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Assembly Considers Ballot Measure to Nullify State Influence over Zoning  Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Carson) introduced ACA 7 , a constitutional amendment that, if placed on an upzoning statewide ballot and approved by two-thirds of voters, would drastically reduce the state’s ability to influence local zoning regulations. The bill is intended to solidify cities’ local control and would run contrary to a raft of recently adopted laws, as well as many recently introduced bills, designed to mute cities’ opposition to housing development. As currently written, the measure "would provide that a county or city ordinance or regulation enacted under the police power that regulates the zoning or use of land within the boundaries of the county or city would prevail over conflicting general laws. (See related CP&DR coverage .) State Updates Tsunami Risk Maps for California Coast The California Geological Survey released a series of seven maps created to evaluate tsunami risk along the California coast. In the state’s most populous coastal area, changes to the existing Los Angeles County inundation map are modest, with the inundation potential upgraded in some areas and downgraded in others, noted Rick Wilson, head of the CGS Tsunami Program. CGS and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) have advised several communities with isolated pockets of population and few roads for evacuation -- such as in Alamitos Bay, Marina del Rey, and the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles -- about their increased inundation areas. A large tsunami could flood areas of Marina Del Rey and Long Beach to an elevation of 15 feet. Along the north coast, which is considered the most vulnerable part of the state, large tsunami could send surges onshore up to 50 feet high toward Crescent City and 30 feet high along the outer coast of Humboldt Bay and the Eureka area. In some cases, warnings could precede a tsunami by as little as ten minutes. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Research Predicts Endurance of Telecommuting Post-Pandemic  New research from the USC Marshall School of Business suggests that changes in working conditions brought on by the pandemic shutdown will have lasting effects on real estate and traffic patterns. The researchers, using a quantitative model of internal city structure, the researchers found three major impacts: Jobs move to the core of the city while workers move to the periphery, traffic congestion eases and travel time drops, and average real estate prices drop with declines in core locations and increases on the periphery. They found that an increasing share of telecommuters is decisive for the average price of real estate due to workers telecommuting from less expensive locals, often on the periphery of the city core. When 33 percent of workers telecommute, the study found that the average house price falls by nearly 6 percent. Meanwhile, the income of landowners falls by 8 percent. The researchers qualify their findings by stating that it assumes workers actually enjoy telecommuting. If given the option to return, unhappy telecommuters could make the findings much less robust. CP&DR Coverage: Bill Fulton on Challenge of Implementing Residential Upzoning The rush to abolish single-family zoning in California – especially Northern California – is on. Sacramento was the first city to make the commitment, followed by Berkeley. Oakland and South San Francisco appear likely to follow. But, as any practicing planner knows, the actual use zoning – single family vs. duplex vs. multifamily – is only the first basic element in a city’s actual development code. Layered on top of use zoning are all kinds of other development requirements – parking standards, lot size, setbacks, etc. – that also restrict development. On top of that are private deed covenants and homeowner association rules, which could restrict development even further. Quick Hits & Updates  Fresno has the largest number of people per household and the highest percentage of families of large U.S. cities, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Four other California cities were in the top 10 for largest family size in a single household: Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento, and San Diego. California ranks second nationally for the fullest homes in America, with an average size of 3.3 people per home. With only one dissenting vote, the Southern California Association of Governments voted to adopt a final RHNA plan that will triple the state’s housing goals. The plan will now go to the Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) for final approval. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Caltrans unveiled the California Transportation Plan (CTP) 2050, which details the state's long-range transportation vision and establishes a roadmap to improve mobility and accessibility in the state while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to transportation. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) are launching a new initiative to tackle the Bay Area’s housing crisis. A central pillar of THE Expanded Regional Housing Portfolio effort is the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA), established by AB1487. BAHFA is the first state-approved regional housing finance authority in California.  