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The California Department of Housing and Community Development released a list of cities and counties that are subject to streamlined housing development through Senate Bill 35, adopted last year as part of the legislature's 15-bill housing package, because they fail to make sufficient progress toward meeting their housing need. For a proposed development to qualify for expedited development approval in a jurisdiction that is subject to SB 35 the project must be located on an infill site, follow residential and mixed use zoning law, and dedicated at least 10 percent of housing units for lower-income residents if the jurisdiction has not made sufficient progress toward their above-moderate income housing need, or at least 50 percent of housing units for lower-income residents if the city or county has not make sufficient progress toward their very-low and low-income housing need. Most of Santa Clara County and Orange County, San Francisco, Oakland, parts of Marin County, and San Diego are included in the greater than 50 percent affordability. Sacramento, West Sacramento, and most of Los Angeles County are included in the greater than 10 percent affordability. SGC Approves $140 Million in Grants The Strategic Growth Council (SGC) unanimously approved $140 million in competitive grants to assist community-led initiatives to combat climate change in the state’s most disadvantaged communities through the Transformative Climate Communities program. The City of Fresno received $70 million for the development of affordable homes near the high-speed rail station; a new Community College campus; electric vehicle, vanpool, and bike sharing programs; and urban greening projects in the most historically disadvantaged communities within the city. Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles was awarded $35 million to fund the construction of affordable homes as part of the Jordan Downs redevelopment, numerous new green spaces, and plans to improve home energy efficiency and renewable energy use. The City of Ontario will receive $35 million to focus on its historic downtown core revitalization project. The funds will go towards improving public transportation, bike lanes and sidewalks, building affordable homes, promoting energy efficiency, enhancing food security, and providing new green spaces to improve health and quality of life. These three cities will invest in 44 unique climate projects, reducing an estimated 117,412 metric tons of GHG emissions. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) S. Calif. Transit Ridership Drops amid Boom in Car-Buying  A report released by the Southern California Association of Governments and the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies found a dramatic increase in private automobile ownership in Southern California is the main cause of an overall decline in transit ridership. The study found that the six-county SCAG region added 2.1 million household vehicles between the years 2000 and 2015, a car increase that nearly quadruples the rate of the preceding decade. The number of vehicles added nearly matches the growth in population during those years. Between 2000 and 2015, private vehicle ownership dramatically increased among households in the SCAG region, from 1.7 to 2.4 vehicles per household. The study also considered factors including transit service quality, fuel prices, neighborhood change and the rise of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, but found that the region’s higher number of cars was the root of transit ridership’s downward trend. Vehicle ownership was also shown to have risen among demographic groups that have traditionally been the highest users of transit, including low-income and foreign-born immigrants. The report suggests that discretionary riders remain an untapped source of transit riders.  SANDAG Infrastructure Plan Faces $20 Billion Shortfall A study commissioned by the San Diego Association of Governments projects a $20 billion decline in sales tax revenue collected for roads, highways, and public transit over the next forty years as more San Diegans shop online and spend their income on housing and health care costs. Transnet, the half-cent sales tax for transportation, is expected to bring in $19.2 billion over the next four decades down from the estimated $39 billion. The report also found that earlier forecasts significantly overestimated population and income growth. SANDAG has completed 33 percent of the 48 major capital projects with another 28 percent in progress. The agency starts an overhaul of its long-range spending plan and these revelations likely mean that officials have to make some difficult decisions about prioritizing available funds and potentially nixing some projects that were promised to taxpayers. 38 State Agencies to Collaborate on Resilience The state’s Natural Resources Agency released the “ Safeguarding California Plan: 2018 Update ,” which lays out a roadmap for the state agencies' plans to protect communities, infrastructure, services, and the natural environment from climate change impacts.The plan includes 69 recommendations across 11 sectors and more than 1,000 ongoing actions and next steps developed by scientific and policy experts across 38 state agencies. Some projects and actions planned include Caltrans assessing transportation vulnerability, the Electric Program Investment Charge in Los Angeles region studying grid vulnerability, and building drought resilience in Tulare County. Applications Accepted for Urban Greening Grants California Natural Resources Agency opened its solicitation period for the Urban Greening Grant Program .Eligible urban greening projects will reduce GHG emissions and provide multiple additional benefits, including, but not limited to, a decrease in air and water pollution or a reduction in the consumption of natural resources and energy. Eligible projects will result in the conversion of an existing built environment into green space that uses natural and green infrastructure approaches to create sustainable and vibrant communities. Monies will be reserved for disadvantaged communities. The application is due April 11, 2018. Eight workshops will be held across the state with formal presentations and breakout sessions to help and guide those preparing grant applications. The workshops will be held Feb. 14 in Sacramento, Feb. 15 in Lynwood, Feb. 22 in Indio, 27 in Oakland. Visalia will be March 2, Redding Mar. 5, San Diego Mar. 8 and Ontario Mar. 12. Quick Hits & Updates The U.S. Navy is preparing to reexamine potentially toxic soils and buildings at San Francisco’s former Hunters Point Shipyard after finding a pattern of fraudulent manipulation or falsification of data collected by Tetra Tech, a contractor hired to clean up the Superfund site. This time-consuming and costly step will slow the redevelopment of the second phase of the property by at least a year. The 450-acre site is being redeveloped with more than 12,000 housing units and millions of square feet of retail, offices, and research and development facilities. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The League of California Cities has listed the 2018 statewide ballot measures with language for each measure on their website. The measures include housing bond SB 3, a parks and water bond SB 5, and transportation protection ACA 5. Toolkits for cities, measure language, and description of the ballot measures is available. The Strategic Growth Council approved the Research Investment Pla n for a new program that will focus on developing outcome-based strategies for addressing climate change. The program will receive $11 million in new research funding for programs that show a benefit to disadvantaged communities. The Natural Resources Agency issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on updated state guidelines for implementing CEQA, including new regulations that would streamline review of projects that improve air quality and public health. Public comments on the proposal are due by March 15 and public hearing will be held in Sacramento on March 15 and Los Angeles March 14. The Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors unanimously approved a plan to finish public transit through Sepulveda pass, a train from Union Station to Artesia, and the Gold Line extension to Whittier or El Monte by 2028. The plan follows L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “Twenty-eight by ‘28” initiative, which includes a big list of goals that will guide Metro’s construction spending and the agency’s search for more funds over the next decade in anticipation of the 2028 summer Olympic games. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration for rolling back a fracking rule that he says is designed to protect public health and the environment. The lawsuit says the administration broke the law by not following required procedures including getting public comment. Becerra says his office as filed 25 lawsuits against the Trump administration. Two bike rental companies, LimeBike and Ofo, were denied permission to operate in San Francisco by the cities Municipal Transportation Agency. The dockless bike rental companies say the denial was for “an unnecessarily opaque” permit process that has been unfair, anti-competitive, and works against the interest of city residents. The issue will be discussed by the Board of Supervisors during a hearing on the dockless bike permit process. City of Sacramento officials intend to purchase river frontage land from private residents to construct a trail along the Sacramento River. It seems unlikely the nine residents will sell their property voluntarily. The city expects to invoke eminent domain. However, Councilmember Rick Jennings noted that the homeowners who purchased their homes adjacent to the river knew about the Sacramento River parkway play that was adopted by city council in 1975. A $1.9 billion widening of 16-miles of the I-405 freeway in Orange County is about to begin and will be completed in 2023. The plan includes a new lane and a new express toll lane in both directions. The project will also include widening and replacing nearly 20 bridges and renovating various freeway ramps. City of San Diego is facing a $1.57 billion five-year infrastructure funding gap, growing $310 million from last year. This gap jeopardizes the city’s ability to fix sidewalks, build bike lanes, and keep parks in good shape over the next five years. The city’s long-term infrastructure backlog has been estimated at roughly $5 billion.  Beverly Hills Unified School District filed a new lawsuit against the Federal Transit Administration and Metro over the Purple Line Subway alignment. The school district is seeking an injunction to ensure the two agencies “conduct a proper environmental analysis, evaluate the serious health effects the Project and associated construction next to campus will have on the students, and prohibit the FTA from obligating federal funds to the project until the agencies have fully complied with federal law.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Metrolink has  completed  a one-mile track extension to connect Santa Fe Depot with the San Bernardino Transit Center. Eastern San Bernardino Valley commuters can connect with the city’s sbX rapid transit line, Metrolink, and Omnitrans buses. The $123 million project bridged the one-mile gap between the two facilities. The next extension will be the future commuter rail to Redlands which should be completed in 2020. The legislature’s Joint Audit Committee approved the first formal state audit of the high-speed rail project. The decision comes after the rail authority announced the cost of building the first 119 miles of track in the Central Valley has increased by 77 percent over the original estimate of $6 billion. Some of San Diego’s hotels raised close to $300,000 last year in preparation for launching an initiative that would hike the hotel tax to underwrite a convention center expansion, homeless services, and road repairs. However, just $72,000 of the contributions have been spent, with the bulk going for legal and political consultants, as well as polling. The campaign contribution report released by a coalition of tourism, business and labor interests called “Yes! For a Better San Diego”. More money will have to be raised to finance the signature-gathering effort, which will require collecting more than 100,000 signatures of eligible voters. City of Fountain Valley City Council unanimously approved the Fountain Valley Crossings Specific Plan which includes the redevelopment of 162 acres of mostly industrial area into a “main street” style hub for residents to shop and dine. The project includes the development of 491 homes, retail, office space, and industrial uses.

