Planetizen.com recently came out with its annual list of the  Top Urban Planning Books of 2020 , including contributions from CP&DR's Josh Stephens. The books cover timeless topics like housing and the history of planning as well as vital issues that have received increased attention of late, including those of social justice, race, and gender.  Bill Fulton spoke with Josh and Planetizen Managing Editor  James Brasuell  about this year's list and how it reflects the present and future of urban planning.  Click here to listen on other platforms, including Google Podcasts and Spotify.  Related Articles  YIMBYism's Golden Moment  (Review of Golden Gates ) Sexism and the City  (Review of Feminist City ) Considering the Varieties of Housing (Q&A with Diana Lind)

Los Angeles to Incubate Innovative Transportation Technologies Los Angeles established what it is calling a "Transportation Technology Innovation Zone" at Warner Center in West San Fernando Valley to field-test new transportation technologies. The zone's first pilot project is a zero-emissions, last-mile delivery service that connects individuals homebound by the pandemic to food from local businesses. The second pilot project is expected to launch in Spring 2021, featuring mini-mobility hubs throughout the Warner Center campus. The Transportation Technology Innovation Zone is one of the flagship programs of Urban Movement Labs (UML), the transportation solutions accelerator launched by Mayor Garcetti in November 2019. "There's no place in L.A. as perfect as the Warner Center to test innovative transportation technology," said Councilmember Blumenfield, who cosponsored the project with Mayor Garcetti. "Since we rolled out the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan, the City's boldest and greenest specific plan, the Warner Center has become the focus of intense residential and commercial development." Lawsuit Takes Aim at Tejon Ranch Conservation Efforts In a lawsuit filed in Kern County Superior Court, environmental groups accused Tejon Ranch Conservancy of failing to make promised payments of about $800,000 a year in interest free loans to the coalition tasked with conserving the ranch as wilderness. The 240,000 acres are located in the Tehachapi Mountains, an hour's drive north of Los Angeles, and have been set aside for public tours, education, and research as a condition of development of what is essentially a new city. A spokesperson for Tejon Ranch Co. defended the company's decision to withhold funds in an escrow account, saying the environmental groups did not hold up their promise to not oppose developments on the property. The agreement allows Tejon Ranch Co. to build on 30,000 acres of the region. Three massive developments, totaling 19,000 residential units, in Los Angeles and Kern County are in the pipeline. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) State Makes Recommendations for Gas Tax Investments The California Transportation Commission released their recommendations for funding projects in three gas tax programs for the next year. All three programs include funding to widen highways despite broad agreement among California's transportation agencies that California should move away from encouraging solo driving. The projects recommended for about $500 million include $60 million towards a long-planned upgrade to BART that increases the number of trains across the bay, $25 million for a roundabout in Napa, $65 million for bus lines along I-10 in San Bernardino, and $67 million for mass transit, pedestrian, and bike trail improvements along the I-80 corridor in Placer and Sacramento. The agency is considering $283 million in freeway upgrades, including $40 million to widen Highway 101, $150 million to widen I-105 and add toll lanes through L.A., and $93 million to widen Highway 1 and add bike lanes along the Watsonville-Santa Cruz corridor. CP&DR Coverage: Cities Revolt Against Housing Allocations  No fewer than 50 of the region’s 191 cities have filed formal appeals to the Southern California Association fo Governments asking for reductions in their targets under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. The resistance is centered in Orange County, where 21 cities out of 34 – more than 60 percent – have challenged their targets. In Los Angeles County, 24 cities out of 88 have appealed. Collectively, the cities are asking for a reduction of tens of over 100,000 units. The surge in RHNA challenges is the predictable result of two things: First, a gigantic increase in the targets given SCAG by the state; and, second, a shift in the geographical distribution of the targets, so that more units were allocated toward jobs-rich, high-cost cities than in the past. Quick Hits & Updates San Bernardino County planning manager Gabriel Chavez resigned less than two weeks after his home was raided by the FBI in connection with a cannabis-related corruption probe. A source