For once, we at CP&DR kind of know how CNN feels. We have our slow news weeks at CP&DR. But, ever since Donald Trump got back into office, we have rarely lacked for material to put into our weekly news briefs. CP&DR doesn't generally cover federal politics. We do, though, when the federal government takes action directly involving California. In the 18 months since Trump took office, we have run over 30 items in our weekly news briefs referring to the Trump administration specifically (as opposed to more routine federal actions). That's an average of close to one per week. Needless to say, Trump does not hesitate to tell the world what he likes and dislikes. Likes: beautiful women; tariffs. Dislikes: vegetables; the post-World War II global order. But few things under or beyond Trump's jurisdiction raise his ire as like California does. It's a "disaster." It's "out of control." And it contains and promotes so many other things he hates: renewable energy, greenhouse gas reductions, electric vehicles, public transit, fire suppression, high-speed rail. And of course, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, California's federal legislators, and other public officials are protesting, suing, proposing legislation, and otherwise trying to protect the state's sovereignty and interests. The fruits of their efforts remain to be seen. Here are just a few of the ways in which the Trump administration has attacked California's environment, land uses, and related policies: Most Brazen: Restraining the Coastal Commission Currently the administration is exploring ways to pre-empt the Coastal Commission's authority over water- and land-side development along California's coast. We're talking about oil drilling, desalination plants, rocket bases, and other facilities in which the federal government has an interest. For more than half a century, the commission's authority and the state's right to regulate its coast (under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act as well as state law) has been unquestioned--for better or worse--and has preserved what is arguably the state's greatest asset (as well as a headache for some developers). In essence, the coast may be federalized. Most Expansive: Killing the EPA Waiver & Fossil Fuels The administration's efforts to reduce the use of clean energy and promote fossil fuels are nationwide but have hit California especially hard. Actions include attempts to nullify California's EPA waiver -- one of the most successful anti-pollution efforts in history -- and restrict the use of the state's cap-and-invest funds. For good measure, the feds are investing $75 million into a controversial coal terminal at the Port of Oakland. Most Nonsensical: Stopping Wind Farms The administration is nullifying around $2 billion worth of agreements for private companies -- capitalist enterprises! -- to develop large-scale wind farms off the coast. These are agreements that the state, which is nothing if not circumspect, had approved. California has lost investments, jobs, and clean energy all at once. Most Predictable: Selling or Leasing Open Spaces Here is a surely incomplete list of the public lands and other open spaces that the administration has tried to sell, denude, or otherwise alter: 18 national forests (for a goal of 25% increase in timber production); roughly 300 endangered species habitats, which will lose many protections under a new, narrow definition of "harm"; 3.3 million acres across 11 western states, including parcels near California National Parks and throughout the Sierra Nevada range; several federal office buildings in San Francisco, including one named after Trump's favorite person: the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building. Most Petty (tie): The Presidio and Eel River Dam Un-removal If Trump hates California, it's no wonder that he hates the most Californ-iest city: San Francisco. If there was a crisis at the Presidio--the former military facility in the northwest corner of the San Francisco Peninsula--San Franciscans didn't know about it. And yet, the Trump administration replaced the entire governing board and is threatening changes to what is currently a civic treasure and one of the country's best examples of civic-federal partnership. Further afield, it's a wonder that the Trump administration has even heard of the Eel River. But, somehow, the modest waterway in Humboldt and Mendocino counties has two decrepit, obsolete dams that the administration considers of the utmost importance. The dams have been scheduled for decommissioning and removal, per a longstanding, intricately negotiated agreement between Pacific Gas & Electric and tribal, state, and county entities. The administration is convinced that the dams, and the mountains of silt behind them, can be resurrected. Or, maybe, it just can't stand the idea of replacing industrial blight with a natural landscape. Most Chilling: Gilroy Detention Facility The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has planned a detention facility near Gilroy where, if reports from other California ICE facilities are to be believed, unspeakable horrors may await detainees. ICE is claiming to be exempt from (or is simply ignoring) local land use regulation. The state and County of Santa Clara are suing. The Exception: High Speed Rail So far, the federal government has put around $3 billion into High Speed Rail …and gotten little but delays, cost overruns, and empty viaducts in return. The feds canceled $4 billion in funding for the program. The action may have been biased, but perhaps they did not want to throw good money after bad. California can count at least one blessing that the good people of Palm Beach, Fla., cannot: so far, Donald Trump has not renamed an airport after himself.