In a new case regarding the “urban decay” provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act, the Fifth District Court of Appeal has piggybacked on the earlier Joshua Tree ruling by conjecture and unsubstantiated expert testimony is not enough to meet CEQA’s “sufficient evidence” standard.

A condominium association in Azusa has standing to file an inverse condemnation claim against the L.A. Metro Gold Line Construction Authority, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled.

MTC’s Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) approved a resolution to place a $4.45 billion package of transportation projects known as Regional Measure 3 (RM3) on the June 5 ballot. If approved, these projects would be financed by a $1 increase in tolls on the seven state-owned toll bridges. The major projects in the RM3 expenditure plan include expansion of BART’s railcar fleet, extension to Milpitas and East San Jose, further extension to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, extending Caltrain to downtown San Francisco, expanding transbay bus services, constructing freeway connectors throughout the Bay, widening certain corridors, expanding San Francisco’s Muni metro railcars and Ferry fleet. RM3 would also provide $50 million for planning and preliminary engineering of a second rail tube connecting he East Bay and San Francisco, $150 million grant to improve bicycle and pedestrian access to regional transit hubs, and to close gaps in the San Francisco Bay Trail.  Legislators Seek Audit of High-Speed Rail Sen. Jim Beall (San Jose), chair of the state Senate transportation committee, and Assemblymember Jim Patterson (Fresno) submitted a letter asking for a comprehensive review of the California High-Speed Rail program. This letter marks the first time that a leading Democrat has supported an audit of the program since the state auditor looked at the project in 2012. The request comes a week after the rail authority disclosed its main consultant, WSP, was forecasting the cost of building the first 119 miles of rail line in the Central Valley would jump up to $10.6 billion from the original $6 billion estimate. Construction is currently running about seven years behind schedule. In the letter, Beall and Patterson ask for an examination of contract costs, change orders, economic effect to communities, the use of small businesses and environmental outcomes that result from the project’s “green construction practices.” While Patterson, former mayor of Fresno, has been a critic of the project, Beall cited many benefits of HSR but wants the state to look for efficiencies and saving to speed up construction and cut costs. Steinberg Calls for Development Fund for Sacramento In his first State of the City address last week Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg  proposed a multibillion-dollar fund that would pay for local infrastructure, affordable housing, arts and culture amenities, as well as incentives to attract new industries to the city. He said the money could come from a new sales tax or selling off some of the 4.5 million square feet of vacant land the city owns. The city has a one-half percent sales tax that funds core city services that will expire next year, and city officials are expected to ask voters to renew the tax on the November ballot. However, Steinberg’s remarks indicate the city may ask voters to increase the sales tax to 1 percent and make it permanent to fund his plans. Steinberg said he will hold four public workshops over the next 45 days to discuss the idea and plans to provide specific plans by the beginning of summer. Vernal Pool Conservation Plan Approved in San Diego San Diego City Council approved , 7-2, a habitat conservation plan that comes after 12 years of negotiations over development of vernal pool habitats. The plan strikes a deal between environmentalists and developers over biologically-rich vernal pools and clarifies how developers can build on land with such pools. Vernal pools only exist for a few weeks or months each year, almost always in the spring, and are most prevalent in Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, and Otay Mesa. Supporters of the deal say the rulebook strikes the right balance between protecting the environment and allowing developers to confidently move forward with projects. Opponents of the plan feel that more should be done to protecting the remaining three percent of the county’s vernal pools, 97 percent have been destroyed by farmers and developers. Small Growers Fear Industrial-Scale Marijuana Cultivation California Growers Association, a group of marijuana growers in the state, filed a lawsuit in Sacramento to block state rules that they fear could lead vast farms to drive smaller cultivators out of business. The group argues the current state regulations would allow businesses to acquire an unlimited number of certain growing licenses, creating large operations that would