told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents had been interviewing people about allegations that Baldwin Park officials requested illegal payments from cannabis businesses seeking permits. The San Jose City Council approved a plan to use funds from Measure E, a property transfer tax increase that passed in March, to fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention. Forty-five percent is dedicated to providing permanent supportive housing, 45 percent will make low-income rentals available, and 10 percent will support middle-income housing. The last 10 percent is reserved for homelessness prevention programs. The gray wolf will lose federal protections under a Trump administration decision that removes the gray wolf from the endangered species list. The move is expected to face legal challenges from conservationists who say the agency is acting prematurely. Before they were added to the endangered list in 1974, the grey wolf population was around 1,000. They now number more than 6,000. A state probe into the top consultant working on California High Speed Rail last year found that the official did not violate state laws for conflict of interest. The matter involved allegations that Hill signed a $51-million change order for a Spanish construction firm in the same year he may have owned $100,000 of stock in one of the firm's subsidiaries. The commission concluded the action resulted in a "nominal financial effect." Nearly a quarter million renter households in California have fallen behind on rent, with an average debt of $6,953 per household, a Federal Reserve study found . The Fed analysis suggests thousands of tenants face the risk of eviction after a moratorium ends Dec. 31. California's back rent is projected to reach nearly $1.7 billion by the end of the year, or almost a fourth of the total rental debate nationwide. San Diego approved a community plan update for Kearney Mesa that aims to address San Diego's need for affordable housing while reducing greenhouse gases. The plan will develop Kearny Mesa into one of San Diego's fastest growing residential neighborhoods by allowing for over 20,000 new housing units. The plan also would add 25,000 more jobs by encouraging mixed-use villages throughout the community.  The Walnut Creek City Council unanimously approved "Rethinking Mobility," a five-year transportation strategy to reduce private vehicle use and encourage public transit ridership. Among the plan's 13 goals are working with businesses to offer special discounts for transit riders, adding dedicated bus lanes, adding amenities for cyclists, and modifying parking pricing and requirements for new housing developments. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Palo Alto City Council voted to open up Foothills Park to the public following years of exclusive access to neighborhood residents. The vote came after the ACLU sued Palo Alto on the grounds of "a legacy of the city's history of racial discrimination." The ordinance imposes a limit of 1,000 visitors at a time and allows Palo Alto residents first access to reserve amenities in the park. The 1,400-acre park could open to the general public as soon as Dec. 17. The California Fish and Game Commission granted temporary endangered species status to the Mojave desert tortoise when it agreed to consider the animal as a candidate for permanent listing. The desert species was listed as threatened under state law in 1989 and under federal law the following year based on a severe decline in the tortoise population. A 2018 study found that adult tortoise populations had plummeted by 50 percent in some designated recovery areas since 2004, and by as much as 90 percent in some critical habitat management units since the 1980s. For the first time, housing developers who want to build in unincorporated parts of Santa Clara County will have to set aside 16 percent of new developments containing three or more units or pay an in-lieu fee of $259,000 per unit. The rules apply to both units intended for sale and for rent. The Board of Supervisors determined the fee amount, which will go into effect next year, based on an independent study presented to the county in July that accounts for 100 percent of the cost to create a replacement affordable unit. The fee will have a modest affect--most of Santa Clara County's 15 cities already have their own affordable housing ordinances in place. San Jose adopted a similar rule in 2010, requiring developers to either designate 15 percent of new sale or rental units as affordable or to pay an in-lieu fee. A group of conservations rallied to buy Oswit Canyon in a $7.15 million sale of over 100 acres in south Palm Springs. Shortly after purchase, the Save Oswit Canyon team removed removed the private property signs from the canyon, signaling the land is officially open to the public. The area is home to wildlife like desert fox, mountain lions and bighorn sheep.

