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Environmental Groups Sue Richmond over Housing Approval A coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club is suing the East Bay city of Richmond over its approval of a mixed-use project that would add 1,450 homes and more than 400,000 square feet of commercial space on the Point Molate peninsula, the site of a former military base. The plaintiffs say the city's EIR is inadequate, and goes on to say that the project is inconsistent with the city's general plan, thereby rendering it "invalid." The proposal calls for reserving about 70 percent of the Point Molate site--193 acres--for public parks and open space. Along with housing and commercial space, the plan includes building a fire and police station and rehabilitating existing historical buildings into a "live-work" village. The plaintiffs and their allies have suggested an alternative: building some commercial space, including a hotel, while keeping most of the property open as accessible land and moving housing to downtown. Pandemic Causes Homeowners to Fall Behind on Mortgage Payments A new report by the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge (CNK) highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected homeowners’ inability to pay mortgages, signaling an unprecedented housing crisis and revealing huge racial disparities among homeowners. The report analyzes data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s weekly Household Pulse Survey, collected between April and July 2020, to examine the magnitude, pattern and causes of the housing crisis. The report indicates that about 5 million, or 8 percent, of American homeowners were unable to pay their mortgage on time. In comparison, during the Great Recession, there were approximately 3.8 million foreclosures, early-stage delinquent mortgages peaked at 3 percent. Compared with non-Hispanic whites, Black people and Hispanics had two to three times higher odds of experiencing housing hardships, the researchers noted. Santa Rosa Adopts Slate of Pro-Housing Policies With a series of unanimous city council votes supporting urban development, Santa Rosa is on a path to a significant transformation of its housing policy. The city continues to rebuild in the wake of devastating fires in 2017. A number of fee reductions and incentives have been offered to developers through the High-Density Multifamily Residential Incentive Program, such as reduced capital facilities fees (CFF), reduced park fees, deferred water and wastewater fees, along with reduced inclusionary affordable housing requirements for downtown. Officials said the application process time has been reduced from 10 months to three months, and application fees were reduced due to permit streamlining from $24,000 in entitlement fees to $9,000. Santa Rosa adopted a "housing by right" policy, and adopted a Downtown Station Area Specific Plan, surrounding its SMART Rail station, that moved the city away from density and height standards, and reduced minimum parking requirements.  CP&DR Coverage: November Ballot Measure & Elected Office Results Throughout the state, voters chose to reject new development plans and approve extensions to existing growth limitations – often by overwhelming margins. There were a few exceptions around the state, including an increased height limit in San Diego and policy changes to permit more development in major corridors in and Monterey Park. (A similar policy change in San Mateo appears to have failed.) Measures to change local zoning ordinances to permit cannabis sales were too close to call in two cities, Pomona and Encinitas. Local rent control measures were defeated in Burbank, Culver City, and Sacramento, while Sacramento also rejected a strong-mayor charter amendment. Quick Hits & Updates  After failing to block the CityView Plaza project in downtown San Jose last year, a preservation group is once again taking aim at the project--this time with a California Environment Quality Act lawsuit. A previous effort to block the project sought and failed to have a Bank of America designated as a historic landmark. Now, the preservationists want to challenge the city's decision and begin a new environmental impact report. The proposed remake of CityView Plaza calls for a 3.79 million-square-foot office campus with three 19-story towers. San Francisco's Housing Authority has climbed out of a $30 million financial deficit and is no longer in default with the federal government, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Housing Authority's improvement comes as the city has just completed its $2.2 billion Rental Assistance Demonstration program, which included the renovation of much of the city's housing stock. To reduce ozone pollution and comply with federal standards, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved an ozone-reduction plan from the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The plan calls for a 30 percent reduction in on-road emissions by 2026, followed by a 40 percent reduction by 2032. The California Supreme Court has agreed to take up a challenge to the legality of a $3 toll hike on Bay Area bridges. The case will determine whether $4.5 billion will be used to improve regional transportation options, $200 million of which is currently in escrow. If the measure is upheld, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission plans to fund transit expansion, express lanes, sea-level rise adaptation, and traffic relief. Public hearings for zone changes to a General Plan Amendment in California City are delayed after a lawsuit was filed against three council members for allegedly taking bribes to deny permits