When Bakersfield, one of the least-dense of California’s major cities, is considering relaxing its minimum parking requirements in its downtown, you know parking reform’s moment has arrived.

Newsom Seeks $12 Billion for Affordable Housing, Homelessness Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $12-billion proposal to create affordable housing, increase mental health services, and fund other programs to get people off the street. If approved by legislators as part of the state budget, the plan would purportedly house 65,000 people and stabilize housing for more than 300,000 at-risk people. It also would provide at least 28,000 new beds and housing placements for people with behavioral health issues and seniors facing a high risk of becoming homeless. Newsom's proposal includes $7 billion for property purchases through the state's Project Homekey program, $150 million to stabilize and rehouse Project Roomkey clients, $1.75 billion to build affordable homes and $447 million to address student homelessness in the California public college system. State Puts $3.1 Billion into Climate in 2020, Including $1 Billion to Disadvantaged Communities The Air Resources Board reports that 2020 was another record year for California Climate Investments with more than $3.1 billion invested in more than 51,000 projects across California’s 58 counties. Projects implemented in 2020 alone will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 18 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the course of their lifetimes. Of the $3.1 billion investment in 2020, $1 billion is benefiting disadvantaged and low-income communities and households — collectively referred to as priority populations. To date, California Climate Investments projects have helped plant more than 133,000 urban trees, reduced smog-forming and other air pollutants by more than 60,000 tons, added more than 7,200 new affordable housing units, and saved Californians almost $93 million through water energy‑efficiency projects. Milbrae Faces Suit over Denial of Housing Complex  A developer is suing Millbrae over the city’s refusal to process an application for a 384-unit apartment complex near San Francisco International Airport, the latest example of residential builders using the state’s tough pro-housing laws to force cities to approve projects. Anton Development is proposing to redevelop a 6.7-acre property that the city rezoned in 2020 from a mixed-use designation to a “planned development”-- a change that would cost Anton $18 million in fees. The zoning change and accompanying fees were implemented several years after Anton submitted its application for the housing complex. The state has weighed in on the side of the developer — warning that the case could be referred to the state attorney general if the project is not approved. SPUR Considers One Million More Housing Units in Bay Area To evaluate housing possibilities in the Bay Area, think tank SPUR compared two simulations, named “Business as Usual” and “New Civic Vision.” The Business as Usual scenario projects where housing would go under existing zoning policies, whereas the New Civic Vision proposes land use changes that would further environmental and equity goals. Under the Business as Usual scenario, housing would be underbuilt by 800,000 units. Instead, SPUR proposes adding housing within walking and biking distance of existing and future transit, with the highest-density housing closest to stations. SPUR projects the region can accommodate more than a million new units in transit-oriented locations. In addition, they propose adding modest density to neighborhoods that are predominantly made up of single-family homes, particularly those with great schools and amenities. SPUR estimates the region has capacity for more than a million new units in these infill suburban locations in forms such as accessory dwelling units, triplexes, fourplexes and low-density apartment buildings. CP&DR Coverage: Fulton on the Geography of California’s Decline According to the state Department of Finance, the state lost almost 200,000 people in 2020, the year that COVID caused home prices to rise dramatically and people to flee large cities. This is the first time in the modern history of California – some 170-plus years – that the population has gone down. But, as Bill Fulton writes , a close examination of the trends reveal that the population isn’t going down everywhere. It’s only going down in expensive coastal areas, where pretty much any house will now cost you at least $1 million. The population growth is continuing at more or less the same pace in inland areas, though even there it did dip a bit in 2020. Quick Hits & Updates California Forward released “Regions Build Together – A Housing Agenda for All California,” a regions-up housing agenda consisting of 14 practical actions that can relieve the state’s persistent housing crisis. The detailed chapters covering the nine regional housing markets include the Bay Area; Central Coast; Central Valley; Greater Los Angeles; Imperial and San Diego; Inland Empire; Northern California; Orange; and, Sacramento. LA Metro officials are proposing to pare down Metro's fareless pilot to a version that applies to only certain riders, mainly student and low-income. Metro has discounted fare programs for low-income, student, and senior riders, but relatively cumbersome enrollment processes has kept enrollment in these programs fairly low. Though a fareless initiative has support on the Metro board, some boardmembers have expressed skepticism. Decarbonizing transportation is essential to achieve the state's goals of carbon neutrality by 2045, but such a transition is unlikely to occur rapidly without key policy intervention, according to a new study that included research from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation . A team of transportation and policy experts from the University of California released a report to the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) outlining policy options that, when combined, could lead to a zero-carbon transportation system by 2045. A crew looking to assess a DDT dump site off of Los Angeles' coast were shocked by scale of the their findings: after two weeks surveying a swath of seafloor larger than the city of San Francisco, the scientists could find no end to the dumping ground. As many as half a million barrels could still be underwater, according to a recent UC Santa Barbara study. San Diego’s formula for deciding which crumbling streets get repaired first is about to change significantly, with neighborhood equity and climate resiliency becoming the main factors. The main goal of the new policy, which is expected to be unveiled this summer, is reversing decades of underfunding for road repairs in many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Regulation of short-term vacation rentals in the coastal zone requires Coastal Commission approval, an appellate court has ruled.

