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Sen. Diane Feinstein sent a letter to President Obama asking him to bypass Congress and designate over one million acres of land between Palm Springs and the Nevada border as national monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Two bills previously sponsored by Feinstein to protect the area over the past six years have languished. In her request to President Obama, Feinstein asked that he create three monuments: one, to be called the Mojave Trails National Monument, would cover 921,000 acres of federal land along Route 66 between Ludlow and Needles; another, called the Sand to Snow National Monument, would take 135,000 acres of land between Joshua Tree National Park and the San Bernardino National Forest and protect 24 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail; the last, Castle Mountains National Monument, would include the historic mining town of Hart near the Mojave National Preserve. Feinstein was encouraged to seek presidential action by conservation groups including The Wildlands Conservancy, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Mojave Desert Lands Trust and Friends of the Desert Mountains. Map Tracks Gentrification in Bay Area UC Berkeley researchers have created an interactive Urban Displacement Project map showing that the Bay Area's transformation into an exclusive high-income community that pushes out its low-income residents is only just beginning. Headed by UC Berkeley researcher Miriam Zuk and city and regional planning professor Karen Chapple and the product of nearly two years of community-engaged research looking at gentrification and displacement, the project found that in 2013, more than 53 percent of low-income households lived in neighborhoods at risk of or already experiencing displacement and gentrification pressures. Neighborhoods with rail stations, historic housing stock, an abundance of market-rate developments and rising housing prices are especially in danger of losing low-income households. It also finds that the most stable neighborhoods -- such as East Palo Alto, Marin City and San Francisco’s Chinatown -- have remained that way likely because of tenant protections, rent control, and strong community organizing. “Using our online map allows residents, neighborhood groups and governments to assess where their neighborhoods — or those next door — are in terms of the risk and actual occurrence of gentrification and displacement,” Zuk said in a statement. Light Rail Extension Opens in Sacramento Sacramento Regional Transit officially opened its 4.3-mile Blue Line light-rail extension connecting Cosumnes River College to other area campuses and offering south-county commuters an alternative to crowded Highway 99 and Interstate 5. Coming in about $10 million under the projected budget of $270 million, the extension links the rail line to Elk Grove's doorstep, and the college station includes a 2,000-spot parking garage shared by students and commuters. However, skeptical Elk Grove e-tran bus commuters say they have no intention of switching from buses to rail, saying that the trains will be inconvenient -- possibly taking longer than a typical drive to commute downtown -- and unsafe. However, Regional Transit’s security chief Norm Leong said that crime numbers are down on light-rail trains and at stations, totaling 39 thefts and robberies so far this year. High Speed Rail Targets More Properties for Eminent Domain The State Public Works Board has filed eminent domain resolutions for 12 more pieces of property along the high speed rail pathway in the San Joaquin Valley, bringing the total number filed to 270 since December 2013. Encompassing nearly 800 acres in the four county region of Fresno, Madera, Kings and Tulare counties, the board has been using eminent domain to condemn land when it and property owners cannot agree on price or terms. The resolution, encompassing 53 acres of land, will now go before a judge to decide whether the agency is entitled to the property, and then to a jury to decide the fair market value and other "just compensation" due to the owner. Residents Sue SF Over Flood Damage San Francisco residents affected by a December flood in the Mission District, Excelsior, and South of Market neighborhoods have filed a lawsuit against the city, saying that a lack of maintenance on storm drains and sewage systems led to property damage in those neighborhoods. Residents say that the city knew that repairs were necessary after paying out $5 million for a similar lawsuit stemming from 2003 and 2004 winter storms, but neglected to make needed repairs. The lawsuit alleges that the storms, which dropped 5 inches of rain in San Francisco, brought runoff that mixed with raw sewage and flowed into homes and businesses. It then alleges that Mayor Ed Lee told residents that the city was going to pay for damages, but the city then denied all claims filed. “My only conclusion as to why the city has failed to make good on its promises is because this problem does not exist in one of the more affluent neighborhoods of San Francisco,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mark Epstein, said in a statement. “My clients are your typical hardworking and honest property owners and renters and do not reside in the city’s Marina or Pacific Heights neighborhoods. Apparently, it is easy to ignore the working class.” Transit Center Opens in San Bernardino The new San Bernardino Transit Center designed to connect all major mass transit systems and connect people to downtown San Bernardino has officially  opened  this month. The $25 million project, located on Rialto Ave. in downtown San Bernardino, came about through a partnership between Omnitrans, the San Bernardino Association of Governments, and the City of San Bernardino with funding from the Federal Transportation Administration and the state of California. The 7,500-square-foot building will connect more than a dozen transit lines, including ten local bus routes, the Green Line, express Omnitrans bus routes, the Victor Valley Transit Authority, Mountain Transit, and the Metrolink San Bernardino Line once it is completed. SF Establishes ‘Green Benefit District' The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to establish a Green Benefit District -- designed to allow residents to directly invest in the maintenance and improvements of neighborhood parks, playgrounds, plazas, sidewalks and other public space amenities in their neighborhoods -- in Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill. With over 76 percent of voters saying yes to the proposal to create the Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District, the new district will last for 10 years with a budget of almost $515,000, at a cost of $0.095 per square foot of building area for residential developments and $0.0475 for industrial developments. Olympic Valley Incorporation Falters A grassroots group attempting to incorporate Olympic Valley, adjacent to Squaw Valley ski area, as a town asked for a state review of a Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis prepared by Rosenow Spevacek Group Inc. that concluded that the proposed town "does not appear to be feasible at this time." In a 6-1 vote, the Placer Local Agency Formation Commission approved Incorporate Olympic Valley's request for review, putting a temporary halt to the town formation process and sending the request to the California State Controller's office for review. Specifically, IOV believes that errors were made in the CFA's estimates of the cost of law enforcement for the valley, expenditures based on comparable contract cities, and calculating the general fund reserve as a percentage of the total general fund revenue rather than the town's operating expenses. California Transit Agencies Pick Fight with U.S. Dept. of Labor Several California transit agencies say that the U.S. Department of Labor is holding  $1 billion  hostage, contingent on the agencies violating a state public employee pension reform law which a federal judge upheld last year. The department is still enforcing a federal prohibition against interfering with collective bargaining rights, which it claims California's Public Employees' Pension Reform Act violated by changing pension rights without negotiating with workers. The department could withhold $91 million for BART, $206 million for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, $700 million for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and millions more for agencies across the state. It said it will release the grants if an agency agrees to restore transit union rights and benefits in effect before the California pension reform took effect. In response, transit chiefs including among others Grace Crunican, BART's general manager, and Perry Woodward, chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority signed a letter to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, stating that "the (Labor Department) is requiring grantees to agree to violate California law in order ... to receive funding." Study Details Peripheral Benefits of SF Transit  In an effort to demonstrate the importance of San Francisco public transportation, a new study from San Francisco's Metropolitan Transportation Agency finds that for every one dollar San Francisco invests in Muni, $2-3 are generated in the local economy. The study, done by SFMTA in partnership with Oakland-based transportation consultant Economic & Planning systems, also found that the economic benefits of Muni exceeded its costs by $634 million to $1.25 billion annually. “This study demonstrates the significant economic benefit we receive when we invest in our transportation system,” Supervisor Scott Wiener told the Examiner . “This is exactly why the transportation fees on new developments we have proposed as part of the Transportation Sustainability Program are so essential.” In order to come up with its numbers, the study's authors had to imagine a scenario wherein Muni did not exist. In that scenario, San Francisco car ownership would increase by 50 percent, and San Franciscans would add 9.3 million to 11.5 million hours to their commutes, along with taking up 27 million to 30 million more parking spaces. L.A. Seeks ‘Zero’ Traffic Deaths In an effort to kick-start his "Vision Zero" plan to eliminate traffic-related deaths by 2025, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an executive directive ordering multiple city departments to report back by Dec. 1, 2015 with specific recommendations for measures that would immediately reduce traffic-related deaths in L.A. by 20 percent by 2017. The directive also calls for the formation of a Vision Zero Task Force as well as an Executive Steering Committee, led by city agencies in coordination with the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. “We have to think big and work hard when it comes to keeping people safe,” said Mayor Garcetti in a press release. “It is tragic that 200 people are killed each year while moving about our city. With more people walking and biking than ever before, we must use every available tool to save lives. I am determined to bring that number down to zero.” Report Details Impacts of Drought on Agriculture A new report titled "Impacts of California's Ongoing Drought: Agriculture," the first comprehensive analysis of the drought on California agricultural revenue and employment through 2014, finds that California's agriculture sector has far exceeded expectations throughout the drought because of massive groundwater pumping that has been devastating to other sectors. Though farmers harvested 640,000 fewer acres last year than before that drought, crop revenue peaked at $34 billion -- the highest in California history -- in 2013. Statewide agriculture-related jobs also reached a record-high of 417,000 people in 2014, and farms have adopted more efficient water management practices, like drip irrigation and switching from lower- to higher-value crops. However, with groundwater pumping serving as a vital force for agriculture, other sectors have suffered, with current and future generations now forced to dig deeper wells, and cities forced to repair infrastructure damaged by subsidence. Pasadena Updates General Plan An update to the City of Pasadena's general plan focuses housing and commercial space in the city's urban core, emphasizing growth and walkability there while attempting to keep increases in density away from the city’s iconic tree-lined neighborhoods. Estimating a modest population increase of about 20,000 people by 2035, the plan focuses 60 percent of new housing and 40 percent of non-residential space in the central district. Part of the plan calls for more infrastructure to encourage walking, biking, and public transportation especially in downtown and on South Fair Oaks, where Marsha Rood, Pasadena's former development administrator said she expects to build "up" rather than outward. Los Angeles Debates Short-Term Rentals Los Angeles officials are trying to hash out the difference between "good" and "bad" short-term rentals as affordable housing advocates, rental operators, and neighborhood activists hotly debate rules over online rental sites like Airbnb. Much of the problems stem from commercial companies turning rent-controlled units into de facto hotels, with nonstop rentals for revolving doors of tourists. Housing advocates bemoan that this practice has taken nearly 11,000 units from the housing market, according to the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, while neighborhood groups complain of noisy parties from tourists. But as they debate the "bad" units, common ground amongst the various groups lies in what Councilman Mike Bonin dubbed "good short-term rentals," wherein a homeowner may rent out a spare room or back house from time to time. Bonin's new proposed rules, backed by Council President Herb Wesson and Councilman Paul Koretz, would bar rentals at rent-controlled units and require them to collect the same kind of city taxes as hotels, which is already legally required but inconsistently done.

