do completely different things and have completely different interests. With its pile of cash, Blackstone can scoop up homes by the thousands. It doesn’t need new development. It doesn’t need to wait years for entitlements or battle neighbors at community meetings. In fact, Blackstone has been making off like a bandit while stakeholders have been making speeches and planners have been patiently tearing their hair out. California has more humans than bedrooms, by a margin in the millions. To not build just to spite Blackstone is like not planting crops when people are starving. The best way to de-commoditize housing is simple: make more of it. If you truly hate Blackstone, you should want to see cranes and backhoes everywhere. More homes and more housing choice means more aggregate supply and less demand for the units on offer by any given landlord. I don’t know what the price of bacon is going to be tomorrow. I do know that, when Californians bring it home, I want more homes for them to bring it to.

Ever since the killing of George Floyd last May, passions surrounding social justice and racial equity have been running high and catching attention of policymakers across California. Meanwhile, a less dramatic — but still important — effort to has been underway in the halls of California bureaucracy to help achieve at least some of those social justice goals.

Assembly Considers Ballot Measure to Nullify State Influence over Zoning  Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Carson) introduced ACA 7 , a constitutional amendment that, if placed on an upzoning statewide ballot and approved by two-thirds of voters, would drastically reduce the state’s ability to influence local zoning regulations. The bill is intended to solidify cities’ local control and would run contrary to a raft of recently adopted laws, as well as many recently introduced bills, designed to mute cities’ opposition to housing development. As currently written, the measure "would provide that a county or city ordinance or regulation enacted under the police power that regulates the zoning or use of land within the boundaries of the county or city would prevail over conflicting general laws. (See related CP&DR coverage .) State Updates Tsunami Risk Maps for California Coast The California Geological Survey released a series of seven maps created to evaluate tsunami risk along the California coast. In the state’s most populous coastal area, changes to the existing Los Angeles County inundation map are modest, with the inundation potential upgraded in some areas and downgraded in others, noted Rick Wilson, head of the CGS Tsunami Program. CGS and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) have advised several communities with isolated pockets of population and few roads for evacuation -- such as in Alamitos Bay, Marina del Rey, and the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles -- about their increased inundation areas. A large tsunami could flood areas of Marina Del Rey and Long Beach to an elevation of 15 feet. Along the north coast, which is considered the most vulnerable part of the state, large tsunami could send surges onshore up to 50 feet high toward Crescent City and 30 feet high along the outer coast of Humboldt Bay and the Eureka area. In some cases, warnings could precede a tsunami by as little as ten minutes. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Research Predicts Endurance of Telecommuting Post-Pandemic  New research from the USC Marshall School of Business suggests that changes in working conditions brought on by the pandemic shutdown will have lasting effects on real estate and traffic patterns. The researchers, using a quantitative model of internal city structure, the researchers found three major impacts: Jobs move to the core of the city while workers move to the periphery, traffic congestion eases and travel time drops, and average real estate prices drop with declines in core locations and increases on the periphery. They found that an increasing share of telecommuters is decisive for the average price of real estate due to workers telecommuting from less expensive locals, often on the periphery of the city core. When 33 percent of workers telecommute, the study found that the average house price falls by nearly 6 percent. Meanwhile, the income of landowners falls by 8 percent. The researchers qualify their findings by stating that it assumes workers actually enjoy telecommuting. If given the option to return, unhappy telecommuters could make the findings much less robust. CP&DR Coverage: Bill Fulton on Challenge of Implementing Residential Upzoning The rush to abolish single-family zoning in California – especially Northern California – is on. Sacramento was the first city to make the commitment, followed by Berkeley. Oakland and South San Francisco appear likely to follow. But, as any practicing planner knows, the actual use zoning – single family vs. duplex vs. multifamily – is only the first basic element in a city’s actual development code. Layered on top of use zoning are all kinds of other development requirements – parking standards, lot size, setbacks, etc. – that also restrict development. On top of that are private deed covenants and homeowner