Search Results

CP&DR Vol. 32 No. 8 August 2017

Four years ago, the California Supreme Court poked a big hole in the California Environmental Quality Act when it held that local elected officials could approve a project without any CEQA analysis if an initiative to approve the project had qualified for the ballot. The so-called “Tuolomne Tactic” was a big-blow to old-fashioned populist NIMBYism in California, using a supposedly populist tool. That's how both Inglewood and Carson  got their NFL stadiums approved so fast . More recently, developers have tried the tactic to approve  a logistics center in Moreno Valley  and  a shopping center in Carlsbad  (though that approval was overturned by a referendum). Now the Court has used the same populist tool to poke a hole in old-fashion populist tax activism, saying that the initiative process isn’t subject to Proposition 26, the 1996 ballot measure that sought to restrain tax increases by subjecting them to a vote. And, ironically, the Supreme Court’s ruling used Proposition 26’s own language to create a possible loophole that would permit taxes to be raised in a locality without a vote – if the tax increase is brought forth via initiative. It’s a blow to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association – and maybe the organization’s fault as well. It’s the same interplay with the Elections Code that we saw in the Tuolomne case. Because Elections Code 9212 permits local elected officials to simply enact an initiative rather than put in on the ballot, taxes could be raised without any vote at all under certain circumstances since Proposition 13 doesn’t apply. The ruling also holds out the possibility that a special tax increase brought forth by initiative could pass with a simple majority vote rather than the two-thirds vote called for under Proposition 13. Indeed, this is almost certainly the reason that the Chargers football team joined the case on an amicus basis. Before they left San Diego for Los Angeles, the Chargers were looking at all options for financing a new football stadium and were struggling to make a deal with the city. The majority ruling of the Supreme Court – written by Justice Tino Cuellar, a recent Brown appointee – rests on what seems, at least to me, to be a weird interpretation of California’s constitutional provisions on initiative and referendum: The idea the voters and the local government are two different things. The argument appears to be that when the voters step into the shoes of the elected officials, they are some how not acting as the local government. The whole point of the initiative process is to allow voters to step into the shoes of elected officials (the state legislature, county boards of supervisors, and city councils) and enact legislation that has exactly the same legally binding power. If voters in San Diego approve an increase in the hotel tax to pay for the new Chargers stadium, isn't that exactly the same thing as if the San Diego City Council or San Diego County Board of Supervisors approving such a tax? Well, no, according to the California Supreme Court. An initiative isn’t an action undertaken by the local government, which is not the “municipal corporation and body politic” (as dissenter Justice Leondra Kruger argued) but an array of elected officials and bureaucrats occupying City Hall. “A contrary conclusion,” wrote Cuellar for the majority, “would require an unreasonably broad construction of the term ‘local government’ at the expense of the people’s constitutional right to direct democracy, undermining our longstanding and consistent view that courts should protect and liberally construe it.” And here is where the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association – which unsuccessfully sought to defend Upland in the case – got hoisted on its own petard, as it were. Exhibit A in Cuellar’s argument is the plain language of Proposition 218 itself – language which seems to suggest that citizens, especially taxpayers, are separate from the government. Proposition 218 itself says: “This measure protects taxpayers by limiting the methods by which local governments exact revenue from taxpayers.” For decades, the Howard Jarvis group and other taxpayer organizations have argued that the government has gotten out of control – that it is a kind of “deep state” that must be reigned in by voters, because government has gone off on its own as a separate, largely unaccountable entity. Now, at last, the Supreme Court – in an opinion written by a Latino appointee of Jerry Brown – has agreed. Even though the initiative process is set up so voters step into the shoes of elected officials to enact legislation, somehow or other those voters are a different entity than the elected officials. And the loser is the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Because the end result of all this litigation is that you can use the initiative process to pass a tax without a vote or with a simple majority vote instead of the two-thirds supermajority the Jarvis people love. You can see advocates for transportation, open space, and affordable housing jumping on this one all over the state. Transportation agencies, for example, have struggled for decades with passing or renewing their half-cent sales taxes because they need a two-thirds vote. A simple majority would be so much easier. But it also takes the bat out of the hands of elected officials acting in their official capacity - and probably creates a legal mess as to how involved those elected officials can get in drafting the initiative. Could a county transportation commission, for example, draft a wish list of transportation projects to be funded by a tax - and then let a group of prominent citizens place it on the ballot via initiative? Yikes. A typical California problem. Meanwhile, if what you want to do is raise taxes and then build something with the money, life keeps getting easier. If you go the initiative route, you can raise taxes without the two-thirds vote that those pesky right-wingers like – even without a vote at all -- and then build the project without a CEQA analysis that those pesky left-wingers like. Whether anybody thinks all this is worth doing for anything other than a football stadium remains to be seen.