have a devastating effect on smaller businesses. The lawsuit says those rules conflict with state law that intended the new cannabis market to be built around small-and medium-sized growers. CARB Holds SB 375 Workshops, Jan. 30 - Feb. 13 The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is holding workshops on SB 375 Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection program and proposed updates to regional passenger vehicle GHG emissions reduction targets for California’s Metropolitan Planning Organizations. The workshops will have CARB staff presenting revisions to the October 2017 Staff Report, sharing feedback received at the December 2017 Board Meeting, presenting initial concepts for updates to the technology methodology for SCS evaluation, and guidance on quantification of strategies. The workshops will be held January 30 in Fresno, February 5 in Los Angeles, February 6 in Sacramento, and February 13 in San Diego. The Sacramento workshop will also be webcast live. Caltrans Offers $40 Million in Planning Grants Caltrans released its 2018-2019 Grant Application Guides and call-for-applications for the traditional State and federal funding, as well as grant funding from SB1, the Road Repair & Accountability Act of 2017. A total of $40.8 million is available for transportation planning projects statewide, with $29.5 million for Sustainable Communities Grants, $4.3 million for Strategic Partnerships Grants, and $7 million for Adaptation Planning Grants. Grant applications are due February 23, 2018 and announcements will be made in May. More information on applications, timelines, and much more information can be found on the website. Quick Hits & Updates Oakland City Council passed the Uniform Relocation Ordinance , which creates a schedule of relocation payments that will increase every year based on the Consumer Price Index fluctuations. The first schedule would require landlords to pay $9,875 to those evicted from three or more bedroom units, $8,000 to renters evicted from two-bedroom units, and $6,500 to people evicted from studio or one-bedroom units. Additionally, households with low-income, elderly or disabled people, or those with minor children would be entitled to an additional $2,500 per unit. Gail Goldberg, executive director of the Urban Land Institute’s Los Angeles chapter, announced her retirement effective at the end of January. Goldberg served in this position for six years. She previously was planning director in Los Angeles and, before that, San Diego. A plan to cap the Santa Monica Freeway to link the city’s downtown and Civic Center with a park atop a deck is finally poised to move forward. The Gateway Master Plan is set to head into the process early this year according to a report from the City Department of Planning and Community Development. The plan is included in the department’s list of recommended priorities. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it is giving San Francisco $9 million more than it did last year to help boost housing for homeless people. In all, San Francisco won $41.5 million in homelessness grants, more than any other California county except Los Angeles, which won $109.4 million. Alameda County was awarded $35 million and Santa Clara County $22 million. Rental site ApartmentList released its results from its latest renter confidence survey. San Francisco received an F grade in affordability but a B+ grade overall. San Jose respondents also gave their city an F in affordability and Oakland a D. However, while 45,000 responses came in nationwide only 148 for San Francisco, 105 for San Jose, and 60 for Oakland. As Curbed points out, the survey only includes residents of these cities, those forced to relocate because of the housing crisis since 2016 were not part of the survey. Los Angeles City Councilmembers are calling for a Climate Emergency Mobilization department which would radically reduce GHG emissions. According to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s sustainability plan, LA reduced its emissions 20 percent between 1990 and 2013 and is aiming for a 45 percent cut by 2025. Gov. Jerry Brown made two key appointments to the High-Speed Rail Authority: Washington DOT engineer Joseph Hedges to the chief operating officer position and DMV veteran Pamela Mizukami as chief deputy director. Both positions have been vacant for months. Palo Alto City Council sent comments on Stanford University’s proposed expansion to Santa Clara County, which has final say over the project. Palo Alto says the University should include some affordable housing and funding for transit improvements. The comments on the draft environmental review of the expansion are due February 2. The university’s 2018 general use permit, if approved by the county, would allow it to continue developing its property through 2035. However, former San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio has gathered the 585,407 signatures