Someday a city on the San Francisco Peninsula will embrace growth. It will recognize the pressures of the Bay Area’s housing crisis and fully capitalize on the economic juggernaut of the region’s tech industry. Today is not that day. And the city is definitely not San Mateo. The narrow passage of Measure Y, a ballot item extending previously implemented height and density caps on developments in San Mateo, could hinder the city’s quest to build more housing and alleviate the severity of its housing crisis, critics say. More legalistically, the measure’s passage may make compliance with San Mateo’s housing target under the Bay Area’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation, expected to be around 5,000 units, all but impossible. The measure, which won by 43 votes out of 45,000 cast, caps citywide building heights at 55 feet (about four stories) and residential density at 50 units per acre. It also mandates that 10% of any development be affordable housing. Measure R, an alternative measure that would have provided the City Council with more flexibility in allowing dense development around transit stations, failed despite receiving vastly more financial support. Measure Y has a long lineage. It is an extension of Measure H, passed in 2004 as an extension of Measure P, originally passed in 1991 in response to the approval of a series of 12-story developments in San Mateo’s downtown, according to San Mateo City Attorney Shawn Mason. (Nevertheless, San Mateo’s population density is over 8,000 per square mile, considerably higher than that of most of its neighbors.) Height and density caps existed in San Mateo prior to 1991, Mason said, but Measure P “ratcheted them down.” Proponents of the caps say they ensure controlled development in San Mateo, warding off developers and large property owners with interest in “over-developing” the city’s downtown. The same group that had originally lobbied for Measure H in 1991 and Measure P in 2004 successfully collected enough signatures to place Measure Y on the ballot in 2020, according to City Clerk Patrice Olds.

The other day I spent the afternoon writing up an appellate court ruling involving the California Environmental Quality Act for publication in CP&DR . In this particular case , the Fifth District Court of Appeal, interpreting a 2018 California Supreme Court ruling , ordered Fresno County Superior Court judge to order the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to throw out their approvals of the Friant Ranch development project – an action that occurred nine years ago – and start over again with the CEQA analysis.

Now that California both faces a multimillion-unit housing crisis and, for essentially the first time, a credible set of statewide housing regional mandates, a new front in the perennial battle over growth has opened up in Southern California.