Developers in Los Angeles will face more extensive scrutiny if they decide to build near earthquake faults under new rules in Los Angeles. The Westside, the South Bay, and northeast Los Angeles will be the three main areas covered by new scrutiny under a program advanced by Mayor Eric Garcetti. While state law generally says that constructions within about 500 feet of faults zoned by the state require extensive studies, decades of budget cuts have delayed the state's mapping of crucial fault zones in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles Times 2013 investigation found that Los Angeles officials approved more than a dozen construction projects on or near well-known faults without requiring seismic studies because the state had not mapped out the area. Grand Jury Report Faults Management of Irvine Great Park Following a decade of accused mismanagement, a lack of transparency, and an unnecessarily high price tag, the Irvine Great Park plan to create a 1,347 acre park at a former air base needs a strategy for the next 10 years of development, according to a new report released by an Orange County grand jury. As of now, 205 acres of the park have been developed at a cost of $251 million, a price the grand jury said would have been smaller had the city not overreached by crafting a plan to develop the park all at once instead of in phases. The grand jury suggested the dissolution of the Great Park Corporation, because its Board of Directors also acts as the council, and it recommended adopting an ordinance to limit City Council members' influence of city operations. California Cities Fare Poorly in Street Quality; League of Cities Calls for Transportation Funding Seven California cities round out the top 25 cities over population 500,000 with the poorest streets in a new report (pdf) from national transportation research group TRIP. Of those cities, three scored the top three rankings for worst streets: San Francisco-Oakland, with 74 percent of its streets classified as poor; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, with 73 percent; and Concord, with 62 percent. Additionally, the rankings find that those three cities and many of the others listed in the top 25 -- including San Jose, San Diego, Riverside-San Bernardino, and Sacramento -- also have motorists spending the most money annually in vehicle maintenance because of poor roads. Meanwhile, the League of California Cities recently adopted a resolution urging Governor Jerry Brown and the state legislature to provide new sustainable funding for state and local transportation infrastructure. The move followed Governor Brown calling an Extraordinary Session on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the League is also requesting that the state provide a list of projects that could be funded by a new funding package. L.A. Housing Discrimination Suit Dismissed A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the City of Los Angeles against Wells Fargo & Co. accusing it of targeting minority borrowers with predatory lending practices. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II said that Federal Housing Act loans issued during the time period did not violate the law, and that they were intended to overcome precisely the barriers to ownership often experienced by minorities. City Attorney Michael Feuer filed the suit -- among three other suits accusing big banks of the predatory practice -- saying that the practice violated the Fair Housing Act and helped result in 200,000 foreclosures in Los Angeles from 2008 to 2012, causing city property tax revenue to fall by $481 million.  "The city is not a champion of minority rights as it declared in the complaint," Wright said. "While this case began with allegations that Wells Fargo trampled the rights of minorities, it ends with the city's failed attempt to engage in the exact same conduct." Coastal Commission Challenges Long Beach over Fracking The Coastal Commission is attempting to force Long Beach officials and their corporate sponsors to obtain a special permit before beginning to use fracking on 13 local oil wells, though local officials dispute whether the commission actually has permitting authority for the process. Alison Dettmer, the Coastal Commission's deputy director in charge of energy and ocean resources oversight, said her agency has taken the position that any fracking within the state's coastal zone also requires a coastal development permit, but the state's Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal resources has already issued permits for fracking at the Long Beach islands. Meanwhile, officials and managers of the company in charge of oil extraction operations are still deciding whether fracking the oil well would make financial sense. Jacbos Stepping down from Housing Finance Agency The chairman of the Housing Finance Agency -- the state agency in charge of financing affordable housing -- announced that he will not seek reappointment as his development company plans to eliminate a rent-controlled eight unit complex to make way for million dollar homes. Matthew Jacobs, the chairman and the owner Beverly Hills-based firm Bulldog Partners LLC, said that he will not seek reappointment when his term expires on Sept. 26. "Evictors like Jacobs have no place making affordable housing policy in this state," housing advocacy group Tenants Together said in a statement. S.F. Explores Options for Replacing City Jail San Francisco's Board of Supervisors decided in a sharply divided vote to submit a request for $80 million in state funding for a new jail to replace a current, seismically-unfit one, despite a declining jail population. Council President London Breed cast the deciding vote, with the caveat that the jail needs to be smaller and cost less than the $240 million, 384-bed jail currently proposed. The project is part of a larger effort to move workers out of the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St because of its placement on a fault line. Opponents of the measure noted that the population of the city's six jails has declined dramatically in the past decade, from a high of 2,300 in the mid-1990s to 1,285 this year � a historic 33-year-low. L.A. County Loses Housing Discrimination Suit in Antelope Valley The Los Angeles County Housing Authority will pay $2 million to victims of housing discrimination in Antelope Valley after a U.S. Justice Department investigation concluded that housing officials and sheriff's deputies joined with two cities to drive black residents out of the area from 2004 to 2011. In the settlement, five families who lost their housing will have the chance to have their vouchers reinstated, while others will be able to receive compensation up to $25,000 or have their voucher termination wiped from public housing records. The federal complaint alleged that the county Housing Authority and Sheriff's Department subjected black Section 8 voucher holders to "more intrusive and intimidating compliance checks" than their white counterparts and also were more likely to terminate black residents' vouchers. Federal officials alleged that the cities, which provided money to the county for extra enforcement, encouraged the discriminatory practices. Santa Barbara to Revive Desalination Plant The Santa Barbara City Council has decided to reactivate its desalination plant, approving $55 million for the plant in the hopes that it could provide nearly a third of the city's drinking water. Last September, Lake Cachuma, the city's main reservoir, dipped below 30 percent capacity, prompting the city to begin reactivation of the plant as a last resort with hopes that it will be operational by fall 2016. "We recognize it's a big decision to make," Mayor Helene Schneider told the L.A. Times. "We also recognize that desalination is not just for this particular drought -- they are cyclical." S.F. Mayor Proposes Fee on New Development to Fund Transit San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee proposed a new fee applicable to market rate condominium and apartment projects to raise $14 million a year for transit improvements. Known as a transportation sustainability fee, the new proposal would add market rate apartment and condo developers to the city's Transit Impact Development Fee, which currently applies to commercial developments and production, design, and repair facilities. The addition would hopefully raise the revenue of the fee from $720 million to $1.2 billion over 30 years. Affordable housing developers and builders of complexes with fewer than 20 units, along with medical centers and nonprofits, will be exempt from the fee, which will total $7.74 per square foot of residential developments. The money would be spent on expanding the Muni fleet with new buses and railcars, improving reliability on the busiest routes, retrofitting existing trains, investing in the electrification of Caltrain, and making streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. The proposal has not received any outright opposition from development circles or housing advocates. "We don't suffer from a low cost of producing housing, and $7.74 (a square foot) is not a negligible fee." Tim Colen, executive director of the Housing Action Coalition representing developers, told the San Francisco Gate. "But in the end, high-density urban infill doesn't work without excellent transit, and we want to do the right thing." Yuba County Tribes Reach Detente Over Casino Plans After years of litigation challenging the federal government's decision to place 40 acres in Yuba County into the trust of the Enterprise tribe to build a Class III  casino , opponents of the project have said that they would not try to block construction of a scaled-down version without permanent utilities or games like blackjack and slot machines. The scaled-down version would only span 10,000 square feet and would be a Class II casino, mostly favoring bingo, and that it would have to truck water in and out from the facility. The scaled-back plan prompted questions as to whether the tribe would be held responsible for any of $83 million the tribe would owe the county for mitigation of the construction of the larger Class III casino under a 2002 memorandum of understanding. The Enterprise tribe still plans to build the larger, 318,000 square-foot  casino  with slot machines and other casino games, but plaintiffs are seeking an order to require Enterprise to give 60 days' notice if it intends to construct anything beyond the Class II casino.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission advised the City Council to adopt the city's proposed Mobility Plan 2035  (pdf) , update the land use element of 35 community plans, and adopt an ordinance to implement new street standards and complete street principles. Updating the 1999 Transportation Element of the city's General Plan and the 2010 Bicycle Plan, the Mobility Plan 2035 has the goal of creating a balanced transportation system in the city of Los Angeles by prioritizing pedestrian, bicycle, and transit-oriented roads, and contains a five-year implementation strategy for the plan. The plan would promote complete streets, per AB 1358, and include a range of design guidelines to accommodate multiple modes of transportation.  