association rules, which could restrict development even further. Quick Hits & Updates  Fresno has the largest number of people per household and the highest percentage of families of large U.S. cities, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Four other California cities were in the top 10 for largest family size in a single household: Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento, and San Diego. California ranks second nationally for the fullest homes in America, with an average size of 3.3 people per home. With only one dissenting vote, the Southern California Association of Governments voted to adopt a final RHNA plan that will triple the state’s housing goals. The plan will now go to the Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) for final approval. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Caltrans unveiled the California Transportation Plan (CTP) 2050, which details the state's long-range transportation vision and establishes a roadmap to improve mobility and accessibility in the state while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to transportation. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) are launching a new initiative to tackle the Bay Area’s housing crisis. A central pillar of THE Expanded Regional Housing Portfolio effort is the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA), established by AB1487. BAHFA is the first state-approved regional housing finance authority in California.  The Coastal Commission approved a permit to a $330 million redevelopment of Dana Point Harbor. Aside from overhauling the aging marina, plans call for new restaurants, shops, and hotels, to be completed in 2026. The City of San Bernardino  has chosen Renaissance Downtowns USA and ICO Real Estate Group to redevelop a 43-acre Carousel Mall site. The development teams have proposed building up to 3,500 new residential units around a walkable downtown hub with a Riverwalk that loops through the new development. The Los Angeles City Planning Commission will consider an ordinance that would revamp the city’s implementation of a 1984 law to require developers to offer a one-to-one replacement of existing units that are of equivalent size and include the same number of bedrooms, among other new clarifications and restrictions. San Francisco’s rental market is showing signs of bouncing back after a 26 percent year-over-year drop in rental prices. In February, the city’s rent prices increased 1.2 percent in February from January—the first monthly increase since the start of the pandemic. The Long Beach City Council voted unanimously to begin exploring the feasibility of a Latino cultural district. The idea, called El Mercado de Long Beach, would be to build an area near downtown that would include restaurants, grocery stores, housing, entertainment and more run by and for the Latino community. Google announced nearly $30 million in loans for three subsidized housing developments in the Bay Area. The funds will go toward the construction of two buildings with a total of 250 units in Mountain View and Santa Clara, as well as 800 affordable homes in the Potrero Hill redevelopment. The Los Angeles City Council is directing city agencies to establish a legal, budgetary, and policy framework to provide a “Right to Housing” to all Los Angeles residents. The intention is to “require the government to provide… solutions to prevent and address homelessness,” according to a press release. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would grant the highest level of protection 535,000 acres of California wilderness. Among the areas slated for protection are federally owned lands in Redwood National Park, land along the Eel and Trinity rivers in Northern California, the Carrizo Plain in central California, and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. New bills from freshmen assembly members from Orange County would shift $54 million from funds earmarked for California’s bullet train project, diverting the funds to help fund local transit and infrastructure projects that have lost 39 percent of revenue due to COVID-19. Another would block any federal funding from being used to support the rail project. A Berkeley  councilmember is sponsoring a 100 percent Affordable Housing Overlay modeled on Cambridge’s recent measure. Cambridge’s Affordable Housing Overlay permits greater height and density for ministerial approval for 100 percent below market-rate housing developments, increasing the availability of infill sites.

CP&DR Vol. 36 No. 3 March 2021

It’s theoretically possible – though pretty unusual – for a developer to obtain money damages from a city in California if denying a project results in a taking of property. Usually, the developer has to try to obtain approval at least twice before suing. Unless it’s clear that repeatedly seeking approval would be futile because the city has no intention of approving the project under any circumstances. That, the courts concluded, was the City of Santa Barbara’s attitude toward a landowner who wanted to build a house in the city’s hazard-prone Mesa neighborhood. The city’s approach means Santa Barbara is now on the hook for at least $3.4 million, including $1 million in attorneys fees.