In El Dorado County, the growth wars never seem to end. The county’s general plan has been rejected and approved by voters over the years, and sometimes it has been voted in during one election cycle and out during the next, depending on who controls the Board of Supervisors. And over the years, ballot measures have piled on top of ballot measures, creating a confusing stew of planning policies.

U.S. Senate Could Designate 600,000 Acres of Wilderness in California A legislative package introduced in the U.S. Senate could add 600,000 new acres of federally protected wilderness in California and would expand protections for more than 1 million acres of public land. The Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale will, if the package is successful, be the center of a new 50,000-acre national recreation area covering foothill areas of the San Gabriel Mountains and portions of the San Gabriel River and the Rio Hondo. The three bills would add add more than 109,000 acres to San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and designate 30,000 acres of wilderness that was left out when President Obama designated the monument in 2014. It would also designate more than 583 miles of river — including 45 miles of San Gabriel River tributaries, as well as Little Rock Creek — as “wild and scenic rivers,” a protection that prohibits dams or new mining. San Jose Google Complex Takes Step, Clashes with Sharks Google's proposed San Jose megacampus cleared a crucial hurdle with the unanimous approval of the city's planning commission. Now, it's up to the San Jose City Council next month to decide whether the project moves forward, but city leaders have long signaled their strong support for the massive project. But despite widespread support from the city and community, Google’s project and proposed development surrounding it have one very vocal opponent: the San Jose Sharks. The NHL’s San Jose Sharks say they want 4,800 parking spaces in exchange for their approval of Google’s proposed downtown campus—nearly 2,000 more than what the city promises to maintain during construction. =Nevertheless, the planning commission sided with residents, affordable housing advocates and public transit proponents who urged them to move forward with the project and step away from San Jose’s long history of over-parking. BART and Caltrain Explore Merger A merger with BART is one of the concepts Caltrain’s board is considering this year as it overhauls the railroad’s management. Caltrain’s governing board agreed to study and recommend changes to its management structure as part of a deal struck last summer to put a sales tax measure supporting the railroad on the November ballot, which voters approved. Over the coming decade, the two rail agencies are set to offer increasingly similar services. Caltrain has plans to eventually run express trains every 15 minutes along its soon-to-be-electrified tracks. Both agencies also have their sights set on major infrastructure projects: Caltrain wants to extend its tracks to the Salesforce Transit Center in downtown San Francisco, and BART officials are pitching a second transbay crossing. Additionally, the $6.9 billion BART extension through downtown San Jose would create two new connection opportunities in the South Bay, at Diridon Station and a planned Santa Clara stop. PPIC Evaluates Cities’ Drought Preparedness A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) says that as California’s droughts get more intense due to climate change, most cities are well-prepared for droughts, but many small communities are vulnerable. The state’s large urban areas have made major investments in improving drought resilience by diversifying their supply sources—including water reuse, recycling, and stormwater capture—and expanding conservation efforts. Because of this, urban areas often experience drought impacts later than other sectors. Although California has added almost 10 million people since 1990, the amount of water used in cities has remained roughly the same. But small rural communities—many of them communities of color—are ill-prepared to manage drought, often due to financial constraints. Communities that rely on shallow wells are especially vulnerable to dry conditions and regional groundwater over-pumping. CP&DR Coverage: Napa Quarry Wins Appellate Court Approval Thirteen years after submitting its original application, Syar Industries has won an appellate court ruling under the California Environmental Quality Act permitting the company to move forward with the expansion of a quarry in Napa County. The project’s opponents are considering