Delta Smelt on Verge of Extinction The delta smelt, a small, three-inch fish found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta-and the symbol of decades-long debates over water management in the delta--is likely headed toward extinction if water-use trends in California continue. In previous years, researchers have caught hundreds or thousands of the fish in surveys of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Basin. "Numbers are down this year. So the March survey we caught six. The April survey we caught one," Lauren Damon, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told Capital Public Radio. The drought has exhausted habitats for many species in the delta, including the winter-run Chinook salmon, which saw 95 percent of its brood die last year. "If we let the smelt go, we're essentially saying we don't really need a functioning estuary, and California is going to be losing something very special if that fish disappears," Peter Moyle told Capital Public Radio. Supervisors Halt Solar Plant near Joshua Tree A solar project in San Bernardino County has been stalled so officials can take a closer look at its problems, after the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted against it in a 3-2 vote. Approved by the San Bernardino County Planning Commission in December, the Bowman Solar Project would be a three-megawatt photovoltaic solar plant built in the community of Landers north of Joshua Tree National Park, with power generated by the project to be bought by Southern California Edison. Opponents of the project contended that it violated a temporary county solar ordinance adopted in 2013 requiring that projects be restricted to less-populated areas with substantially disturbed landscapes, such as old landfills. The ordinance was intended as a stopgap until the county completes an overall renewable energy amendment to its general plan slated for later this year. Gov. Brown Accelerates S.F. Arena Development Governor Jerry Brown fast-tracked environmental approval of the proposed Golden State Warriors arena on Mission Bay in San Francisco, giving courts just 290 days to rule on any lawsuit contesting the arena's environmental impact report. The arena will be just one of five projects granted fast-track review under AB900, a 2011 state law that streamlines environmental review of key projects. A spokesman for the Mission Bay Alliance group fighting the arena, remained undaunted by the governor's action. "It's less expensive for the alliance, and we will have a decision sooner," spokesman Sam Singer told the  San Francisco Chronicle . Court Blocks S.F. Streetcar Extension A state appeals court blocked construction of a new streetcar loop in San Francisco, ruling that opponents raised "substantial questions" about the the project's conformance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The new Muni extension would run on the T-Third Street line in the Dogpatch neighborhood to connect to the planned Central Subway as a part of a light-rail project authorized in September with a $10 million federal grant. Officials expected to complete the work in October, but with the injunction the court will further review a lawsuit brought on by a group of residents who claim that the 15-year-old EIR is now obsolete because of an influx of development in the area. San Jose Debates Rent Control in Downtown Renters and property owners clashed at a San Jose City Council committee meeting over proposals to implement rent control in San Jose's booming apartment market. Two recent proposals from Mayor Sam Liccardo and a few council members, slated to go before City Manager Norberto Duenas, attempt to expand rent control and strengthen tenant protections to avoid tenants getting priced out of their apartments as prices rise. One proposal, from Councilman Raul Peralez, would expand rent control to include 10,000 more units and reduce allowable rent increases from 8 percent to 4 percent annually. However, at the meeting of the council's Rules and Open Government Committee, property owners said that rent control makes it difficult to invest in properties and has not worked in other cities. S.F. Considers Demolition of I-280 in Mission Bay San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is looking for ways to achieve a multi-billion dollar plan to tear down Interstate 280 at Mission Bay and build a new underground rail tunnel with a station between the proposed Warriors arena and AT&T Park. Lee hopes that the plan would bring Caltrain and high-speed rail into downtown and the new Transbay Terminal while opening up a new area of the city to development. Caltrain has expressed skepticism, however, saying that Lee's vision would derail already-planned efforts to place the new transit center at First and Mission Streets, as the new plan to create the center closer to the waterfront along Third Street would cost time and would require tunneling through landfill for an extra 2 to 3 miles. Senator Proposes Expansion of Boards of Supervisors to Seven Members Citing booming populations that underrepresent minority communities,  State Senator Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia)  has proposed an amendment to the state's constitution to expand boards of supervisors of all counties with a population of 2 million or more -- including San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino, among others -- from five to seven members beginning in 2021. Mendoza, who proposed the amendment, said that  an expansion of the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles would help add a second Latino seat in the nearly 50 percent Latino county. However, board incumbent Don Knabe, whose district overlaps with Mendoza's, has insinuated that the proposal is an attempt for Mendoza to take that seat when he's termed out of state office. Newark Approves Massive Wetlands-Adjacent Development The Newark City Council unanimously approved a controversial 856-acre development of 1,260 housing units, public park space, and an elementary school site by developer Newark Partners LLC, despite pleas from environmentalists that the project would damage nearby federally-protected wetlands. The project, located on sites known as "Areas 3 and 4," dates back 20 years and has been the subject of numerous rounds of litigation for allegedly failing to comply with CEQA, as environmentalists have raised concerns including liquefaction, lateral spread, sea level rise, and the need for additional flood control measures, according to Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge Vice Chair Carin High. The developer will provide $3 million in affordable housing fees and $6 million in other impact fees, along with $14 million and 66 acres of land for a potential golf course. Garden Grove Seeks More Urban Town Center The Garden Grove Planning Commission unanimously  approved  a new downtown zoning amendment to add mixed-use and adaptive reuse zones in the city's downtown. Planners hope to promote a bike- and pedestian-friendly downtown inspired by strategies in Orange, Tustin, Anaheim, and Santa Ana, all of which are attempting to create more urban environments in historically suburban Orange County.

Gov. Jerry Brown  issued  an executive order to establish a California greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 - the most aggressive benchmark enacted by any government in North America to reduce dangerous carbon emissions over the next decade and a half. It also orders the state to prepare for adaptation to climate change. California is on track to meet or exceed the current target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as established in the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32). California's new emission reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 will make it possible to reach the ultimate goal of reducing emissions 80 percent under 1990 levels by 2050. This is in line with the scientifically established levels needed in the U.S. to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius - the warming threshold at which scientists say there will likely be major climate disruptions such as super droughts and rising sea levels."With this order, California sets a very high bar for itself and other states and nations, but it's one that must be reached - for this generation and generations to come," said  Brown in a statement. (See CP&DR  commentary  by Josh Stephens and Bill Fulton on the order's potential impact on statewide Sustainable Communities Strategies.) OPR Releases Draft VMT Guidelines, Advisory on Tribal Resources The Governor's Office of Planning and Research announced the availability of two documents related to the Guidelines Implementing the California Environmental Quality Act. The first document summarizes comments submitted to OPR on the preliminary discussion draft of changes to the CEQA Guidelines related to transportation analysis pursuant to Senate Bill 743. All comments that were submitted to OPR on the preliminary discussion draft during the comment period can be accessed through the  summary  (pdf).  OPR is currently developing a revised draft which will be released for additional public review.  The second document is a draft  technical advisory  (pdf) discussing new requirements, added by Assembly Bill 52, related to tribal cultural resources and CEQA.  The provisions of the new law go into effect July 1, 2015.  OPR is accepting input on the draft technical advisory. (See prior CP&DR coverage of SB 744.) Caltrans Releases Strategic Management Plan Caltrans released its new 2015-2020  Strategic Management Plan  (pdf) , a roadmap of how Caltrans will meet the bold goals it has set for itself in order to be a high-performance, efficient, innovative and modern state department of transportation. The Strategic Management Plan describes Caltrans' five goals and their corresponding objectives, adding performance measures connected to each goal. These performance measures will be used by Caltrans as tools to manage from the Plan. The five categories of goals include safety and health; stewardship and efficiency; sustainabilty, livabilbity, and economy; system performance; and organizational excellence. Examples of metrics for each of these categories are, respectively, fewer than .05 fatalities for every 100 million miles traveled on state highways, and reducing pollutants by 85 percent by 2020; increase from 84 to 88 the percentage of roads rated as having "good" pavement; triple the number of trips taken via bike and double the number taken via walking or transit by 2020; slow the growth of hours of commuter delay; improve stakeholder participation. The plan is a culmination of a comprehensive process that builds upon the efforts of the Caltrans Program Review, Caltrans Improvement Project and recommendations of the State Smart Transportation Initiative. Caltrans is in the process of determining and developing baselines for all performance measures. State Audit of BART Describes Need for $9.6 Billion in Capital Improvements The California State Auditor's office reports that the Bay Area Rapid Transit District needs $9.6 billion in capital improvement and reinvestment projects, but that funding for those projects is still up in the air. $4 billion of the needed money would go to the "Big Three" projects: replacing its fleet of railcars (many of which have been in operation since 1972 and which the auditor says will reach the end of their useful lives by 2026), expanding its vehicle maintenance facility, and replacing its train control system. BART's ability to spend on the capital improvements is constrained by an operating budget deficit that is projected to grow from $5.9 million in 2015-16 to $57.3 million in fiscal year 2017-18. Instead, it may have to look to the 2016 ballot for bonds or sales tax increases. Bay-Delta Habitat Restoration Plan Curtailed Gov. Jerry Brown announced that the state would significantly reduce the acreage slated for conservation efforts in the Sacramento Bay-Delta. The plan cuts from 100,00 to 30,000 the number of acres of fish and wildlife habitat that will be restored, dropping the cost from $8 billion to $300 million. Along with that announcement, Brown reaffirmed his support for a controversial $15 billion plan to build water tunnels to deliver more water to the Central Valley. Critics contend that the reduced conservation area, which effectively nullifies the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, is a precursor to an ecologically harmful "water grab." Supporters say that a smaller area will be easier to manage ad restore.  