needed to qualify an initiative to repeal the gas tax for the November ballot. If the measure passes, it would roll back SB 1’s hike on fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, as well as require a public vote for any such increases in the future. SB 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act, is projected to raise roughly $5.4 billion a year for highways to roads to bridges to public transit to sidewalks. According to Kevin Guy, Director of the San Francisco Office of Short-Term Rental Administration and Enforcement, Airbnb and rival home-stay sites have lost thousands of hosts as a deadline for the companies to kick off unregistered hosts approaches. In 2015, San Francisco strengthened registration requirements and rental limitations. The STR companies sued the city, but a settlement was reached in May that required the sites to register all hosts in phases starting in September. The city said 2,168 hosts had met its requirements to offer temporary rentals, representing a small fraction of the 8,453 Airbnb listings the city observed in August. Sacramento City Officials will eliminate one of the three lanes on J Street in Midtown to make space for a separated bike lane and to slow traffic to make pedestrians and cyclists feel safer. The “road diet” represents the most dramatic step in the city’s effort to make midtown more pedestrian and bike-friendly. The parking lane will be moved out toward the street, and will act as a buffer between cyclists and moving traffic. This project is part of a larger $1million street repavement project on J Street, funded in part from the state’s 2017 gas tax increase. LimeBike has launched its dockless bike sharing program in Burlingame California and CSU Northridge. In Burlingame, the system will include 200 GPS –enabled smart bikes throughout the city for $1 with 5 free rides to all city residents through the end of February. LimeBike has placed 400 bikes on CSU Northridge’s campus for a rate of $0.50/half an hour and 10 free ridges through January.

The California Attorney General’s office is not bound by the general rule that a plaintiff in a California Environmental Quality Act case must exhaust administrative remedies before pursuing litigation, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled.

In a potentially significant ruling, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled that the 2011 law ending redevelopment can unconstitutionally impair contractual arrangements that did not involve a local redevelopment agency if the funds were scheduled to come from the agency and the state denied release of the funds after the redevelopment agency was shut down.

From the homebuilding boom of the 1980s, the recession of the early 1990s, the recovery of the 2000s, and the embrace of smart growth from the late 2000s onward, one development proposal has withstood it all: Newhall Ranch. Located in northern Los Angeles County, Newhall Ranch envisions 21,500 units on 12,000 acres, making it potentially the last major greenfield master-planned community in the Los Angeles area. By many accounts, it is arguably the most heavily analyzed, litigated, and protested project in county history. Last July, after withstanding protests, lawsuits, redesigns, changing fashions and fluctuating economies, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors finally voted, 4-0, to certify the environmental impact report for the project’s first two of the project’s five phases. The certification consisted a "re-approval” following a 2015 certification that was upended when opponents sued, claiming a faulty greenhouse gas analysis in its EIR and improper approvals by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and took the case to the California Supreme Court. (That case set a precedent requiring detailed, contextualized analysis of greenhouse gas emissions in EIRs and, by extension, climate action plans. EIRs cannot simply refer to statewide greenhouse gas goals but rather must explain how it relates to those goals. See prior CP&DR coverage .) The project cleared its final major hurdle in September when developer FivePoint entered into an agreement with four opponents — the Center for Biological Diversity, the Wishtoyo Foundation/Ventura Coastkeeper, the California Native Plant Society and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. These groups agreed to drop further lawsuits in exchange for certain concessions, including a $25 million fund to protect endangered species and the Santa Clara River, which runs through the Newhall Ranch property; it is Southern California’s only free-flowing river. “It certainly isn’t perfect but it’s been thoroughly evaluated,” said Mitch Glaser, assistant administrator for Current Planning at the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Department. “We feel pretty confident that we’ve addressed all of the concerns and mitigated all the impacts as much as they can be.”