appealing to the California Supreme Court. The 91-page appellate court ruling, originally issued at the end of March but published in late April, was a slam-dunk win for Syar Industries and Napa County. The court found that the project opponents, organized as Stop Syar Expansion, had failed to exhaust administrative remedies on all five challenges and – in any event – would lose on the merits even of the administrative remedies had been exhausted. Quick Hits & Updates Apple will add nearly 4,000 jobs in greater San Diego through 2026, a likely boon for the county's universities, which will feed the company the software and hardware engineers the company needs. The schools have recently announced expansion plans as well: UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering is constructing two large research buildings, and will be launching a new curriculum called A.I. Tools for Engineering. San Diego State University is considering expanding its engineering school to the Mission Valley satellite campus. UCLA's annual Quality of Life Index found a growing number of Los Angeles County residents between 18 and 49 believe the area's cost of living threatens their ability to make ends meet, get ahead, or gain financial security. The index found that young residents reported having a lower quality of life than older residents, and researchers think the pandemic may have exacerbated that disparity. While the Los Angeles economy declined faster than in many other regions, LA has bounced back quicker, according to a new analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California. As of March 2021, employment in Los Angeles has recovered 64% of losses during the first three months of the pandemic, compared to 59% statewide. However, unemployment is still 10.9%—much higher than the statewide 8.2%. Amid pushback from residents, the Fremont City Council on Tuesday unanimously rejected a developer’s proposal to build 13 homes on long-vacant land adjacent to Interstate 680. The plan called for two-story houses with four bedrooms, ranging in size from 2,181 to 3,106 square feet. Despite residents voicing opposition, the Livermore Planning Commission recommended the development of the 130-unit, 4-story Eden Housing project in the city’s downtown core. With a park situated in-between, the two buildings will contain one-, two- and three-bedroom rental apartments for people with incomes that are 20% to 60% of the Alameda County median income. Six projects in Sonoma County received $5.8 million in grants from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation matched by an additional $11.7 million from four cities, the county parks system and a private foundation — the largest joint investment in recreational lands since 2008. The projects will add 145 acres of new and enhanced parks and trail extensions from Healdsburg to Petaluma and out to Bodega Bay. The Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission signed off on the initial phase of the remodel of Pershing Square . The most visible of the proposed changes is the removal of a café building, creating space for a landscaped plaza with outdoor seating. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) LA Metro is taking steps to plan out a northern extension of the Crenshaw/LAX Line to Hollywood. Metro is studying three potential alignments for the project, all of which run between Expo/Crenshaw Station and Hollywood. Huntington Beach will not sue the state over state mandated housing goals; the city council voted 5-2 to indefinitely postpone fighting the mandate after not taking action on initiating a lawsuit in March. Pasadena’s ADU Program earned high marks from a Utah-based organization that recognizes ambitious feasible, and scalable solutions to housing affordability. The city earned a Top 10 finalist spot for its Comprehensive Assistance’ for financing, designing, permitting, and constructing a new ADU in the city. The Los Angeles City Council is considering a proposal that would curtail the use of wood-frame construction for larger developments in densely-populated neighborhoods in an effort to reduce the city’s vulnerability to wildfires. Hillside neighborhoods across the city could be impacted by the changes, as could portions of Highland Park, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, and Pacific Palisades. The Dublin City Council unanimously voted to allocate $10 million to a proposed affordable housing project that will be located close to the West Dublin/Pleasanton BART station. The project will have two, five-story buildings with 308 total apartments built out in two phases.

