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In the latest twist in one of California’s longest-running development battles, the Santee city council has used an urgency ordinance to – once again – approve the Fanita Ranch project and keep it off the ballot this fall.

San Diego Chooses Developer for 4,000-Unit Redevelopment of Sports Arena After San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria chose which developer he wanted to handle the city's Sports Arena 48-acre site redevelopment, the city council approved his selection, allowing the project to move forward. The winning team is Midway Rising, led by San Diego-based Zephyr Partners. The plan includes bringing over 4,000 housing units, 20 acres of open space, and a new arena to the Midway district. The decision remains riddled with controversy since the development team, which outcompeted two other groups, submitted a donation to a committee in support of Gloria's mayoral election two years ago. There are also multiple lawsuits and allegations about wage theft surrounding the developer. In its confirmation, the city council included a requirement that an independent budget analysis be a part of negotiations between city staff and the developer. A previous development deal was scuttled a year ago over concerns that it violated the Surplus Lands Act. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Santa Barbara County to Sue University over Shortage of Housing Santa Barbara supervisors will sue UC Santa Barbara over its housing shortages that have impacted students, faculty, and staff. County officials maintain that, as the university continues to increase its class sizes, it has failed to address its existing housing limitations and violated the 2010 UCSB Long Range Development Plan Mitigation Implementation and Settlement Agreement. While the university has proposed new housing, a lack of timeline and action provoked legal action. This lawsuit follows one filed eight months ago by city officials in Goleta against the university for the same reasoning. Housing shortages have forced UCSB to place students in Goleta hotels, and some students have slept in their cars when they couldn't find housing. The move is yet another example of recent tensions between University of California campuses and their surrounding communities over development of housing. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Two Housing-Related Measures to Appear on San Francisco Ballot San Francisco voters will consider two competing housing measures on the November ballot after a judge ruled against a nonprofit's attempt to keep one initiative off the ballot. The Housing Action Coalition, which, alongside Mayor London Breed, supports Proposition D, submitted a lawsuit to prevent voters from considering Proposition E, submitted by the city's Board of Supervisors. While both options encourage affordable housing development, Prop. D fast-tracks the approval process for developers and does not require Board of Supervisor approval for 100% affordable housing projects on public land. Prop. D supporters say that Prop. E will just complicate the process, leading to less housing, while opponents say that Prop. D serves developer interests and may not ensure true affordability. Developer Leads Ballot Initiative for San Bernardino County to Secede from California Following a suggestion from San Bernardino County developer Jeff Burum that the county should secede from California due an unfair allocation of resources and mandates, local voters will voice their opinion on the matter. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an initiative that places the option to request that officials study funding and the potential of secession on the ballot. While more vocal advocates of secession have floated around "Empire" as the name for the new state, some board members have clarified that they do not support secession but rather want to understand whether or not San Bernardino receives a just amount of funding considering a portion of inland residents believe that coastal cities collect more than their fair share. Several Counties Announce Transportation-Related Ballot Initiatives Voters throughout the state will have an opportunity to give their opinion on tax initiatives on the November ballot that would raise funding for many road- and highway-centric projects. In Fresno County, voters may again face Measure C as they choose whether or not to renew a half-cent transportation tax. Estimated to raise $6.8 billion, the tax would not fund public transit or bike route improvements as much as it would promote road and highway construction. Madera County voters could face a similar decision as they determine the fate of Measure T, another half-cent transportation tax that would be renewed to largely fund road construction. Lastly, Tuolumne County residents will choose if they want to incur a 1% sales tax increase that