This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to California Planning & Development Report. You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here. You can sign up for CP&DR’s free weekly newsletter here. Federal Officials Conduct Review Questioning Coastal Commission’s Authority The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is conducting an out-of-cycle federal review of the California Coastal Commission, threatening the authority the state has held for more than 50 years under the Coastal Zone Management Act. The review may allow the agency and administration to influence decisions about offshore drilling, rocket launches, pipelines and other federally regulated coastal projects. This comes on the heels of recent buyouts of offshore wind energy companies in California and accusations from the Trump administration that the Coastal Commission’s activities are a threat to economic prosperity and technological advancement, pointing specifically to past opposition to expanded SpaceX rocket launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base. According to state records the Coastal Commission opposed just 4% of the over 3,700 federal projects presented since 1978. NOAA held its first public hearings in Santa Monica, and the agency is accepting public comment through Aug. 22. San Francisco Faces Lawsuit for Exempting Parcels from SB 79 YIMBY Law, the California Housing Defense Fund and Californians for Homeownership are suing San Francisco and the state over the city's decision to exempt nearly 1,900 parcels of land from SB79. Development approved the carve-out last month, allowing the city to designate roughly 250-acres as primarily industrial "employment lands.” The decision exempted parcels in parts of SoMa, Bayview and Bayshore from the bill, which incentivizes taller and denser housing around transit stops. San Francisco defends the objective of its state-permitted alternative plan, which protects industrial employment hubs and low resource areas. SB 79 covers more than 65% of the city and overlaps with a separate rezoning effort, the Family Zoning Plan, but YIMBY lawyers argue that exempting certain areas violates state law. The lawsuit also names the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which gave San Francisco's plan conditional approval, and separately alleges the city's ordinance improperly blocks developers from using the state Density Bonus program. Wind Energy Company Exits California Under Agreement with Feds German energy company RWE will shut down its offshore wind leases in California, as well as New York and Louisiana, becoming the fifth and largest clean energy buyout by the Trump administration this year. The company had a major project planned for the coast off Humboldt County. The $1.22-billion deal is part of $2.7 billion paid to companies to abandon offshore wind for fossil fuel investment, leaving California with just two intact offshore wind leases and further threatening the state's goal to produce 25 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2045. Local leaders in Humboldt, meanwhile, say they intend to press ahead with wind infrastructure plans regardless of the federal reversal. San Francisco Loosens Inclusionary Housing Requirements San Francisco will slash the city's inclusionary housing requirement, cutting the share of affordable units developers must include in market-rate projects from 15% to 5%, based on a recent 9-2 vote of the Board of Supervisors. The board also exempted developments with fewer than 24 units from the requirement entirely, a significant expansion from the previous threshold of 10 units. The ordinance, co-sponsored by Supervisors Myrna Melgar, Dorsey, Sherrill, and Sauter along with Mayor Daniel Lurie, stems from a deal with Melgar, who introduced a fund for directing a share of future property tax revenue growth into building and renovating affordable housing in place of the requirement. The amendment also passed and will go before voters in November. Court Rules Against Homeowners in S.F.’s Hunters Point Tetra Tech EC, the contractor accused of falsifying radiological cleanup data at the former San Francisco Shipyard, will pay nothing to more than 300 Hunters Point homeowners after a judge found their claims are barred by the Price-Anderson Act. U.S. District Judge James Donato granted summary judgment, ruling that the 1957 federal law usually associated with major nuclear accidents preempts the more expansive damage claims over Parcel A of the shipyard. The case against Tetra Tech focused on the company's cleanup work itself, when the EPA determined in 2018 that much of its remediation data was unreliable after two former company supervisors were sentenced to federal prison for swapping contaminated soil samples with clean ones. The ruling closes out homeowners' last remaining claims following a $6.3 million settlement four years ago with the project's developers, Five Point Holdings and Lennar Corp., who exited the case over allegations they failed to disclose the extent of contamination before selling more than 300 homes. CP&DR Coverage: HCD Revokes Brisbane’s Housing Element over Redevelopment Delay Brisbane’s housing element certification has been revoked by the Department of Housing and Community Development because the city did not complete rezoning to accommodate more housing within three years of approving the housing element. HCD’s action has the effect of opening up Brisbane to builder’s remedy applications, including a possible application for the pending redevelopment of a major railyard, which accounts for more than 80% of Brisbane’s housing under the city’s housing targets via the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. The Baylands redevelopment – which includes the 660-acre racetrack and could result in close to 2,000 new housing units – is getting caught up in the housing element fight because the city is processing a specific plan for the site, which would include rezoning. But the city has not yet approved the specific plan, meaning it did not meet the three-year deadline for rezoning contained in the housing element law. CP&DR Coverage: SB 79 Landscape Takes Shape Regarded by pro-housing advocates as a potentially transformational law, SB 79 went into effect on July 1, essentially forcing midrise zoning for housing projects near major transit stations. The law has been extremely controversial, with many local officials – including the board of L.A. Metro – opposing it for fear that it will discourage host communities from wanting transit service. But YIMBYs appear to regard it as their holy grail – the law they have been shooting for since the mid-teens and the one they think will reshape California’s housing landscape. CP&DR has a roundup of locations where SB 79 is in effect and of alternative plans that cities are considering. Quick Hits & Updates Newport Beach city council voted 5-0 to approve a decrease in low-income housing requirements for for-sale homes near John Wayne Airport, dropping the requirement from 15% to 6% of units in a development to be designated as low-income. An additional 8% will now be designated for moderate-income households, a change city officials argued was necessary because Newport Beach's home values run nearly three times the Orange County median. This marks the second time the city has scaled back affordable housing requirements in the area, following a 2023 reduction from an original 30%. Developer Wellpointe has unveiled plans for Viva, a $2-billion senior housing high-rise complex in Warner Center that would become the largest affordable housing development in Los Angeles. The 2.2-million-square-foot project would comprise four towers ranging from 34 to 42 stories, creating 3,192 income-restricted senior units. The proposal leverages the Warner Center 2035 specific