UC Davis Moves Ahead with Major Medical Complex in Sacramento  The University of California Board of Regents voted to move forward with a $1.1 billion addition to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. The first phase of the " Aggie Square " project includes four new buildings--three for lab, classroom and research space and one for retail and student housing. According to a report released in July, the university plans to build 285 units of student housing, which will rent for $1,900 a month per unit. The board approved an amendment to ensure at least 200 beds of affordable housing for students be included in the development. The Sacramento City Council plans to approve a $30 million tax break to fill a funding gap for the project, along with an additional $37 million intended to spark new affordable housing in the area. Under the mechanism, called an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, a portion of the new property tax revenue that would normally go to the city's general funds will instead be routed to the developer for necessary infrastructure build-out. The project will also include a community benefits agreement, and a $37 million tax break will go toward efforts to spur new affordable housing in the area and cash to keep renters from being displaced. Nonetheless, critics say will fuel gentrification. OPR Releases Advisory Document to Help Cities Defend Against Wildfires  As California grapples with the most extensive wildfires in the state's history, the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) has released the draft updated Fire Hazard Planning Technical Advisory (Fire Hazard Planning TA), which includes specific land use strategies to reduce fire risk to buildings, infrastructure, and communities. The updated TA is a tool for local planners and stakeholders updating general plans as they balance new construction with the associated dangers of extending neighborhoods into fire-prone areas. Among the recommendations are a plan for community outreach, particularly with vulnerable and disadvantaged communities; incorporating avoidance and risk minimization policies and development review procedures in the land use element for high-risk areas; integrating land use and risk avoidance measures with conservation and open space element policies; and identifying the homes, businesses, and community assets at highest risk and instituting policies to "harden" homes or infrastructure. The document also features sample policies and programs, case studies, and potential funding sources. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Over 13,000 San Diego Affordable Housing Units in Peril A study that shows San Diego will likely lose more than half of the city's affordable housing stock unless city officials take action has spurred an aggressive new plan to spend at least $6 million annually on preservation incentives. The City Council unanimously approved a seven-part action plan that creates a regional "preservation collaborative" to tackle projects. The goal is to save the 13,450 affordable units that would be easiest to preserve--4,200 deed-restricted units and 9,250 units of "naturally occurring" affordable housing. The at-risk units would typically be sold to a private developer, which decreases the likelihood of deed restrictions getting extended. The law requires owners to alert city officials and nonprofit affordable housing developers before putting the property up for sale, and would require the owners of deed-restricted rental properties to provide both a "right of first offer" and "a right of first refusal" to qualified nonprofit developers of subsidized housing. CP&DR Legal Coverage: Fresno County Must Throw Out Friant Ranch Approvals After almost 10 years of litigation, an appellate court has ordered Fresno County to set aside its approvals of the 942-acre Friant Ranch project and prepare a revised environmental impact report providing more detail about the potential air quality impacts of the project. The Fifth District Court of Appeal’s ruling is a followup to the California Supreme Court’s ruling in the same case in 2018. In that ruling, the Supreme Court said the EIR in the Friant Ranch case didn’t tightly link the project’s air quality effects to actual human health consequences. Quick Hits & Updates Santa Clara County, which is home to a disproportionate number of California's 400,000 to 800,000 migrant farmworkers, will relax zoning laws and streamline the permitting progress for homes intended for agricultural workers. The county will reduce costs from $14,000 to a special permit costing between $500 and $6,000, depending on whether the project is for short-term of long-term housing. Fortress Investment Group is postponing plans for Desert Xpress, its high speed rail project that would connect Las Vegas and Southern California. Investors failed to sell $2.4 billion in debt that was to be financed through agencies in California and Nevada, postponed until market liquidity improves. California has given Fortress until Dec. 1 to sell the bonds. San Diego voters approved Measure E, a proposition that allows taller buildings in the Midway District by striking the area from the city's coastal zone, but the victory introduces the possibility of a legal battle that could invalidate the measure altogether. Nonprofit group Save Our Access filed a California Environmental Quality Act challenge before Measure A passed; a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the Midway District for the foreseeable future. As stores struggle, Palo Alto prepares to let offices fill retail spaces--but city council is split over whether proposed zone changes would help or hurt retailers amid the pandemic. The proposal would modify the city's definitions of "retail" uses to encompass medical offices, educational uses, banks, law firms, accounting firms and real estate agents, among other types of offices. It also calls for imposing size limitations to make sure offices don't occupy too much space in commercial corridors. The Trump administration announced it is removing gray wolves from U.S. Endangered Species Act protections--leaving California with reduced ability to track the species as its population grows, and prevents the state from criminally charging people who kill wolves. Since wolves returned to California, there have been at least 20 confirmed or probable cases of wolves attacking livestock. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's office  launched a $100,000 design challenge that invites architects to submit design models for appealing low-rise, multi-family housing in Los Angeles. The challenge is supported by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the James Irvine Foundation, and Citi, and calls for a focus on sustainability and confronting racial injustice. The competition is informed by a research project that solicits community feedback that will then be used by entrants to shape their designs. The BART Board of Directors selected a development team to build a long-awaited housing project that will add 780 units of housing to land adjacent to the El Cerrito BART Station. The project would be about 49 percent below market rate, with 37 percent of the units affordable to families of four making less than $104,000 a year. The plan will have to deal with the realities of commuter parking, which will inevitably decrease, but board members have expressed optimism for public support due to nearby street parking and an existing alternative parking lot.

After almost 10 years of litigation, an appellate court has ordered Fresno County to set aside its approvals of the 942-acre Friant Ranch project and prepare a revised environmental impact report providing more detail about the potential air quality impacts of the project.