State Joins Lawsuit to Stop Greenfield Projects in San Diego County Attorney General Xavier Becerra joined lawsuits against two proposed developments in San Diego, both Otay Ranch Village projects that were approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Village 14 would place more than 1,100 homes on a two-lane road within five miles of 68 recorded fires. Village 13 would construct more than 1,880 homes on a site that’s repeatedly burned. During public hearings, San Diego County Fire Chief Tony Mecham testified that residents could be safely evacuated in the event of a large fire. The Otay Ranch Village lawsuits are just two of several lawsuits Becerra has joined to block developments with heightened wildfire risk. Becerra back court challenges in Lake County that includes 1,400 homes. He also taken aim at the proposed Paraiso Springs Resort in Monterey County. More Bay Area Cities Reconsider Single-Family Zoning Oakland and South San Francisco could soon join the ranks of California cities that have either eliminated single-family zoning or are considering it. South San Francisco is the first city in San Mateo County to explore ending single-family zoning through the upcoming general plan update. Single-family units make up 67 percent of the city's total units and 33.8 percent of the total land area, compared to duplex, triplex and fourplex housing, which combined constitute 8.1 percent of total units and 1.5 percent of the land. Oakland is in the early exploratory phase, and it’s unclear how soon the city could actually see a change in zoning if the council votes to begin the process. The Oakland City Council voted unanimously to direct city staff to study allowing fourplexes in neighborhoods currently zoned as single-family housing. See related CP&DR coverage of Sacramento and Berkeley .) SANDAG Proposes Doubling of Transit Investments, to $55.9 Billion The San Diego Association of Governments Board of Directors is considering a proposal for the upcoming 2021 Regional Plan that would double investments in transit from $25.9 billion to $55.9 billion. According to SANDAG forecasts, access within a half-mile of fast and convenient transit will triple for people in historically underserved communities under the plan. There are significant increases in freeway operations and maintenance under the plan, increasing from $10 billion to $18.6 billion. New investments that did not exist in the last plan are assumed in the funding strategy — such as $4.8 billion for transit fare subsidies for low-income and youth populations, and $5 billion for mobility hubs and flexible fleets. The total cost has come down to $163 billion over 30 years, down $14 billion from the previous projection. Google Ramps Up Development of Commercial Space in Bay Area Google announced it will invest more than $1 billion in properties and development across California, including two that are already underway in the Bay Area. In the Bay Area, Google is planning to include at least four major development projects in the billion-dollar property enterprise: Bay View, a Google campus in Mountain View at the NASA Ames Research Center is an existing development that Google intends to complete. The project will total 1.1 million square feet. Likewise, Charleston East is an existing Google campus in Mountain View that will total 595,000 square feet upon completion. In Sunnyvale, a Google office building will total 182,500 square feet. The building will include mass timber materials that are being used in new methods of construction. Finally, plans call for a San Francisco development effort that is described as an ongoing capital project. CP&DR Coverage: Town-Gown Troubles in Sacramento UC Davis’ $1.1 billion Aggie Square project was approved by the University of California Board of Regents in November of last year. University officials and local elected leaders say the project will be a catalyst for revitalization of both the adjacent UC Davis Medical Center and Oak Park, the surrounding Sacramento neighborhood. But Oak Park residents have sued, reflecting their concern about the project’s potential impact to neighboring Oak Park. At the same time, the university has committed to a novel use of revenue from an enhanced infrastructure financing district to provide affordable housing. Many of the neighborhood’s residents are low income, people of color and renters, advocates said, and could be displaced or otherwise harmed by the demand for housing in the area likely to be caused by Aggie Square. Quick Hits & Updates COVID-19 has made it difficult to assess the impact of Opportunity Zone tax breaks, according to the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan Washington, DC think tank. Part of the 2016 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the tax break rewards people for investing in businesses and property in over 8,000 struggling census tracts selected by states. So far, there appears to be little to no impact on economic activity in distressed communities according to the Brookings analysis. (See related CP&DR coverage .) The University of Southern California and the city of Los Angeles are partnering to launch an urban trees initiative aimed at improving the health and quality of life for residents in parts of El Sereno, Ramona Gardens, and parts of Lincoln Heights. USC researchers will guide where the city and others plant trees, using the university's computer models, air sensors, and other tools to maximize the trees' impact. A new report from SPUR seeks to answer how the housed and unhoused can coexist in public spaces like parks to