plan, joining the LA Rams’ separate $10-billion headquarters and practice facility as one of two major high-rises now proposed for the area. New York-based Yellowstone Real Estate Investments has taken over four parcels at San Francisco's Parkmerced complex through foreclosure. The previous developer Maximus Real Estate defaulted on a construction loan that had grown to over $199 million, surrendering the 152-acre property containing more than 3,200 homes next to San Francisco State University. Maximus had planned and been entitled to a multibillion-dollar redevelopment for over a decade, which would have tripled Parkmerced's capacity to more than 5,600 units. The project never broke ground amid the pandemic and the company's repeated financial troubles. Oakland's City Council has advanced a November ballot measure that would extend the city's real estate transfer tax to foreclosure-related transactions, which are currently exempt. Council Member Charlene Wang, who sponsored the proposal, said the measure could generate $4 million to $13 million annually as downtown office vacancy sits at 30% and landlords default on loans. The measure would preserve exemptions for small community bank foreclosures, single-family homes, small residential buildings, and properties that are converted into homeless shelters within three years of foreclosure. A study from UC Berkeley and UCLA found that building more homes can eliminate up to 1 percent of miles driven statewide, a small step toward the state's goal of a 25% reduction by 2030. The study recommends the state prioritize housing goals to help local governments better align new construction with locations that naturally reduce car dependency, as while regional housing agencies are effectively directing growth toward car-light areas with good transit access, individual cities aren't strategically placing new housing to maximize driving reductions. Research suggests that closing this gap could push per-capita vehicle miles traveled down by as much as 6%. The California Building Industry Association has filed a petition to remove protections under the California's Endangered Species Act for Swainson's hawk, which nests in Solano County and the Central Valley March through September. The petition argues that maintaining protections that are "no longer scientifically justified" and that the listing inhibits housing development amid the state's affordability crisis, having rebounded to about 18,810 breeding pairs. The Swainson’s hawk nests on land eyed for the proposed California Forever development, and has recently complicated permitting for projects like a Napa County winery. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Tomiquia Moss, previous Secretary of the Business, to the newly formed Housing and Homelessness Agency which is tasked with coordinating the state's housing production and homelessness response. The agency will absorb functions from several existing departments, including Housing and Community Development, the California Housing Finance Agency, and the Civil Rights Department, in what officials describe as an "all-of-government" approach to the crisis. The state has seen an 8,391-person, 6.8% drop in unsheltered homelessness last year. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 to approve an ordinance requiring the city to prioritize drug-free permanent supportive housing when it fully funds future supportive housing projects. Under the new policy, residents who use illicit drugs in supportive housing could face eviction or relocation to another housing or shelter option. Gov. Newsom signed an executive order directing California's transportation agencies to accelerate delivery of locally led transit and passenger rail projects, aiming to make public transit faster, cheaper and easier to access statewide. The order directs the California State Transportation Agency and Caltrans to consolidate priority transit projects into a statewide list, streamline permitting and design standards for transit infrastructure, expand Bus Rapid Transit and bus-only lanes, modernize transit data and payment systems through the Cal-ITP program, and create public dashboards tracking transit funding.

California land use policy is overwhelmingly focused on infill housing and infill development. Except nobody’s quite sure what that means.

This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to California Planning & Development Report. You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here. You can sign up for CP&DR’s free weekly newsletter here. In the 30-plus years since the adoption of the Charter of the New Urbanism, California has been a hotbed of New Urbanist thought. New Urbanist development, on the other hand, has been scarce--aside from frequently cited TOD projects such as Oakland’s Fruitvale Village and Pasadena’s Del Mar Station. In spite of the growing popularity of form-based code and other New Urbanist-ish regulations, California has no Seaside (Florida) or Culdesac (Arizona). That may be changing, at least in Sonoma County. The community of Esmeralda has been working its way through the planning process in Cloverdale, a city of around 8,600 residents just barely within the commute shed of the Bay Area. It is envisioned as a holistic community full of walkable streets, dense mixed-use structures, and an abiding sense of community that is both a world unto itself and also well integrated into Cloverdale’s existing urban fabric. "One of the great tragedies of California is the hyper-regulation of land use. Everyone is micromanaging everyone else, and it has to stop," said Michael Yarne, a veteran Bay Area developer who serves as Director of Development of Esmeralda Land Co. “What matters is what it feels like being on the street: is it safe to cross the street, can you ride a bike, is the architecture interesting, are there places to sit and pause." Esmeralda is the brainchild not of Andres Duany or Peter Calthorpe but, rather, of 32-year-old entrepreneur Devon Zuegel. In spite of, or perhaps because of, her relative inexperience in California, Zuegel devised the vision for Esmeralda -- based in part on childhood experiences in Chautauqua, NY -- and has pursued it enthusiastically, attempting to establish the state’s first large-scale New Urbanist development. The proposal has been called "utopian." Zuegel says it's common sense. "As I got older I started wondering why that isn't normal…. it's not rocket science: human-scale streets, more emphasis on public spaces," Zuegel said. "That led me to look for recently built neighborhoods, villages, and towns built on those principles. It's a short list in the United States, but I made a point of visiting as many as I could.” The development will occupy about one-third of the 266-acre site adjacent to downtown Cloverdale. It envisions roughly 600 housing units, a hotel, retail, and public amenities including parks and a central piazza. Because Cloverdale has already met its state-mandated affordable housing targets, Esmeralda will not include deed-restricted affordable housing but rather aims to include “affordable-by-design” units. "Part of why we wanted to build at the scale of a whole village rather than a single building or block is that a small pocket of walkability isn't worth the added risk — you get more risk without the benefit of real walkability," Zuegel said. "At a larger scale, the whole neighborhood becomes walkable — you can walk to a coffee shop, a restaurant, the park." The property, on which the company has an option, used to house a lumber yard and several other industrial uses. Shortly after the Louisiana Pacific mill closed in the early 1990s, the city changed the zoning to residential. So, while Esmeralda will propose an extensive development agreement, including provisions for the company to build out