CP&DR Vol. 33 No. 1 January 2018

State Sen. Scott Wiener – the hot name in California housing right now – came to the annual UCLA Land Use Law and Planning Conference last week to deliver a message: The politics of housing have changed.

The estimated cost of constructing 119 miles of high-speed rail track in the Central Valley has increased by $2.8 billion to a total of $10.6 billion, possibly threatening the viability of the segment and the entire project. The estimate was provided by the main consulting firm on the project, WSP, who said the cost increases were driven by higher costs for land acquisition, issues relocating utility systems, need for safety barriers near freight lines, and demand by stakeholders for mitigation for various issues. The board also voted to name Brian Kelly as its new CEO. Kelly was secretary of the California Transportation Agency and said HSR remains crucial to the future transportation and economic needs of the state. The 77 percent increase above the original estimate for the segment, suggests the authority and its consultants underestimated the difficulties of buying land, obtaining environmental approvals, and much else. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Riverside Supervisor Proposes New Salton Sea Plan Riverside County Supervisor Manuel Perez released the North Lake Vision which would seek to remedy some of the issues: high salinity levels, fish die-offs, fewer birds, odors, and the shrinking the Salton Sea. The $400 million plan includes the creation of an in-lake barrier, or dam, on the north end of the sea which would be filled with flows from the White Water River to create a healthy lake inside a “not-so-healthy one”. The plan would be subsidized with taxes generated by a bond measure that may be presented to voters within a year. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is expected to decide whether to create an enhanced infrastructure finance district to fund the North Lake proposal. San Jose and Santa Clara Reach Truce Over Megadevelopment The cities of San Jose and Santa Clara have settled suits over two multibillion dollar projects: CityPlace and Santana West. The projects are designed to bring office parks, retail, and tens of thousands of jobs to the region, along with some new homes. Officials from both cities are concerned about impacts to schools, traffic, taxes, and housing supply. The mayors from the two cities issued a joint statement saying they would work together to provide additional funding from development fees for traffic improvements and affordable housing. Mayor of Santa Clara Lisa Gillmor said the settlement would allow development of CityPlace to get back on track after an 18-month delay. CityPlace developers will pay San Jose $4.5 million for traffic improvements near Levi's Stadium during the first construction phase, and up to $10 million as the second phase begins. San Jose, in return, agreed to drop its appeal of a judge’s ruling that validated Santa Clara’s environmental report for the project. The Santana West settlement calls for $3.7 million for traffic improvements around both cities, with Santa Clara receiving $5 million for transportation and affordable housing. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) S.F. Voters to Consider $100 Million Annually for Housing  Five San Francisco supervisors are placing a measure on the June 5 ballot that would raise about $100 million annually to pay for 10,000 low-and middle-income housing units and shelter accommodations for the city’s homeless population over the next ten years. The “Housing for All” ballot measure would ask voters to raise the tax levied on commercial property owners to 2 percent, a 1.7 percent increase, to raise the funds. Supervisor Ahsha Safaí said he has been in contact with the city’s business community and they have been “neutral or supportive” of the measure. Sacramento to Experiment with ‘Microtransit' Sacramento’s Regional Transit agency is  developing  plans to experiment with “microtransit” in its Citrus Heights neighborhood in February. The new service will rely on shuttle buses or vans that riders request via smartphone that can then pick up and drop them off where they want to go. It’s a brand new type of transportation service offered in some cities across the country by private startups, mass transit agencies, or a partnernship between the two. The driver will have an iPad on the dashboard showing the shortest route to get passengers to their individual destinations. The goal is to keep costs similar to the existing $2.75 for a bus or light-rail ride. The pilot program will cost about $25,000. The vision for microtransit service would be to ride to light rail or larger bus stations that would continue to run main routes to key population-dense areas such as downtown. Visualizing SB 827 TOD Housing Bill Sen. Scott Wiener announced a series of proposed housing bills, includes Senate Bill 827, which