In a case with potentially broad ramifications, the California Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that Proposition 218 doesn’t apply to initiatives – meaning, in theory, that a tax proposed by the initiative process will could be approved by a local elected body as an alternative to placing the initiative on the ballot.

The San Francisco Bay Area’s less racially diverse cities are not being allocated their fair share of moderate- and lower-income housing, according to new research findings from the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley. According to the report, Unfair Shares , researchers determined that after controlling for population size, Bay Area housing allocations for moderate- and low-income residents are correlated with the sizes of the cities' white populations. As a whole, the region only permitted 28 percent, 26 percent, and 29 percent of needed moderate-income, low-income and very low-income housing units respectively between 2007 and 2014.Additionally, the researchers found that more than half the local governments in the region permitted less than 25 percent of the total housing units needed for moderate-, low-, and very low-income households between 2007 and 2014. Only 5 percent of local governments permitted between 75 and 100 percent of the moderate-, low-, and very-low income housing needed, and only 8 percent permitted more than 100 percent of what was needed. While San Leandro, Oakley and Richmond permitted more than 100 percent of very low- and low-income housing, cities like Martinez, Fairfield and parts of Napa and Solano counties permitted less than 10 percent of their allocations of very low- and low-income housing. These findings raise legal questions about a potentially disparate racial impact in the region’s housing needs allocation methodology, while elevating concerns about housing equity in other parts of California as well. The report makes two key recommendations: 1) Modify the Bay Area’s regional housing needs allocation methodology to incorporate fair housing objectives; 2) Specify additional requirements within state laws to promote racial equity within the housing allocation process that all regional councils of governments must observe.  Redondo Beach Adopts Moratorium on Mixed-Use Developments The City of Redondo Beach enacted a 45-day moratorium on the approvals of new mixed-use developments, with a possible two-year extension on the way. The moratorium was adopted unanimously by the city council amid public outcry that such developments were undermining the character of the coastal city in southern Los Angeles County. Mixed-use developments have cropped up along Pacific Coast Highway, one of the city’s major arteries. At its Sept. 19 meeting, the city council will consider the two-year extension; it will have to demonstrate that mixed-use developments pose a threat to public health, safety, and welfare. “Redondo does not have a housing shortage and the crisis we do have really is a traffic crisis and an on-again, off-again water crisis,” Mayor Bill Brand told the Daily Breeze. “And if we continue with a lot of this residential, soon we’ll have school overcrowding.” The city is currently updating its general plan, which is expected to include guidelines on mixed-use development.  Newhall Ranch Hit with Lawsuit Two environmental groups, Friends of the Santa Clara River and the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment, have filed a CEQA lawsuit to block the approvals of the first phase of Newhall Ranch. The 5,500-unit phase of the controversial mega-development northwest of Los Angeles was approved last month by Los Angeles County Supervisors. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that developer FivePoint Holdings did not fully take into account effects on plants and wildlife, Native American sites, and the watershed of the Santa Clara River. It also alleges that the environmental impact report did not account for droughts, impact on the area’s water table, or for the expansion of a nearby landfill “The Board’s finding that the project will not adversely affect health, peace, comfort or welfare of persons residing or working in the surrounding area ... or otherwise constitute a menace to the public health, safety, or general welfare, is not supported by substantial evidence in the record,” according to the complaint, as quoted in the Daily News. Los Angeles Measure JJJ May Be Depressing Housing Construction According to a study released by the Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIA) developers submitted only 5,117 applications for new housing construction permits in Los Angeles from March to June. The same period last year saw 9,226 permits. CEO of the BIA’s Los Angeles branch, Tim Piasky, blames expensive requirements for affordable housing mandated by Prop. JJJ, a citywide