infrastructure and amenities, it is not asking for anything like a zoning change or annexation. "We're proposing a 25-year development agreement, an entirely new specific plan, specific plan zoning, objective design standards (ODS), and a master tentative map — those are the core elements, plus some ancillary agreements," Yarne said. City staff were not permitted to speak for this article. Members of the Cloverdale City Council did not respond to requests for comment. Jes Slavik, who is the master planner for the project, indicated that the topography of the site, which consists largely of rolling hills and shallow ravines, makes for an aesthetically compelling design. Over half the site will be preserved as open space, administered by Esmeralda. "The site itself is spectacular — beautiful views, and topography is one of its primary features," said Slavik. Esmeralda would include 600 housing units, plus a hotel, commercial zones, and community amenities. Less beautiful is the presence of potentially hazardous chemicals left over from the property’s lumber-mill days. Remediation of the site was completed gradually over 25 years following the lumber mill’s closure, in part through Superfund designation. Some Cloverdale residents are demanding that the project produce a full environmental impact report, rather than just an addendum to a previously published EIR, and have requested that the Regional Water Quality Control Board resume a program to monitor and test the property. Yarne considers the hazards manageable and the concerns overblown. "We'll continue to test and clean up any residual contamination — that's the whole point of brownfield development: to go in and fix it," Yarne said. More importantly, the site’s existing zoning is what may enable Esmeralda to be the exception that proves the rule regarding New Urbanist development. In the late 1990s, a city task force considered a range of potential new uses for the property. It arrived at a development centered on a golf course, including homes and commercial uses. The prospect of such a conventional, sprawling project, which could be developed by-right, may make Esmeralda’s design relatively more appealing to stakeholders. “Those who don't want change don't want it, period,” said Hanchett. “But it's private property — a developer could come in and build subsidized housing… and the city would have no say. I don't think people understand it's privately owned, and the owners can sell it if they choose.” Similarly challenging is the financial landscape. Zuegel said that conventional funders shy away from New Urbanism in large part because of its novelty. Her solution was to find novel funders. She solicited capital largely from her personal network, which is centered in San Francisco -- a city familiar with density and walkability. "In the Bay Area there are people who take a longer view and are willing to back bolder, boundary-pushing projects," said Zuegel. "Our investors were primarily Bay Area families who wanted to see this kind of development happen, some of whom had never invested in real estate before — a different path than traditional institutional investors.” Ultimately, the Esmeralda team will prepare the site, create the master plan, and build infrastructure and some communal facilities. Other developers will complete the build-out. The plan does not attempt to micro-manage the design. "Cloverdale is open to an approach where we set large parameters on quality of urban spaces, circulation, and landscape, but the draft specific plan does not micromanage housing," Yarne said, adding that design elements like setbacks, articulation, and rooflines will be up to individual developers. "It gives extraordinary latitude to the future buildout." "That's the value of a new urbanism plan — allowing different components to come together, and figuring out the interface between them, knowing they'll likely be built by different groups," Slavik said. What matters equally to Slavik is the activity and connections that Esmeralda’s design is intended to foster. "(We are) creating a network — for pedestrians, bikes, and cars — because connectivity drives engagement," said Slavik. "The other part is giving people places to engage. We're creating a community core, our 'piazza,' which brings together amenities and tenants." The project would occupy about one-third of a 266-acre parcel just east of Highway 101. One factor that has not impeded the project so far is the Cloverdale planning department and other city departments. Zuegel said she expected skepticism from the fire department, but the team praised the city’s collaboration. "There's an inherent conservatism, especially in California, about narrow streets — we catastrophize and assume the worst. Anyone attempting this has to work hard to bring engineers and fire officials on board. California is obsessed with safetyism,” said Yarne. Slavik hopes to satisfy their concerns for egress by, for instance, creating loops rather than dead-ends. "Many of them had heard of the places that inspired us and thought it would be cool to have something similar in Cloverdale," Zuegel said, of local planners' reaction to the project. “They've been creative and open to trying new things.” Something else for the city to appreciate is the potential to gain tax revenues and economic activity at minimal cost. "Because we're not in the middle of downtown, if we sink or swim on our own, the city isn't responsible for a dollar of what we're doing," said Yarne. "We're getting creative with property tax, property assessments, and transient occupancy tax. One hundred percent of zero is zero — all the revenue we're harvesting is value we're generating with our investment." The project’s opponents have gone so far as to refer to Zuegel and her team as a “weirdo cult,” presumably because of their connection to Chautauqua and claims that the project is “utopian.” Yarne rejects even that characterization, saying instead, "I'd call it innovative. I'd avoid the word 'utopian,' because the connotations are pretty negative.” For Hanchett, a successful version of Esmeralda means something much more basic: survival of the city. Sonoma County is an enviable place to live, but our kids can't afford to stay here without family help,” said Hanchett, who emphasized that neither she nor the chamber have formally endorsed the project. "Left alone, the town risks turning to dust — not just aging people, but aging infrastructure, plus state mandates that cost money to meet: streets, water, sewer.” Arguably, Esmeralda is in a race with a much higher-profile, vastly larger development also backed by people from the technology industry and also inspired by new urbanism: California Forever, in nearby Solano County. "More and more data shows people are desperate for urbanism: places that are walkable, compact, with mixed amenities,” said Yarne. "I love the audacity and the vision…. A new town or new city is appropriate, because California has an extraordinary housing shortage." Esmeralda will likely win the permitting race. The team expects to present its proposal to the city this month, with approvals hoped for by November. Contacts and Resources Esmeralda Land Company Esmeralda Project Information, Cloverdale Petition to Regional Water Quality Control Board Neena Hanchett, Director, Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce, neena@cloverdalechamber.com Jes Slavik, Slavik Design LLC, jes@slavikdesign.com Michael Yarne, Partner and Development Director, Esmeralda Land Company, michael@esmeralda.org Devon Zuegel Founder, Esmeralda Land Company devon@esmeralda.org Images courtesy of Esmeralda Land Co.

Sonoma County’s groundwater regulations are not exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. Because there’s no guarantee that they will not have a significant impact on the environment.