would override many local zoning controls on height, density, parking minimums, and design review within a certain distance of major public transit infrastructure in order to increase housing. A supporter of SB 827, Sasha Aickin, made a map depicting the effects the proposed bill would have on various cities throughout California. Aickin says nearly all of San Francisco would be upzoned to allow up to 85 feet on wider streets and 55 feet on narrower streets as would significant portions of Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, Oakland, Berkeley, and to a lesser extent, Sacramento. Other cities like Bakersfield, Santa Cruz and San Bernardino would not see much impact from the bill. Brown Includes $3 Million for Housing in Budget, Takes Shot at Prop. 13 Gov. Jerry Brown released his initial budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. He’s proposing $190 billion in spending and putting $5 billion into the state’s "Rainy Day Fund." The budget includes $3 million from the General Fund to the California Housing and Community Development Department to implement his housing package. Gov. Brown mentioned during his budget press conference that budget volatility in the state stems from the 1978 passage of Prop. 13, which would take voters to fix it. According to Housing California, securing the passage of the Housing Bond and implementing the housing package is a top priority this year. Quick Hits & Updates Amazon announced 20 finalists for the $5 billion second North American headquarters for the company. Los Angeles was the only city west of the Rocky Mountains. The other California cities such as San Diego, Irvine, the Bay Area, and others were eliminated. Amazon will work with the finalists on diving deeper into their proposals, requesting additional information, and evaluating the feasibility of each potential partnership before making the final decision this year. (See prior CP&DR commentary .) After a seven-year delay, the master-planned redevelopment of San Francisco’s Parkmerced neighborhood is finally set to break ground this year. The 152-acre project is expected to bring 5,679 new residential units, 230,000 square feet of retail space, 80,000 square feet of offices, and 60,000 square feet of parks to the neighborhood. The League of California Cities recently updated its SB 1 toolkit for cities to use to announce their funded projects and ensure residents have information on how their city will be investing in their local infrastructure. SB 1 includes approximately $750 million annually that will go directly to cities for street maintenance and rehabilitation projects. The California Department of Finance has highlighted the migration of Californians moving inland from coastal regions. Its research finds that inland counties are growing faster than that of urban coastal counties. Cities like Sacramento are attractive because of the region’s thriving job market and ample supply of affordable housing. The San Diego Association of Governments has spent $61 million on a program to accelerate high-priority bike projects but has delivered less than four miles, according to figures released in a staff report last week. A SANDAG principal planner said much of the $61 million has been spent on projects that are still in the design phase.  Adobe Systems recently paid $68 million for a lot in downtown San Jose that will become the fourth tower for the campus. The company estimates the tower would allow an additional 3,000 workers. The site is already approved for a large office development and construction equipment spent several days in December clearing small buildings and other debris. Google is also pushing ahead with plans for a transit-oriented village with between 6-8 million square feet of office space for 15,000 to 20,000 employees. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Granum Partners, a Los Gatos property management company, applied to build a roughly 3,600 square foot, single-story office building for 15 employees on a former gas station site in Menlo Park. However, residents sent letters to City Council eliciting concern because of its close proximity to Willow Road and potential for a “traffic nightmare”. Because of existing construction on Caltrans’ shifting of Highway 101 access ramps, traffic has spilled onto the residents’ streets and made it impossible to get out of their driveways during the evening commute. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission advanced four of six possible scenarios for further analysis for the county’s proposed rail corridor. The debate is what to do with the county’s existing rail with some wanting a bike/pedestrian trail with no rail and the other wants both. The four scenarios that will receive further study are: (1) only a trail; (2) trail plus passenger train; (3) trail, bus rapid transit and Watsonville freight service; and (4) trail, passenger train and county-wide freight service.