ballot measure that passed in November. When Los Angeles voters were considering the proposition, critics from Habitat for Humanity to the Los Angeles Times warned that the measure could lead to less housing constructions because of the mandate. Under the new proposition, the City Planning Department published guidelines on the percentage of affordable housing units required for new development projects. The proposition also added new labor regulations that required developers to pay a prevailing wage and require that 30 percent of construction workers on a project are LA residents and 10 percent of those “transitional workers”. As Piasky says, “not only are they not producing affordable units they aren’t producing any housing units.” Stanford Study Backs Use of Carbon Offsets through Forest Conservation Researchers at Stanford University have found that offsetting carbon credits through forests has environmental benefits beyond offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. In California, the program allows forest owners around the U.S. to sell carbon credits to companies required by the state to reduce emissions through its cap-and-trade market. For each additional ton of carbon dioxide the trees store, forest owners can earn about $10 in credits to sell to companies. The program has earned forest owners about $250 million and offset 25 million tons of carbon. The researchers show the program is effective because the forest owners switched from timber companies to participate in the program, and there are sustainable forest management and conservation co-benefits.  S.F. Supervisor Seeks Help for Perilous Series of Off-Ramps San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen is pushing for the “Hairball,” a tangle of freeway, ramps, and three streets in the Mission and Dogpatch, neighborhoods to be made safer and more attractive. Ronen’s first choice is to put a chunk of the freeway underground. Some members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition have posted videos of themselves weaving around homeless camps that have spilled into bike lanes. Ronen says the freeway encampment is a natural result of poor urban design and that a Navigation Center should be opened in the area as a temporary solution. In July, Ronen persuaded her supervisor colleagues to set aside $220,000 to start a 25-year freeway redesign process that would include a blueprint and hiring a consultant to come up with alternatives for the Hairball and the Alemany Maze. Quick Hits & Updates The SANDAG Executive Committee approved the waiver of the 120-day notice provision in Gary Gallegos’s contract and accepted his resignation effective today. In addition, they placed the Chief Deputy Executive Director in charge of the agency.“Gary Gallegos’ departure from SANDAG is a big loss for our region, but his decision to step down will allow the Board to move forward with enhancing our regional mobility future,” said SANDAG Chair and County Supervisor Ron Roberts.The SANDAG Board will soon consider the next steps for the recruitment of the new Executive Director. The City of Oakland is re-launchnig efforts to update its downtown plan. After an initial framework was announced in 2015, efforts stalled as stakeholders insisted hat the plan do more to take into account equity and social justice, including racial disparities, gentrification, and displacement. The city has hired consultants from the Institute for Sustainable Economic, Education and Environmental Design to develop a social and racial framework to apply to the plan.  A study out of UC Riverside confirms that the shrinkage of the Salton Sea has increased the concentration of dust and other particulates in the region surrounding the lake. The study found that ten percent of the airborne pollution in the area could be traced directly to the lake. The findings are concerning as they come in advance of a significant reduction in inflows of water to the lake, with the lake expected to shrink significantly and expose lake-bottom which will, in turn, contribute to air pollution.  On Aug. 8 the San Jose City Council approved the Stevens Creek Blvd., Winchester Blvd., and Santana Row/Valley Fair  Urban Village Plans . The plans provide a policy framework to guide new job and housing growth within the Urban Village boundaries, as well as provide a framework for the characteristics of future development. Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released detailed data on where the homeless sleep in LA County. In 2016, data showed many slept on the streets but now the trend has shifted to RVs, vans, and cars. Skid Row has 4,485 homeless people or 1,000 more than in 2016, half of these people stay in shelters. More upscale neighborhoods such as Bel-Air, Beverly Hills and Malibu saw increases in homelessness but primarily those that sleep in vehicles.