Mixed-Use Project in San Diego May Face Vote Opponents of a large mixed-use project in the mostly-residential community of Carmel Valley in North San Diego have gathered enough signatures to force a 2016 public vote. The project, a 1.4 million-square-foot complex of office buildings, condos, and retail stores called One Paseo, generated public outcry and the ire of a shopping center across the street, who claimed that the project would have an unmitigable impact on traffic and would fundamentally alter the community's character. It got approval from the San Diego City Council in February, but the 61,235 signatures against it along with a pending lawsuit that says its Environmental Impact Report was inadequate will force the development onto the 2016 ballot, which is already packed with five city council races, a minimum wage increase, primary elections for president and the mayor, along with a possible public vote on a financing plan for a new Chargers stadium. Coachella Adopts General Plan Update The City of Coachella has updated its general plan after four years of work, providing guidelines for the next 20 years as the population continues to grow and the city considers large projects like the La Entrada housing development. The plan, which received a $274,000 grant from the California Endowment and was otherwise funded by $625,000 directly from the city, seeks to fulfill community requests for more transportation options, new opportunities for youth, a sustainable environment, and improvement of schools. The general plan won recognition from the Southern California Association of Governments, which plans on presenting the city with an award for its plan. Report Urges Development along L.A. River A recently released report from the Los Angeles Business Council urges the city to meet Mayor Eric Garcetti's goal of adding 100,000 new housing units in part by creating an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District along the Los Angeles River. The report piggy-backs on a billion-dollar plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revamp 11 miles of the L.A. River north of downtown. "If you look at frontiers and underutilized resources, I think the L.A. River is really fertile land with a lot of development potential," report author and UCLA real estate professor Paul Habibi told the LA Times. "There's market-driven demand, a lot of developers who are eager to get in there." To save time and costs in rezoning to include affordable housing, the report proposed a variety of tools, including local design guidelines and expedited permitting. The report estimates that a new financing district along the river, which would allow the neighborhood to capture new tax revenue and funnel it back into public works, could raise between $5-10 billion in the next 45 years. Hollywood Project Halted Over Insufficient CEQA Analysis A judge  halted  construction of the controversial three-tower Millennium Hollywood development, saying that the city of Los Angeles failed to fully assess in its Environmental Impact Report the impacts of the project on surrounding neighborhoods. The project, which was hailed as an appropriately dense project in a transit-rich area, was backed unanimously by the City Council and by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Community groups and Caltrans said that the project would significantly worsen traffic on the 101 freeway and be unsafe. In his ruling, Judge James C. Chalfant said that the details of the project were also too vague, with the developer's summary of the uses only mentioning "some combination" of residential uses along with hotel rooms, offices, and restaurants among other things. "A developer must present an accurate and stable picture of the project so that the public and decision-makers can decide whether its environmental consequences are outweighed by its public benefits," Chalfant wrote. Opponents also raised concerns about the project's proximity to newly mapped earthquake faults.  Santa Monica Restricts Short-Term Rentals The Santa Monica City Council  voted  unanimously to strengthen a prohibition on short-term rentals through the home-share service Airbnb. The new ordinance allows "true" homesharing, wherein a homeowner can rent out rooms or guesthouses to travelers while the primary owner is on-site but prohibits rental of entire units by absentee landlords and managers. Short-term rentals, by which entire apartments or homes are rented out, number from 1,400-1,700 in San Monica and account for about five percent of the city's 33,717 rental units. Residents expressed concerns that with Santa Monica already not filling needed housing supply, the short-term rentals are squeezing even more possible residents out of the market. The ordinance is believed to be the strictest regulation of home-sharing in California.  S.F., Oakland Ranked Highly for Walkability San Francisco and Oakland came in second and eighth place, respectively, on WalkScore's rankings of the 10 most walkable cities in the U.S. with populations exceeding 300,000. San Francisco received a walkability score of 83.9, narrowly losing to New York City; and Oakland received a 68.5, losing to Seattle and beating Baltimore. The rankings look at how walkable a city becomes by seeing how much space they claim for pedestrian traffic from cars, by looking at the opening of restaurants and shopping centers, and by judging improvements in public transportation.

San Diego Climate Plan Ruling Ordered Published On November 24, the Fourth Appellate District's Division 1 issued a publication order for its October ruling rejecting San Diego's climate plan. That same day the same division issued its major decision rejecting the EIR for the San Diego Association of Governments' regional transportation plan. The effect was to give value as precedent to two cases that impose stricter greenhouse gas reduction standards on local and regional planners. Kruger Nominated To Fill State Supreme Court Vacancy Governor Jerry Brown has nominated Leondra Kruger, a senior Justice Department lawyer noted as a rising star, to fill the vacancy on the California Supreme Court created by the retirement of Justice Joyce Kennard. Kruger has argued a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, most prominently in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC , a 2012 case on the interaction of a religious employer's prerogatives with an employee's disability rights. Kruger has seldom taken positions on land use issues as an attorney, but as a Harvard undergraduate she had a front-row seat for the demise of Massachusetts rent control per a November 1994 statewide vote and she clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens , a former city attorney who often sided with government agencies on land use and property rights issues. Originally from Pasadena, she was editor of the Yale Law Journal, clerked for D.C. Circuit Judge David S. Tatel as well as Stevens, served briefly as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, and worked with the firms of Jenner & Block and Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr before joining the Justice Department. Migratory Bird Survey Removed From San Jose General Plan Agenda San Jose came close to approving a general plan amendment that would have required surveys of birds during the mid-year nesting season before any trees could be removed or disturbed. But the San Jose Mercury News reports the item was removed from a November 18 council agenda by "a last-minute decision." Planner Whitney Berry told the paper the plan was worked out with environmental, development/construction and Fish and Wildlife representatives in hopes of streamlining CEQA review. The paper says developers "expressed concerns" that it would slow development -- and then on November 14, current mayor Chuck Reed, mayor-elect Sam Liccardo, and Councilwoman Rose Herrera prepared a critical memo on the proposal, saying it amounted to "precluding construction for seven months of the year." The amendment was expected to resurface in revised form in 2015. It's Still Not Over In El Dorado County This November, El Dorado County voters defeated three slow-growth measures and the Placerville Roundabout Menace . The roundabout may have been knocked flat -- but there are more slow-growth initiatives where the last three came from. The Sacramento Bee reports the Board of Supervisors had held back two measures for further study, but has now agreed to place them on the June 2016 ballot. Both measures are directed against new subdivisions. One would prohibit subdivisions that lack sufficient access to water supplies. The other would protect views and areas near farmland. Long Beach Preparing For Freeway Removal Project The Long Beach City Council is expected to approve a contract December 2 with the Mel�ndrez firm of Los Angeles for planning and conceptual design services on the Terminal Island Freeway Transition Plan. The Longbeachize blog says it's a big step in moving forward on plans to remove a large section of the Terminal Island freeway, with accompanying plans to approve quality of life in the "park poor" area of West Long Beach. (Item via Streetsblog LA .) Does Mayor Of Benicia Have To Stop Commenting on Oil Trains? Should a mayor have to stop talking about a public issue for fear of showing bias on the subject? The question has come up in Benicia, where the Valero Refining Co. has proposed to bring crude oil by train to its refinery in the city. The Sacramento Bee reports Mayor Elizabeth Patterson of Benicia has disclosed that when she frequently commented on safety issues involving oil trains, the city attorney "advised her to stop talking about the oil trains and sending out mass emails containing articles and other information, and to recuse herself from voting when it came before the council". Patterson's comments on oil train safety have included "E-Alert" messages. In a recent email, she wrote regarding these messages: "What I do is repost national, regional and local stories about rail safety. My job is to affirm public, health, safety and welfare and to keep my constituents informed about these issues. No opinion is expressed." Her other public comments have included an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle last March calling on Governor Jerry Brown to issue an executive order on safety in the transport of petroleum products. The Council agreed on November 18 to waive its attorney-client privilege and release an opinion issued last summer that was the apparent source of the advice: it came from a city-retained outside attorney, Michael Jenkins of Jenkins & Hogin . A community Web site opposed to the oil trains, the Benicia Independent , has posted a copy of Jenkins' opinion . Jenkins wrote in part, "This is a close case. The evidence I have reviewed can be interpreted to suggest a probability of bias on the part of the Mayor." At issue is the prospect that Patterson would take on a quasi-judicial role in helping to adjudicate Valero's permit application for the oil train project, in which case the company would have a due process right to a hearing before a disinterested authority. In a more recent post on the Benicia Independent site, Patterson protested that Jenkins had reviewed her "E-Alert" statements selectively and that her own attorney had advised her differently. Benicia Approves Housing Element Update In separate November 18 City Council action, the city of Benicia voted to revise its housing element and to adopt an ordinance for transitional housing supportive housing and "emergency shelters", amid concern from Council member Marilyn Bardet that hazardous industrial materials might exist in the Arsenal historic district, which was identified as a site for transitional housing and shelters. For details see the Benicia Herald and the Council's November 18 agenda .