The Coastal Commission approved a permit to a $330 million redevelopment of Dana Point Harbor. Aside from overhauling the aging marina, plans call for new restaurants, shops, and hotels, to be completed in 2026. The City of San Bernardino  has chosen Renaissance Downtowns USA and ICO Real Estate Group to redevelop a 43-acre Carousel Mall site. The development teams have proposed building up to 3,500 new residential units around a walkable downtown hub with a Riverwalk that loops through the new development. The Los Angeles City Planning Commission will consider an ordinance that would revamp the city’s implementation of a 1984 law to require developers to offer a one-to-one replacement of existing units that are of equivalent size and include the same number of bedrooms, among other new clarifications and restrictions. San Francisco’s rental market is showing signs of bouncing back after a 26 percent year-over-year drop in rental prices. In February, the city’s rent prices increased 1.2 percent in February from January—the first monthly increase since the start of the pandemic. The Long Beach City Council voted unanimously to begin exploring the feasibility of a Latino cultural district. The idea, called El Mercado de Long Beach, would be to build an area near downtown that would include restaurants, grocery stores, housing, entertainment and more run by and for the Latino community. Google announced nearly $30 million in loans for three subsidized housing developments in the Bay Area. The funds will go toward the construction of two buildings with a total of 250 units in Mountain View and Santa Clara, as well as 800 affordable homes in the Potrero Hill redevelopment. The Los Angeles City Council is directing city agencies to establish a legal, budgetary, and policy framework to provide a “Right to Housing” to all Los Angeles residents. The intention is to “require the government to provide… solutions to prevent and address homelessness,” according to a press release. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would grant the highest level of protection 535,000 acres of California wilderness. Among the areas slated for protection are federally owned lands in Redwood National Park, land along the Eel and Trinity rivers in Northern California, the Carrizo Plain in central California, and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. New bills from freshmen assembly members from Orange County would shift $54 million from funds earmarked for California’s bullet train project, diverting the funds to help fund local transit and infrastructure projects that have lost 39 percent of revenue due to COVID-19. Another would block any federal funding from being used to support the rail project. A Berkeley  councilmember is sponsoring a 100 percent Affordable Housing Overlay modeled on Cambridge’s recent measure. Cambridge’s Affordable Housing Overlay permits greater height and density for ministerial approval for 100 percent below market-rate housing developments, increasing the availability of infill sites.

CP&DR Vol. 36 No. 3 March 2021

It’s theoretically possible – though pretty unusual – for a developer to obtain money damages from a city in California if denying a project results in a taking of property. Usually, the developer has to try to obtain approval at least twice before suing. Unless it’s clear that repeatedly seeking approval would be futile because the city has no intention of approving the project under any circumstances. That, the courts concluded, was the City of Santa Barbara’s attitude toward a landowner who wanted to build a house in the city’s hazard-prone Mesa neighborhood. The city’s approach means Santa Barbara is now on the hook for at least $3.4 million, including $1 million in attorneys fees.

State Joins Lawsuit to Stop Greenfield Projects in San Diego County Attorney General Xavier Becerra joined lawsuits against two proposed developments in San Diego, both Otay Ranch Village projects that were approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Village 14 would place more than 1,100 homes on a two-lane road within five miles of 68 recorded fires. Village 13 would construct more than 1,880 homes on a site that’s repeatedly burned. During public hearings, San Diego County Fire Chief Tony Mecham testified that residents could be safely evacuated in the event of a large fire. The Otay Ranch Village lawsuits are just two of several lawsuits Becerra has joined to block developments with heightened wildfire risk. Becerra back court challenges in Lake County that includes 1,400 homes. He also taken aim at the proposed Paraiso Springs Resort in Monterey County. More Bay Area Cities Reconsider Single-Family Zoning Oakland and South San Francisco could soon join the ranks of California cities that have either eliminated single-family zoning or are considering it. South San Francisco is the first city in San Mateo County to explore ending single-family zoning through the upcoming general plan update. Single-family units make up 67 percent of the city's total units and 33.8 percent of the total land area, compared to duplex, triplex and fourplex housing, which combined constitute 8.1 percent of total units and 1.5 percent of the land. Oakland is in the early exploratory phase, and it’s unclear how soon the city could actually see a change in zoning if the council votes to begin the process. The Oakland City Council voted unanimously to direct city staff to study allowing fourplexes in neighborhoods currently zoned as single-family