to a cannabis company. The hearings for the zone changes would rezone three lots from agricultural zones to cannabis cultivation sites. A $1.25 million study focused on transforming parts of San Diego's Mission Bay into marshland will take place--the result of a years-long battle between environmental groups and recreation advocates who hoped to use the land for golfing or camping. The study by no means ensures the Mission Bay's fate: it only lengthens the city's decision process by 18 months before a final declaration is made. A bankruptcy plan by Exide Technologies, which operated a now-closed lead-acid battery smelter in Vernon that is responsible for brain-damaging lead across a swath of southeast Los Angeles County, would allow the site to be abandoned with the remediation unfinished. The Trump administration, through the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency, has agreed not to oppose Exide's plan, leaving state taxpayers with the bill for California's largest environmental cleanup. A recent move by Mill Valley to sell open space to advance affordable housing projects didn't last long. The City Council shelved the concept after opposition from residents and concerns about lawsuits. City officials say they are still exploring other avenues. San Francisco sales tax revenue is down 43 from last year--the result of a steep population decline during the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurant and bar sales were down 65 percent as indoor dining was prohibited, while food and drug sales were down 8 percent. Other metrics like falling apartment rents and busy moving companies further suggest population decline, though it's too early to tell how many people have left. A newly approved master plan is set to guide the development of new green space in Los Angeles' Exposition Park over the next 25 years. A big "greening" feature will be a conversion of surface parking lots along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that would be relocated into a below-grade structure, capped by more than 14 acres of new green space at surface level. San Diego has further loosened rules for accessory dwelling unit construction, eliminating all parking requirements and allowing property owners to construct extra granny flats if they agree to rent restrictions on at least one of them. The rule loosening was just part of a package of reforms aimed at boosting housing construction. Other updates include height allowances for rent-subsidized units, and increased resident caps for student housing. The City of Stockton has released a suite of resources for property owners who may be interested in building accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, on their property. Community members looking to build an ADU may choose from three different floor plans: Studio, 1 bedroom, and 2 bedroom. Also available free of charge is a "Guide to Building Accessory Dwelling Units," to assist in the preparation of building permit submittal.

Since 2000, California had been averaging just over 750,000 acres burned per year, with a strong upward trend due to increasing heat and decreasing precipitation that scientists attribute in large part to anthropogenic climate change. Across the state, communities that used to face six or eight days of “fire weather” now face eight or ten, with increases of 3-4 days annually projected for 2035 and beyond.

50 Southern California Jurisdictions Seek Lower Housing Allocations  The Southern California Association of Governments reports that 50 jurisdictions have filed objections to their Regional Housing Needs Allocations. The number of jurisdictions with appeals by county are Los Angeles (22), Orange County (18), Riverside (2), San Bernardino (3), Imperial County (1), and Ventura County was the sole county with no appeals. Garden Grove, Irvine, Newport Beach and Yorba Linda appealed separately to the allocation to Santa Ana. Notably, the Newport Beach appeal calls for Santa Ana to have a higher RHNA target but not, the appeal claims, to remove those units from New Port Beach's requirements. "The intent is to recognize the overall goal of the RHNA framework, which is to require housing in specific sectors of our region... SCAG failed to adequately consider readily available data related to 10,174 housing units approved and/or planned by the City of Santa Ana," the document reads. "SCAG should give credit where credit is due, which would thereby reduce regional allocations in surrounding communities.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Ruling Protects Redwood City Salt Flats under Clean Water Act A federal judge has overturned a Trump administration decision last year that said 1,400 acres of San Francisco Bay’s shoreline in Redwood City was exempt from the Clean Water Act. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “ignored its own agency regulations” and judicial precedent when it ruled that the site isn’t bound by the environmental law, wrote the District Court Judge of San Francisco. Attorney General Xavier Baccera and four environmental groups sued the Trump administration last year to overturn its decision, arguing that the area should be restored to tidal wetlands and would be unsuitable for construction anyway, given its vulnerability to sea level rise. Cargill Salt, the would-be developer of the property currently operates an industrial salt-making plant on the property, and has yet to issue a specific development proposal since their proposal to build 12,000 homes on the property was shot down ten years ago. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Padres to Build Mixed-Use Development Near Downtown San Diego Stadium The San Diego Padres have won a bid to turn four city blocks, currently the Petco Park parking lot, into an urban square that will include 1.35 million square feet office space, 612 apartments, 50,000 square feet of shops, 1,600 parking spaces, and 236,000 square feet of open space. The Padres were picked over challenger Brookfield Properties to redevelop the 5.25-acre plot into a commercial office hub now being referred to as East Village Quarter. The campus, which is expected to be seeded with brand-name tech and biotech firms, could break ground as soon as 2023. The Padres' proposal best matched the city's desire for a catalytic project with ample public space, said Erik Caldwell, deputy chief operating officer on the city's Smart and Sustainable Communities Department. CP&DR Legal: Conservative Rulings from Trump Judges in California Pakdel v. City and County of San Francisco is the first significant takings ruling in California since the high court ruled last year that a property owner does not have to go to state court first in order for a takings case to be ripe for a federal lawsuit. Now, a group of conservative justices on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals claim that a recent ruling by their colleagues erroneous concluded that San Francisco made a final administrative decision on a condo conversion case – a prerequisite under case law for filing a takings claim. The language of their dissent, which says among other things that ruling “defies the Supreme Court’s authority,” appears to be aimed at getting the Supreme Court’s attention on an appeal. Quick Hits & Updates  Orange County Supervisors denied residents' calls to restrict private jet activity over John Wayne Airport, capping a years-long saga filled with corruption allegations. Long-term, 35-year contracts to service hundreds of propeller planes, helicopters and other non-airline aircraft flying in an out of John Wayne will go to ACI Jet and Clay Lacy Aviation out of John Wayne. A draft update to the California Transportation Plan has been released for public comments. It addresses problems like induced demand, the historical practice of building freeways through low-income neighborhoods, displacement, and the need to reduce VMT and free people from auto dependency. A long-awaited clean-up at Santa Susana Labs , a shuttered nuclear testing lab in the San Fernando Valley, will be smaller than anticipated, NASA announced. Citing the need for "less excavation" and cost, NASA opted for a plan that would leave 84 percent of the contamination untouched while half a million people live within 10 miles of the site. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the county's proposed By-Right Housing Ordinance. The ordinance will allow certain multi-family residential developments to be built by-right, in designated residential and commercial zones in the unincorporated areas of the County, and includes a rezoning program to ensure internal consistency. The ordinance also expands by-right review of density bonus projects. The Newport Beac h City Council unanimously approved amendments to the city's general plan and zoning regulations that would allow for over 400 new housing units and over 300,000 square feet of retail, office, and airport supporting uses. The site under discussion is currently developed for commercial use and is located in the "airport area" of the city's general plan. Heatherwick Studio released plans for "The Cove", a project proposal which would transform Piers 30-32 at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Plans call for two large, low-rise timber buildings with modular, flexible designs that form a horseshoe shape around an expansive public green space and promenade the designers are calling an ecological park. Santa Monica City Council approved a bitterly contested redevelopment plan for the Miramar Hotel. The project adds 60 luxury condominiums on the top floor and a separate 42-unit affordable apartment building. The two opposing votes were cast by the mayor and a councilmember who opposed the luxury units the developer said would be needed to finance the $500 million project. Crescent City harbor commissioners approved an updated Coastal Land-use Plan in August, but a commissioner is questioning whether the boundaries were drawn correctly. The plan is supposed to go to several other agencies, including the Planning Department and California Coastal Commission, but that process has stalled until the city and county can determine where the boundaries are. Officials have green lit as many as 101 affordable housing units and 547 market-rate apartments or condominiums as part of the Oceanside Transit Center redevelopment project. The 10.2-acre transit center site will include construction of a nearly 40,000-square-foot office building that will house a 3,000-square-foot ticket counter, a bus island, and improved rail platforms, waiting areas, and other facilities. A group of community organizers has filed a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit against the City of Sacramento in regards to its plan to redevelop the neighborhood around the Marina Vista and Alder Grove housing projects. The Alder Grove housing project was the site of a landmark civil rights housing case led by Sacramento's first Black attorney in 1951. The Coastal Commission approved Laguna Beach's request to add new regulations to short-term lodging, as the tourist town tries to address the influx of vacationers mixing into residential neighborhoods. The proposed plan will grandfather in about 100 existing, legally operating short-term rentals in residential areas, but any operating without a permit would be banned. In a deal struck with the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, Jia Yuan USA Co. will pay the penalty and continue cooperating with the federal government in its probe of Councilman Jose Huizar and others in exchange for immunity from criminal charges. Huizar, as head of the City Council's planning committee, was involved in a quid pro quo, helping secure approval of the redevelopment of the Luxe City Center Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