A new report released by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that California's housing market continues to recover from its low at the beginning of 2012. Median home values in the most populous counties have increased by 39 percent since 2012, though they remain 20 percent lower than they were at the market's peak in 2006-2007. The report also shows that the housing recovery has caused a problem for some less affluent residents, as "increasing prices place housing out of reach for many Californians." It finds that homeownership rates in California have fallen more sharply than the rest of the nation, with California falling to 53.8 percent as compared with a 64.7 percent nationwide. Another report  released by NYU's Furman Center describes the percentage changes in rental populations in major US cities from 2006 to 2013. Los Angeles and San Francisco rank among nine cities where more than 50% of the population rents, as of 2013. San Francisco scored in the top five increasing rental populations, with 22% more San Franciscans renting since 2006; Los Angeles' rental population increased by 11%. Richmond-San Rafael Bridge closer to getting new lane, bike path The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge near the northern end of the San Francisco Bay  is one step closer  to getting an extra lane of traffic and a new, separated bike path following an approval of $4.65 million for the project by a committee of the Bay Area Toll Authority. Though no structural work will be necessary on the bridge, officials say that some components on the ground will need to be adjusted on the 5.5-mile bridge to accommodate the new lanes, and they will need to reconstruct an approach on the east side of the bike path to protect bikers from traffic. The Bay Area Toll Authority hopes that the extensions will alleviate the increasing congestion on the bridge. The vote now goes to the full board of BATA for a vote on Feb. 25. Construction will not begin until 2017. SF Proposes Development Curbs in Mission District A San Francisco supervisor  is attempting to limit, or impose a full a moratorium on , the development of market-rate development in the Mission District, one of the most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in San Francisco. Supervisor David Campos said that he is responding to a community outcry in the district for more affordable housing.  "There has been a cry from the community for the last couple years that there is a housing crisis and the projects that are in the pipeline are not responding like it is a crisis," Campos told the San Francisco Business Journal.  He will likely propose legislation in the next few weeks that could attempt to either a moratorium on market-rate housing or create a special-use district near the 24 th  street BART.  So far, about 500 housing units in the district  have been approved for upcoming development  by the Planning Department, but only 34 affordable units have been generated. Prop. K, due on the ballot in November, will attempt to make one-third of all units in the city affordable. Property Owners Vote to Support Sacramento Streetcar Two-thirds of property owners near Sacramento's proposed new streetcar line  voted in favor  of providing funds to help finance the $150 million project. Project advocates said that the mail-in vote - while only advisory in nature- showed that local businesses are on board with the benefits that the trolley line would bring in creating a more vibrant downtown, boosting property values, and serving as a connector between historic and commercial locations. The Federal Transit Administration is also considering funding the 3.3-mile project this year with $75 million in requested money, covering half the project's cost. In May, a an advisory ballot measure will go before 3,800 voters who live within three blocks of the project. Chargers, Raiders Propose Shared Stadium in Carson The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders recently  made a surprise proposal  to build a shared stadium in a city near Los Angeles. The teams announced that they will continue to pursue options for stadium deals in their current cities, but that they will jointly pursue the $1.7 billion stadium in Carson as an alternative. Both the Chargers and the Raiders are on year-to-year leases with their current stadiums, and both teams have shown restlessness with city reluctance to fund new stadiums with taxpayer dollars. The teams stated that they plan to launch a petition drive immediately to put the stadium to a vote of city residents. Gold Line Authority Pushes for Extension to Montclair The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority, which is constructing Phase II of the Gold Line light rail in eastern Los Angeles County, has asked for funding for the next phase, from Azusa to Montclair. It would be the first light rail line to reach into San Bernardino County -  have asked for a transfer  of $33 million in sales taxes for the 12.3 mile extension. The money would come from leftover construction funds from an 11.5-mile extension from East Pasadena to the Azusa city limits, which will be completed in September. The authority says that it has already completed its Environmental Impact Report and hopes that it can get the funding to be ready for operation by 2023. Proponents say that the $1.18 billion project should undoubtedly be a priority for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, but with several other public transportation projects fighting for money, it could be difficult to get the needed funds. "I would say there is no question our project (Azusa-to-Montclair Gold Line) should be a priority. But this is a political game," Doug Tessitor from the Construction Authority Board told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The demise of redevelopment may leave the city of San Diego with a monstrous bill : $271 million to cover the development of its downtown stadium, Petco Park. When the stadium's financing plan was approved in 1998, general obligation bond funds were to be routed through the Center City Development Corp., one of the city's redevelopment agencies. In anticipation of the 2012 shutdown of redevelopment, CCDC transferred over $200 million to the city. The state then determined that these funds were not authorized for exemption from state "claw-back." In a 9-0 vote earlier this month, the City Council determined that it would pursue legal action against the state. Opponents of Sacramento Arena Raise EIR Concerns in Court Foes of the efforts to build a new stadium for the Sacramento Kings  aired their concerns in court  earlier this month, calling the project's environmental impact report inadequate. Justices in the Court of Appeals asked lawyers for the city whether planners had surveyed other alternative sites and considered the impact of stadium traffic on I-5. Opponents of the project are concerned about a $255 million public subsidy that the city is giving to the arena, and that state lawmakers passed SB 743, written specifically for the project and intended to make it much harder for foes to block construction. The hearing ended without a ruling. Sen. Jackson Seeks to Streamline CEQA Process The  latest attempt to reform CEQA  comes from State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (Dist. 19 � Santa Barbara). Her bill, SB 122, attempts to streamline the CEQA process but does not make substantive changes to the law. SB 122 would make lead agencies keep an administrative record of all actions on a project in real time. Jackson claims that this change would help streamline much of the data-gathering process, which is now typically done only after a lawsuit is filed. The bill would also establish an online clearinghouse through the Office of Planning and Research that would post all documents relating to environmental impact reports across the state. Finally, the bill would reform what Jackson calls "document dumping" at the scheduled close of the public comment period on draft EIRs. City of San Francisco Must Pay for Tree Upkeep The San Francisco Board of Supervisors agreed that the city's Department of Public Works, not local property owners,  should be responsible for upkeep of the city's street trees . The vote is a move away from dumping the cost of tree maintenance to homeowners and is in line with the Planning Department's Urban Forest Master Plan. But, the supervisors did not allocate any money toward the $15 million annual cost of upkeep.  That could be the toughest part, as Supervisor Scott Weiner said, "trees don't do well in the budget process." A parcel tax is being considered for the 2016 ballot. Meanwhile, the city is hoping to add 50,000 street trees to its urban forest by 2035. San Diego Awash in Unused Development Impact Fees An investigation by the San Diego Union-Tribune  found that the city has let pile up millions  of unspent dollars of developer impact fees, designed to offset the local impacts of big projects. These monies may be used for local infrastructure projects such as parks and fire stations. Over $78 million collected has not been spent as of June 2014; $35 million of that has not been designated for any specific purpose. Public officials have expressed frustration in the wake of a staggering backlog of infrastructure improvements in the city that have not been fixed. Ranking Gentrification in California According to a new ranking of incidence of gentrification in America's 50 largest cities, Sacramento and Oakland are the most rapidly gentrifying cities in California. Governing Magazine ranked them Nos. 9 and 11, respectively, in its "Gentrification in America" report. Around 30 percent of both cities' census tracts were determined to have gentrified since 2000. Though California cities have some of the highest rents in the country, cities including San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose ranked lower in part because they have already gentrified dramatically. The report defined a neighborhood as gentrified if growth in its median household income and home value was in the top third percentile as compared with other neighborhoods in its metro area; median incomes and home values had to be in the bottom 40% in 2000 for a neighborhood to be eligible. High Speed Rail Opposition Files Petition Two counties in the Central Valley  have filed a petition with the 9th District Court of Appeals , hoping to overturn a ruling by a federal agency prohibiting state courts from citing CEQA in opposition to the high speed rail coming to California. The Surface Transportation Board ruled in December that the state couldn't use CEQA because doing so could "deny or significantly delay an entity's right to construct a line that the (Surface Transportation) Board has specifically authorized, thus impinging upon the board's exclusive jurisdiction over rail transportation." Kings County and Kern County, in association with several anti-HSR groups in the Central Valley and Bay Area, contend that the previous ruling "violates petitioners' constitutional right to seek redress of grievances" and that it violates California's sovereignty as guaranteed by the 10th Amendment.