begin shifting the narrative to how planners can "design and manage public spaces to allow people of all backgrounds to find joy, belonging and safety." The report comes with an accompanying toolkit of public engagement exercises for city agencies, nonprofits, and others to use in public meetings. New research published in the Urban Studies journal establishes a causal link with data, for the first time, between greater numbers of parking spaces and more driving. The chicken-or-egg conundrum of which comes first-- parking spaces or cars--was tested in an unusual circumstance in which housing lotteries in San Francisco allowed researchers to collect data that showed unequivocally what has long been suspected. People with access to parking are more likely to own a car. A long-running debacle resulting from San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer's decision to suspend $18,000 a day payments to lease a vacant downtown building is now the subject of another lawsuit. Wilmington Trust has filed a cross-complaint suit against the city of San Diego for unapproved renovations. The asbestos-ridden 19-story high rise, which was to become a new workspace for city employees, has cost taxpayers more than $50 million to date. As part of the American Rescue Plan Act—a $2 trillion bill passed by Congress in March— Caltrain will receive $52 million of the $1.25 billion designated for transit funding in the San-Francisco area. San Mateo’s Charles Stone said the $52 million would go toward electrification, station improvements, and the agency’s budget shortfall that has accrued over the course of the pandemic. In a ruling that could have significant implications for water agencies statewide, an Alameda County Judge has ordered the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to continue providing irrigation water to ranchers who lease its pasturelands over the agency’s objections. LADWP defended its stance on the grounds that the Sierra Nevada watershed is increasingly unreliable. An urgency ordinance proposed by El Dorado County Supervisors that would restrict chain stores like Dollar General in the county was voted down at a Board of Supervisors meeting. The vote amidst a project application for a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General that is currently being processed by the county. That application and two others in the works are creating a growing controversy among city leaders and residents, who cite concerns for the loss of rural character in the county. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Drawing on PG&E settlement money, Santa Rosa and Sonoma County have pooled resources to create $20 million housing fund, overseen by a joint city-county agency called “the RED,” for short. The RED is focused on “gap funding”: the district’s policy is to fund only up to 10 percent of a project’s total cost. Despite being sued in 2019 for years of lacking affordable housing, the City of Clovis has not built a single unit that fits the state’s standard of low-income affordable. The state goal for Clovis in the 2013 to 2023 RHNA cycle is 3,466 that are supposed to fit in the low income and very low income categories, but as of 2020 only 87 affordable housing had been built.

Kern County Fast-Tracks Oil Drilling, Faces Lawsuit The Kern County Board of Supervisors approved , 5-0, an ordinance that would allow the county to use a blanket environmental impact report for as many as 2,700 new oil wells a year--more than 40,000 new wells over the next 15 years. Kern County is California’s leading fossil fuel-producing county by far, and more than 10% of the county’s jobs relate to the fossil fuel industry. Almost immediately, environmental and community groups responded with a lawsuit asking the court to bar county leaders from approving any drilling permits. Drilling has been on hold in Kern County since last year when an earlier version of the ordinance was struck down by a state appeals court that determined the county had not adequately assessed likely environmental damage. In that case, the court ruled, "The ordinance’s basic purpose is the acceleration of oil and gas development and the economic benefits that might be achieved by that development…. its basic purpose is not the protection of the environment.” The revised ordinance lowers caps on new wells, from 72,000 to 43,000, and creates larger buffers between homes and wells. San Jose Updates Station Area Plan, Anticipating Google Development San Jose’s latest iteration of the Diridon Station Area Plan widens the downtown boundaries and allows for much taller buildings and greater densities. The new environmental report calls for a 10 percent increase in office space, a 2.5 percent increase in residential units and more than three times as many hotel rooms. The updated development plan suggests that over the next two decades, the Diridon Station Area could experience a wide range of new development in the form of up to 12,944 residential units,14 million square feet of office space, 469,000 square feet of retail, and 1,100 hotel rooms. The latest updates come as San Jose officials place the final touches on a draft of the development agreement reached between Google and the city that will spell out how much land Google will be allowed to develop and how much money it will contribute to cover the project’s impacts. (See related CPD&R coverage .) Site for 4,000 Homes in Richmond May Be Contaminated Just two years after voting against a housing development on a contaminated site, the Richmond City Council approved 4,000 housing units after a partial cleanup