would fund fire, police, and road services. CP&DR Coverage: Legislature Embraces New Approaches to Housing Production After several years of feverish work to promote housing, the legislature was expected to make relatively modest moves this year. Instead, several major bills now sit on the governor's desk. They include major reductions in parking requirements statewide and regulations to ease conversion of commercial properties to residential and mixed use. Why? First, housing advocates (primarily Democrats) advanced several major bills, including some strategies untried in previous years. Second, those bills essentially sailed through the legislature, with few no votes and little discernible rancor -- at least between the usual pro- and anti-development factions. Quick Hits & Updates Caltrans released its first quarterly update on the implementation of its Complete Streets Action Plan. According to the tracker, 23.5% of initiatives are complete, 64.7% are in progress, and 11.8% have not yet been started. Caltrans shared updates to its separated bikeways design guidance and the implementation of complete streets in maintenance projects as some of its successes. A recent study from UC Berkeley reveals that the Bay Area's largest cities and downtown areas continue to face economic and social hardships brought on by the pandemic. The researchers suggest that cities may need to reimagine their plans for downtown to accommodate new norms. A new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute reports that women, especially Black, Latina, and Indigenous women, are more often rent burdened than men. The institute's policy recommendations include targeted assistance for single parent, low-income, and elderly households; increased affordable housing construction, and incorporating a gender lens in policymaking. The Department of Housing and Community Development has issued its approval of Redondo Beach's 2021-2029 General Plan Housing Element. In its third try, city officials have chosen to concentrate most of the required 2,490 housing units in North Redondo. The Biden administration announced the winners of a $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge, including the Central Valley Community Foundation. The organization's Fresno-Merced Future of Food project will receive $65.1 million to improve agricultural technology and skills. The American River watershed is likely to see extreme annual depletion due to climate change unless officials improve conservation and water-storage projects, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The basin, which supplies much of Sacramento's water, could see annual shortfalls of 78,000 acre-feet, which would require an increase in groundwater pumping by 155,000 acre-feet. An undisclosed buyer has purchased the Westfield Santa Anita shopping mall for $537.5 million, the most expensive mall sale in the United States since 2018. The owner of Westfield malls plans to sell all United States malls by 2023. Following a 3-2 vote by the Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles County plans to lift the eviction moratorium instated to lessen the destructive economic impacts of the pandemic. Officials claim they will ensure that tenants and landlords have access to resources as they phase out renter protections.

Let us briefly praise the internal combustion engine. The State of California will prohibit the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles as of 2035. Thus begins the farewell tour for a scourge that first oozed out of the ground and into the sky some 140 years ago. Nobody alive today was around when gasoline-powered vehicles were invented. But many of us can eagerly await the day when they begin to fade away. It's a shame that so many people had to die in the interim. Economists, energy analysts, and even psychologists will debate and anticipate the impacts of a gas-free future. I expect it will, on balance, be far better than the status quo. But tradeoffs will be made (oil drilling for cobalt and nickel mining, for instance) and unintended consequences will arise, as they always do with major technological shifts. Let's discuss, though, one of the unintended benefits of the late automobile era. Back in 2005, the prospect of widespread use of electric vehicles -- much less ones that could outdrive the gnarliest hot rods of the day -- was, if not unthinkable, at least implausible. That year, Californian drivers emitted roughly 180 million tons of carbon into our 1.01 million cubic miles of troposphere. Every urban planner knows what happened next: Assembly Bill 32, Senate Bill 375 , Senate Bill 743 , ARB emissions targets, and a host of other, complementary bills and regulations designed to demonize airborne carbon in all its forms. It’s worked, to an extent. In 2019, emissions from transportation were down to about 165 million metric tons, while the state’s population grew by 