Search Results

This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom apparently has not met a housing bill he didn't like. Following up on his high-profile signing of Senate Bills 9 and 10, along with several others, last week, Newsom signed 27 bills related to housing earlier this week.

CP&DR Vol. 36 No. 9 September 2021

Group Pursues Ballot Measure to Overturn SB 9 "Duplex Law" Californians for Community Planning is organizing to launch a ballot measure against SB 9, which Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed into law and is set to take effect January 1, 2022. The organization argues that SB 9, SB 10, and AB 1401 could have damaging impacts by eliminating minimum parking standards near transit stops and will accelerate gentrification because there are no affordable housing requirements. The measure's proponents include Mayor Bill Brand of Redondo Beach, Mayor Peggy Huang of Yorba Linda, City Council member Jovita Mendoza of Brentwood, attorney John Heath, and Dennis Richards, a former San Francisco planning commissioner. The group's overall agenda is to put an end to existing centralized zoning policies and advocate for local zoning control. They have completed step one — submitting the CCPI to Attorney General Rob Bonta — to allow residents to vote on their ballot measure on the November 7, 2022 ballot. (See related CP&DR coverage .)  SB 10 Housing Streamlining Law Immediately Draws Lawsuit Now that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 10 into law, the bill is catching some heat from the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who is suing the state of California to stop its implementation. SB 10 is intended to allow cities and counties to simplify the rezoning process for urban areas with extensive transit and job opportunities to build small apartment buildings. The nonprofit believes that SB 10 is unconstitutional because it allows local governments to override land use decisions determined by voters. In the past, the foundation has lobbied against the bill for failing to make an impact in providing affordable housing. The law is planned to go into effect January 1, 2022. Study Finds Mismatch Between Zoning & Building in Bay Area The median Bay Area city will likely approve housing projects on less than 10% of the sites listed and approved in its housing plan, according to a study published by the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies published a study titled "What Gets Built on Sites That Cities 'Make Available' for Housing?" Meanwhile, many cities are hoping to meet their housing targets by building on sites that have been unapproved; during the study period, almost 70% of the housing built was on sites not classified in plans to meet housing quotas. The study recommends that, in order to more accurately and effectively confront the housing crisis, cities consider and perhaps underestimate the true potential of building on approved sites and more honestly include sites that may not be technically approved in their housing plans. California Cities Fare Poorly on Quality of Life "Ranking" The US News and World Report released its 2021-2022 "Best Places to Live in the US" rankings, and no California cities made the top of the list. Criteria for the rankings included affordability, job market, desirability, net migration, and quality of life. While San Francisco reached 15th on the list, and San Jose made 36th, the remaining 12 of the 14 California metros included ranked below 96th place, and in total, the metros received an average 115th ranking. Throughout the US, many metros experienced instability, high unemployment, and high housing costs during the pandemic, but California's disappointing performance was largely due to its high housing costs. CP&DR Coverage: Ruling Strengthens Housing Accountability Act In an important new ruling , the Second District Court of Appeal has concluded that the City of San Mateo’s design guidelines are not “objective” under the Housing Accountability Act and has ordered San Mateo to reconsider its denial of a four-story 10-unit apartment buildings. The appellate court also upheld the constitutionality of the Housing Accountability Act, saying it does not impermissibly intrude upon local government powers. The case is one of the first to deal with the strengthened Housing Accountability Act at the appellate level. While it overturned a San Mateo County Superior Court judge’s ruling, it mirrored a recent ruling in a case from Huntington Beach, where an Orange County Superior Court judge similarly found that the city’s design standards aren’t objective and the Housing Accountability Act is not unconstitutional. Quick Hits & Updates Despite public protest, and ridicule, the San Francisco Planning Department has advised that El Farolito , a popular taqueria based in San Francisco's Mission District, may not open its 12th location in North Beach because that would classify the business as "formula retail," which is banned in North Beach, Chinatown, and Hayes Valley. City officials told the owners that the new location could be permitted if they made "sufficient changes" to their North Beach proposal or to another location so that the taqueria would no longer be classified as a chain. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has committed to housing 1,500 unhoused residents and constructing 132 affordable housing units in the next 16 months. Schaaf's housing commitment is part of House America, a federal initiative aimed at tackling the housing crisis, under which Oakland will receive $11.3 million in funding. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors became the largest urban area to approve a motion to phase out miles of oil fields on unincorporated land, citing its impacts on the health of nearby residents and on the climate. The board also passed a motion to implement a just transition in order to protect the county's roughly 30,000 oil and gas workers. San Diego is proposing to designate 300 acres of public land for fast and cheap construction of 10,000 housing units. To expedite financing and avoid opposition from nearby residents, city officials plan to pre-zone the land and will create pre-approved architectural prototypes for quick construction. Councilmember Joe LaCava is also proposing two funds: a public land trust for affordable housing and an infrastructure fund to address any obstacles. In the latest sign of San Jose's aggressive push to grow denser, the San Jose City Council approved construction for two 16-story towers along the Guadalupe River that will serve as a 2.05 million square-foot office campus for nearly 10,000 people. Environmental activists have voiced concerns that the Almaden Office Project could harm trees, soil, and wildlife habitat that exists along the river bank and are pushing for the developer to build farther away from the river. San Francisco is transforming two parking lots used as a "safe sleeping village" with 44 tents for unhoused people into a space for 70 tiny homes. Each cabin is 64 square-feet and includes heating, a desk, a bed, and a window, and the entire village will include renovated bathrooms, storage spaces, and a dining area. Two nonprofits, DignityMoves and Tipping Point Community, are covering the $1.7 million cost. Santa Monica is introducing a program that will prioritize affordable housing for up to 100 households and their descendants that were displaced due to urban renewal policies of the '50s and '60s that benefited wealthier and white residents and destroyed the homes of many people of color, particularly Black residents. The city also reduced the number of work hours required to be placed on the waitlist in order to include a greater number of people who work part-time The San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission wants to add a stop in Elk Grove at a Laguna Boulevard station as part of its Valley Rail Sacramento Extension Project from Stockton to Sacramento. The entire project, including the Elk Grove station, has a 2023 target date, and Elk Grove residents can learn more about the proposal and provide commentary at a virtual open house on August 26. Data from RentCafe, a national real estate listing service, suggests that people are very interested in calling San Francisco home. According to the data, the pandemic trend of mass departures from the city may have reversed, as rental applications for San Francisco residences increased by 105% in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. Environmentalists plan to file a lawsuit against Menlo Park developer Laguna Sequoia Land Company's proposal to dredge a part of a 21.9-acre San Francisco Bay tidal lagoon in Redwood City and use the fill as a base for a 350-unit apartment complex. Though the developer still has to obtain building permits, advocacy groups are prepared to fight against the plan that could destroy an ecosystem and put apartment residents at risk to sea level rise. A group of self-identified "green activists" is opposing the 350-acre Aramis Renewable Energy Project, the largest proposed solar plant in the Bay Area that would supply carbon-free electricity to 25,000 homes annually. The project, designed by ranchers, farmers, and environmentalists, will likely still move forward, but the group still plans to sue on the grounds that the project would destroy open space and ecosystems. The California Rental Housing Association, a group representing over 9,000 members who own nearly 537,000 rental units, is suing the State of California in federal court over its enforcement of the state's third eviction moratorium extension. The group claims that AB832 is unconstitutional and has hurt small and medium property owners, while the state voted to extend the moratorium to October 1 due to the COVID-19 delta variant. State Oil and Gas Supervisor Uduak-Joe Ntuk rejected a proposal by Aera Energy LLC to carry out fracking in western Kern County in order to protect public and environmental health and safety. This is Ntuk's second rejection of applications for fracking permits in the state, which suggests that the Newsom administration may be trying to prohibit fracking before an official ban is implemented in 2024.

Post-Recall, Newsom Signs Package of Housing Bills After surviving the recall effort, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the California Comeback Plan and several housing bills intended to tackle both the housing and climate crisis. Part of the $22 billion California Comeback Plan includes funds to build over 44,000 housing units and treatment beds for the unhoused. Some of the other bills signed include SB 8, which extends the Housing Crisis Act of 2019; SB 9, intended to spur housing production by making it easier for single-family home owners to build duplexes or split their lots; and SB 10, which makes it easier for cities to zone for multi-unit housing. In addition to confronting the housing-affordability crisis and climate change by promoting denser housing near employment centers, Newsom outlined a plan to hold local governments accountable for housing. State Establishes $1.75 Billion Housing Fund To help address the state’s long-term affordable housing shortfall, California the state is implementing a $1.75 billion plan – dubbed the California Housing Accelerator – which will provide funding to shovel ready projects in lieu of tax credit equity. Funding will support 90 projects, producing between 6,300 and 7,200 units of affordable low-income housing statewide. Of this amount, approximately 1,200 units will be targeted to individuals and families experiencing homelessness. While the Department of Housing and /community Development has funded eligible multifamily housing projects, inadequate tax credits and bonded hindered progress. HCD has issued a guide to implement the California Housing Accelerator that includes a dedicated strike team that focuses on outreach and application reviews so that decisions are made within 60 days. Under this plan, construction would have to begin within 180 days after a project receives funding. Kern County Sues over Fracking Restrictions Kern County is suing Gov. Gavin Newsom to fight his ban on oil well stimulation treatments, namely fracking, a process completed in Kern more than anywhere else in California. In the 33-page lawsuit, Kern contends that Newsom's challenging of the oil industry will put good-paying jobs and property tax revenue at risk, while