The California Chapter of the American Planning Association announced its annual awards in September at its virtual conference.  Excellence Awards Implementation Excellence Award (Small Jurisdiction) Yolo County Cache Creek Parkway Plan, Open Space Inventory and Baseline Improvements Yolo County Natural Resources Division Planning Advocate Excellence Award  Sherry Ryan, Ph.D. (San Diego State Univ.) Opportunity and Empowerment Excellence Award SFMTA Bayview Community Based Transportation Plan San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Implementation Excellence Award (Large Jurisdiction) City of San Diego Climate Action Plan Consistency Checklist City of San Diego Planning Department Communications Initiative Excellence Award Santa Clara LAFCO Communications and Outreach Plan Santa Clara Local Agency Formation Commission Best Practices Excellence Award Centralizing Active Transportation Data Collection Tools with the SCAG Active Transportation Database Southern California Association of Governments Comprehensive Plan Excellence Award (Large Jurisdiction) City of Long Beach General Plan Update - Land Use Element City of Long Beach Planning Bureau Academic Excellence Award UC San Diego Designathon 1.0 & 2.0: Civic Engagement for the Improvement of University Public Spaces Transportation Planning Excellence Award Morongo Basin Active Transportation Plan Economic Planning and Development Excellence Award Contra Costa County Northern Waterfront Economic Development Initiative Strategic Action Plan Contra Costa County Department of Conservation and Development Emerging Planning and Design Firm Excellence Award Kounkuey Design Initiative Innovation in Green Community Planning Excellence Award Collect & Connect – Resilient South City South San Francisco  Planning Agency Excellence Award City of Salinas, Community Development Department Planning Firm Excellence Award SWA Laguna Beach Urban Design Excellence Award San José Downtown Design Guidelines and Standards City of San Jose, Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Department Public Outreach Excellence Award Climate Adaptation Communication Strategies Southern California Association of Governments Comprehensive Plan Excellence Award (Small Jurisdiction) East Whisman Precise Plan City of Mountain View Grassroots Initiative Excellence Award Rock the Boulevard Office of LA City Council District 14 Planning Pioneer Excellence Award Michael Woo Planning Landmark Excellence Award UCLA Department of Urban Planning 2020 APA California Planning Awards Merit Awards Academic Merit Award Parking? Lots! Parking over the Minimum in the City of Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles Institute of Transportation Studies UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Comprehensive Plan Merit Award (Small Jurisdiction) City of Rancho Santa Margarita Local Hazard Mitigation Plan City of Rancho Santa Margarita Urban Design Merit Award SteelCraft Garden Grove City of Garden Grove Innovation in Green Community Planning Merit Award Yolo Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Community Conservation Plan Yolo Habitat Conservancy Board Opportunity and Empowerment Merit Award Health, Wellness, and Environmental Justice Element of the Placentia General Plan City of Placentia Transportation Planning Merit Award Parking Reform in Transit Priority Areas for Multifamily Residential Developments City of San Diego Public Outreach Merit Award Transform Fresno Community Engagement Plan City of Fresno Comprehensive Plan Merit Award (Large Jurisdiction) Mission Valley Community Plan City of San Diego Implementation Merit Award (Small Jurisdiction) Del Mar Civic Center City of Del Mar Advancing Diversity and Social Change in Honor of Paul Davidoff Merit Award Alisal Vibrancy Plan City of Salinas and the Alisal Community Best Practices Merit Award VC Resilient Coastal Adaptation Project County of Ventura Economic Planning and Development Merit Award Exposition Corridor Transit Neighborhood Plan Los Angeles City Planning Planning Agency Merit Award City of Walnut Creek, Planning Division CP&DR is a subscriber-supported publication. This article is being provided free of charge, but most articles are available only on a premium basis. For  FULL ACCESS  to all our premium content -  Subscribe Online Today ! (If you're not a subscriber premium articles can be purchased for just $5 each by visiting our online Single Purchase Store ) COMMENTS:

CP&DR Vol. 35 No. 10 October 2020