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This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to California Planning & Development Report. You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here. You can sign up for CP&DR’s free weekly newsletter here. Bay Area Voters to Decide Fate of Regionwide Transit Funding The Connect Bay Area transit funding measure will officially appear on the November 2026 ballot after election the campaign collected 305,000 signatures, nearly doubling the required 186,000. The tax measure would provide long-term funding for major transit agencies including BART, SFMTA Muni, Caltrain and AC Transit, while helping VTA expand service and giving counties direct funding for transit. A combination of grassroots transit organizing efforts, 80 elected officials and more than 90 labor, business and advocacy groups helped raise over $5.5 million to qualify the five-county sales tax measure. Without more sustainable transit funding, the Bay area could face severe cutbacks including up to 15 BART station closures, elimination of two lines and service cuts of up to 70% on BART alone. Meanwhile, a separate but related measure, Stronger Muni For All, has qualified San Francisco's November 3 ballot, aiming to help close Muni's projected $300 million-plus budget deficit through a parcel tax. If approved, the tax would charge single-family property owners $129 annually, multifamily owners $249, and commercial landlords $799, generating roughly $150 million yearly toward the deficit and $10 million for service improvements over 15 years. It is tied to a separate regional sales tax initiative, the Connect Bay Area Act, which would raise about $1 billion annually for Muni, BART, Caltrain, and other Bay Area transit agencies. Cadiz Receives Approvals to Pump Mojave Desert Water, Faces Lawsuits After over a decade of negotiation, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan by Cadiz Inc. to repurpose 162 miles of a former oil and gas pipeline to transport groundwater pumped from the Mojave Desert. The agency determined the pipeline conversion "will not significantly affect" the environment and would comply with regulations, while stating that the broader environmental impacts of the groundwater extraction itself fall "outside the scope of analysis" for this authorization. Nonetheless, two environmental groups and two Native American tribes filed separate lawsuits in over the Bureau of Land Management's approval of the use of a decommissioned oil and gas pipeline for transporting the water project. Both suits target BLM’s decision earlier this month approving Cadiz Inc.'s "Northern Pipeline," which the company acquired in 2011. Plaintiffs claim that the project’s aquifer drawdown near Joshua Tree National Park has never faced meaningful review despite extracting far more groundwater than is naturally replenished, roughly 16.3 billion gallons per year for 50 years. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club filed in Los Angeles, while the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Native American Land Conservancy and National Parks Conservation Association filed in Riverside. Sacramento Investigates EIFD to Redevelop Former Kings Arena Sacramento City Council has advanced plans to redevelop the former Kings arena site in North Natomas. The proposed 171-acre Innovation Park project would include housing, commercial development, regional open space, a future school site, and a California Northstate University medical campus anchored by a hospital. Major construction has yet to begin, and to help pay for public infrastructure the city is turning to an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District to capture a share of new property tax revenue generated as the site develops, with about 80% earmarked for infrastructure and 20% for affordable housing. Under the plan, tax revenue wouldn't flow until a hospital or similar "catalytic" project promising high-paying jobs is actually completed, a safeguard officials say protects the city's general fund and doesn't raise taxes. San Francisco to Impose Penalties on Stalled Office Projects San Francisco's Planning Department will withhold developers’ Proposition M development allocations if they haven't shown good-faith progress toward construction of stalled commercial office projects. Prop. M is a 1986 ballot measure that caps and regulates the amount of commercial development the city can approve. Director Sarah Dennis Phillips said projects with no demonstrated momentum could have their Prop. M allocation stripped immediately, while those that have delivered on community benefits but haven't pulled permits would get an 18-month grace period. The move targets developers who abandoned office megaprojects in favor of housing but kept their valuable Prop. M allocations in reserve. Prop. M has capped new office space in San Francisco since 1986, but the pool of available allocations has shrunk dramatically since 2020's Proposition E tied replenishment to the city's affordable housing goals, which it is failing to meet. CP&DR Coverage: Evaluating the Surplus Land Act Passed in 2021, and administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development under guidelines adopted in 2024, the Surplus Land Act requires local agencies to prioritize housing on agency-owned land that is being sold or leased. To date, nearly 42,000 homes either have been put on formerly public land or are in the pipeline. David Zisser, deputy director of HCD, calls the number a success. Homes created by the SLA are, arguably, among the easiest to track compared to those created by the many other pro-housing laws adopted in recent years. Development agreements are, by necessity, subject to scrutiny and well documented, by notices of availability, exemptions, and other approvals by HCD. While the state may argue that the 42,000 homes justify the process, many cities consider it burdensome--and not necessarily effective. Quick Hits & Updates San Francisco voters will decide for a third time in four years whether to reopen the Great Highway to weekday car traffic. The highway has been the site of Sunset Dunes Park since 2024 when voters approved permanently closing it to cars. The new measure, backed by over 15,900 petition signatures, would reopen the road to cars on weekdays while keeping it closed Friday evenings through Monday mornings. Opponents say the closure has worsened traffic, while park supporters argue the space has been a success, drawing 1.7 million visits since opening and boosting nearby businesses, and warn that reopening it would cost the city about $10.75 million to remove. A California earthquake expert estimates that The Big One would likely cause around $500 billion and up to $1 trillion in damage. Ahmed Elbanna, the director of the Statewide California Earthquake Center, told the state’s Seismic Safety Commission that a 7.8-magnitude earthquake could become the costliest disaster in U.S. history dwarfing the roughly $200 billion in damage (adjusted for inflation) from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. San Diego's Community Planners Committee voted to oppose Senate Bill 958, which would exempt the Midway Rising development from the area’s 30-foot height limit by preventing building height from being treated as a significant environmental impact under CEQA. SMART, the North Bay's commuter rail system, is exploring a new station in Geyserville after roughly 1,800 residents successfully lobbied state lawmakers to allow the stop. Local business owners say the station would boost tourism to the area's 100 wineries, outdoor recreation and historical sites including the River Rock Casino, which is being converted into the 100-room Caesars Republic Sonoma County. (See related CP&DR coverage.) A new analysis from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that declining immigration is undermining U.S. population growth, making communities increasingly dependent on domestic migration and natural change to sustain growth. Large metro urban counties, including those in California, are most vulnerable due to steep domestic migration losses. East Palo Alto City Council voted 3-2 to approve the Temporary Housing Development Incentive Program, an ordinance allowing developers to skip the city's inclusionary housing requirements for projects with 20 units or fewer. The policy suspends the city's 1994 inclusionary housing ordinance, which normally requires developers to set aside 20% of rental units or pay an in-lieu fee for residents earning 35%, 50% and 60% of area median income, about $114,000. Developer Align Real Estate submitted revised plans to redevelop the Marina district's waterfront Safeway, reducing the project's two towers from 25 and 22 stories to 22 and 18 stories (roughly 258 and 219 feet) while increasing the total unit count from 790 to 848 apartments, a change the developer attributed to improved building efficiency and optimized floor plans. The revision comes after months of criticism from city leaders, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, who officially opposed the original 25-story tower last year. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 to approve an ordinance requiring the city to prioritize drug-free permanent supportive housing when it fully funds future supportive housing projects. Under the new policy, residents who use illicit drugs in supportive housing could face eviction or relocation to another housing or shelter option.