No one in the ‘80s grew up dreaming of becoming an infill builder, because there was no such thing. So, long before I became a fellow traveller of YIMBY’s, New Urbanists, creative classers, smart growthers, and sundry other folks who want to uplift rather than tear down cities and their residents, I wanted to work for Kaufman & Broad. Back then, for someone with an inherently development-oriented imagination, Eli Broad, half of Kaufman & Broad’s identity, might as well have been Andres Duany. Broad died Friday at the age of 87 and is being mourned throughout the city. I lived about two miles from the Kaufman & Broad (later renamed KB Home) headquarters, located in a midrise tower in Westwood. The name was on top of the building and on a plinth at street level that I drove past on a regular basis. The idea of real estate development seemed cool, and K&B was my most palpable connection to development. At the time suburbia seemed cool enough. It was better than the in-between-ness of West LA. What was not in-between were the communities that Broad built. KB Home headquarters in Westwood. Broad built tract homes. He built them on the urban fringe. Once he was done bulldozing one fringe, he went on to the next, pushing the rings of sprawl outward from whichever urban center they orbited. He focused primarily on the Los Angeles and Phoenix regions, with projects in the San Antonio, Tucson, and Las Vegas areas, among others. Various incarnations of KB Home have built, in total, over 600,000 homes since Broad and partner Donald Kaufman founded the company in 1957. Broad was, in short, one of the world’s preeminent merchants of sprawl. But at the same time that he was chopping down cactuses, paving over farmland, and pouring concrete by the hundreds and thousands of acres, Broad was drawing up very different plans for his adoptive city. Broad arrived in Los Angeles from Michigan in the 1960s, when the city’s core was being erased. Urban renewal leveled Bunker Hill, a great if ragged Victorian-era urban neighborhood, and replaced it with the Music Center complex and, later, corporate office towers. The major fundraising force behind the Music Center in the 1960s was Buffy Chandler, wife of the publisher of the Los Angeles Times . It’s not hard to imagine that, arriving in Los Angeles at that moment, Broad got inspired to put up an institution or two with his own name on it. As he grew wealthy, and especially as he got into modern art, he donated ever more generous sums to many of the city’s cultural institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Disney Hall, the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, and many others. Few major civic institutions in L.A. lack a plaque, room, or building with Broad’s name on it. In 2015, he completed his most singular and, arguably, most egocentric achievement: The Broad Museum, which houses pieces from his personal collection. Completed in 2015, the museum is on Bunker Hill, across the street from Disney Hall, and two blocks away from the Music Center. These contributions inspired all manner of encomiums: he was a “ kingmaker ;” he “poured his wealth into reshaping L.A. ;” his “ imprint is impossible to miss ” – to cite just three headlines of the nine articles and essays the L.A. Times ran on him over the weekend. That’s well and good. Cities have always relied on patrons. And yet, for all that Broad gave to the city, seeing his name on a wall unnerves me only somewhat less than would seeing Philip Morris, Sackler, or Getty. The Broad Museum (l.), with a friend, in downtown Los Angeles. Even as Broad destroyed significant portions of the American landscape -- creating places that are, by many accounts, pretty bereft of culture or “urban amenities” -- he clearly valued art, music, entertainment, education, and civic life. Moreover, he saw the big city – and particularly downtown – as their rightful home. Broad the patron was an urbanist. Broad the businessperson was not. But even Broad’s urban vision is more of a complement to sprawl. It treats downtown as a seat of power and a freeway-accessible central location, drawing in the occasional museumgoer from Hemet or Fontana or some other suburb that he built. But there’s little indication that Broad believed in a true urban fabric. Broad had the money to build his namesake museum literally anywhere he wanted and in any style imaginable. He chose Bunker Hill, and he chose a design that, like those of its neighbors, looks cool in photographs but is downright hostile to pedestrians. Fortunately, even if Broad’s vision for Los Angeles was not exactly progressive, it will do far less long-term harm than his developments will. Broad helped make it OK to go downtown. The institutions he supported have surely helped greater downtown mature into the multifaceted urban community that it is today. The grandfatherly personage of Broad is giving way to urbanists who are involved in efforts, both grassroots and top-down, to build more infill housing, reduce parking, promote equity, reduce segregation, and become more sustainable. Most auspiciously, Broad’s passing comes at the very moment when many cities (and perhaps the whole state) are pledging to abolish single-family zoning . Ultimately, I don’t think Broad deserves moral blame for his business model or for his egotism. He started out as a young guy from Michigan who got into the American Dream business, such as it was. He was good at it, and he could have spent his money on worse things. Needless to say, I am not about to send my resume to KB Home these days. And, as we mourn the Eli Broad and appreciate what he did for Los Angeles, let us also put to rest his version of development. KB Home headquarters image courtesy of Coolcaesar via Wikipedia . Broad Museum image courtesy of Joey Zanotti via Flickr .