3.5 million. The ban on selling gas-powered cars is, in many ways, the culmination of these efforts. Though each of these laws primarily takes aim at climate change, they had the distinct, nontrivial side benefit of promoting better urbanism. Reduced GHG's may be the goal, but, directly through SB 375 and somewhat less directly through SB 743, the means of attaining the goal run directly through cities. Ideally, they run on a bike, a bus, or a pair of feet and end up in dense, mixed used neighborhoods that are as attractive aesthetically as they are climate-friendly. California surely needs to reduce pollution. But, just as surely, it also needs to make nicer cities. The trouble with "nicer cities" is inherent in the phrase itself: it's vague, subjective, and debatable. Public policy loves metrics, though. The more definitive a measure, the better. If you can say what you want, you can figure out how to get it, and, later on, you can evaluate whether you've gotten what you want. That's why public policy does an utterly lousy job when the goal is "I want something more like Paris..." or "make it less ugly..." But it has proven moderately competent at reducing per capita emissions. Fortunately, these two goals complement each other in California's regulations, with Paris riding the coattails of carbon reduction. And that's where we need to thank the conventional car. It was just awful enough, at just the right moment, to inspire a revolution in land use regulation. Most of the climate regulations that promote good urbanism do so based on the premise that cars emit carbon. We want to reduce driving in order to reduce carbon emissions, and pleasant, walkable, convenient communities are fortuitous byproducts. ARB's order essentially obviates this aspect of those regulations. An electric car's emissions are essentially negligible, whether it's easing down a woonerf to the farmer's market or rocketing toward the outer suburbs in Ludicrous Mode. If laws such as SB 375 weren't already on the books, they probably would have much harder time getting on there now. Fortunately, and amazingly, we may have preempted the worst the damage. Thanks to the (very legitimate) concern about climate change and to the relative measurability of carbon emissions, we managed to adopt a nice bunch of laws that, even if their climate raison d’etre becomes irrelevant, stand to benefit California's cities for generations to come. So much for the good news. As I wrote a while back about Elon Musk's Hyperloop (emphasis on the hype), a revolution in propulsion is not the same thing as a revolution in transportation. The popularization of cars with electric motors is still the popularization of cars. Electric cars enjoy open streets, spacious garages, free parking spaces, and super-highways just as much as gas-powered ones do. By reducing the "pain" of driving, EVs on their own – absent SB 375 and other regulations and cultural shifts – could induce sprawl, thus perpetuating all the unpleasant, antisocial shortcomings of 20 th century urbanism. Driving an EV is like eating fat-free ice cream: it might not have fat, but it still has a ton of sugar. (Doubly so if it’s the four-ton horrorshow of the electric Hummer. Triply so if it’s automated someday.) This means that California's progressive planners are going to have to be more vigilant. They're going to have to implement those Sustainable Communities Strategies and convince stakeholders to accept density more enthusiastically than ever. They're going to have to keep giving Californians reasons to get out of their cars, no matter what fuels them. Planners must to strive for these goals whether they like the aesthetics, culture, vitality, and sociability of dense cities or whether they’d like the oxygen, fresh water, and tolerable climate of a healthy planet. It’s almost impossible to achieve true sustainability without good urbanism, and vice-versa.  Cars are still cars, electric or not. They still take up space. They still require energy and infrastructure. They can still kill occupants and bystanders alike. They still make people lazy and antisocial. Walking, biking, rolling, scooting, and bus-riding are all preferable to lithium mining and highway-building if we want to be sustainable. Even if we can marvel at the 0-60 acceleration of a Tesla or the MPG equivalent of a Rivian, there's still no car that’s as nice, healthy, safe, and eco-friendly as the cities we are capable of building – even here in “car-crazy California” – if we put our minds to it. At this very moment, some very smart industrialists will be putting massive doses of excitement, energy, and innovative spirt into products that will inherit our car market in 13 short years. Their efforts will produce some pretty sweet rides, I’m sure. And if California’s planners do the exact same thing, we’ll need far fewer of them. This piece has been updated since its original posting.