Newsom is hoping to minimize air and water pollution threats. The Newsom administration recently denied fracking permits to Aera Energy LLC as part of his plan to stop issuing fracking permits throughout the state by Jan. 1, 2024. These points of contention between Kern County and the governor indicate that his administration has not introduced a just transition that stabilizes jobs and property tax revenue in the county when denying fracking permits. San Francisco Reassesses Greenhouse Gas, Climate Change Goals Extreme wildfires, heat, drought, and other climate disasters are forcing San Francisco to consider more ambitious climate change goals, including achieving net zero emissions produced locally by 2040. Part of this plan includes cutting emissions to at least 61% below 1990 levels by 2030 and investing in carbon sinks, such as trees. The Board of Supervisors also approved an update to its environmental code that would demand emissions reductions for products consumed within the city by minimizing carbon footprints for travel. While the city's climate goals are now more ambitious, many are concerned that the timeline is too lenient to address the climate emergencies that residents are currently facing, while others find that any speed-up will face feasibility issues. CP&DR Commentary: Fulton Breaks Down SB 9 SB 9 , the bill outlawing single-family zoning in California, is now law. On the surface, it’s a transformational piece of legislation, unwinding a century of California land-use regulation. But what’s really in it? And will it really result in either far more housing, as its proponents hope, or dramatically changed neighborhoods, as its opponents fear? Neither question is easy to answer at this point. So let’s take a look at SB 9 – first, by examining what it does; and second, by speculating on what it’s impact will be. Quick Hits & Updates San Diego City Council voted 8-1 to approve the 1,200-unit Trains at Carmel Mountain Ranch project designed by developer New Urban West to occupy the Carmel Mountain Ranch Country Club's closed golf course. The developer held 30 community meetings and discussed the plan with over 500 nearby residents and will include 110 acres of open space and 15% low-income housing, though residents say New Urban West did not fairly adopt their requests. US District Judge David O. Carter will, for now, not challenge a Los Angeles city law that bans people from parking recreational vehicles overnight in designated areas because city officials said they have not been enforcing it. Stephen Yagman, the attorney representing a woman who lives in an RV in Venice, is arguing that the city law violates the rights of unhoused people under the 8th and 14th amendments, and though the case is still open if the city decides to enforce its law, the city should remove its parking restriction signs if it isn't acting on them. Lake Tahoe's Squaw Valley ski resort will change its derogatory name to Palisades Tahoe starting immediately, though full adoption of the new name will likely be a years-long process. For a year, owners collaborated with the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California to replace the name it's used since 1949 with Palisades Tahoe (See related CP&DR coverage .) Bell city manager Paul Phillips, former state senator Frank Hill, attorney Anthony Bouza, and San Diego developer William Barkett have all been charged in a corruption case for the alleged theft of up to $20 million in public funds provided by the City of Industry to build a 450-megawatt solar project. Construction on the project never began, the money was never paid back, and Barkett has been accused of spending about $8.3 million of the funds on personal items. Voter-approved funding through Measure M could turn LA Metro’s $8 billion proposal to build the 63-mile High Desert Multi-Purpose Corridor from Palmdale/Lancaster to Victorville/Apple Valley/Adelanto into a widening of LA County's SR-138 and SR-18 in San Bernardino County. Previously, Metro planned to use the money to fund an 8-10 lane freeway, a bike path, solar panels, high-speed rail. In its "Changing Lanes: A Gender Equity Transportation Study," the Los Angeles Department of Transportation examined the mobility challenges faced by women, who are less likely to have a driver's license, are more like to make multiple stops on their trips, and carry more people and cargo on their trips. The department hopes that the study will contribute to transit improvements for women and also plans to implement a more effective DASH program to make rides safer and more convenient. Newport Beach city officials and activists are debating the future of Banning Ranch , which recently has received $8 million in state grants to establish a protected public park. Representatives now state that a portion of Banning Ranch must be transformed into housing to meet the state's demands for 4,800 units by 2029. A group of 19 attorneys general is demanding that the EPA repeal a Trump-era policy, Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule, that has made it harder for them to reject projects that damage their waterways. The attorneys general, led by California, New York, and Washington, hope that dismissing the rule will allow them to reject pipeline, coal export, and other green-house gas emitting projects.

SB 9, the bill outlawing single-family zoning in California, is now law. On the surface, it’s a transformational piece of legislation, unwinding a century of California land-use regulation. But what’s really in it? And will it really result in either far more housing, as its proponents hope, or dramatically changed neighborhoods, as its opponents fear?

At the start of this year's legislative session, housing advocates in the California Senate put forth a collection of housing bills and went so far as to brand them the Senate Housing Package -- with a website and everything. The package included six bills to start and grew to eleven. Nearly nine months later, it should come as little surprise that every bill but one now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature. Sponsors weren't likely to publicize them without reasonable assure that they'd make it to the final round.