OPR Maps Hazards, Resilience Efforts Statewide The Governor's Office of Planning and Research developed the ResilientCA Adaptation Planning Map (RAP-Map), an open data tool, to inventory local government climate risk, adaptation, and resiliency planning efforts across the state and track progress towards statewide adaptation planning goals. Users can click on cities and counties on a map to quickly access the planning details of local jurisdictions, including links to vulnerability assessments; adaptation goals, strategies and implementation measures; and updated and adopted General Plan Safety Elements, Local Hazard Mitigation Plans, or other stand-alone adaptation or resilience plans. A color-coded RAP-Map categorizes local governments based on planning efforts that reflect key components of climate adaptation planning in California (i.e. vulnerability/risk assessments and adaptation policy development) and were updated or completed since January 1, 2017. Los Angeles Conducts Comprehensive Study of Walking, Biking The Los Angeles Department of Transportation published findings and data from its inaugural study counting the number of people biking and walking on Los Angeles streets. The count, which took place over several weekends in 2019, reveals trends in active transportation while observing the demographics of Angelenos traveling through the city. Observations show a significant increase in the number of people walking and biking in locations where LADOT has made safety and complete street improvements. While the survey showed that women make up only 14% of people biking, there is a 120% increase in female riders on streets with dedicated bike paths. The report identifies locations for future bicycle and pedestrian improvements, tracks how travel trends and behaviors vary across geographic areas and street topologies, and tracks usage before and after transportation projects and programs are implemented. Estimate Puts Cost of Infrastructure for Oakland A’s Ballpark at $12 Billion According to figures from a newly released development agreement, the Oakland A’s proposed ballpark and accompanying development is expected to cost at least $12 billion in tax-generated revenue from the site to fund infrastructure costs. A statement from the mayor’s office said the proposal “appears to request public investment at the high end for projects of this type nationwide.” In the term sheet, the A’s agreed to enter into a non-relocation agreement if the project is approved. By all indications, the city is committed to working with the A’s despite the large public ask. For over a year, representatives from both camps met at least three times a week to craft the term sheet and financial agreement, in which the A’s agree to enter into a non-relocation agreement if the project is approved. New Group Arises to Promote Urban Resilience A nonprofit formed by members of the defunct 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) initiative, has launched the California Resilience Partnership (CRP), a multi-million dollar public-philanthropic collaboration. The partnership’s stated goal is to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, state agencies and organizations to support statewide priorities as California faces resilience challenges linked to climate change, the pandemic, racial injustice and economic issues. The CRP model is designed to attract funding for resilience projects, with a goal to secure at least $30 million from public, private and philanthropic sources within five years to help scale those projects throughout the state, though no specific location or project details have been released. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) CP&DR Coverage: Agencies Confront Constraints of Surplus Land Act According to the Surplus Land Act (SLA), a relatively new state law whose implementing guidelines went into effect in January, all of these properties must be made available to affordable housing developers first. While state officials defend the guidelines, the landowning agencies say the law will undermine their vision for the property – and maybe even hinder their ability to build the affordable housing that the law seeks to create. With the release of SLA guidelines by the HCD in December, transit agencies say that the SLA not only may interfere with their vision for their surplus properties, especially those that are ripe for high-density transit-oriented development, but also may hinder the creation of affordable housing as part of larger projects. Quick Hits & Updates  For the first time in history, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that California will lose a seat in Congress. According to the Census Bureau, California saw a 6.1 percent population increase, down from the 10 percent growth seen in the 2010 census. The census results can impact state budgets, public transportation funding and federal financial aid programs. The federal judge who ordered Los Angeles to put $1 billion into an escrow account to be used for homelessness has agreed to stay his order targeting the money and instead give the city 60 days to come up with a plan showing how the full $1 billion would be spent on homelessness. His action does not affect the appeals, which were filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Palm Desert officials are wary of approving