In California land use news this week: The Monterey Herald is reporting that Cal American Water has settled with landowner Cemex ahead of its Coastal Commission appearance on Wednesday to seek permission to drill a test well under the City of Marina. The well would go under the sea floor to check if water could be taken from that area for a desalination plant proposed for the Cemex sand mining site in North Marina. Cal Am and Cemex had been on the point of litigation . Marina officials have criticized the plan because they feared that it might worsen saltwater intrusion into groundwater and that, once dug, it might be used permanently for extraction, not just for testing. The Commission's agenda packet as of this writing showed a staff recommendation for conditional approval. For prior coverage see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3610 . The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has proposed to cut two BART stations planned for San Jose and Santa Clara. The station in San Jose, on 28th Street in the Alum Rock area, has been popular with its proposed neighbors, who worked willingly with public officials on a transit-oriented development project. Details via Planetizen at http://www.planetizen.com/articles/node-71983 and in the San Francisco Business Times . The HomeAway vacation rental Web site has sued San Francisco over the city's recently passed law legalizing certain vacation rentals, saying it favors Airbnb over other companies. Carolyn Said reported on the dispute in the San Francisco Chronicle . As she noted, City Attorney Dennis Herrera posted a statement saying he would "vigorously defend" against the suit, and complaining, "HomeAway's challenge pushes a dubious legal theory that the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause somehow prohibits local jurisdictions from making local land use decisions." The VTA issued an environmental assessment on its planned Bus Rapid Transit project along El Camino from Palo Alto to San Jose. See http://www.vta.org/el-camino-brt . Reports of the death of "dinosaur planning" may be exaggerated. The LA Times reported last week on the opening of a partly built first "neighborhood" of a 1200-unit "community" to be known as Park Place, in the enormous planned "New Model Colony" town in Ontario, California. The paper describes it as "the first New Model Colony project to debut since the financial crisis." Economist Gerd-Ulf Krueger told the paper, "The dinosaurs... have come alive." Los Angeles Metro held a groundbreaking on the Purple Line . For initial reactions see the #purpleline Twitter hashtag. Ethan Elkind posted a bittersweet note of celebration . The LA Times reports the line that was once dreamed of as the "subway to the sea" will in fact most likely stop at the VA hospital in Westwood. It's a long if pretty walk from there to the ocean. The Sacramento Bee reported the Kings basketball team released plans for mixed-use residential, commercial and office construction ancillary to their new arena in downtown Sacramento. A Modesto group, Stamp Out Sprawl, started a petition drive to place an urban growth boundary limit on the November 2015 ballot to steer big-box retail stores away from the Wood Colony area. The Modesto Bee has details at http://www.modbee.com/news/local/article3545807.html . The LA Times reported the Zillow real estate site found 47.9% of working-age adults in Los Angeles and Orange Counties live with a roommate or adult family member other than a spouse. On the real-estate-oriented HousingWire site, that story led to a somewhat different headline: " Zillow: Millions of potential houses lost to 'doubling up' ". The original Zillow report refers to the doubled-up people as "hidden households." As anyone knows who was at the APA-California convention in September, the Disneyland area of Anaheim could use a smoother transportation setup between the theme parks and convention center, and the many blocks of hotels that serve them. Now Planetizen reports some critics are seeing connections between Disney's political contributions and a proposal for a streetcar in the area. A hearing is set for November 12 on Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approval of the Antelope Valley Area Plan and its EIR, discussed in our recent news feature at http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3603 . For plan materials see http://planning.lacounty.gov/tnc/ . For the Board of Supervisors agenda see the November 12 entry at http://bos.co.la.ca.us/BoardMeeting/BoardAgendas.aspx . Links to the Board's agenda materials are at http://file.lacounty.gov/bos/supdocs/89590.pdf and include a 118-page draft Statement of Overriding Considerations. An initial hearing was held November 5 on a draft renewable energy ordinance for unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, including some large high desert tracts where large solar arrays have been controversially proposed. See http://planning.lacounty.gov/energy . The Sacramento Bee reports the solar industry is rebounding after losing ground during the home mortgage crisis. Investigative freelancer Darwin Bond Graham writes on his blog that the exclusive city of Piedmont is willing to allow affordable housing in its Housing Element, but principally by encouraging owners of large houses or lots to add second units -- in some cases by re-converting actual former servants' quarters into -- yep, servants' quarters again. The Los Angeles Times reports the statewide plastic bag ban is actually kind of popular . Last week the LA Times reported in detail on seismic protections in the New Wilshire Grand tower . Los Angeles is in a quandary over increasing costs of privately contracted street tree maintenance. Planetizen has a roundup at http://www.planetizen.com/articles/node-71873 of attempts by the City of Lancaster to close its Metrolink station, which serves 400 commuters, based on claims that it brings homeless people to the city. Planetizen picked up a plan to spend $2.8 million developing a rail trail along Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles. See www.planetizen.com/articles/node-71893 . And The Planning Report has an interview with Esther Feldman of Community Conservation Solutions about Zev Yaroslavsky's work creating a missing link for walkers in the LA River Greenway Trail. Stockton is officially out of bankruptcy .

President Obama's proposed 2016 budget, announced last week, includes several nods to development and transportation in California to the tune of over $1 billion. In the plan, Los Angeles  would receive $330 million  for an expansion of the Purple Line of its subway, along with a downtown connector to tie together several strands of the system.  The budget also included $150 million  to fund a streetcar line  in downtown Sacramento. To receive the money, the city has to get approval from residents within three blocks of the proposed line, and it will have to raise $30 million in matching funds from property owners nearby. Officials hope to have the trolley operating by 2018.  Some of the projects that are likely to survive Congressional whittling,  according to the Sacramento Bee : restoration projects of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, upgrades to Yosemite National Park, and funding for improvements to Central Valley flood control. Meanwhile ,  the  San Diego Union-Tribune pondered  the fate of a new stadium for the Chargers - a hotly debated subject in San Diego - if Obama's budget is passed. O ne proposal within the budget would bar cities from issuing tax-free bonds to finance new projects for professional sports facilities, an incentive usually used to push stadiums through.  "This is one of those areas where there's consensus among economics professors that these are not good projects for the use of public dollars," said one urban planning professor. Property Owners Decide Against Protest of Transbay Vote A group of heavyweight property owners  decided not to sue  the City and County of San Francisco over the creation of a new Mello-Roos tax district to help fund the Transbay transit center, which is currently under construction. The creation of the district was approved in December by a vote of over 50 percent of local property-owners. Developers with nearby projects, including Hines and Boston Properties, objected to the fact that the vote on the tax district had been a foregone conclusion, since government agencies own over 50 percent of land in the area and therefore had a built-in majority. Opponents had also objected to a tax increase from $3.33 to $5.11 per square foot since the special district was first proposed in 2012. Opponents had 30 days from the original vote to file a protest, but they did not do so, meaning that the election is certified and the district is officially approved.  Wastewater Pumping Taints Central Valley Drinking Water As the historic drought continues, California water users in the Central Valley have had to resort to groundwater pumping to get the water that they need, causing land in the Central Valley to actually sink. Things just got a lot scarier, as the  San Francisco Chronicle  reported that oil companies have been pumping wastewater laden with bits of oil back into the ground due to bureaucratic errors in enforcement of bans against that pumping. The EPA is investigating whether the wastewater pumping has polluted groundwater, and it could seize control of the injection wells from California officials. Santa Ana Uses Blind Luck to Permit Marijuana Dispensaries Santa Ana  employed a lottery system  to determine who would get one of the 19 permits issued for medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, becoming the first city in Orange County to issue the permits since most California cities banned the shops years ago. However, some criticized the structure of the lottery system, saying that officials should have done preliminary screening before opening up the lottery to over 630 applications.  "Instead of going through all of this ... you should be vetting people up front, figuring out who doesn't have a criminal record and all of that, and then have the lottery," attorney Randall T. Longwith said. Quarry Rejected in SLO The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission  narrowly rejected  a 41-acre granite quarry in Santa Margarita following community opposition over traffic impacts on the town. Commissioners cited concerns of an increase in traffic and the safety of trucks carrying heavy granite through downtown Santa Margarita as reasons for the rejection.  Further south in San Luis Obispo County, developer Tom Blessent  proposed a housing project  that would triple the size of the community of Avila Beach, adding 1,000 to 1,500 homes. The developer is expected to face heavy resistance from conservationists, who failed at an attempt to conserve all 2,400 acres of Wild Cherry Canyon. Atkins Proposes Plan to Fund Infrastructure Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins released a plan to fund California's crumbling infrastructure following Governor Jerry Brown's call for statewide improvements. Citing the problem of increasingly fuel-efficient cars stifling the money that the state raise from gas taxes, Atkins proposed a $52 per year tax on California drivers. The tax could be tacked on to insurance bills or vehicle registration charges.