In an important new ruling, the Second District Court of Appeal has concluded that the City of San Mateo’s design guidelines are not “objective” under the Housing Accountability Act and has ordered San Mateo to reconsider its denial of a four-story 10-unit apartment buildings. The appellate court also upheld the constitutionality of the Housing Accountability Act, saying it does not impermissibly intrude upon local government powers. The case is one of the first to deal with the strengthened Housing Accountability Act at the appellate level. While it overturned a San Mateo County Superior Court judge’s ruling, it mirrored a recent ruling in a case from Huntington Beach , where an Orange County Superior Court judge similarly found that the city’s design standards aren’t objective and the Housing Accountability Act is not unconstitutional. The case involves a proposed apartment building on the corner of El Camino Real and West Inez Avenue in San Mateo. In 2017, a local developer proposed the project and the city staff recommended to the planning commission that the project be approved. Planning commissioners expressed concern that the project was inappropriate in scale compared to the adjacent single-family neighborhood. The staff then returned with a revised recommendation to deny the project based on a finding under the Housing Accountability Act that the project did not meet a standard in the city’s design guidelines calling for taller projects to be stepped back from adjacent single-family homes. The developer appealed the decision to the San Mateo City Council, which affirmed the planning commission decision in early 2018. (This account is derived from the appellate court decision and could not be independently verified by CP&DR because all staff reports regarding the project, unlike other past staff reports, appear to have been removed from the city’s web site.) California Renters Legal Advocacy And Education Fund then sued – the same organization that sued in Huntington Beach. The case revolved largely around the question of whether the stepback requirement in the design guidelines is an “objective” design standard as required the Housing Accountability Act in order to deny a project that otherwise meets a city’s planning requirements. Superior Court Judge George Miram ruled that the stepback requirement is an objective standard but he was overruled by the appellate court. The specific standard the city relied on in denying the project, contained in San Mateo’s multifamily design standards, states: “If height varies by more than 1 story between buildings, a transition or step in height is necessary . Any portion of a building constructed taller than surrounding structures should have the taller section built to a width that acknowledges the traditional building width pattern of the City—generally 30 to 50 feet in width.”

North Coast Officials Wary of "Secret" Railroad Proposal The recently-formed North Coast Railroad Company, LLC filed a pleading with the Surface Transportation Board hoping to secretively build infrastructure that could support coal shipment overseas from Montana, Utah, and Wyoming through the Port of Humboldt Bay. The 14-page filing, which lacks names of any company executives or representatives, notes that NCRCo. plans to spend $1.2 billion to purchase and redevelop the broken-down rail line and will use it to move unspecified "high-volume shipments." State and local officials, however, are dedicated to blocking their plan over environmental concerns regarding the coal industry, and the North Coast Railroad Authority hopes to build the 320-mile Great Redwood Trail between Marin and Humboldt Counties. Disputes Could Derail Vallco Mall Development in Santa Clara While demolition is underway at the Vallco Town Center in Cupertino, tension between city and state housing officials could throw off future progress. A special approval designed to approve the development is set to expire on September 21, which the state disagrees with. However, local officials are concerned about meeting the state's housing requirements, and this project would bring 2,402 housing units in addition to 400,000 square feet of retail and 1.8 million square feet of office space to the city. The expiration on its own is unlikely to derail the project's momentum because the developer can request a one-year extension, but residents who oppose the development might use it as ammunition for their fight against the project that has already made it through a ballot referendum, some lawsuits, and many city council debates. (See related CP&DR coverage .) San Diego County Adopts Expansive Housing Plan The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a plan designed to make housing more accessible to low- and middle- income residents. The plan, centered in "equity, sustainability, and affordability for all," urges the General Services department director to make a real estate market assessment of Sorrento Valley East and West and the chief administrative officer to form a plan that will make it easier for stakeholders to participate in the proposal. Supervisors also approved a new policy that will expand affordable housing construction through a voucher program. The Health and Human Services Agency will be in charge of analyzing voucher attrition rates and transfers, projected fair market rents, voucher availability, and a waitlist system as well as giving voucher priority to projects near high-transit areas and that use sustainable construction materials and design principles. Report Analyzes Pandemic's Effect on Small Residential Property Owners Findings from UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation underscore the unequal economic impact of the pandemic on tenants and small rental property owners. The study considered responses from 1,690 rental property owners and managers, who reported that more than 1 in 5 tenants fell behind on rent payments, and low-income and Black residents were the most impacted. At the same time, landlords of small rental properties, 1 in 3 of which brought in less money due to COVID-19, plan to evict residents once moratoria are lifted, and owners of 13% of the reported units have sold or taken steps to sell their properties. Researchers noted that the findings stress the importance of expanding emergency rental assistance programs and increasing public outreach to make these programs more accessible. CP&DR Sponsorship: Interview with Housing California for 2021 California APA Conference CP&DR is please to be a media sponsor of the 2021 California APA Conference , taking place today and tomorrow on the internet. Housing California Executive Director Lisa Hershey, a longtime advocate for housing and public health in a variety of public sector roles, will be participating in the panel “Tackling the Homeless Crisis in California,” one of the three “ Big Conversations ” at this week’s