a proposed sports arena that is moving closer to final consideration by the Riverside County Planning Commission; numbers presented in a town hall meeting projected $5 million a year in added police and fire costs in addition to traffic impacts that haven't been sufficiently addressed, officials say. The developers are pushing back against the city's projections. The Solana Beach City Council adopted its final draft of the 6th cycle housing element this week and sent it to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for approval. The housing element includes plans to fulfill the city's requirement of 875 new units, relying on ADU's to get over the finish line, including 316 extremely low/very low-income level units. As Point Reyes National Seashore finalizes a plan to continue cattle ranching in the park, opponents are waging a last-ditch effort to rein in the tradition. The scrutiny comes as the park’s newly updated management plan heads to a final public hearing Thursday at a meeting of the California Coastal Commission.  Canals overlaid with solar panels could solve a twofold problem: water that would have otherwise evaporated would remain earthbound, and the shading panels would collect energy. In the Nature Sustainability journal, scientists have published results that found panels covering 4,000 miles of California canals would save 63 billion gallons of water from evaporating each year while providing 13 gigawatts of renewable power annually. The City of Berkeley lambasted UC Berkley in a 75-page letter for the university's 2021 Long Range Development Plan. In the letter, the acting head of the city's planning department wrote that "the City is concerned by the lack of any enforceable commitment to provide adequate housing and necessary public services for current and future students and staff.” Fresno County supervisors voted unanimously to rescind their approval of the Friant Ranch project. A new environmental impact report for the project is in the works. The developer is paying about $300,000 for a new environmental impact report and up to $395 for Fresno County staff time and outside legal counsel. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Major plans have been officially unveiled by the Walt Disney Corporation to significantly expand Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. Disneyland Forward, the name of the project, ould be a westward expansion of Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure on the footprint of the vast surface parking lots and a portion of Downtown Disney. This expansion would grow the combined theme park footprint at the resort by roughly 25%. The Suisun Marsh —the largest swath of contiguous wetlands on the West Coast — has become the Bay Area’s latest battleground between fossil fuel producers and environmentalists. Sunset Exploration Inc. announced it wants to explore for natural gas by drilling a section of the 116,000-acre marshland. If the well yields enough gas, the gas would be tapped to serve an estimated 30,000 homes in the surrounding region for up to 10 years. The Los Angeles Metro board has appointed Stephanie Wiggins as CEO for a four-year term. Wiggins served as Deputy CEO of Metro before becoming Chief Executive Officer of Metrolink, Before Metro, she served at Riverside and San Bernardino transportation agencies. She succeeds Phil Washington, who is retiring after six years. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed the Executive Director of Transform, Darnell Grisby, to the California Transportation Commission (CTC). As Executive Director of TransForm, Grisby brings almost a decade of experience working on transit policy at the national level as Director of Policy Development and Research at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). San Francisco Baykeeper filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to list the local population of longfin smelt as an endangered species. Scientists and environmentalists say that reduction is a direct result of too much water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system being diverted to farms and other water users rather than flowing through the bay to the Pacific. The Getty Center and the City of Los Angeles announced the Los Angeles African American Historic Places Project. The work aims to identify and help preserve the places that best represent these stories and work with communities to develop creative approaches that meet their own aims for placemaking, identity, and empowerment.  A study in Cityscape examined Los Angeles’s Measure JJJ , which created a new inclusionary zoning program near rail transit stations. The researchers found evidence that the program resulted in almost as many building permits than the density bonus program. Second, detailed financial analyses of hypothetical new residential development demonstrate that that density increases coupled with affordability requirements in the TOC program is more financially attractive than exclusively market-rate development.

Thirteen years after submitting its original application, Syar Industries has won an appellate court ruling under the California Environmental Quality Act permitting the company to move forward with the expansion of a quarry in Napa County. The project’s opponents are considering appealing to the California Supreme Court.