The recently released U.S. Cities Sustainable Development Global Index ( pdf ) aims to help urban leaders address the many sustainable development challenges affecting their cities. California cites dominated the top of the list. The San Jose-Santa Clara-Sunnyvale region came in No. 1, the San Francisco-Oaland-Hawyard region came in No. 4, San Diego-Carlsbad took No. 5, and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks took No. 8 nationally. The Index covers the 100 most populous cities (measured as Metropolitan Statistical Areas). It synthesizes data available today across 49 indicators spanning 16 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were agreed upon by all countries in September 2015. The data provides a more holistic and comprehensive assessment of sustainable development challenges faced by U.S. cities than available through other metrics. Results show that all U.S. cities, even those at the top of the index, have far to go to achieve the SDGs. Provo-Orem, Utah, and Seattle-Tacoma Washington round out the top five.  Los Angeles Launches Database of City Properties The City of Los Angeles launched a new online portal that designed to help the city maximize the value of its property, and more efficiently provide options for affordable housing, homeless service facilities, and other priorities. The comprehensive, searchable property database will enable staff to manage city property more effectively, and allow the public to track the development of community assets like police and fire stations, libraries and public parks. The portal is available at lacity.org/property.  The portal will be used to maximize the value of underutilized or vacant properties. With departments such as the Department of Transportation, the Economic and Workforce Development Department, and Los Angeles Public Library now utilizing the system, the unused spaces could potentially turn into a vast array of public amenities. “City-owned property is one of our most valuable assets, and we must maximize its value to advance critical priorities like building affordable housing and expanding homeless services,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti in a statement. “This innovative new portal will streamline our property management, and help us put more of our land to work serving our communities’ needs.” AHSC Technical Assistance Available  The Strategic Growth Council has released a survey for localities and organizations interested in receiving technical assistance under the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program. The goal of AHSC TA Program is to ensure disadvantaged and low-income communities have access to the resources and tools to successfully compete in the AHSC program. Organizations interested in receiving technical assistance for a potential AHSC application, must complete the informational form by Friday August 25th. The information collected will help determine overall TA need. SGC Staff will assess the collected information and allocate TA resources according to the following criteria: Project Viability & AHSC Threshold Criteria; TA Needs; Geographic Diversity; Value Add; Disadvantaged, Low-Income, and/or Tribal Community; Capacity Needs. Based on the above criteria, the SGC will determine if the potential AHSC applicant will receive services in preparation for the upcoming funding round (October 2017) or, as resources allow, longer-term capacity-building services to prepare for a future AHSC funding round. Superior Court to Rule on S.F. Height Limit Measure A dispute over San Francisco ballot measure limiting the height of buildings along the city’s waterfront is going to trial. Measure B, passed in 2014 with 59 percent of the vote, limits the height of new waterfront buildings to whatever the existing limits are unless voters approve an exception. The state Lands Commission sued to overturn the measure on the grounds that only the state can set regulations for waterfront development. But this month a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled preliminarily that the city may claim precedence in certain instances and is allowing the case to go to trial. The ruling is concerned a victory for supporters of the measure. Trial is set for Sept. 11.  U.S. Rep. Cook Requests Shrinking of San Gabriel Mountains National Monument As the Trump administration considers shrinking or eliminating protected federal lands, Rep. Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) has  requested that the administration consider eliminating territory from the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Cook wants to eliminate 4,873 acres, out of a total of 346,000, adjacent to the Inland Empire Communities of Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, and San Antonio Heights. Cook contends that the monument is opposed by local residents and infringes on local economic activity, such as the possible expansion of Mt. Baldy Ski Lifts. Many local officials, including the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, support the monument as-is. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors opposed expansion of the monument in 2014.  Agricultural Groups Sue over Amphibian Habitat Designation Three agricultural organizations are challenging the designation of 1.8 million acres of critical habitat for two yellow-legged frog species and the Yosemite toad. the California Cattlemen’s Association, California Farm Bureau, and California Wool Grower’s Association have filed suit in federal court against the state Fish and Wildlife Service on the grounds that the agency failed to analyze the impacts of the habitat designation on small businesses. The suit claims that the agency improperly failed to prepare a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis. More than half of the 1.8 million acres is used, to some extent, as grazing land; ranchers contend that the designation improperly infringes on their ability to graze. The forest service contends that it did take ranching into account and that the designation does not unduly impact ranching.  Inglewood Shrinks Potential Area for Clippers Arena Stakeholders in Inglewood are raising concerns over the possibility that the city could authorize the use of eminent domain to develop a proposed arena complex for the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team. A four-block area of the city has been designated “potential participating parcels,” including two heavily residential blocks that are home to over 2,000 residents. Those residents, as well as some businesses, have not agree to the Clippers’ plan. The city recently shrank the potential development area to exclude a church and some single-family homes. Parcels currently occupied by a variety of businesses remain available for purchase or eviction via eminent domain to accommodate the arena.  Hotel Fined for Improperly Meddling in Santa Monica Land Use  The California Fair Practices Commission has fined Santa Monica’s Huntley Hotel $310,000 for improperly canceling donations to city council candidates and funding opposition to the redevelopment of a nearby rival hotel in downtown Santa Monica. The commission found 62 counts of improper behavior on the part of the hotel over a total of $97,000 in campaign contributions. The fine is significant because the Huntley not only opposed the redevelopment of neighboring Miramar Hotel but also gave support to the city’s slow-growh movement though its cover organization, Santa Monicans for Responsible Growth. Activism associated with the group has reportedly led to the down-zoning of Santa Monica’s Land Use and Circulation Element. (See prior CP&DR coverage .)

The newest among the many notable assets of the City of Burbank is what is billed as the “World’s Largest Ikea". The mega-store recently opened in February, replacing a normal-sized Ikea about a mile away. For all its Scandinavian appeal, the new Ikea surely does nothing to mute Burbank’s image as an unremarkable quasi-suburb that tries, and often fails, to distinguish itself from Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley, which abuts it to the west and north.

Among the cities of Silicon Valley, large buildable lots are nearly as rare as unemployed programmers. Amid the regional housing crisis and strong slow-growth sentiment, battles over their fate have been fierce – few more so than in Los Gatos. The Los Gatos Town Council approved plans to develop its last large undeveloped piece of land, 44 acres at the junction of Highway 85 and Highway 17, Aug. 1. Though public opinion on the fate of the parcel is far from settled, the decision was essentially forced after a judge ruled against the city earlier in the summer in a long-running legal battle concerning roughly half of the parcel. By some measure, it’s a win for state housing laws that are often seen as powerless to compel cities to actually realize their housing allocations. Currently the incongruous site of a walnut orchard, among single-family homes and strip commercial, the North 40 development is to include 320 residences and 68,000 square feet of retail on a 22-acre plot near the city’s border with San Jose. The project includes about 50 low-income and moderate-income apartments.