effort. Now environmental and community groups are challenging the city's decision in court. The suit said the city's environmental assessment of the project ignored cancer-causing contaminants, including radioactive material. It also alleges that Richmond ignored updated state guidelines from January 2020 warning that rising sea levels would make groundwater contamination likely. In 1998, the site was added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "superfund" list of contaminated sites. AstraZeneca, the former owner of the property, spent $20 million on soil cleanup and removal in 2002, but incurred several fines from federal agencies for insufficient efforts. Despite the lawsuit, the city has granted entitlements to the developers, who have contractual rights to proceed. Increases in Auto Emissions Threaten State Climate Goals An audit of California's climate change program criticized state officials for over-reliance on reducing car emissions as a means of meeting emissions goals by 2030. Emissions from transportation have increased since 2013. The California Air Resources Board has overstated the effects of its incentive clean-care rebates and other voucher programs, and doesn't collect enough data to determine whether the majority of its programs led people to buy cleaner vehicles, the audit reported. California lawmakers have doled out more than $2 billion of cap and trade income to fund the clean transportation programs since the 2013-2014 fiscal year. But income from the carbon trading program is variable and is expected to dwindle as the state's polluters clean up emissions. The state needs more accurate program measurements to meet its greenhouse gas goals, the audit said. Meanwhile, an analysis of the most recently available data, conducted by nonpartisan think tank Next-10 and the consulting firm Beacon Economics, found that greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 rose for the first time since 2012. The authors attribute the 0.2 percent increase to commercial facilities that use refrigeration and power plants. To get back on track to meeting climate goals mandated by SB 32, California will need to reduce emissions by 4.9 percent yearly over the next decade. (See related CP&DR coverage .) CP&DR Coverage: Legislative Update: Potential Housing Tools Abound The California Legislature has come roaring back in 2021 with a whole new set of bills affecting planning and development. As in past years, the Legislature has not let up on housing. But instead of focusing on the number of units that it wants localities to allow, this year’s housing-related bills — which number in the hundreds — focus largely on the nuances of how localities can meet the state’s need. Many bills could be important for cities that want to meet RHNA targets but are having trouble deciding how to go about doing so. And they give resistant cities fewer excuses. Quick Hits & Updates San Francisco has instituted a $27 million program aimed at boosting home ownership. The program, which offers interest-free down payments to first-time home buyers, will favor low- to-moderate-income homebuyers and prioritize teachers and first responders. Eighty recipients will chosen by lottery to receive loans of up to $375,000. Home buyers aren't required to make monthly payments but when they sell their homs, they repay the loan amount plus an equitable share of the appreciation. The Milken Institute released its annual  Best-Performing Cities index that tracks economic performance in 400 metro areas nationwide. California's usual standouts, including number 24, San Francisco, and number 22, San Jose, dropped to tier 2 of the index due to the high cost of housing and a strong negative shift in short-term job growth amidst the pandemic. Agribusiness hubs in California's Central Valley like Stockton, Merced, and Visalia ranked in the index's top 25 percent for job and wage growth over the short- and medium-term. A draft environmental study published by the city of Inglewood reveals new details for a proposed monorail-like system intended to connect the Crenshaw/LAX Line with the Forum, SoFi Stadium, and a proposed basketball arena for the Los Angeles Clippers. The suggests that roughly 3,100 passengers would ride on an average weekday, and could swell to as much as 25,000 on days with events. Construction is slated to begin as early as late 2021. A Terner Center Analysis of San Francisco's successful 833 Bryant project, which is on pace to build homes 30 percent faster and at 25 percent less cost per unit than similar projects, found that streamlined ministerial approval under Senate Bill 35 was pivotal to the project's success. The analysis credits 3 other factors that set the project apart: committing to defined and ambitious cost and timeline goals, deploying unrestricted capital during construction, and using off-site construction of units. A 14,838-acre property north of San Francisco was purchased by Save the Redwoods League in a $24.7 million deal that will permanently protect the largest family-owned coast redwood forest that remained in California. The Mailliard family will still conduct commercial logging at a reduced rate, but more than 1,000 acres of land rich with old-growth giant redwoods will be preserved in perpetuity. San Francisco has sunk as much as 3.1 inches, on average, according to new research from a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. A well-documented case--Millennium Tower in downtown San Francisco--has dropped about 16 inches in a decade, but new findings suggest the net weight of buildings in metropolitan area