Orange County Cities Push Back Against Housing Allocations Newport Beach and Huntington Beach have announced they will appeal their Regional Housing Needs Assessments (RHNA). Huntington Beach was the first to vote to appeal, in a closed session, on a motion that passed 7-0. The current draft numbers state that Huntington Beach would have to zone for 13,337 residential units during the 2021-2029 cycle. The Newport Beach City Council unanimously voted to appeal the city's RHNA numbers, which hold Newport Beach accountable for 4,834 housing units. The 34-page-long appeal addresses three main concerns, pointing to site constraints, the methodology, and the change in circumstances--namely, concerns over density--in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The appeal proposes that the numbers be reduced to 2,426 units. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Milpitas to Sue to Stop State-Funded Homessless Program The Milpitas City Council unanimously voted to sue to stop a Project Homekey proposal that would convert 146 hotel rooms into 132 studio apartments with on-site supportive services for homeless people. State funding would have covered $29.2 million of the cost of purchasing and converting the Extended Stay America hotel, but Santa Clara County, which pitched in $21.2 million for an affordable housing bond, is the likeliest target for litigation; though the council has said it will "pursue litigation against any and all parties involved." Under new state law AB 83, pandemic housing projects for homeless people are allowed to skip local planning processes. While originally supportive, the council soured on the project after significant push back from community members. Environmental Groups Threaten Suit over Drilling The Center for Biological Diversity threatened to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom to halt all new permits for gas and oil wells in the state unless Newsom "promptly direct your regulators to halt permitting." An official with the state Department of Natural Resources disputed the organization's assertion that any permits were issued improperly. Environmental groups have grown increasingly frustrated with what they consider a lack of consequential action on Newsom's part to curb oil- and gas-production related pollution. The permits were issued after a November announcement by Newsom that he would temporarily block new fracking permits until those projects were reviewed by an independent board of scientists. The California Geologic Energy Management Division, known as CalGEM, issued close to 50 new hydraulic fracturing permits to Chevron and associates of Shell Oil and ExxonMobil since April. Quick Hits & Updates  A developer who finally won approval of a five-story mixed-use building in downtown Los Altos via SB 35 has sued for $4 million in damages . Los Altos approved the project this fall after choosing not to appeal an adverse trial court ruling.  A new report shows a solid majority of Los Angeles County residents believe that climate change is caused by human activity and that it poses a threat to their well-being. However, less than half of residents are aware of government incentives to help them adopt environmentally-friendly practices. Nearly 70 percent of respondents realize that climate change is a threat to their well-being. A slightly lower share, 64 percent believe that their actions can make a difference in fighting climate change. A little more than a year after the Agua Caliente Band of Cauilla Indians and the Los Angeles company Oak View Group announced plans for a $250 million sports and entertainment arena in downtown Palm Springs , officials confirmed that the project is moving to the mid-valley--and the tribe is no longer involved. The arena is now planned for an unincorporated piece of land just north of Palm Desert with a new partner: a local nonprofit that owns the land and will lease it out. Two California sites made the top 11 most endangered historic places for 2020. The list, compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, includes the Harada House in Riverside. Local advocates have launched a campaign to rehabilitate the house, which is on the brink of collapse. The future of West Berkeley Shellmound and Village, one of the earliest known Oholone settlements, is uncertain, though plans to build a large condo project on the site are now on hold. The Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released the Draft 2018-2019 Annual Action Plan October 2, 2020 Amendment and is asking for public comment. These amendments will allow the state to align the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) program to HUD's regulations by permitting new construction, rehabilitation, acquisition, and more for HTF funding. The Anaheim City Council voted to approve a revised deal with Angels owner Arte Moreno, selling Angel Stadium and the surrounding land for $150 million in cash in return for the team's commitment to stay in Anaheim through 2050. Last December, the council voted to sell the site for $325 million in cash and community benefits. The city of El Cajon has caught the eye of both Qualcomm and Cox Communications: both companies say they want to take what the city is already doing and fast-track it to help El Cajon become a leader in technology as a "Smart City." The senior director of Qualcomm went so far as to say they would like to make El Cajon the first '5G city' in the world. A proposal by the city of Escondido to raise development fees on new homes by about $9,300 per home is on hold after objections from developers, realtor groups, and others. Escondido City Council agreed to postpone consideration, though the county has said fees only cover about 74 percent of the estimated infrastructure costs needed to serve a new development. The idea of congestion pricing in San Francisco has been around for years, but with the backing of Mayor London Breed and others, the effort appears to be gaining support. Currently, the San Francisco County Transportation is seeking community input for a study on charging up to $12 for driving into the downtown area during rush hour. Rent prices continued to plunge across the U.S. last month, with San Francisco leading the decline, according to data from Zumper, a real estate start-up. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco dropped more than 20 percent from a year ago, to $2,830, according to the report.