487-Acre Public Parcel in L.A. County to be Redeveloped Pomona's 487-acre Fairplex campus, which typically hosts the LA County Fair and other large events, will be redeveloped , though Fairplex and county officials have not yet decided into what. County and city officials are proposing affordable housing, retail and restaurants, and a green space and will continue to consider public opinion as they develop ideas over the next few years. Fairplex CEO Walter Marquez says the organization also plans to involve the impact of a Metro rail extension stop near the site. While planning officials are nowhere near finalizing a plan, they are already facing concerns about water use and other environmental impacts. Group Challenges Ballot Measure to Raise Building Heights in San Diego Midway District While San Diego wants to raise the 30-foot building height limit in the Midway District, the nonprofit whose lawsuit invalidated the first ordinance to do so is again challenging the ballot proposal. Environmental group Save Our Access is disputing the legality of Measure C, which would allow San Diego to move forward with the redevelopment of a 48-acre sports arena site. Save Our Access is urging the city to analyze environmental impacts, but a ruling before the November election, which will include the ballot measure, is unlikely. The same judge who sided with Save Our Access in 2020 will rule on this case, though the city believes that it could be in the clear since officials have examined the visual impacts of buildings up to 100 feet tall. Legislature Passes Major Climate Change Bills, with $54B in Spending State lawmakers approved several pieces of legislation aimed at tackling emissions reductions, permitting $54 billion in climate spending. The initiatives also include oil and gas drilling restrictions and a commitment to slashing and offsetting carbon dioxide emissions entirely by 2045. Controversially, lawmakers also voted to continue operating the state's last nuclear plant for five years in order to meet electricity demands as they continue to expand renewable energy sources, a move that aligns with severe heat waves leading to power outages across the state. While significant, officials have not yet created implementation plans to act on their goals. The only unapproved proposal was a goal to eradicate greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. UCLA Releases Tool Tracking Effects of Extreme Heat The UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and Public Health Alliance of Southern California released a new tool that tracks the neighborhoods that are most vulnerable to rising temperatures and where protections should be prioritized. The California Healthy Places Index (HPI): Extreme Heat Edition studies how high temperatures will rise; who is most at-risk to extreme heat; community resiliency as understood by green spaces, clean air, and clean water; and resource availability, including programs that provide air conditioners to low-income residents or funding for urban greenery. Importantly, the HPI demonstrates intersections between these factors to help state agencies, local and tribal governments, education officials, nonprofits, and more understand where to concentrate investments. CP&DR Coverage: Do More Housing Laws Equal More Housing? For the fourth year in a row, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed major legislation designed to increase housing production – a surprise this year, which began as a year when it appeared as though the rush to expand housing production legislation would slow down. So maybe now is a good time to ask whether all these bills are actually increasing housing production. What’s really happening on the ground? If you think a lack of housing supply is part of California’s housing affordability problem, then the numbers are clearly encouraging: We see a 15% increase from last year and a 35% increase from 2019. That’s far below Newsom’s campaign promise to quintuple housing production but it’s better than nothing. Quick Hits & Updates Carpinteria voters will weight in on a contentious debate over the future of a beachside parking lot on the November ballot. While one group wants to change its zoning status to keep the open space, another is hoping that the current zoning will allow for a two-story boutique hotel. SANDAG's plan to pay for its $172 billion Regional Transportation Plan with a road user charge will proceed after receiving approval from the state Air Resources Board. A pilot program for the road-user charge is planned to launch in about four years. San Benito supervisors have voted to spend up to $50,000 on an education program about the proposed Strada Verde Innovation Park and Measures Q and R following concerns that county residents have misinformation about the interrelated initiatives. While there is no plan to build housing, residents are pushing back against housing construction on Strada Verde. Santa Rosa leaders have unanimously approved a ban on new gas stations in an effort to disincentivize fossil fuel dependence and make a transition to renewable energy sources. The move follows the state's decision to ban the sale of gasoline vehicles by 2035.

An obscure Contra Costa County special district seeking to dissolve itself has lost a court battle that would have put the dissolution measure on the ballot this fall. In an unpublished opinion, the First District Court of Appeal agreed with Contra Costa County that the special district should have – but did not – work through the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, as required by the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act.

This was supposed to be the year that housing advocates in Sacramento rested on their laurels.

The Oakland A’s have won a legal round in their battle to build a new baseball stadium near the Port of Oakland and Jack London Square, but they now face a new legal challenge from truckers, longshoremen, and others opposed to the stadium. Three separate lawsuits had been filed against the project challenging the environmental impact report for the project, including one from Union Pacific, one from the Capitol Corridor rail authority, and one from a coalition of opponents including longshoremen and truckers who use the adjacent port. But Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman – the same judge who kicked up a huge storm in the Berkeley enrollment EIR case a few months ago – ruled in favor of the City of Oakland and the A’s on a wide range of CEQA issues, including greenhouse gas emissions reduction. The only CEQA issue on which Seligman ruled against the A’s was wind impacts. While acknowledging that the wind impacts could not yet be determined because the stadium design has not been finalized, Seligman ruled that the wind mitigation measure adopted by Oakland doesn’t contain any performance standard. But officials said the wind issue is “pretty manageable.” On other issues, Seligman said the EIR conducted a detailed analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and ruled against the plaintiffs’ argument that the GHG mitigation was impermissibly deferred.