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This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to California Planning & Development Report. You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here. You can sign up for CP&DR’s free weekly newsletter here. Prior to Implementing Alternative Plan, Palo Alto Beset with SB 79 Applications The City of Palo Alto, which has historically favored slow growth, adopted an alternative plan pursuant to Senate Bill 79 that went into effect two weeks after the law’s July 1 effective date. In that window, at least seven projects that would otherwise have been disallowed were proposed and appear likely to be permitted. They include both market-rate and affordable units, including four housing projects by nonprofit developer Minority Television Project; some projects use state Density Bonus Law to go up to seven stories. Applications for some SB 79 projects have been accompanied by letters from developers’ attorneys threatening the city with lawsuits if it attempted to reject projects on technicalities. According to a preemptive letter from law firm Holland & Knight, the city can reject SB 79 applications only for “significant, unavoidable, and quantifiable impact[s] on ‘objective, identified written public health or safety standards, policies, or conditions.However, the Legislature has affirmed its expectation that these types of conditions ‘arise infrequently.’” Palo Alto’s alternative plan went into effect July 16, limiting the size of projects to roughly 50% of what SB 79 would allow. (See related CP&DR coverage.) California Forever Loses $3.2 Billion Shipyard Contract California Forever, the plan to build a new city on roughly 70,000 acres of farmland in Solano County, California, has lost its bid to recruit an industrial tenant for their planned waterfront shipyard on the Sacramento River on the southern end of its land holdings. The area has long been zoned for “maritime industrial uses.” Saronic Technologies, an Austin-based defense startup that builds autonomous watercraft, has selected the Port of Brownsville in Texas over Solano County for its planned $3.2 billion Port Alpha shipyard. California Forever had signed a 40-year union labor agreement covering its 70,000-acre project and backed legislation to speed up environmental review for the shipyard, which could still advance as a budget trailer bill this summer. Texas, meanwhile, approved a $211 million tax-abatement package in June to draw Saronic to Brownsville, where the new shipyard will sit about 20 miles from SpaceX's Starbase facility. Joshua Arce of the California Alliance of Jobs told the San Francisco Chronicle the move will send roughly 10,000 permanent jobs and thousands of union construction positions to Texas instead, faulting state leaders for failing to act quickly enough. CEQA Reform Ballot Measure Gains Strong Voter Support A recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that Proposition 45, a measure to overhaul CEQA, has drawn support from voters with 73% of likely voters in support, 24% opposed and 4% undecided. The measure would impose a 365-day limit on environmental reviews for projects like housing, transit, reservoirs and renewable energy facilities, and require courts to rule on related lawsuits within 270 days. It is the biggest change to CEQA since it was signed into law in 1970. Renters, younger voters and lower-income households say the reform would cut red tape and lower housing, energy and water costs, while opponents including the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Jane Fonda, argue it would weaken environmental protections and enable projects like data centers with minimal public input. Weakening of Federal Endangered Species Act Could Endanger 300 Species in California The Trump administration finalized a rule Friday that narrows the definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act, eliminating protections against habitat destruction from logging, mining and oil drilling as long as animals aren't directly killed or injured. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended the change, saying the previous definition "interfered with private property rights" and had been abused by federal agencies to obstruct land use; officials said the move follows a 2024 Supreme Court decision limiting federal agencies' authority to interpret environmental statutes. California, the nation's most biodiverse state, is expected to be hit especially hard with roughly 300 of the law's approximately 2,300 protected species found here including condors, sea otters, desert tortoises and gray wolves. The Endangered Species Act has been credited with saving species such as the California condor, bald eagle, southern sea otter and El Segundo blue butterfly from near-extinction, recoveries advocates say resulted directly from habitat protections the new rule removes. (See related CP&DR coverage.) CP&DR Coverage: New San Francisco Planning Director Brings Private-Sector Perspective Shortly after the election of San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, he nominated Sarah Dennis Phillips to succeed Rich Hillis as planning director. Dennis Phillip was both a conventional choice and an offbeat. Offbeat, because she was coming from over a decade in the private sector, working for mega-developer Tishman Speyer. Conventional because she had previously spent a similar amount of time in San Francisco city government, in planning and community development. Her appointment complemented Lurie's dedication to development and increasing the city's housing supply. A year later, Dennis Phillip has presided over the implementation of the city's "Family Zoning Plan" and is attempting to reform the department amid renewed public enthusiasm--or at least tolerance--for new housing. She spoke with CP&DR's Josh Stephens. Quick Hits & Updates A new economic analysis estimates that Los Angeles's Measure ULA, commonly known as the "Mansion Tax," generates significant unintended fiscal costs by suppressing property transactions, which in turn slows growth in property tax assessments. The study notes that in California and more than half of U.S. states, assessed property values only rise toward market value at the point of sale, so any drop in transaction frequency caused by the transfer tax directly reduces the growth of property tax revenue over time. Environmental groups Earthworks and Comité Cívico del Valle argued before a California appeals court in San Diego on Thursday that Imperial County failed to adequately review the environmental and cultural impacts of Controlled Thermal Resources' Hell's Kitchen lithium project. The project would extract lithium from geothermal brine and require 6,500 acre-feet of fresh water annually. Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 179, a new housing affordability law aiming to reduce the per-unit cost of affordable housing by $60,000 to $70,000, remove red tape and boost housing construction. The law features a major reduction in impact fees, or one-time charges local governments impose on developers to support municipal services including schools, public parks and sewage for residents in new affordable housing units. Gov. Newsom characterized the current fee structure as "comical" and prohibitive toward the construction of affordable units. The Riverside City Council adopted a new planning framework aimed at transforming the area around a downtown Metrolink station into a mixed-use hub with housing, jobs and transit access. The item updates preparation of a Transit Oriented Development Action Plan and adopts a resolution required under Regional Early Action Planning 2.0 grant guidelines. It does not approve construction, rezone land or commit city funding, but officials say it lays groundwork for future investment. The Prebys Foundation and Downtown San Diego Partnership are planning to formally ask the city to create a joint powers authority (JPA) with the San Diego Community College District and San Diego Unified School District to redevelop the Civic Center, San Diego's four-block municipal compound plus two adjacent blocks. Modeled after the Bay Area's Transbay Joint Powers Authority, the JPA would have broad legal powers though the city would still need to separately transfer the Civic Center land before the entity could exercise land-use authority. Bay Area transit ridership patterns have shifted significantly by income over the past decade. In 2014 both the poorest and richest workers rode transit at higher rates than middle-income workers; wealthier riders often lived near transit corridors in cities like San Francisco and Palo Alto and commuted to downtown offices. By 2019, as gentrification pushed lower-income residents out of transit-rich neighborhoods, wealthier commuters increasingly turned to BART and Caltrain. That trend reversed again by 2024, as remote and hybrid work drew affluent workers, leaving lower-income workers making up a larger share of transit riders relative to the overall workforce. The Los Angeles City Council approved Fourth & Central, a $2 billion mixed-use development that will replace cold storage facilities, parking lots and warehouses on Skid Row near Little Tokyo and the Arts District. The project, first proposed in 2021, calls for 10 buildings including a 30-story residential tower with 572 condominiums and 949 apartments, including at least 262 affordable units. Real estate firms Jamison and Kennedy Wilson will attempt a $200 million conversion of the L.A. World Trade Center into Sky Castle, a 512-unit affordable housing complex as part of a broader campaign to build 4,000 affordable apartments across Los Angeles. The office will be Jamison's 15th office-to-housing conversion, with work set to begin in August and completion expected by early 2028. Rents are expected to start at $937 for one-bedroom units, with two- and three-bedroom units renting for $1,100 and $1,300 respectively, and the complex will include amenities like a fitness center, co-working space and rooftop tennis or pickleball courts. Eligible tenants must earn between 30% and 80% of the area median income. San Diego City Council, acting as the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego, approved the creation of an $8.5 million Affordable Housing Preservation Fund to slow the loss of affordable rental housing and keep rents low for individuals, families and seniors. The fund is intended to help preserve "naturally occurring affordable housing" by combining its resources with other funding sources and establishing long-term affordability requirements for those units; specific proposals for using the fund will come before the council or Housing Authority in the future. A Contra Costa County Grand Jury issued a report on the City of Martinez's deteriorating waterfront and marina, which spans 67.3 acres along the Carquinez Strait and has fallen into disrepair since being built in the 1960s. The city currently lacks funding to repair the crumbling seawall and docks, dredge the marina, or build a higher seawall to address projected sea level rise, and cannot continue subsidizing the marina without harming core services. The Sierra Club and three other environmental nonprofits filed a petition Wednesday in San Bernardino County Superior Court seeking to invalidate Barstow's approval of the Barstow International Gateway, a $4 billion, 4,500-acre BNSF Railway facility that would become the nation's largest rail yard. The groups argue the city's environmental review was inadequate, citing projections that the project will emit over 550 tons of nitrogen oxide and 134,471 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually while burning more than 18 million gallons of diesel a year, and that it failed to properly assess impacts on species including the Mojave desert tortoise and western burrowing owl. El Segundo City Council declined to move forward with a plan to ask voters to make the city a charter city, after two of four council members present at the July 7 meeting voiced opposition, falling short of the three votes needed to place the measure on the November ballot. The proposal was aimed at giving the city more control over land zoning amid state housing mandates.

This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to California Planning & Development Report. You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here. You can sign up for CP&DR’s free weekly newsletter here. Developer Proposes Building Data Centers on Fairgrounds Statewide Global Stack LLC, a California infrastructure company, has proposed building data centers, multilevel parking garages, and helicopter landing pads on state land generally used as fairgrounds. The company has expressed a desire to utilize the substantial swaths of public land in partnership with private interests to generate revenue year round. Public records reveal discussions with eight fairgrounds so far: Cow Palace Arena & Event Center, San Mateo County Event Center, the Calistoga Fairgrounds, the Solano County Fairgrounds & Event Center, the Tulare County Fairgrounds, the Kings County Fairgrounds, the Antelope Valley Fair and Event Center in Lancaster (Los Angeles County), and the Southern California Fair in Perris (Riverside County). The plan envisions rolling the model out to as many as 70 of California's roughly 80 fairgrounds by 2030, offering site operators 100-year land leases in exchange for a stable revenue stream many fairgrounds sorely need. The proposal for Daly City’s Cow Palace, which is still in early discussions, includes an 8- to 10-megawatt data center, multilevel parking garage, and a helicopter landing pad for emergency response. Critics of the projects across communities cite concerns about noise, pollution, water and power demands. (See related CP&DR coverage.) SANDAG Says San Diego Skimped on SB 79 Upzoning The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) determined last week that more than five times the four stops city officials had recognized are eligible for upzoning under Senate Bill 79, opening the city to allow even more new homes than the 367,000 that city officials predicted this spring. On July 1 SB 79 took effect, allowing buildings up to 85 feet tall in areas zoned for single-family housing near qualifying transit stops, with height and density allowances scaling down farther from the stop. It has been unclear which bus stops qualify until this dispute; city officials had counted only stops with bus lanes inaccessible to cars or bikes, while the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County argued the law's criteria were broader and pushed for as many as 26 stops. Housing advocates estimate the change will push the city's required housing capacity increase from 367,000 units to roughly 467,000, though city planners say they're still calculating a revised figure. Elsewhere in the region, the Oceanside City Council has voted, 4-0, to defer implementation of SB 79 and