A property rights case from San Francisco that could influence the legal definition “ripeness” for takings claims is making its way through the federal courts – and could wind up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s one of the first cases to show the impact President Trump’s appointees are having in land-use cases before the traditionally liberal Ninth Circuit.

Self-storage facilities, which often include blank streetfronts and generate essentially zero pedestrian activity, are not exactly ideal uses in dense urban areas. But, in a bid to expand an existing facility, Public Storage offered up an unorthodox public benefit the City of Mountain View could not resist: 105 affordable housing units.

SANDAG Member Cities Sue Agency over Housing Vote  Four of San Diego Association of Governments' member cities are suing the agency for what they claim is an inequitable use of a weighted vote favoring larger cities at the expense of smaller communities. Coronado, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove , and Solana Beach have filed a legal challenge to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment adopted by SANDAG in July. Together the cities will argue that SANDAG failed and disenfranchised San Diego County residents by employing a weighted vote over the objections of a super majority of its board. SANDAG violated the organization's stated goals, the litigants say, to work cooperatively within their respective regions to distribute the assigned housing allocation. The methodology that was adopted resulted in the four cities being assigned between 258 percent and 1,800 percent increases from prior housing allocation cycles. Google’s Plans for Downtown San Jose Take Shape Google has released renderings and sketches for its mixed-use, 80-acre campus in downtown San Jose. More than half of the "Downtown West" 80-acre project will be allocated for residential and public space and include features like childcare centers, outdoor movie screenings and ecological viewing stations. It comes a year after the company files its initial campus framework. The project proposed 30 buildings and around 4,000 housing units, as well as office space for non-profits including YearUp and Tech Challenge, following a step Facebook took at its Menlo Park headquarters in 2018. The company is proposing amenities including public maker spaces, a hotel and "performance areas" for live music, events, and movie screenings. The company aims to include at least 10 parks and several trails while making nearly all of the site's buildings run off of solar or electric energy. It will also have "ecological systems viewing" areas designated to raise awareness of environmental issues, the proposal documents state. The company said it aims to make 65 percent of the campus accessible through bike, public transit, carpool, or foot. It will also connect to Caltrans. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) State Economy May Take Two Years to Recover California’s economy will bounce back, but not for at least two years, UCLA economists predict. The UCLA Anderson quarterly forecast suggested California payrolls will drop 7.2 percent this year to 16 million jobs, down 1.5 million since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The state's economy is expected to grow just 1.3 percent next year and 3.5 percent in 2022. Likewise, the unemployment rate is forecast to come down in fits and spurts to 8.6 percent next year and 6.6 percent in 2022. Some industries are faring better than others, the economists note. The leisure and hospitality sector will likely see payrolls fall up to 25 percent this year; the housing market is expected to see a quick recovery to pre-recession levels." Residential building permits are expected to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, and grow in the following years. The forecast comes with a major caveat: it assumes that Congress will allocate at least $1 trillion in fiscal stimulus before the end of the year, and that the pandemic's impact on economic activity is relatively mild in 2021 and 2022. Negotiations in Congress have stalled, and no one can say with certainty the direction the pandemic will take. "None of these assumptions are assured, and if they do not come to pass, our forecast, presented here, is too optimistic," the authors caution. CP&DR Podcast: Future of Housing In Diana Lind's new book Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing, Lind shows why a country full of single-family houses is bad for people and the planet, and details the new efforts underway that better reflect the way we live now, to ensure that the way we live next is both less lonely and more affordable. CP&DR's Josh Stephens spoke with Lind about how Brave New Home can help planners anticipate, and promote, innovative approaches to housing for the podcast .  