conference. CP&DR’s Josh Stephens spoke with Hershey, along with Housing California Associate Director David Zisser, about the organization’s vision and its message for planners at this year’s conference. Quick Hits & Updates Facebook will give $38 million to four affordable housing projects as part of its $150 million Community Housing Fund included in the $1 billion the company has pledged to confront the housing crisis over ten years. The $38 million will go toward the 94-unit Villas at Buena Vista proposal in San Jose, Lighthouse at Grace in San Jose, the 160-home project at 1171 Sonora Court in Sunnyvale, and the 132-unit Elevate Apartments project in Alameda County. (See related CP&DR commentary.) The US Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration awarded a $960,000 grant to Vallejo to complete an infrastructure study of Mare Island's sewer, water, storm drainage, roadways, and electrical system with a third-party engineering firm. The $960,000 will pair with Vallejo Flood and Wastewater District and Southern Land/Nimitz Group's $540,000 donation to total $1.5 million for an assessment that could allow for more federal grant funding to make improvements on the island. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city of Los Angeles cannot take and destroy bulky items such as mattresses, sofas, and carts left on public property by the city's unhoused population. In a 2-1 decision, the panel asserted that the ordinance proposed by the city violated the 4th amendment, which protects people from unreasonable government seizure of their property, including on public grounds. Cal Poly Pomona and two real estate development firms, Edgewood Realty Partners and Greystar, are negotiating an agreement to redevelop a state-owned facility once used to care for those with mental illnesses into a mixed-use community. Redevelopment of the 300-acre Lanterman site near the SR-57 would include existing historic structures and new construction. Oakland City Council will choose between two Black developer groups to purchase the city's share of the Coliseum site and develop the A's waterfront site at Howard Terminal that includes housing, offices, hotels, and spaces for sports, music, arts, and culture. The city will enter negotiations for six months before recommending either the African American Sports and Entertainment Group or another group led by Dave Stewart and Lonnie Murray to city council. Veterans, residents, and politicians continue to fight over the fate of an Irvine military cemetery . While veterans are advocating for the Irvine cemetery to honor those who served, developers, residents, and city officials are looking to other locations due to various reasons concerning traffic congestion, property values, and neighborhood character. Nearly half of LA County tenants could not pay all of their rent throughout the pandemic, according to a study by researchers from UCLA and USC. The report indicates that renters owe a median $2,800, and debt has continued to increase since the start of the pandemic. While over 15% of tenants who were behind on rent payments were faced with eviction in 2020, that figure rose to 25% in 2021. A prominent marijuana businessman, Helios "Bobby" Dayspring, will plead guilty to bribing a San Luis Obispo County supervisor and filing a false tax return. Dayspring will also pay $3.4 million in restitution, which equals the amount by which he underrepresented his income, and will work with prosecutors who are investigating larger cases of political corruption. Voter-approved funding through Measure M could turn LA Metro’s $8 billion proposal to build the 63-mile High Desert Multi-Purpose Corridor from Palmdale/Lancaster to Victorville/Apple Valley/Adelanto into a widening of LA County's SR-138 and SR-18 in San Bernardino County. Previously, Metro planned to use the money to fund an 8-10 lane freeway, a bike path, solar panels, high-speed rail. LA Metro released the draft environmental impact report for the proposed 19-mile West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor that would connect Los Angeles County to downtown Los Angeles. The agency is still considering a public-private partnership to execute the project and is accepting public comments on the project until September 13. Save Surf City, a conservative group based out of Huntington Beach, is attempting to recall every council member but one with the justification that the six council members do not represent the interests of Huntington Beach residents and acted dangerously in their decision to hand over local zoning control to the state. Now that all members are aware of the the recall intent, they will have to draft a maximum 200-word response, and the recall petition will be published locally for signature collection. (See related CP&DR coverage .)

Without exception, California’s metro areas are becoming more dense. And the bigger they are, the faster they are densifying. At least that’s the conclusion of one of the nation’s most astute urban growth economists, Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed.com. In a recent article for The New York Times Upshot section, Kolko declared the 2010s as “the downtown decade,” because overall urban densities went up between 2010 and 2020, according to the Census. Kolko made his data available at both the metropolitan and the Census tract level and his statistics found that virtually all California metros densified in the last decade. To understand Kolko’s analysis, you have to understand how Kolko analyzed tract-level data to find the net density or net sprawl. (Warning: This gets pretty nerdy.) He used what the Census Bureau calls “weighted population density” – or, in his description, the weighted average of Census tract population density (tract population divided by tract land area) for all tracts in the metropolitan area, where the weight is the tract’s share of metropolitan population. In essence, this weighting eliminates the problem created by tracts with no population – or, as Kolko calls it, “the San Bernardino County problem.” San Bernardino County includes more than 20,000s square miles – more than Massachusetts and New Jersey combined. But much of that land is national forest with nobody living in the Census tracts. In most developed areas of San Bernardino County, people live at typical suburban densities. By giving zero-population tracts a weight of zero in his analysis, Kolko’s analysis can zero in only on areas that are developed. Not surprisingly, New York was off the charts in density. But the San Francisco metro area – not including Santa Clara County, which is technically a separate metro area – was third, behind New York and just barely behind Honolulu, with about 6,000 residents per square mile. And metro Los Angeles (just L.A. and Orange Counties in this analysis) was fifth nationally, with about 4,200 residents per square mile, just behind Chicago.