is another drag on coastal areas already threatened by rising seas. The Golden State Warriors will pay Oakland and Alameda County's $1.2 million in legal fees in addition to millions of dollars in debt from its arena renovations. The announcement comes on the same day the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority voted to release $20 million that had been sitting in a reserve fund set up by the Authority in case the courts ruled in the Warriors' favor. A state appeals court has ordered a developer who dumped landfill into Suisan Bay marsh waters--to clear the way for a duck club and kite-surfing center--to pay multimillion dollar penalties, reversing orders from a lower court judge, who said the owner improved conditions on the 39-acre island. The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said there was no evidence to support the lower court decision. The Los Angeles Metro will seek board approval on pre-development work for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project. In March, Metro will recommend the award of separate Pre-Development Agreements to two companies for a monorail proposal ($63.6 million) and a heavy rail proposal ($69.8 million). The heavy rail proposal is slated to receive $9.5 billion from voter-approved Measure M, Metro said. The Coastal Commission released a staff report that outlines its opposition to Oceano Dunes, a proposed off-roading recreation area proposed by State Parks in San Luis Obispo County. The staff report suggests that the Coastal Commission eliminates off-highway vehicle (OHV) use over a five-year transition period, and says the OHV use in the dunes "is one of the most disruptive activities" that could be pursued in the dunes. Sacramento's Housing Element draft suggests the city could exceed state allocations with the right plans and policies. The city could see another 28,457 new units on vacant or underutilized land within the city. Practically speaking, the draft points to a mismatch between areas where vacant land is plentiful and high-resource areas near transit, potentially complicating the overall picture of bringing more housing to Sacramento. The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan for two high-rise residential towers on the site of the former Los Angeles Times building. The developer plans to build more than 1,1000 apartments and commercial space on the property. The project will have 24 moderate-income units and 10 low-income units. SPUR issued a report disputing the LAO's assessment of renter debt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, asserting that the assumptions in the research report are likely to dramatically underestimate the true amount of rental debt. SPUR's revised analysis estimates that California renters owe $400 million in unpaid rent, down from $1.7 billion estimated for California in the nationwide analysis, as of December 2020, due to unprecedented UI benefits.

Surrounded by farmland, the small city of Davis has long been a fitting setting for its namesake University of California campus, which, among other things, is known as one of the top agricultural and veterinary universities in the world. But even UC Davis has urban ambitions: The university is moving forward with Aggie Square, the university’s billion-dollar innovation hub set to break ground at its Sacramento campus in 2021. In the process, UC Davis is getting a lesson in the challenges of urban development. The $1.1 billion project was approved by the University of California Board of Regents in November of last year, clearing the way for construction to begin in 2021 on its first phase – four buildings to include lab, research, classroom and retail space as well as student housing. University officials and local elected leaders say the project, which has two construction phases, will be a catalyst for revitalization of both the adjacent UC Davis Medical Center and Oak Park, the surrounding Sacramento neighborhood. But Oak Park residents have sued, reflecting their concern about the project’s potential impact to neighboring Oak Park. At the same time, the university has committed to a novel use of revenue from an enhanced infrastructure financing district to provide affordable housing. Many of the neighborhood’s residents are low income, people of color and renters, advocates said, and could be displaced or otherwise harmed by the demand for housing in the area likely to be caused by Aggie Square. In early January, Sacramento Investment Without Displacement (SIWD), a coalition of community organizations, filed the first of the two CEQA suits against the project. Their primary concern is displacement of Oak Park residents, according to SIWD Board Member Matthew Baker. “If the affordability of housing in proximity to the project isn’t addressed, then all of those other benefits will go to new residents,” Baker said. The second suit, also based on CEQA, was filed not long afterward by AFSCME Local 3299, a service and patient care technical workers’ union, to seek an injunction on the project over job-outsourcing concerns and potential impact on surrounding communities, where many of its members live.

The rush to abolish single-family zoning in California – especially Northern California – is on. Sacramento was the first city to make the commitment, followed by Berkeley . Oakland and South San Francisco appear likely to follow and there is no tremendous pressure on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to do the same. It’s quite clear that the dominos will fall quickly in the Bay Area at least and perhaps elsewhere in the state.