Quick Hits & Updates The World Economic Forum and the City of Los Angeles released a roadmap to support the roll-out of "urban air mobility" in cities. Though flying vehicles may be out of technological reach for the foreseeable future, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement: "Our city's strength stems from our creativity and our willingness to test new ideas... even in the face of COVID-19 today, our eyes are fixed on the horizon of a reimagined tomorrow.” Los Angeles Metro will consider plans for a gondola project that would connect Dodger Stadium and Union Station. The Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit gondola--as it has been called--would move up to 5,500 people per hour in each direction, meaning more than 10,000 fans could be transported to Dodger Stadium in the two hours before the start of a game or event. San Francisco's Embarcadero could be devastated by earthquakes and rising seas, according to an exhaustive new study from the Port of San Francisco. The 82-page report says natural disasters could flood downtown streets and inundate BART and Muni tunnels. The study's findings will be used to prepare a list of recommended projects to strengthen the most vulnerable areas along the seawall, which dates back to the early 1900s. California's Active Transportation Program added a small pilot program this year to test the feasibility of supporting "quick-build" projects--a moniker for projects meant to allow a city to quickly redesign and implement safer street redesigns. The California Transportation Commission added the pilot program to test whether these kind of projects should be part of future ATP funding cycles. CTC staff has released recommendations to fund eight proposals for a total of $4.4 million. An analysis of the condition of Los Angeles tenants during the COVID-19 emergency found that distress has occurred along multiple dimensions, almost all of them stemming from losses of work and income. The data, obtained by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, shows that despite extraordinary economic difficulty, most renters are paying on-time and in-full. The Census Bureau has found that California has the highest real-world poverty rate of any state, 17 percent over the previous three years and much higher than the national rate. Living costs, particularly for housing, impoverish at least 7 million Californians, and the state topped the poverty charts even as California's overall economy was booming in the 2017-19 period. San Francisco is enacting a new temporary permit program for outdoor entertainment and amplified sound, Mayor London Breed announced. The new Just Add Music permit, known as JAM, will cover entertainment in shared spaces and other outdoor locations that are seeing dramatically more activity during the pandemic. Included on the list of activities that would require a JAM permit are outdoor fitness classes, farmers markets, and drive-in gatherings.

Newsom Seeks to Earmark 30 Percent of State Lands for Agriculture, Conservation Governor Gavin Newsom advanced an executive order "enlisting California's vast network of natural and working lands... in the fight against climate change," according to a press release. The order directs state agencies to deploy carbon-storing measures through healthy soil management (like cover crops, for example), wetlands restoration, active forest management, and green infrastructure in urban areas like trees and parks. The order also sets a first-in-the-nation goal to conserve 30 percent of the state's land and coastal water by 2030 to fight species loss and ecosystem destruction. Conservation includes both preservation and "working lands" for agriculture. The order directors the California Natural Resources Agency to form a California Biodiversity Collaborative to spearhead the "30 by 30" goal.  San Jose Adopts Ambitious Bike Plan  San Jose City Council approved a plan that commits the city to building a 550-mile network of bike lanes, boulevards, and trails. The Better Bike Plan 2025 includes over 350 miles of protected bike lanes, 100 miles of bike boulevards, and 100 miles of off-street trails. While the additional miles of bike lanes will undoubtedly please San Jose's current biking population, the plan aims to bring new riders into the fold, who may not feel comfortable riding on busy streets. To accomplish that, the city plans to include buffers between bikers and traffic with either parked cars or widened lanes. In the same vein, the plan creates a "low-stress" network of "bike boulevards," on San Jose's residential streets. LA Metro Plan to Widen Freeway Draws Fierce Criticism Los Angeles County Metro announced plans to widen the 605 and 5 Freeways--which would necessitate the demolition of hundreds of Downey homes. The plan has officially been opposed by the City of Downey in a press release and drawn criticism from both transportation advocates, who oppose the development of new freeway lanes, and social justice advocates, who oppose the demolition of homes belonging to minority and low-income residents. Broadly the release touts "minimiz the number of homes... taken" while seeking "a reasonable... locally preferred alternative that will provide capacity enhancements and improved operations, while minimizing right-of-way impacts." In August, Metro announced four alternative plans, but three of the alternatives are essentially identical in terms of right of way impacts. The other alternative is the legally required no-build alternative. The least invasive option would fully acquire 242 parcels; the most would take 257 Downey parcels. Quick Hits & Updates  A five-square-mile plume of groundwater contaminated with chlorinated solvents and other manufacturing chemicals has been placed on the federal Superfund list, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced. The plume is within the Orange County Water Districts, which provides water for 2.4 million residents in 22 cities. As a Superfund site, the EPA