Alameda County Supervisors Imperil Proposed A's Stadium After the Alameda County Board of Supervisors decided it will not vote this month on helping Oakland fund the proposed A's development at Howard Terminal , the fate of the entire project in jeopardy due to insufficient financial support. In May, Oakland called on Alameda County to vote to opt into a tax district that would help cover infrastructure costs, but Administrator Susan Muranishi said that the Board of Supervisors will not vote due to the project's glaring uncertainty. While the A's hope to have a final vote from Oakland City Council by October, and the city believes its terms will be ready for a vote by the end of the year, Muranishi expressed concern over the project's economic and environmental specifications. She also expressed that the project appears uncertain without the county's financial assistance and will need more information to go forward with a vote. Report Measures Tradeoff between Parking and Housing at Transit Stations Limiting parking spaces near public transit is critical to generating low-emission, affordable housing, according to TransForm’s recent report , Measuring the Promise of Transit-Oriented Development. TransForm’s study considers the impact of housing construction near seven BART stations around Oakland, and the research team concluded that space dedicated toward parking could instead accommodate 4,837 new homes, almost half of which would be below market rate, that would produce two-thirds fewer emissions than the regional average. Housing construction would also encourage sustainable public transit use, bringing 6,900 new BART riders daily. The report relies on the principle that housing is more essential than parking spaces, and building housing near public transit will make cities more affordable, green, and accessible. Study: Sites Identified in Housing Elements Rarely Get Built Out Based on data gathered from Bay Area cities, typical California city will likely approve housing projects on less than 10% of sites listed and approved in their housing elements, according to a study published by the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies published a study titled "What Gets Built on Sites That Cities 'Make Available' for Housing?". Meanwhile, many cities are hoping to meet their housing targets by building on sites that have been unapproved; during the study, almost 70% of the housing built was on sites not classified in plans to meet housing quotas. The study recommends that, in order to more accurately and effectively confront the housing crisis, cities consider and perhaps underestimate the true potential of building on approved sites and truthfully include sites that may not be technically approved in their housing plans. CP&DR Coverage: Court Takes Stern Attitude Toward Parking The frustration of Second District Acting Presiding Judge Beth Grimes was palpable throughout her panel’s recent decision in a California Environmental Quality Act lawsuit over parking at a popular trailhead in the San Gabriel Mountains. Again and again in this ruling, Grimes makes the same point: “Parking deficits are always inconvenient for drivers, but they do not always cause a significant adverse physical impact on the environment.” In so doing she warns future CEQA plaintiffs not to focus on parking per se, but on the environmental impacts of parking – if there are any. The case reinforced the view put forth almost 20 years ago in an appellate ruling from San Francisco dealing with the Yerba Buena Center redevelopment plan: A lack of parking isn’t an environmental impact. Quick Hits & Updates Emile Haddad, CEO of developer Five Point, developer of numerous large-scale developments throughout California, including many former military bases, will step down from his position at the end of the month and take a senior adviser role while remaining on the board as chairman emeritus. Stuart Miller and Lynn Jochim will take over on the management team, while Haddad hopes to focus on growing public interest projects and confronting the housing crisis. The Sierra Nevada red fox, which faces threats caused by wildfires and droughts and competition with coyotes, will be protected under the Endangered Species Act after its numbers have significantly diminished to 18 to 39 foxes in Sierra Nevada. The species' population in the southern Cascade Range of Oregon and California will not be protected. Mountain View City council unanimously approved a plan to transform a parking lot near the city hall building into 120 affordable apartments as well as a ground-floor retail and community space intended to promote pedestrian attraction. Alta Housing plans to set 20 units aside for residents facing homelessness, another 20 for those making up to 30% of the area's median income, and 40 for those making between 30% and 50%. In an effort to make affordable housing more accessible, Los Angeles City Council voted to require that all covenanted affordable units in the city be publicly listed on the website lahousing.lacity.org in addition to the leasing website specific to the project and is also calling for an open application process for new units. Their vote aligns with the city's Transit Oriented Communities guidelines and the statewide density bonus designed to confront the state's housing crisis. National City is hoping that $50 million of the $100 million that the San Diego Unified Port District could give to the district through the COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act will be dedicated toward environmental justice programs that confront health inequities caused by the agency's industrial operations. The district, which is predominantly home to Latinx and working-class communities, has suffered from extreme COVID-19 cases due to bad air quality and other environmental harms. The California National Guard is considering the environmental impacts of a 99-acre solar power grid at Joint Forces Training Base - Los Alamitos designed to minimize carbon emissions and install a reliable energy source. The US Army Corps of Engineers would lease the land to a private developer to build the power grid as early as next year. California's Third Appellate District Court ruled that the Placer County Board of