For the fourth year in a row, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed major legislation designed to increase housing production – a surprise this year, which began as a year when it appeared as though the rush to expand housing production legislation would slow down. So maybe now is a good time to ask whether all these bills are actually increasing housing production. What’s really happening on the ground? Steve Levy, who is probably the most insightful observer of the California economy, has come with a solid answer: Maybe. Cobbling together data from the California Homebuilding Foundation (CHF) and the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB), Levy found that in the first half of 2022, residential building permits were up 15% over the year before – about 76,000 as opposed to about 61,000. And if the trend continues (a big “if” given rising interest rates) – the state will have its best year for homebuilding since 2006, right before the Great Recession. In his report, Levy looked at both single-family and multi-family permitting and he looked at all regions in the state. He left 2020 out of some of the analysis because COVID made that year so weird. But what he found was really interesting. First, while it’s true that homebuilding permits have gone up overall, almost all of the increase in 2022 has been in multifamily permits. As the chart below shows, single-family permits are up this year by about 3% -- from 34,000 to 35,000. That’s up from 2019, but single-family permitting has been sluggish ever since the Great Recession for a variety reasons, not all of which have to do with the entitlement process. (A lot of prospective homebuyers had their houses foreclosed on and saw their credit scores crash during the Great Recession and have been out of the market ever since.) But multifamily permits went up from 27,000 to 35,000 – an increase of about 30%, or 10 times the single-family increase. Levy’s analysis doesn’t break down owner v. renter in the single- and multi-family categories, but it’s reasonable to assume that most of the new multi-family development is rental. Residential Permits By Housing Type, 2019-2022

Orange County Accused of Violation of Surplus Land Act Orange County may have acted in violation of the Surplus Land Act when it chose to move forward with plans to construct up to 632 units of market-rate housing on county-owned land. The property, located next to Santa Ana College, currently holds a public health clinic and laboratory. While state officials are still investigating whether or not the county violated state law, its decision to prioritize a proposal that fails to include any affordable units suggests a direct violation. Meanwhile, county officials say that their proposal to fund new public health facilities with the market-rate housing rents would make the project an "agency use" and therefore not subject to the Surplus Land Act. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Los Angeles City Council Defers Complete Streets Ballot Initiative to 2024 Instead of approving the Healthy Streets Los Angeles (HSLA) initiative for implementation, the city council voted unanimously to send the measure to voters in 2024. Now, voters will weigh whether or not to add more bike routes, bus lanes, and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. If approved, city planning officials must prepare to implement the Mobility Plan when a street is repaved or repaired. HSLA is also facing competition from Council President Nury Martinez's alternative "Safe Streets" measure. While "Safe Streets" is still going through the legislative process, many council members voiced their intended support of Martinez's equity-centered initiative that prioritizes low-income neighborhoods in the Mobility Plan implementation. Ambitious San Diego County Transportation Plan Remains Unfunded While SANDAG approved a $165 billion transportation plan intended to reduce carbon emissions back in December, the board has still not determined how to pay for it. Several officials oppose the mileage tax, while others believe the tax -- or some alternate funding source -- is necessary for reducing car and fossil fuel dependency. Meanwhile, the San Diego Planning Commission is pushing to rescind a requirement to study the environmental impacts of traffic and car use for new rural projects. Driving, and all of its emissions, would not be part of a project's environmental analysis, making it easier to construct rural developments without entirely understanding the project's impacts. In "ParkScore Index," California Cities Rank among Best and Worst In the Trust for Public Land's 2022 ParkScore index, San Francisco took seventh place, and Irvine took eighth, on the list of the best large city park systems, which considers access, acreage, investment, amenities, and equity. Specifically, San Francisco is one of two cities where 100 percent of residents live within a 10-minute walk to an open or green space, and Irvine was praised for its placement of basketball hoops. Meanwhile, Los Angeles came in the 78th spot, Bakersfield came in 85th, and Fresno took 97th place. Notably, San Jose moved 10 spots up to 26th place. The report also noted that 85% of large park systems have taken climate action with regards to their green spaces, including urban reforestation to cool temperatures and solar panel projects to improve energy efficiency. CP&DR Coverage: MPOs Anticipate $600 Million in REAP Funding Funded by the 2019 state budget, the Regional Early Action Planning Grants of 2019 supplied the state’s MPOs with massive injection of funding