could compel anyone who might have polluted the groundwater basin to help pay the estimated $100 million cleanup cost. Two citizen groups who advocated for a ballot measure in Redondo Beach in 2017 that would block a proposed waterfront development will appeal a lower court's decision to invalidate Measure C, which would have altered zoning in the waterfront. The project had already been approved by the City had not won Coastal Commission consent. The citizen groups say the matter would substantially weaken the California Coastal Act, allowing cities to approve construction projects in the coastal zone without approval from the Commission. The developer is also suing the city for $15 million in damages in a separate case. Sunnyvale , the recipient of a $338,000 sustainable communities grant from Caltrans, will move forward with a 10-year plan to boost the number of commuter cyclists and pedestrians, as well as create safer streets for children along school routes. With the grant money, city staffers did research to craft the plan, which included biking and walking tours, path audits, focus groups and public outreach. Manhattan Beach City Council voted unanimously to appeal a decision from Los Angeles Superior Court that ordered the city to stop enforcing a ban on short-term rentals in Manhattan Beach's coastal zone, escalating the case to the state level. According to the final judgment, the ban has no legal effect and is unenforceable in the coastal zone without approval from the Coastal Commission. In a surprise move, Sacramento Regional Transit  board is scheduled to redo a vote on a $130 million proposal for a passenger rail bridge just a week after voting the proposal down. The RT board rejected the plan by a split vote under the transit district's "weighted voting system. A crucial vote that represents 10 percent of the weighted total will weigh in after missing the first vote. A yes would put the project back on track. A feasibility study conducted by a private consulting firm indicates that the Horton Plaza redevelopment project has the potential to establish a downtown tech hub in San Diego. The mega-campus, with over a billion square feet of planned commercial space, has a link to Clearway Energy Center San Diego, subterranean delivery tunnels, and proximity to Lindbergh Field and San Diego trolley stations. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Two announcements of federal transportation funding were made recently: the Federal Transit Administration finalized the $1.2 billion grant for BART's Core Capacity program. On the same day, the Federal Highway Administration announced its annual August redistribution. For California that means almost $500 million in federal transportation dollars. A slim majority of Californians support Proposition 15 , the November ballot measure that would change how commercial property is taxed. The survey, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California on a wide range of issues, also found that most Californians are concerned about contracting COVID-19. On race relations, attitudes shifted significantly since 2019. Six in ten Californians believe race relations have gotten worse in the last year. Amid mounting controversy and concerns over environmental justice, California American Water withdrew its application for a desalination project in the City of Marina. The proposal had become one of the most fraught issues to become before the commission, and would have been the first major test of its new power to review harm to underrepresented communities. A planned 16,000-acre luxury resort project between Clear Lake and Napa Valley is being challenged by the Center for Biological Diversity in courts shortly after Lake County officials approved it. The approvals allow for 400 hotel units in five "boutique" co-plexes plus 450 resort units, 1,400 estate villas, 500 workforce housing bedrooms, according to the EIR.

In Diana Lind's new book  Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing , Lind shows why a country full of single-family houses is bad for people and the planet, and details the new efforts underway that better reflect the way we live now, to ensure that the way we live next is both less lonely and more affordable. Diana Lind Lind explores the homes and communities that are seeking alternatives to the American norm, from multi-generational living, in-law suites, and co-living to microapartments, tiny houses, and new rural communities. Brave New Home offers a diagnosis of the current crisis in American housing and a radical re-imagining of the possibilities of housing. Based in Philadelphia, Lind was editor in chief, and later executive director, of Next City, a leading urbanist website and nonprofit. She currently leads the Arts + Business Council for Greater Philadelphia, where her work fosters an exchange between the creative and business communities. CP&DR 's Josh Stephens spoke with Lind about how Brave New Home can help planners anticipate, and promote, innovative approaches to housing. Please click below or visit CP&DR's podcast homepage to listen on Spotify, Breaker, and other platforms. Brave New Home Diana Lind Bold Type Books 272 Pages $16.99 October 13, 2020

The regional transportation plans devised by California’s metropolitan planning organizations – as well as their accompanying Sustainable Communities Strategies – usually don’t change from one four-year cycle to the next.