Supervisors violated the Brown Act when planning a significant redevelopment of Olympic Valley. Environmental activists were quick to celebrate their victory after the court found that the Board of Supervisors deceived the public when proposing the ski resort redevelopment that would add 1,500 hotel and condominium rooms and a 90,000 square-foot indoor recreation center. San Francisco and Los Angeles were named third and ninth, respectively, among the top 10 most expensive cities to build across the globe in a 2021 international construction market survey from Turner & Townsend. Worldwide, many respondents noted the pressure put on labor and supply chains due to the pandemic, though some have called attention to North America's high incomes for construction workers, which averages $104.90 hourly in San Francisco. In an effort to expand affordable housing units, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board approved several new rules that will allow more homeowners of parcels of all sizes to build ADUs and incentivizes ADU construction near transits and town centers and at affordable rates. The units cannot be rented for more than 30 days in order to ensure that housing is dedicated to local workers. The American Public Transportation Association has named the Sacramento Regional Transit District the best transit system of 2021 with annual ridership between 4 and 20 million. SacRT officials credited the program's lower fares, increased ridership, fare-free ridership for students, and the smaRT ride program for its success. For the first time ever, Encinitas' state-required housing plan was submitted and approved on time, but concerns from city Planning Commission members and the state HCD department remain. Some city officials find that the current plan will benefit developers and fall through on providing sufficient affordable housing to residents, and the state has asserted that the city must prove that it will accommodate more high-density housing projects. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Geoffrey Palmer, a prominent Los Angeles landlord, has sued the city over its eviction moratorium implemented during the pandemic, maintaining that his companies experienced "astronomical" losses and that the city owes him that money. GHP Management Corp. and several other Palmer companies noted that 12 buildings have missed out on $20 million in rental payments and believes that they will qualify for over $100 million by the time the moratorium comes to an end. (See related CP&DR commentary .) The Oakland A's will be able to avoid lengthy lawsuits after a state appeals court ruled that their plan to build a new ballpark at Howard Terminal will have to go through a full environmental impact review, but any legal challenges must be resolved by within 270 days due to AB734. While getting the A's and the city to agree in the first place has been an extensive process, many believe that the judge's decision is dangerous because the A's have long been attempting to avoid rules. The city of Livermore received the National Civic League's All-America City Award for centering equity and resilience in its efforts to improve the community, including in mental health and affordable housing initiatives. The organization celebrated Livermore for its Council Subcommittee on Equity and Inclusion, composed of groups of volunteer community members, which prioritizes inclusivity when encouraging community participation.

Maybe it's just me, but this time feels different... more personal, I suppose. If you follow California planning Twitter or have remotely followed the state's housing debates, you know by now that many of the state's housing advocates are overjoyed at the imminent adoption of Senate Bills 9 and 10, which passed both houses of the legislature in the past week and now await the signature of an apparently willing Gov. Newsom. (Several other housing-related bills are still pending.) SB 9 is the bill that “ends single-family zoning in California” by requiring ministerial approval to property owners’ ability to split their lot in half and build up to four units in the resulting two parcels. SB 10 is the companion bill that allows local governments to re-zone properties near transit for up to 10 units without environmental analysis. Of course, the passage of bills to promote housing is nothing new. Each of the past few legislative sessions has included a mix of modest victories and frustrating defeats on the part of housing proponents, including the likes of Sen. Scott Wiener, Sen. Toni Atkins, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, and Sen. Ana Caballero. Tempered by the legislature's moderate, suburban Democrats (who want to inflate home values) and its radical leftist Democrats (who want to destroy capitalist hegemony), nearly all housing bills have been watered down, if not stopped entirely. But, the immovable object of political gridlock has inched backwards against the unstoppable force of the state's housing crisis. (This being California, Republicans have had little influence over the matter. And, anyhow, it's hard to own the libs when the "libs" don't even know what they want.) And so, if I'd had to bet on the year's three biggest housing bills, two wins and a loss would have sounded around right. I'd have won the bet, but the payout wouldn't exactly pay my rent. So, why all the euphoria? Most broadly, the two wins are the biggest yet for the YIMBY movement. It has matured from a cheeky idea a few years ago into a true advocacy movement and a lobbying force. Its constituents--both vocal activists and a silent majority of renters, young adults, and other people who feel the direct pressure of the housing market--have only grown in number. The bigger the crowd, the louder the cheers. And, the YIMBYs have been around long enough to have felt the sting of defeat, most notably on 2019's SB 827 and 2020's SB 50 , and now to enjoy some vindication. Even if SB 10 is a super-light version of SB 50 (more on that in a moment), it's still gotta feel good. The real emotional punch, if something as staid as housing legislation could be said to have such a thing, comes in the form of SB 9. For all the housing bills that have addressed zoning, affordable housing