to plan for smart growth and implement related projects. With the original round of REAP grants (retroactively named REAP 1.0), the state’s 18 MPOs have been able to spend, disburse, and allocate a total of $125 million statewide for planning initiatives. Those grants gave MPOs and jurisdictions broad latitude to spend on planning. Many jurisdictions worked on housing element updates, with an eye toward conforming with their respective SCSs. The grant deadline closed in January 2021, and funds must be spent by the end of 2024. The next phase, REAP 2.0, increases that figure fourfold—to $600 million. Quick Hits & Updates A new report that considers migration out of expensive California regions -- or out of state entirely -- suggests that the rise in income differences between regions and reduction within a single region may be forming a new kind of income division. In his data analysis, author Eric McGhee considers the many factors, including housing, jobs, and schools, that are impacted by migration. The Petaluma Planning Commission has approved an environmental impact report for a housing development and will recommend that the city green-light the project. The commission approved a version of the project with significantly fewer homes than originally proposed. All will be single-family, though some will include ADUs. The High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors approved construction of segments to Bakersfield and Merced. The two extensions will span 52.4 miles and cost over $85 million. The HCD has notified Claremont that city officials' denial of an easement for a 33-unit housing project violates the Housing Accountability Act. The city must respond to the state by September 12th, and the HCD expects the city to approve the project. BART officials expect construction on a tunnel that will carry trains to downtown San Jose to begin in 2024. The project includes four added stations across six miles and is expected to be open for ridership in 2030. While record-breaking rent increases are making news nationwide, several significant California housing markets are seeing rent prices drop, signaling the potential for more relief throughout the country. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, and Sacramento all saw rents fall in July.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that, while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has exclusive authority to license California state-operated hydroelectric plants, the state must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act in shaping its applications to FERC and on issues not pre-empted by FERC.

Three Key Housing Bills to Reach Newsom's Desk Three bills considered game-changers by housing advocates have been approved by both houses of the legislature and are headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. Lawmakers  reached an agreement with labor leaders on AB 2011 and SB 6, two housing bills that would make commercial real estate available for residential construction. AB 2011 would allow property owners to speed through approval processes to build housing on commercial land if they meet certain affordability and labor requirements. According to analysis promoted by California YIMBY, the law could product up to 2.4 million units. SB 6 makes it easier to develop housing on land currently zoned commercial, facilitating redevelopment of properties such as underperforming malls. While drafting the bills, labor unions fought for a "skilled and trained" workforce requirement, while developers maintained that there were not enough workers who had completed the apprenticeship program available. Now, the labor groups have compromised, developers must hire skilled and trained workers if their development does not include affordable housing, and the two bills could add over one million apartments to the state housing market. According to Calmatters, Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins called the two-bill package “a monumental legislative agreement, and one of the most significant efforts to streamline and amplify housing production in decades.” Meanwhile, AB 2097, which effectively eliminates parking requirements within a half-mile of major transit stops, also passed the senate. Redondo Beach May Have to Approve 2,300-Unit Project The owner of a decommissioned power plant in Redondo Beach has submitted an application to fast-track a project to redevelop the 49-acre into a mixed-use development with office, retail, and event space as well as 2,320 housing units. The proposed project does not comply with zoning for the parcel. But, the city's housing element is currently out of compliance with HCD guidelines, and the city could be forced to make an exception under SB 330, an element of the Housing Accountability Act,. Out of these units, 458 would be affordable. The project, titled "One Redondo," includes two developments with 22 acres of green space in between each one. While the site is located in the non-residential Coastal Zone, the project may be permitted under AB 330 if the project is deemed to help Redondo Beach meet RHNA requirements. The developer is still awaiting permission to demolish the existing power plant. City officials have voiced opposition to the project. San Diego Region Debates Emissions-Reduction Policies; May Disregard Impacts of Rural Developments The San Diego County Planning Commission is pushing to rescind a requirement to study the environmental impacts of traffic and car use for new projects in rural areas of the county. Driving, and all of its emissions, would not be part of a project's