CP&DR Vol. 36 No. 4 April 2021

For years, the San Diego Sports Arena, could have been considered “surplus land” insofar as it’s been over three decades since a major league team called the arena home. Likewise, much of the land around the stations of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority are also “surplus,” having been used as staging areas for rail transit stops. According to the Surplus Land Act (SLA), a relatively new state law whose implementing guidelines went into effect in January, all of these properties must be made available to affordable housing developers first. While state officials defend the guidelines, the landowning agencies say the law will undermine their vision for the property – and maybe even hinder their ability to build the affordable housing that the law seeks to create. The SLA’s mission is straightforward and almost universally embraced—in concept. “We’re thinking about this an opportunity to not only support the department’s mission but also to support one of the biggest constraints to housing, affordable or otherwise, which is the cost of land,” said Sasha Wisotsky Kergan, Data & Research Unit Chief for Housing Policy at the state Department of Housing & Community Development. “There’s some real potential for localities to apply costs that are already sunk into land into the support of housing development. That can really start removing some of the barriers and constraints that we’ve all been navigating.” And yet, many agencies--primarily transit agencies that control prime properties near rail stations and other transit agencies—say the provisions of the SLA are burdensome and even counterproductive. Assembly Bill 1486, adopted last year, officially started the SLA clock. It clarified some of the language in the original SLA—including the word “dispose – and grandfathers in many projects that are already underway; they must be completed by the end of 2022. Most remaining surplus properties, though, will be subject to the SLA. “One thing 1486 does is it puts every public agency on notice that they need an asset plan… they cannot keep that property on the shelf and not think about it,” said Larry Kosmont, Chairman and CEO of real estate advisory firm Kosmont Companies. With the release of SLA guidelines by the HCD in December, transit agencies say that the SLA not only may interfere with their vision for their surplus properties, especially those that are ripe for high-density transit-oriented development, but also may hinder the creation of affordable housing as part of larger projects. For example, Los Angeles Metro has, since 2016, partnered with developer Trammell Crow to develop more than 1,500 units of housing, including affordable housing and some commercial space, at its North Hollywood subway station. The Surplus Land Act now essentially forbids the use of exclusive negotiating agreements, making North Hollywood but one example of a development that might be prevented by the act. All told, Metro estimates that up to 3,039 units developed under its joint development program, including 777 affordable units, are “at risk.” Meanwhile, the act significantly restricts how Metro can dispose of properties that do not yet have development agreements in place.

Judge Orders Los Angeles to Provide Shelter to Homeless A federal judge ordered Los Angeles, both city and county, to shelter or house the entire homeless population of Skid Row by October. It’s unclear whether the city and county will challenge the order, which also calls for the city to put $1 billion into an escrow account. The ruling argues that L.A. city and county wrongly focused on permanent housing at the expense of more temporary shelter. The judge wrote that “after adequate shelter is offered,” he would allow the city to enforce laws that keep streets and sidewalks clear of tents so long as they’re consistent with previous legal rulings that have limited the enforcement of such rules. The plaintiffs, the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of downtown business owners and residents that filed the case in March 2020, accusing the city and county of breaching their duty to abate a nuisance, reducing property value without compensation, wasting public funds and violating the state environmental act and state and federal acts protecting people with disabilities. The city plans to file an appeal . San Diego Envisions Transit Hub Near Airport SANDAG has submitted a notice of preparation (NOP) for environmental review of a central mobility hub, marking a pivotal step in the agency’s quest to develop a transit center with an airport connection at the Navy’s Old Town Campus. “San Diego Grand Central Station,” as it is often referred to, would become the region’s primary transportation center, connecting all rail and bus lines with a people mover to the airport. The NOP marks the first major milestone toward bringing high-speed transit to the airport. The environmental report will study two location options, as well as an extension of the trolley to the airport, along with improvements to local roads and highway access. The total project cost is estimated to be $4 billion or more, of which $1 billion would need to be raised locally, according to SANDAG officials. HCD to release Housing Element Implementation and APR Data Dashboard The California Department of Housing and Community Development announced the release of the housing element APR Dashboard on the department’s new Open Data Tools webpage. For the first time, city and county officials can view all the annual progress report (APR) data — previously only available in multiple spreadsheets and PDFs — consolidated in one place and reformatted as graphs and charts. The dashboard includes new data points: updates on housing element program commitments, housing applications, and housing funding source information. Users will be able to track housing production at a variety of