finance, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation Process, density bonuses and all the other soporific arcana of planning, SB 9 operates at an enticingly human scale. It addresses that fundamental unit of human habitation: the house. People who cannot afford to buy or rent houses can now imagine oportunities to live in house-like dwellings. They can envision the conversion of a second floor into a separate unit, or the ground-up development of cute duplexes, the likes of which are already abundant in California's older neighborhoods but were largely outlawed with the onset of (often racially motivated) single-family zoning. People who already own houses can imagine ways to welcome new people on to their properties, or ways to profit from their properties. Of course, there was plenty of fear-mongering. That's another hallmark of this legislative cycle. Just as the YIMBY movement has matured and become more vocal, so has the anti-development movement. Groups like Livable California and the Embarcadero Institute threw everything but the kitchen sink at SB 9. They implied that homeowners would be cheated out of their homes. They argued that "developers" were going to invade neighborhoods. They argued that infrastructure would be burdened and trees would be cut down. They warned of the danger of wildfires and mega-mansions. And, of course, they cried that SB 9 mandates no (deed-restricted) affordable housing. (Many of these people, of course, live in multimillion homes.) They predicted the "destruction" of neighborhoods and, most horrifically, increased demand for street parking. And they continently conflated SB 9 with SB 10 to pretend that multi-story, 10-unit buildings were going to crop up on every block, from Rancho Santa Fe to Mill Valley. On my local social media feed, one of the most vocal opponents of SB 9 lives in Bel Air (average home price: $4 million). If anyone should not be happy, it's California's planners. I'm not suggesting that they don't support these reforms--far from it, in fact. But they now have a lot of work on their hands. As CP&DR has reported , and discussed in a recent webinar, un-doing the regulatory and physical legacy of the one-plex is going to be a mightily complex affair. But it should be a gratifying one. Among the many objections to SB 9, and pretty much every housing bill, is that it curtails local control and is "one-size-fits all." Given the refusal of many cities to permit new housing, much less multi-unit housing, these objections are like criticizing someone for being a bad driver when they haven't even turned on the ignition. If anything, SB 9 is going to be a bonanza of local control, as every single city in the state gets to decide how to implement it. They can consider design guidelines, parking regulations, financing mechanisms, fire safety, massing, setbacks, flat or sparkling, cream or sugar, and, yes, affordability incentives. If locals want something to control, well, by golly, they've got it! Now, on to SB 10. The reason SB 10 is hardly worth discussing is that SB 10 does absolutely nothing. Clearly written in the spirit of compromise, it allows cities to extend by-right approvals for up to 10 units per parcel in transit-rich areas. Any actual action depends on city councils, but it doesn't mandate anything. Milquetoast as SB 10 is, everyone who even pretends to support housing should have been able to tolerate it. Instead, I saw Livable California mailers that predicted apocalyptic levels of construction. So much for compromise. For cities that do want to both add housing and exercise local control, SB 10 gives them even more power. In some ways, I think advocates are celebrating SB 10 not because it's going to ease the housing crisis, except in a few cities that embrace it, but rather because it makes opponents look utterly ridiculous. Our journey ends with the failure of AB 1401 , which would have prohibited parking minimums statewide and left it to developers and landowners to provide parking as they saw fit. Though it would have applied to all types of properties, many supporters called it a housing bill in the guise of a transportation bill. While wonkier than the other two, it was a fan favorite for its potential to promote housing, decrease construction costs, and discourage automobile use in one fell-swoop. It's entirely possible that it would have passed as well. Except, a laughably minimal financial impact of $97,000 annually diverted it into the jaws of the Senate Appropriations Committee where Committee Chair Anthony Portantino--whose suburban hometown of La Canada Flintridge is the last place that would have been appreciably affected by AB 1401--summarily swept it off his docket and into legislative oblivion, just as he did SB 50 last year. Far be it for a multibillion-dollar housing crisis to take precedence over fiscal rectitude. It's been an eventful year. And yet, I'm not sure any of it matters. While legislators, advocates, and opponents have been wringing their hands, the RHNA process has proceeded apace. As I wrote following the defeat of SB 50, RHNA is really where the action is. Targets have been set, and councils of governments have assigned cities their allocations. And it seems to be working. Appeals are getting shot down  (with more surely to come), and cities are accepting the reality of zoning for, collectively, millions of new units. They're going to have to use SB 9 and SB 10 for all they're worth. They're going to have to lower parking minimums of their own volition. And they're going to have to come up with plenty of tricks of their own. So, while YIMBYs dance in the streets and NIMBYs decry those meddling kids, California's cities are going to have to exercise their local control whether they like it or not.

Ever since the 1980s, it’s been clear that a state law can pre-empt a local initiative. But in a “friendly lawsuit” from Encinitas, a San Diego County Superior Court judge has ruled that the state housing element law does not pre-empt a local government’s power to adopt its own housing element. As a result, the judge upheld the Encinitas’s initiative requiring voter approval of density increases – an initiative that has resulted in the city’s voters shooting down the housing element twice in the last five years.