San Diego Association of Governments Executive Director Gary Gallegos, who has led the agency since 2001, announced that he will retire by the end of the calendar year. Gallegos, 57, has overseen the agency for 16 years. In 2004, Gallegos led the effort to extend TransNet, a regional half-cent sales tax for transportation; 67 percent of county voters approved the extension. That measure has been mired in controversy of late as reports surfaced that agency staff, including, presumably, Gallegos, was aware that the agency’s official estimates overstated the amount of revenue that the tax would generate. Gallegos said that he achieved many of his personal and institutional goals in the course of his tenure -- including the construction of the Mid-Coast Trolley extension and South Bay Rapid, along with planning for the Otay Mesa East Port of Entry — and noted that "The independent examination found that SANDAG did not intentionally mislead the public or the Board regarding its forecast.” “Gary Gallegos will leave us as a giant in regional planning and transportation,” said SANDAG Chair and County Supervisor Ron Roberts in a statement. “His drive and effectiveness as a transportation leader are nationally renowned, particularly when it comes to bringing investment into our community and getting creative projects started and completed.” Report Suggests Cozy Relationship between Chiang, Affordable Housing Developers A report by the Sacramento Bee suggests that State Treasurer and gubernatorial hopeful John Chiang gave political favors to affordable housing developers who donated to his campaign. The Bee found that developers, who collectively gave around $100,000 to Chiang’s campaign, have received millions in tax credits and bond funds over the years. In some cases, monies were dedicated to the developers within weeks after they made donations. The Bee singles out Pacific West Communities and Domus Development, the latter of which which reportedly gave $40,000 to Chiang’s campaign committees while receiving 9 percent tax breaks on three projects in the Sacramento region through the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. In response to the allegations, a Chiang spokesperson told the Bee, "The evaluation and scoring are done by professional staff who have nothing to do with or any knowledge as to who supports my campaigns.” Ballot Measure Could Extend Reach of Prop. 13 A proposed statewide ballot measure would adjust Proposition 13 with the intent of helping young homeowners purchase homes. The measure, sponsored by the California Association of Realtors, would allowing them to carry a portion of their existing property tax rate across county lines when they purchase a new house. According to Alex Creel, lobbyist for the Realtors, many people feel locked into their properties because of Prop. 13. Currently, homeowners over 55 in certain counties can already transfer existing property tax rates to a new home of equal or less value, but Creel’s initiative would expand the program. Caltrans Seeks Input on SB 1 Planning Guides for $45 Million in Planning Grants Caltrans is preparing to launch new grant funding from Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, and released for public review and comment the final drafts of the SB 1 Sustainable Communities and Adaptation Planning Grant guides. SB 1 will provide more than $270 million in planning grants for local communities over the next decade. Caltrans will provide $25 million in annual grants for local and regional planning to support the goals and best practices cited by the California Transportation Commission in its regional transportation plan guidelines. Caltrans will provide $20 million over three years to local and regional agencies to support resilient transportation infrastructure planning for areas that are potentially vulnerable to climate change. This funding will help these agencies conduct adaptation planning in a way to ensure transportation assets are resilient in the face of climate change. The formal 30-day comment period for the final draft guides will be open through Aug. 31. The draft guidelines and comment forms can be found at  http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/grants.html . Two workshops will be held, in Sacramento (Sept. 1) and Los Angeles (Sept. 6).  Meetings to Discuss Cap-and-Trade Funding Guidelines The Air Resources Board invites stakeholders to participate in a series of community meetings and a statewide webcast later this month to provide input on the draft updates to the CARB Funding Guidelines for Agencies that Administer California Climate Investments. California Climate Investments is a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment—particularly in disadvantaged communities. The meetings will be held in Fresno (Aug. 22), Los Angeles (Aug. 23), Oakland (Aug. 28), and Sacramento (Aug. 31).

Two nearby residents don’t have standing in a CEQA lawsuit against Mt. San Jacinto College, an appellate court has ruled. Even if they did, the court ruled, their claims would be struck down because a purchase agreement for property is not an action subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.