income levels and structure types, and find out how close a state, region or town is to meeting its housing goals. The dashboard will be updated this summer with data received on the 2020 APR’s, which were due on April 1, 2021. A webinar describing dashboard features will be held May 4. CP&DR Legal: Coastal Commission Prevails in Only-in-Malibu Suit An appellate court has upheld a $4.1 million penalty against a Malibu beach property owner—a plastic surgeon based in Beverly Hills--for refusing to remove a small structure that blocks access to the beach. The court also refused to strike down as unconstitutional a 2014 law that gave the Coastal Commission the authority to impose large fines to property owners in such situations. The property owner was represented in this case by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public interest law firm that often pursues high-profile cases on behalf of property owners. The appellate court’s ruling consumed 63 pages, but the court ruled in favor of the Coastal Commission on all arguments. Quick Hits & Updates  The Encinitas City Council voted to rescind its recently crafted ordinance for higher-density developments, a move seen as necessary to passing a housing element proposals. Encinitas is slated to be on time for the 2021 to 2029 housing planning cycle with a housing element that accommodates 1,550 units, including 838 low-income units. The Carlsbad City Council unanimously approved the city’s 2021-2029 Housing Element. If repurposed for residential development, city-owned sites could yield more than 1,000 lower-income units, according to the document. Rezoned industrial parcels and up-zoned residential parcels could accommodate another 1,000, leaving a theoretical surplus of more than 1,400 lower-income units. The Walt Disney Corporation unveiled Disney Forward, a plan to significantly expand Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. Disney is not acquiring any new land for this expansion proposal, nor is it seeking any public funding from Anaheim, which was the case for some of its previously unsuccessful proposals over the last few decades. The Coastal Commission voted , 5-4, to endorse the National Park Service’s plan to allow commercial cattle ranchers to obtain longer leases and kill some elk in Point Reyes National Seashore. In exchange, ranchers will be required to improve water quality tests near ranches and generate public reports of their progress. San Bernardino has chosen the developers that will redevelop the 43-acre Carousel Mall site. Renaissance and ICO Real Estate Group have proposed converting the Carousel Mall site into a downtown hub will up to 3,500 new residential units, as well as entertainment, commercial, and office space. A Canadian mining company is drafting plans to reopen the more than 150-year-old Idaho-Maryland Mine. northeast of Sacramento, the 73 miles of underground tunnels may have still have billions of dollars’ worth of gold deposits. Residents, who have lived with the environmental scars for decades, are pushing back. According to a report adopted by Clovis City Council, Clovis saw 1,124 units built in 2020, all of which were considered affordable for families with moderate incomes or above moderate. None fit the state standard of low-income affordable. The state goal for Clovis is 6,328 units between 2013 and 2023. Major League Soccer's commissioner says the league’s reneging on Sacramento's bid for a team was a ‘COVID casualty,’ but not dead yet. In season opening remarks, Don Garber said the league has been looking at several other cities as possible landing sties since Sacramento's lead investor backed out of a deal to finance the team. A legal aid provider filed suit against the City of Chico and the city's police department for strict measures taken against the homeless. The suit seeks an injunction barring the city from enforcing 72-hour eviction notices issued to unhoused people sleeping and resting on public land. It also seeks ending continued enforcement of city ordinances that criminally penalize the plaintiffs' homeless status. Encinitas is making a push to pass an update to its density bonus law that would prevent it from having to adhere to AB 2345 via a loophole built into the law but intended to apply to cities like Los Angeles and San Diego that have already exceed state requirements. If successful, Encinitas would get the benefit of AB 2345—a density bonus—without having to include additional affordable housing. Researchers from the UC Berkeley Terner Center found evidence to suggest the provisions proposed in SB 478 could have important implications for the creation of "missing middle" housing by allowing more size and shape of new small-scale development. One caveat, the researchers note, is that jurisdictions do not rely on FAR and minimum lot size alone, the two key provisions of the bill. The Yucaipa City Council is in the final stages of its progress reports to the Housing and Community Development and the Office of Planning and Research on the status of its General Plan and Housing Element. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has announced $63 million in awards for the Local Housing Trust Fund (LHTF) program, which funds the construction or rehabilitation of affordable rental housing projects, emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing, and transitional housing. Despite a pandemic-induced recession that left millions of Californians out of work, median home values increased 11% over the past year to an all-time high of $635,055 in February 2021. One critical factor is years of undersupply in the housing market as new construction fell short of demand. California’s homeowner vacancy rates—already among the lowest in the nation—dropped by one-fourth during the pandemic to 0.6% in the last quarter of 2020.

SB 35 doesn’t infringe on a local governments home-rule powers, an appellate court has ruled.