environmental analysis, making it easier to construct rural developments without entirely understanding the project's impacts. While SANDAG approved a $165 billion transportation plan intended to reduce carbon emissions back in December, the board has still not determined how to pay for it. Several officials oppose the mileage tax, while others believe the tax -- or some alternate funding source -- is necessary for reducing car and fossil fuel dependency. HCD Calls for Review of San Francisco's Downsizing of Proposed Residential Project The Department of Housing and Community Development has, for a second time, notified San Francisco that it may have violated state housing law for a medium-density project. In the newest case, a proposed six-story project in the Mission District, state housing officials wrote to voice their concern about the city's decision to downsize an affordable housing project. The Planning Commission and the developer agreed to reduce the height of the project by about 10 feet, down to five stories. The height reduction would not change the number of available units, but the state argues that limiting height is a conflict in the fight to increase density. The state wrote that, under the state density bonus law, the city cannot downzone projects that contain enough affordable housing to be eligible for density increases. Officials are requesting that the city communicate its justification. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Report: San Diego Woefully Behind on Permitting for New Housing San Diego would have to triple its housing permit approval and production to meet state-mandated housing requirements by 2029, according to a city progress report. In the one year since the state established housing goals, the city issued 5,033 permits, when it should have issued 13,505 permits to secure 108,036 homes by 2029. Now, it must approve 14,715 per year. City staff notably does not seem too concerned and has continued to praise its ADU and affordable housing programs. However San Diego, like the majority of California cities, is used to failing when it comes to satisfying the housing target. Trends appear to be repeating, with housing failures applying to every income level and essential land use reforms waiting to be passed. CP&DR Coverage: Fulton on State Review of San Francisco Housing Polices: One-Off or Trend? The Department of Housing and Community Development is planning to focus on its review of San Francisco’s housing approval processes for now and isn’t currently planning to do similar reviews of other jurisdictions – at least not in the near future, writes CP&DR Publisher Bill Fulton. “We’re not ruling out the possibility of doing this kind of review elsewhere,” David Zisser, head of HCD’s Housing Accountability Unit, said in an exclusive interview with PC&DR. “But right now we’re not planning to do that, in part because it’s prudent to see how this goes.” San Francisco has come under fire for supposedly missing deadlines under the Permit Streamlining Act, and Zisser said the department has more open complaints about San Francisco than about any other city in the state. It is unclear whether this is a one-off case or whether it suggests a new era of housing policy enforcement by HCD and the Attorney General’s office – on in which the state plays a much more aggressive role. Quick Hits & Updates A recent PPIC survey investigates Californians' opinion of the environmental crisis and illuminates drought as the primary concern for most residents, with wildfires and climate change following. Many surveyed also voiced that climate change is not a distant worry but an existing harsh reality that severely impacts quality of life and the economy. Norco and Pomona are the two latest Southern California cities to approve temporary moratoriums on new warehouses while they study industrial development's environmental and public health burdens, particularly on low-income communities and communities of color. The HCD has notified Claremont that the city violated the Housing Accountability Act when it denied an easement over a public park that is intended to assist the construction of a new supportive housing project. State officials submitted their site plan approval of the Mojave Inland Port proposal, allowing the project to move forward. The project includes a transportation and logistics hub intended to help reduce congestion in the Antelope Valley city of Mojave. After the completion of its cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Boeing must conduct research that proves stormwater runoff does not contain pollutants that threaten health and the environment, according to a decision from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. Westminster voters will choose whether or not to extend a 1% sales tax for the next 20 years on the November ballot. Measure SS brought in $81.5 billion since it was passed six years ago and could now prove crucial as the city is expected to go bankrupt by 2024. Gov. Gavin Newsom  appointed former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as the state's Infrastructure Advisor. Villaraigosa will identify which projects should be prioritized for federal infrastructure funding. California is already set to receive $120 million for eight projects. Oakland will explore a bike lending program intended to ensure mobility while minimizing congestion and pollution. The Clean Mobility Options Voucher Pilot Program received a $1 million grant from the Air Resources Board and includes maintenance programs and ridership instruction guides.

CP&DR Vol. 37 No. 8 August 2022