In a 77-page opinion, the California Supreme Court has partially overturned a lower court and concluded that the environmental review of a railroad project is not pre-empted by federal law if the state is the project’s owner and the environmental review does not conflict with the scope of federal regulation. The ruling could have significant consequences for the state’s high-speed rail project, in which federal pre-emption of the California Environmental Quality Act has been a significant issue.

Reports Point to Further Cover-Ups over Misleading SANDAG Ballot Measure In an investigative series, Voice of San Diego reports that the San Diego Association of Governments misled the public on two separate ballot measures. An internal document discussed in November 2016 suggests that agency staff knew that a 2004 ballot measure to increase county sales tax included misleading language but declined to publicly admit the deception. As reported by Voice of San Diego last month, SANDAG misled by telling voters the tax would raise far more funds than the agency actually expected. SANDAG staffers offered the SANDAG board members and the public explanation for its ongoing scandal that they knew were false or incomplete. Agency staffers had multiple opportunities to disclose this information to the board or public and repeatedly withheld the information. The TransNet ballot measure has been running an extreme revenue shortfall, it was predicted to bring in $14.2 billion but now is closer to $9 billion. Now the Voice of San Diego contends that staff at SANDAG took steps to hide public records and delete official documents last year after the major errors in revenue forecasting were revealed. Lake Tahoe Report Card Indicates Warming, Record Precipitation UC Davis’ Tahoe Environmental Research Center released the report, “ From Treetops to Lake Bottom, Tahoe’s Annual Report Card .” In 2016 the lake saw the hottest temperatures on record as well as unprecedented levels of rain and snow. The report looks at the ongoing, decades-long measurement programs as well as what autonomous underwater vehicles are finding in the lake. Key findings include the record numbers of dead and dying trees due to drought stress, insect attack and disease. Climate change has led to the warming of the lake 0.5 degrees per year, longer summers, and increased algae growth in the water. The annual report is aimed informing non-scientists about the most important factors affecting lake health and the influence on decisions about ecosystem restoration and management within the lake basin. Court Strikes Down Sonoma County Climate Action Plan  Judge Nancy Case Shaffer rejected the environmental document supporting Sonoma County’s Climate Action Plan for reducing GHG emissions, finding it does not adequately account for emissions generated outside the county. Shaffer said the plan adopted by supervisors last year is based on insufficient information and violates CEQA. The California River Watch sued the county and the Regional Climate Protection Authority over the plan. Supervisor David Rabbitt says the county and its nine cities are among the first in the nation to initiate such a progressive policy and access River Watch of halting growth. The county now will have to amend the plan or start over. CEQA Suit over Inland Empire Highway Goes to Appeal The Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups filed a lawsuit in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals over concerns of environmental impacts of a proposed 16-mile highway corridor intended to link San Jacinto and Perris. The suit arguing the project is a waste of taxpayer money, will not solve traffic problem, will break up neighborhoods and wildlife habitat. In May, U.S. District Judge George Wu ruled in favor of the proposed Mid County Parkway. The $1.7 billion project is jointly involving the Riverside County Transportation Commission and the Federal Highway Administration. The project is still in the design phase, but RCTC has already initiated the process of identifying how to mitigate impacts related to construction of an interchange in Perris. Greenhouse Gases Fell 0.3 Percent in 2015 California’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 0.3 percent in 2015, meaning the state will most likely reach 1990s levels by 2020, according to the California Air Resources Board's annual greenhouse gas inventories. However, more distant goals may be more difficult to meet. The data shows emissions from electrical plants fell in 2015, largely due to the growth of solar facilities, but the amount of GHG from planes and cars increased. The largest source of greenhouse gases in the state is transportation, contributing around 39 percent of the state’s emissions. Since peaking in 2004 at 489 million metric tons, California’s emissions have fallen 10 percent to 440. Quick Hits & Updates The Trump administration rolled back controversial regulations for wetlands imposed during the Obama presidency. Now the State Water Resources Control Board plans to adopt its own regulations that could protect more