California's $68-billion high speed rail is facing setbacks in its construction throughout the proposed route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.  Local elected officials and homeowners groups in suburban Santa Clarita as well as blue-collar San Fernando, Pacoima, and other communities are demanding the state abandon a proposed route that would use above-ground tracks and tunnels through the mountains between Palmdale and San Fernando, instead insisting that only underground routes should be considered. They expressed their concerns at a recent meeting of the HSR board. San Fernando officials said that the proposed train would cut their city in half with 20-foot-high walls and could destroy dozens of businesses and a police station at a cost of $1.3 million per year and 850 jobs. Additionally, an analysis by the rail authority shows that within a half-mile of the track, there could be noise and vibration affecting about 20,000 residences, 25 parks, 47 schools, 48 churches and nine hotels, as well as archaeological sites and wetlands. Also, in a settlement with the city of Bakersfield over the environmental impact of the train, the rail authority will cut eight miles of track from the first construction of a 130-mile section through the Central Valley and will review its proposed route through the city. EPA Releases New Environmental Risk Database A new tool released by the EPA highlighting the low-income, minority communities that face the greatest health risks from pollution, with some stark standouts in the Los Angeles area. The map tool, known as EJSCREEN , allows residents and policymakers nationwide  to look up how their level of environmental risk compares to the rest of the nation. With measurements based on census block groups averaging about 1,400 residents, the EPA found that many communities in southeast Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire and the San Joaquin Valley are among the most at-risk in the nation. Environmental justice groups, which for decades have battled the concentration of landfills, refineries, rail yards and other polluting facilities in poor communities of color, said they would use the map to press for more emissions-cutting projects and environmental enforcement in the most affected areas. Major Sacramento Housing Development Approved; Seeks More Units Downtown The Sacramento Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve the Sacramento Commons Project, a proposal to replace 1960s-era low-rise apartments with high-rise and mid-rise condominiums in a section of downtown known for its lush canopy of trees and pedestrian-oriented streets. Though the Sacramento Preservation Commission recently nominated parts of the project area to the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources and recommended denial of the project, the proposal maintained the support of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality District and the Sacramento Regional Transit for its proximity to an RT station, and it was also backed by labor unions, hotel and restaurant workers, and the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, which represents property owners. "We need an infusion of market-rate housing downtown, and we need it at increased density," commission member Todd Kaufman said at the Planning Commission meeting. Meanwhile, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson launched a new housing initiative known as "Think Downtown" to market the city's downtown area as the region's "in" place to live and to develop new housing. The announcement follows Johnson's plan to build 10,000 housing units in the central city in the next 10 years, with a mix of 6,000 market rate units, 2,500 affordable units, and 1,500 units for people in more dire need of housing. Sacramento's downtown region has already rebounded from a virtual cession of development during the recession, with developers currently building or finishing projects like the 16 Powerhouse Project, the Warehouse Artists Lofts, and Township 9. Los Angeles Consideres Plan to Legalize �Bootlegged' Apartments Los Angeles landlords and tenant advocates have become unusual bedfellows in an attempt to legitimize the city's "bootlegged" apartments, wherein a landlord rents out a space usually carved out from a permitted apartment for an unlicensed lease. In many cases, the main barriers to legalizing these units are not construction or safety problems but city codes that mandate a minimum number of parking spots and limit the number of units on a lot. These problems have eliminated more than 1,700 apartments and exacerbated LA's housing crisis, officials say.Planning associate Matt Glesne told the Los Angeles Times that the existing process to seek relief from zoning requirements is "not cheap and not quick," costing landlords upward of $10,000, taking six to nine months, and forcing many landlords to simply shutter the unit. Under the new proposal, landlords would have limited time to seek to legalize existing bootlegged units, and would have to undergo a review process yet to be hashed out.  Threatened Salmon Prompt New Water Policy in Sonoma County In an effort to protect the state's highly endangered coho salmon populations, a new proposal would force around 13,000 landowners in 113 square miles of watersheds in Sonoma County to report their use of water from both surface sources and wells. Covering four tributaries of the Russian River, the new rules, if approved, would require all residential and commercial property owners, including wineries and vineyards, to use "enhanced conservation measures" and impose penalties of up to $500 per day to landowners who do not provide water use information. Piggybacking on last fall's unprecedented statewide move to regulate groundwater as well as surface water, Sonoma County officials are now also working on a local groundwater management plan likely to include well monitoring within the county. Orange County Accused of Mismanaging $1.7B Worth of Property An Orange County Grand Jury issued a report lambasting county officials for failing to keep adequate records of over $1.7 billion in unused or underutilized property that it must manage. The jury found that there are 2,300 real estate properties that must be managed by the county, but that the county has only partially complete or updated databases of its real estate holdings, and that the information is not consistent. "With the potential for future real estate decisions being based on unavailable or inaccurate data that could lead to less-than-desirable stewardship of (the) county's tax dollars, the grand jury believes that comprehensive and compatible real estate data information is necessary," the grand jury wrote in its report. AG Seeks to Depublish Decision on Tiered Water Rates; Riverside Sues Over Water Cuts The office of the state attorney general has asked the state Supreme Court to depublish a ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeals making it illegal for water agencies to use tiered rate structures to curb water use throughout the state. The court had found the tiered rate system -- wherein water guzzlers were charged higher rates for their use -- unconstitutional because the city of San Juan Capistrano charged more for water than it cost the city to provide the service in violation of Prop. 218. At least two-thirds of California water agencies now use some type of tiered-rate structure. If the state Supreme Court decides to depublish the appellate court ruling, that ruling could not be cited as authoritative in any other trial court or appellate court decisions, Proposition 218 expert Kelly Salt told the Los Angeles Times . In other drought news, t he city of Riverside has sued the state over a directive to cut water use 28 percent within the city as mandated throughout the state. Arguing that it has its own independently-owned, treated groundwater, Heather Raymond, a spokeswoman for Riverside Public Utilities, told the LA Times that Riverside's use has "zero effect on the state water supply" and that the city should be eligible for inclusion in a 4 percent conservation tier set up for localities with independent supplies of surface water. But, as Michale Lauffer, chief counsel for the State Water Resources Control Board, told the  Los Angeles Times , "Groundwater for many areas is the savings account available during times of drought, and the limited, 4% reduction tier is not available for communities who are relying on that savings account to weather the drought." Sacramento to Overhaul Housing Projects The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is seeking to overhaul two public housing projects whose poverty-stricken residents have a long history of disconnect and disenfranchisement from the rest of Sacramento. The housing agency's plan is to replace the rows of antiquated barracks-like brick buildings in the Alder Grove and Marina Vista housing projects and temporarily relocate residents in order to construct a mixed-use neighborhood with both market-rate and affordable housing units.SHRA is looking at replacing the 751 current units with either 1,200 units or 1,500 units. The new community would build higher-density, five-story buildings with detached single-family residences at the south end of the neighborhood to help blend with the existing Land Park neighborhood. To realize the redevelopment, local housing officials hope that the federal department of Housing and Urban Development will give Sacramento up to $30 million through its Choice Communities Initiative grant program. However, the financing gap remains large, possibly totaling more than $70 million.  Pomo Tribe's Pot Farm Must Conform to Local Laws The Pinoleville Pomo Nation has scaled back plans to create a medical marijuana farm near Ukiah in an effort to clarify laws governing the tribe's jurisdiction. The tribe's initial plan, bolstered by similar projects proposed throughout the nation as tribes explore new ways to generate income, called for a $10 million pot-growing operation in multiple greenhouses spanning 110,000 square feet of the tribe's rancheria. However, the land is not held in federal trust, which would exempt it from local regulations, and the local sheriff contends that the tribe is limited to the 25-plants-per-parcel required for the rest of the county. "We're just staying within the law," tribe business board leader Mike Canales told the Press Democrat, indicating that the tribe would stay within the 25 plant-per-parcel limit for now. OPR to Host California Climate Action Conference  Cal Poly and the Governor's Office of Planning & Research have announced the second C alifornia Climate Action Planning Conference , to be held August 13 & 14 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The program will cover topics including greenhouse gas emission targets beyond 2020, learning from climate action plan updates, recent court rulings and state policy, public outreach and education, regional collaboratives for climate and sustainability, challenges and solutions for the agriculture sector, public health and climate change, and climate adaptation strategies.