will seek to “exempt and/or defer all sites that could potentially be exempted or deferred” and “reduce SB 79’s impact to the greatest extent possible.” The city is working on an Alternative Plan, but the deferral of full implementation could extend as late as 2032. The city has a transit center and several rail stations, bringing its full SB 79 capacity to over 50,000. (See related CP&DR coverage.) Environmental Group Sues CARB to Prevent Cuts to Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Communities for a Better Environment, an environmental justice nonprofit, is suing the California Air Resources Board over an update to the cap-and-invest program, alleging the agency skirted required environmental review under CEQA. The suit is the first major legal challenge to the program since lawmakers extended its expiration date from 2030 to 2045 last year. The suit addresses a manufacturing decarbonization incentive that lets polluters claim up to 118 million new emissions allowances in exchange for decarbonization investments, a move regulators say is meant to keep industry from leaving the state. The lawsuit contends CARB introduced the mechanism roughly six weeks before the vote without updating its environmental impact analysis, and posted the final assessment just two days before the hearing. It also alleges that the change threatens up to $2 billion annually that would otherwise be funneled into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which finances housing, transit and clean-air programs, with the heaviest impact falling on low-income communities and communities of color. Lafayette May Upzone to Settle Dispute over Housing Development Lafayette, an East Bay city of about 25,000, has agreed to consider upzoning 130 acres of land as part of a June settlement with the Housing Action Coalition, possibly bringing an end to a notorious yearslong battle over the Terraces of Lafayette, a proposed office space and multifamily housing complex. Since 2011, the project has been downsized, rescinded by voter referendum in 2018, restored, approved by the city council in 2020, and challenged in a lawsuit by the group Save Lafayette that reached the California Supreme Court before the city prevailed in 2023. The development includes 63 below-market-rate units, though eligibility requires household income under 80% of Contra Costa County's area median of $135,750 for a family of four. Save Lafayette, led by resident Michael Griffiths, opposes the project on wildfire and traffic-pollution grounds and is considering further legal action. (See related CP&DR coverage.) State Offers $55 Million in Resilience Planning Grants Applications have opened for Round 2 of California's Community Resilience Centers (CRC) Program, which provides approximately $55 million in grants funded by the 2024 Climate Bond (Proposition 4). The program supports the planning, construction, and renovation of neighborhood resilience centers that provide shelter, cooling, emergency resources, and year-round community services to help communities prepare for climate-related disasters such as extreme heat and wildfires. Round 2 is open to lead applicants that are a public or local agency, nonprofit organization, special district, joint powers authority, Tribe, public utility, local publicly owned utility, or mutual water company, prioritizing communities most impacted by environmental, socioeconomic, and health inequality. Applications opened July 2, with grant applications due in September for review. CP&DR Coverage: Ugly Mayoral Race Highlights Importance of Civic Beauty At one point during his ill-fated campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, former reality TV star Spencer Pratt declared, “ we're going to have L.A. so beautiful. No more of these high-density, SB-79, prison-like structures.” He called out Art Deco in particular as the hallmark of a more attractive city. Pratt was angry and, arguably, loony. But, for a city beset by bad news, we can still take a cue from his optimistic vision. Conventional politicians rarely discuss aesthetics because they are likely afraid of the specters of gentrification or elitism, or they’re wonky enough to know how hard it is to regulate aesthetics. Or -- quite likely -- they simply have no taste and consider aesthetics to be frivolous. Except, writes CP&DR’s Josh Stephens, aesthetics matter. Not as much as poverty, homelessness, or housing--but they still matter a lot. Good plans warrant good design -- and vice-versa. Quick Hits & Updates Modesto will prepare an environmental study to measure the impact of a proposed development and population increase in compliance with their 2050 general plan. The City Council adopted a land use option that would add thousands of acres to the city and potentially grow its population from 220,000 to 324,000 over the next 24 years, bringing up to 38,500 new housing units and 57,300 jobs. While the plan will include mitigation policies to lessen environmental impacts, the city retains the option to approve overriding considerations for impacts deemed too significant to fully mitigate, citing economic or social benefits. San Francisco will introduce the Affordable Grocery Act in November, aimed at combating the city's food deserts and so-called "zombie stores", vacant grocery and pharmacy buildings that corporate chains keep empty to block competitors. The measure would pair tax credits and expedited permitting for businesses that reopen vacant storefronts as groceries or pharmacies with a new tax on corporations that deliberately leave such properties empty, though new stores after January 2027 and housing-conversion sites would be exempt. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors adopted a new inclusionary housing ordinance that requires most new residential developments in unincorporated areas with at least 10 units to reserve 5% of homes for very low-income households or comply through alternatives such as fees or land donations. Other local jurisdictions like Chula Vista and Carlsbad have long required affordable housing set-asides, and San Diego county has met only 28% of its state housing target so far. The county has invested more than $334 million in affordable housing since 2017, but officials noted that limited transit, wildfire risks, and slower homebuilding pose a challenge in unincorporated communities. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has sued the Trump administration over withheld funds the agency says will put more than 11,000 at risk of losing housing and other services. LAHSA is seeking a temporary restraining order in order to stop the Housing and Urban Development Department from suspending the funds. The lawsuit comes three weeks after HUD suspended LAHSA over allegations of financial mismanagement, fraud and inadequate conflict-of-interest safeguards, to which the agency argues HUD has produced no formal investigative findings. The Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation released a Notice of Funding Availability for Round 2 of California's Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program, offering $27.5 million total in competitive infrastructure grants. Funding for the program is provided by the Climate Bond and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to support projects that reduce the impacts of extreme heat and build community resilience. Funding is split into two tracks: Early Infrastructure Projects and Advanced Infrastructure Projects.