of the state’s wetlands from being plowed, paved, drained or otherwise damaged. In March, Los Angeles Metro approved track alignments and funding increase for LinkUS – the estimated $2.75 billion project that would convert Union Station from a stub-end to a run-through station. In July, the Metro Board Planning and Programming Committee introduced an above-grade concourse which would be circular with escalators and stairs down to the train platforms. In October, Metro is expected to released an RFI/Q/P to clarify how LinkUS could potentially proceed with additional private development onsite. The study is currently evaluating possible bike/walk connections between the station and the planned LA River multi-use path. The group leading Sacramento’s bid for a Major League Soccer team has begun pre-construction activities at the site of its planned 19,621-seat stadium. The team’s goal is to complete the first phase of construction before winter. Republic FC officials say the stadium is on a realistic timeline to be completed in time for the 2020 MLS season. The area around the stadium, a former railyard, will also include a Kaiser Permanente hospital complex and 10,000 homes. Anti-abortion protesters have targeted the San Francisco Planning Commission for its recent  approval  of a Planned Parenthood Center on Bush Street. Protestors have shown up at four of the commissioners’ homes and have written messages in chalk on the sidewalk. According to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, some county officials and residents are concerned about the increased number of wells being drilled by cannabis farms in the area. The region has little water, which is very shallow and salty, and the spike from two wells drilled in 2015 to 20 in 2016 is alarming to some. Some county officials are not confident about the current water supply and some lawsuits have been filed against cannabis growers for their potable water wells being drained for cannabis cultivation. According to ApartmentList, the city of San Francisco added one new home per 8.2 jobs between 2010-2015. Census data shows a ratio closer to 10 jobs per home for the City. The ApartmentList numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and US Census survey of building permits. The analysis shows that rents are up 43 percent since 2005. Google has bought roughly four dozen properties in Sunnyvale around Moffett Park for approximately $800 million. The buildings provide around 2.3 million square feet of space and will be part of the downtown San Jose campus the tech company has planned. More than 11,000 employees could potentially work in these buildings. Plans were revealed for one of the largest redevelopments in the county in recent memory: a $1-billion redevelopment of the 20-acre Orange County Register newspaper property in Santa Ana. The project, named 625IVE, calls for 2.35 million square feet of offices, multifamily residential units, retail space, and a hotel. The tallest of the proposed towers would have a maximum height of 493 feet.  San Diego’s real estate department sent city officials the appraisal it commissioned of the Qualcomm Stadium and found the land to be worth $110 million. If the SoccerCity initiative is successful, it would require investors to pay fair market value for the land. This may be the boost Mayor Kevin Faulconer needs to keep alive his push for a special election.  Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 617, aimed at improving air quality in disadvantaged communities. The law imposes new requirement to monitor and reduce pollution near oil refineries, industrial facilities and freight corridors. The City of Newport Beach City Council approved , 7-0, changes to the zoning code and local coastal program to give homeowners in single-family zones the opportunity to construct accessory dwelling units or convert existing space within a structure into livable facilities. Approximately 13,126 homeowners could construct new units on their property and 18,836 are eligible to repurpose existing space. Both cases would require administrative approval and must meet city building codes.  According to a survey from construction analysts finds that the number of cranes at work in Los Angeles has jumped to 36 at the beginning of July. Only Seattle has more cranes in the U.S., and Toronto has 72 cranes. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced he will file another motion in an antitrust lawsuit to stop Valero Energy Corp. from purchasing a Martinez oil terminal, which he says could raise gas prices. The oil terminal is currently owned by Plains All American Pipeline, which imports and exports petroleum. According to Becerra, if Valero acquired the property all three “critical” Northern California terminals would be owned by refineries.

The last time the Office of Planning and Research updated its General Plan Guidelines, climate change was not yet an inconvenient truth rather than a full-blown reality, urban infill meant cheap downtown apartments, and online mapping still meant Mapquest. Times has changed since 2003.