Water agencies cannot charge water users incrementally more per gallon of use following a  ruling  by the Fourth District Court of Appeals that cited a 1996 law prohibiting government agencies from overcharging for services. The suit came about after San Juan Capistrano charged nearly four times as much per unit of water for users in the highest tier to provide an incentive to conserve, but failed to show that the water was that expensive to deliver. Governor Jerry Brown wanted to use the rates to save water and create strong disincentives for wealthier residents. Other water districts must now review the ruling to make sure that their rates are in step with the court, while still encouraging conservation during the drought. Two-thirds of water districts use some form of tiered water pricing, but now agencies will have to show that hikes are directly tied to the cost of water, according to the court. Change in Leadership at Dept. of Housing and Community Development Claudia Cappio has left her role as director of the Department of Housing and Community Development to head the "Coliseum City" development plan in Oakland. Replacing her as acting director will be Susan Riggs, the former Executive Director of the San Diego Housing Federation. Riggs has been serving as Deputy Secretary of Housing Policy for the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH) since January 2014. Prior to joining BCSH, Riggs served as the Executive Director of the San Diego Housing Federation. In this capacity, her primary goal was to promote the creation of safe, stable, and healthy housing that is affordable to lower income families and people in need. Newly Discovered Fault Puts Ventura at Risk An earthquake fault that runs through downtown Ventura is extremely dangerous and could produce a magnitude 8.0 earthquake every 400 to 2,400 years, according to new research from the California Geological Survey. In contrast with the inland San Andreas fault, an earthquake at the Ventura fault could bring a devastating tsunami to the region that would begin "in the Santa Barbara Channel area, and would affect the coastline � of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, down through the Santa Monica area and further south," according to Southern California Earthquake Center director Tom Jordan, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times . Up until the study, experts believed that California's biggest threat of tsunami would be a mega-quake in Alaska, which would still give Californians hours to evacuate. Services for Homeless Cost L.A. $100 Million Annually Five members of the Los Angeles City Council proposed that the city take a new approach in dealing with 23,000 people living on the streets. Reacting to a scathing report indicating that homelessness costs the city $100 million per year and saying that the city's response has been fractured and dysfunctional, the council members want to create a new council committee focused just on that problem. In the report, City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana said that $87 million of indirect costs go to the Los Angeles Police Department for arrests, patrols and mental health interventions. "What's happening in the city and county is unconscionable and unacceptable," Councilmember Mike Bonin said at the meeting. "For the most part we're wasting our money." Waze, Los Angeles Establish Partnership for Data-Sharing In a new private-public partnership, the City of Los Angeles and the traffic app Waze will share data on traffic patterns and roadway conditions. The partnership will allow people using the traffic app to see alerts about hit-and-runs and abducted children, and several government departments will send Waze information about construction, film shoots, and road closures. In return, the app will send the city real-time data about traffic patterns and roadway conditions. Police officers had previously worried that the Google-owned app, which has about 1.3 million users in the city, would put police officers in danger by giving their location and allowing people to track them down.  Napa County Parks In Dire Financial Straits A new financial report brought disappointing news to the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District: a planned expansion of the county's park and open space system doesn't have nearly enough funding and could take a century to complete unless a new tax speeds up the process. Currently, the district has enough funds to maintain existing amenities, but it only has about $100,000 annually available for expansions. Completion of the Bay Area Ridge Trail alone could cost the city $15 million. To raise the funds, the district's advisory committee is looking at the possibilities of a parcel tax, property tax, or sales taxes. "We're not trying to buy the whole county," District General Manager John Woodbury told the Napa Valley Register . "That's not the idea. But those special places that would benefit from being owned publicly, that's where we come in." Laguna Woods Begins General Plan Update The City Council of Laguna Woods agreed to begin work on a comprehensive update of the city's General Plan to map out the city's direction for the next 25 years. Estimated to cost $315,000, the update will focus on transportation, housing, land use, noise, open space, and fiscal development to provide direction on attracting and retaining industries. Adoption of the plan is projected for spring of 2017.  Rents Keep Rising News reports have recently been focusing on the state of rental markets across California. Among the highlights:  San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose were respectively named the three worst cities nationwide for renters by Forbes. The rankings looked at the jumps in rent from 2014 to now, as well as vacancy rates, median household income, and other factors. The best cities for renters included Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Las Vegas. The influx of tech money into San Francisco shot the city's rental rates up 14.8 percent since last year, averaging more than $3,000 a month in some areas. The increase dwarfs the nationwide average of 3.7 percent. Homes in Orange County are flying off the shelves, as the city has become the fifth-fastest in the nation at selling homes. 59 percent of the homes listed through the real estate company Trulia this year came off the market in two months or less, compared with 40 percent nationwide. "Expensive markets � including many in California � have tight housing supplies because of limited construction in the face of growing demand. So homes get snapped up quickly," the report said. Report: Bay Area Ill-prepared for Superstorm Flood Waters A new report shows that, despite the persistence of drought in California, the Bay Area is extremely susceptible to a superstorm that occurs every 150 years. The study, released by the nonprofit Bay Area Council, says that flooding from this type of storm could produce $10.4 billion in economic damage, and it calls for the implementation of infrastructure projects ranging from levees to sea walls to wetlands to prepare for the storm. Eighty percent of the flooding damage from a 150-year storm would be concentrated in Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In the Bay Area, 355,000 residents and $46.2 billion in assets are situated in areas that are susceptible, according to the report. "The drought is a function of extreme weather, but it's only one side of the coin, and we know what's coming next," Adrian Covert, policy director for the council, told the San Mateo County Times . "With this report, it shows that we can't say we weren't warned, and the time to prepare is now." The last major storm of this type occurred in the Great Flood of 1862, when 34 inches of rain fell on San Francisco in about a month.  BART May Seek 2016 Property Tax Increase  Officials at Bay Area Rapid Transit are considering putting a property tax increase on the 2016 ballot to fund badly needed upgrades to the system, according to Daniel Borenstein at the Contra Costa Times. The district is expecting operating shortfalls of $35-50 million in the years 2018-2024 due to costly employee compensation, and it lacks money to replace or improve 306 of its train cars. All in all, the district estimates that it would need about $4.8 billion in the next 10 years. However, with a tax increase requiring two-thirds of voters' approval, Borenstein warned that such an effort could torpedo the upgrades, and possibly even other unrelated transportation improvements. "Making matters worse, the district is aiming for the same presidential election ballot that Contra Costa Transportation Authority officials are eyeing for a measure to double their current half-cent sales tax for road and transit improvements," Borenstein told the Contra Costa Times . "By loading up the ballot, BART risks dividing the more fiscally conservative, tax-sensitive suburban vote between the two measures and killing both." PPIC Establishes Water Policy Center Amid the state's worst drought, the Public Policy Institute of California is launching a $9 million Water Policy Center with funding from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. The center will be headed by Ellen Hanak and will focus on research to promote public policy that would ensure clean and reliable water supplies, build healthy and resilient ecosystems, and prepare for future droughts and floods. "If California's water is managed well, it can support a vibrant economy, society, and environment now and in the future," Hanak said in a  statement . "But we will need new approaches that are practical, evidence-based, and scientifically sound.

Less than a day before trial, the California High-Speed Rail Authority and Madera/Fresno farming organizations a nnounced they had reached a settlement -- dissolving the last legal challenge to the first segment of California's HSR. According to Anja Raudabaugh, executive director of the Madera Farm Bureau, the rail authority offered significant concessions including increased mitigation for agricultural impacts and compensation for landowners who are affected by the project. Those representing farmers' interest in the Central Valley agree that the settlement concessions likely exceed what would have been afforded to them if they prevailed in the CEQA lawsuit. Now that the last lawsuit has been settled, the rail authority must deal with the implications of the federal Surface Transportation Board having authority over the project. Nevertheless, the rail authority believes it construction on the Madera to Bakersfield segment will begin this summer. Does Muni Need More Funding To Meet Regional Targets? SF Streetsblog In response to last week's approval of SF's ten-year Capital Plan, Supervisor Scott  Wiener claims that Muni will only get worse if officials do not initiate more funds for the underfunded transit system. Under the current proposed spending plan, Muni would get allotted $300 million, an amount well below SFMTA's estimated need of $510 million per year. In addition, MTC recently released its draft for Plan Bay Area , which promotes the widening of highways to create high occupancy toll lanes rather than using existing lanes. Critiques of this plan argue that this logic follows outdated Caltrans practices that cannot be used to solve 21st century transit problems and falls short of addressing other exasperating issues, such as decreasing traffic crashes by 50% and improving walking and biking by 70%. The final plan is scheduled for adoption in July.  New Community Plan May Overturn South LA's Fast Food Ban KCET In 2008, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance banning the development of new, stand-alone fast food restaurants in South LA. The ban was intended to encourage the development of grocery stores and increase the community's access to healthy food options by limiting the amount of fast food restaurants in the area. Now the ban could be overturned as part of the area's new proposed Community Plan. Although the proposed plan is not yet official, its potential override of the fast food ban has sparked a debate among health advocates and those who are skeptical over how planning and policy can fix 'food deserts'. LA Mayor's Budget Includes Consolidation of City's Two Biggest Agencies LA Times Last week, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released his proposed $7.7 billion budget -- essentially focused on reversing cuts and layoffs for city services.  The proposed budget also includes the consolidation of the Department of Planning and the Department of Building and Safety, and the creation of a new Economic Development Department that would aim to replace the functions of the (now defunct) CRA.  City Council will hold public hearings before voting on the budget next month.