As 2017 wound down, Emily Badger published an impressive article in the New York Times about the growing divide between America’s superstar global cities and the country’s smaller, less prosperous cities. She was followed up by approving commentary from Paul Krugman. Neither piece has much to do with California – and that’s sort of the point. They both argued that the national network of producers, consumers, and suppliers that used to form a nice, mutually beneficial hierarchy has given way to what are, in many ways, separate universes, with Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and others jetting around the world in business class and Akron, Erie, Hartford, and Rochester stuck on Greyhound. Many of these cities were once specialized industrial centers (Rochester: optics; Akron: rubber; Bethlehem : steel) or even superstars of their day (St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit). Alan Mallach and Lavea Brachman, in a 2013 book published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, calls them respectfully but lamentably “legacy cities.” This issue undergirded what was probably the most interesting question I got all year. A few months ago I gave a talk on California’s housing crisis to an audience consisting mainly of out-of-town housing developers visiting Los Angeles for ULI’s Fall Meeting. Given that nearly every article we wrote in CP&DR last year somehow involved housing – shortages, costs, battles over, plans for, legislation regarding – this was no small task. The question I got was one that probably no Californian ever would have thought to ask but that is likely on the minds of 90 percent of the rest of the country: If housing prices are so high in California and the prospects for lowering them, through added supply, are scant, how can we entice people not merely to "escape" California out of desperation but rather to embrace and reinvigorate places that need activity and talent?  On face, it may seem like an offensive question to ask in a banquet hall in downtown Los Angeles. California has always been about boosterism. But it’s one that – with 2017 behind us and many more years of high housing prices ahead of us – we would be wise to contemplate. The benefits for legacy cities are obvious: more warm bodies, more jobs, more tax revenues, more vibrancy, more human capital. California may reap benefits too. No jurisdiction ever wants to lose residents – nor the tax revenues and economic activity that they generate. But, as it stands now, California is hoarding residents, to its own detriment. The state’s cities, by competing with each other to see who can get away with approving the least amount of new housing, and the state – which until recently has done little to change cities’ attitudes – have witnessed job growth, capital accumulation, natural population increase, and in-migration (domestic and international; documented and undocumented) in defiance of all principles of sound planning. (At least on the housing side; transportation is doing a little bit better, with recent investments in public transit and other improvements.) The rising cost of living, coupled with declining quality of life for many residents, simply isn’t sustainable. Californians are already leaving. The state has experienced steady out-migration since the Great Recession – with a net loss of 110,000 in 2016 – much of it to other Sun Belt states like Arizona, Nevada, and our increasingly intense mega-state rival, Texas. San Franciscans are moving to Seattle and Angelenos to Las Vegas. There’s even been a trickle of out-migrants to states like Montana and Idaho, especially among those for whom California’s liberal politics are a bit much. A few tech folks have even discovered that not every day needs to seem like an episode of “Silicon Valley.” From a national perspective, the trouble is that many of these places are much like California: sprawling and new. Unfortunately, many legacy cities -- for all of their urbanistic charms -- go wanting. They shouldn't have to.  Until California adds a few million units, the abandoned row houses of Philadelphia and the blue-collar houses of Cincinnati make great economic sense. Except, of course, for two things: 1) people are entitled to like where they live, regardless of hardships; 2) cheap housing isn’t worth much without jobs. Which brings me back to that developer’s question. It’s not a bad question, but she was asking the wrong person. She should have asked it of herself and of her colleagues in the room. In fact, that’s probably what she was doing. I was just the mirror off of which it refracted. California is not about to start a PR campaign to encourage people to move out. But, while the idea of “city branding” can be contrived and fraught, the Clevelands of the world have an opportunity to make their virtues – including cost of living – known to the world. For relatively little investment, they can partner with their local businesses and advertise their jobs to, say, graduates of UC’s and to programmers living out of their cars in Silicon Valley. They can appeal directly to tech companies that don’t need to be down the street from Y Combinator. They can remind millennials that they already have many of the urban amenities and old-fashioned bones that cities like Los Angeles and San Jose might never have. As many economic geographers (such as UC Berkeley's Enrico Moretti ) have pointed out, sometimes urban economies grow for completely arbitrary reasons. Microsoft could have been founded in Albuquerque (Bill Gates’s hometown) rather than then-depressed and soggy Seattle. I even think that a minor exodus could be healthy. A Californian who moves to Ohio or Missouri doesn’t just represent a unit of human capital for those places. He or she also creates a connection back to California – and those connections can go both ways, for mutual benefit. So, while California can and should remain rightfully proud of its economic might and global prominence, we might also consider the benefits of sharing the wealth.

Sen. Scott Weiner’s transit-housing bill SB 827 is making national headlines. The lefty news site Slate declared that the bill “would solve California’s housing crisis” and even my Houston buddy Michael Skelly has declared that it should be a model (for a city with no zoning – but ample parking requirements).