Click link to download pdf: CP&DR Vol. 35 No. 11 November 2020

San Jose Envisions Intensive Residential & Commercial Development Downtown Downtown San Jose is poised for a dramatic uptick in development and activity from a transit-rich neighborhood that goes beyond Google's proposed Downtown West project near the Diridion train station and SAP Center. City officials released a development plan--to be phased in over 12 years--that would add 13,000 residential units, up to 13.7 million square feet of office space, 1 million active use and retail square footage, and up to 300 hotel rooms. The amount of office space could accommodate 55,000 workers. The development vision for the Diridion Station area calls for a diverse range of building heights and a push for much greater densities. Buildings could be as high as 290 feet tall, while other sections would have buildings no taller than 65 feet or 90 feet. The city report recommends a goal of 25 percent of all housing to be affordable once the western downtown area is completely built out--well above the city's generic goal of 15 percent affordable housing. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Klamath River Dam Removals Set to Proceed  A new agreement between Berkshire Hathaway's Pacific Corp, Oregon, California, and the Yurok and Karuk tribes has revived plans to remove Klamath River Dam in 2023. The project would reopen hundreds of miles of waterway along the Oregon-California border and restore the salmon population that once flourished and sustained native tribes. In July, U.S. regulators stalled plans, concerned that the nonprofit entity formed to oversee the project wasn't equipped to handle budget shortfalls or accidents. The new plan adds Oregon and California as equal partners and adds a buffer of $45 million to the project's budget. The agreement retains the liability protections for PacifiCorp's customers that were established in 2016's Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, and allows PacifiCorp and Berkshire Hathaway to walk away from the aging dams without installing expensive fish ladders to modernize and bring the structures into compliance with current regulations. Audit Finds Inefficiencies among State Housing Agencies  In a newly released report, state auditors eviscerated California's housing agencies' approach to planning and financing affordable housing. The report points to cumbersome and at times misaligned requirements between the 4 agencies: Housing and Community Development (HCD), the Housing Finance Agency, the Debt Limit Committee, and the Tax Committee. Auditors called for eliminating one agency altogether by merging the Debit Limit and Tax Committees, citing overlapping and redundant review processes. At the same time, HCD lacks adequate enforcement authority to ensure that jurisdictions comply with state law when they review affordable housing projects. The lack of a comprehensive plan allowed one agency to mismanage and ultimately lose $2.7 billion in bond resources. Since developers routinely cobble together resources from multiple funding streams across agencies, the misaligned requirements can slow development and increase project costs. The report is categorical: "The State needs a timely enforcement mechanism--such as an appeals process developers can use--for situations when local jurisdictions fail to approve eligible affordable housing projects. Without substantial changes to address these issues, the State will continue to face a patchwork of local housing efforts that limit Californians' access to affordable homes.” Los Angeles Planning Commission Runs Afoul of Housing Accountability Act  District Square, a 577-unit residential project planned in South L.A., must be allowed to go forward and was denied "in bad faith," according to Superior Court Judge James Chalfant. The South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission turned down a developer's application last year, saying it lacked affordable housing and would spur gentrification. Lawyers for the project's developer said in their lawsuit that city planning rules do not require any affordable housing on the District Square site, which is planned on an empty lot next to a light rail station.The commission's lawyer stated publicly that without a more concrete rationale, the decision was in violation of the Housing Accountability Act. The judge also criticized the Department of City Planning, saying staffers failed to complete a determination letter on the commission's decision within the legal deadline. CP&DR Commentary: Calculating California's Housing Need  A report recently released by the Embaracadero Institute contends that California's housing need has been dramatically overstated, giving possible ammunition for slow-growth advocates. Bill Fulton unpacks Embaracadero's methodology, saying it might be correct -- but probably isn't -- and that the state needs both market-rate and affordable units. Josh Stephens throws up his hands, arguing that a precise calculation is beside the point. A housing crisis is a housing crisis, and California needs a lot of units no matter how you run the numbers. Quick Hits & Updates  A review by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that opened up over one million acres of California land to oil and gas drilling is being challenged in a lawsuit. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Governor Gavin Newsom, among others, filed the suit in which they said the review underestimates the percent of new wells that would be drilled using fracking, ignores the best available science in evaluating the impacts, and doesn't mitigate the impacts of oil and gas. Conservation groups filed a notice of intent to sue over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to lift protections for gray wolves. The notice argues that the basis for the decision is unscientific and lacks sound legal theory. It cited a peer review commissioned by the government that was at odds with the delisting proposal. While the gray wolf population has grown substantially, their current roaming range is a small fraction of the wolves' historical habitat. The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission appears likely to back off from a telecommute mandate that would have encouraged Bay Area employers to make 60 percent of their workforce remote on any given workday. The MTC will consider a revision to the mandate that would instead require companies to shift their commuters from cars to other modes, setting a cap on a company's workers traveling to the office in a car at 40 percent by 2035. The  Riverside City Council took a first step toward bringing a zero-emission streetcar to Riverside's Innovation District. The proposal seeks to secure the funding of a feasibility study by November 2020 to analyze possible alignments, estimate ridership projections and begin community engagement. As part of the proposal, TIGm, the manufacturer would commit to moving their headquarters to Riverside. A wildlife crossing that will span 10 years of the 101 Freeway at Liberty Canyon is set to break ground next year. Experts who study big cats and other endangered fauna in Southern California have sounded the alarm for years that busy freeways are devastating for wild animal populations. In the case of mountain lions and pumas, not only do many die when they try to cross the freeway, inbreeding is a problem wildlife crossings may resolve. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Using funding from California's Project Homekey program, Los Angeles City Council has voted to convert a series of largely vacant hotels into housing. The properties will provide shelter for up to 536 unhoused persons when operational. Separately, the City's Housing Authority is acquiring five additional buildings to create 214 interim housing units, while Los Angeles County will purchase nine hotels to housing more than 600 people. Brightline has revealed more details about its planned high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and Vegas. Plans on a newly launched website show work on the rail line is expected to begin this year and culminate in 2024, but the project schedule is reliant upon Brightline selling $3.2 billion in bonds toward the $8 billion project by Dec. 1. Otherwise, California will put the funds back into the state's affordable housing fund. A state audit of the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) indicates that a lead contamination cleanup surrounding Exide, a former lead battery recycling facility in Vernon , is behind schedule, over budget by millions, and woefully insufficient. The audit estimates approximately 100,000 people live in the area surrounding the facility and are thus at risk of lead exposure. DTSC's data indicate that a significant majority of properties had dangerous levels of lead contamination. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have released the draft environmental report for a proposed North Hollywood-to-Pasadena rapid bus line. The $267 million, 18-mile project is open for a public review period through early December. If all goes according to plan, the line will be in operation by 2024, connecting the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. The Public Policy Institute of California has come out with recommendations for partnerships between Southern California cities and San Joaquin Valley farms that it says could help alleviate groundwater overdraft in the valley while building drought resilience in Southern California. PPIC explores ways to ease the San Joaquin Valley's transition to groundwater sustainability, while shoring up Southern California's ability to withstand droughts. San Diego will ease nearly a dozen taxi regulations to help the industry survive both heightened competition from rideshare services and the falling demand since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The City Council lowered requirements for experience for cab drivers, eased parking rules, and allowed for the use of older vehicles, among other issues.

Monterey County can’t pay for public amenities and administrative costs associated with the redevelopment of Ford Ord from leftover redevelopment funds, an appellate court has ruled. Meanwhile, the market-rate housing portion of the project has moved forward, while the county has permitted a delay in the affordable housing portion.

When I was a kid, every McDonald’s sign included a, right below the Golden Arches, a tagline that read “...Billion Served,” preceded by a number that ticked inexorably upward. Presumably, someone at the home office in Illinois kept track of every hamburger, cheeseburger, Big Mac, McDLT, and Royale with Cheese sold around the world and periodically told the franchises to advance the number.

There’s been a lot of debate in recent months over a report from the tiny, Palo Alto-based Embarcadero Institute suggesting that California’s housing need isn’t as great as the state claims it is.