housing. See related CP&DR coverage of Sacramento and Berkeley .) SANDAG Proposes Doubling of Transit Investments, to $55.9 Billion The San Diego Association of Governments Board of Directors is considering a proposal for the upcoming 2021 Regional Plan that would double investments in transit from $25.9 billion to $55.9 billion. According to SANDAG forecasts, access within a half-mile of fast and convenient transit will triple for people in historically underserved communities under the plan. There are significant increases in freeway operations and maintenance under the plan, increasing from $10 billion to $18.6 billion. New investments that did not exist in the last plan are assumed in the funding strategy — such as $4.8 billion for transit fare subsidies for low-income and youth populations, and $5 billion for mobility hubs and flexible fleets. The total cost has come down to $163 billion over 30 years, down $14 billion from the previous projection. Google Ramps Up Development of Commercial Space in Bay Area Google announced it will invest more than $1 billion in properties and development across California, including two that are already underway in the Bay Area. In the Bay Area, Google is planning to include at least four major development projects in the billion-dollar property enterprise: Bay View, a Google campus in Mountain View at the NASA Ames Research Center is an existing development that Google intends to complete. The project will total 1.1 million square feet. Likewise, Charleston East is an existing Google campus in Mountain View that will total 595,000 square feet upon completion. In Sunnyvale, a Google office building will total 182,500 square feet. The building will include mass timber materials that are being used in new methods of construction. Finally, plans call for a San Francisco development effort that is described as an ongoing capital project. CP&DR Coverage: Town-Gown Troubles in Sacramento UC Davis’ $1.1 billion Aggie Square project was approved by the University of California Board of Regents in November of last year. University officials and local elected leaders say the project will be a catalyst for revitalization of both the adjacent UC Davis Medical Center and Oak Park, the surrounding Sacramento neighborhood. But Oak Park residents have sued, reflecting their concern about the project’s potential impact to neighboring Oak Park. At the same time, the university has committed to a novel use of revenue from an enhanced infrastructure financing district to provide affordable housing. Many of the neighborhood’s residents are low income, people of color and renters, advocates said, and could be displaced or otherwise harmed by the demand for housing in the area likely to be caused by Aggie Square. Quick Hits & Updates COVID-19 has made it difficult to assess the impact of Opportunity Zone tax breaks, according to the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan Washington, DC think tank. Part of the 2016 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the tax break rewards people for investing in businesses and property in over 8,000 struggling census tracts selected by states. So far, there appears to be little to no impact on economic activity in distressed communities according to the Brookings analysis. (See related CP&DR coverage .) The University of Southern California and the city of Los Angeles are partnering to launch an urban trees initiative aimed at improving the health and quality of life for residents in parts of El Sereno, Ramona Gardens, and parts of Lincoln Heights. USC researchers will guide where the city and others plant trees, using the university's computer models, air sensors, and other tools to maximize the trees' impact. A new report from SPUR seeks to answer how the housed and unhoused can coexist in public spaces like parks to begin shifting the narrative to how planners can "design and manage public spaces to allow people of all backgrounds to find joy, belonging and safety." The report comes with an accompanying toolkit of public engagement exercises for city agencies, nonprofits, and others to use in public meetings. New research published in the Urban Studies journal establishes a causal link with data, for the first time, between greater numbers of parking spaces and more driving. The chicken-or-egg conundrum of which comes first-- parking spaces or cars--was tested in an unusual circumstance in which housing lotteries in San Francisco allowed researchers to collect data that showed unequivocally what has long been suspected. People with access to parking are more likely to own a car. A long-running debacle resulting from San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer's decision to suspend $18,000 a day payments to lease a vacant downtown building is now the subject of another lawsuit. Wilmington Trust has filed a cross-complaint suit against the city of San Diego for unapproved renovations. The asbestos-ridden 19-story high rise, which was to become a new workspace for city employees, has cost taxpayers more than $50 million to date. As part of the American Rescue Plan Act—a $2 trillion bill passed by Congress in March— Caltrain will receive $52 million of the $1.25 billion designated for transit funding in the San-Francisco area. San Mateo’s Charles Stone said the $52 million would go toward electrification, station improvements, and the agency’s budget shortfall that has accrued over the course of the pandemic. In a ruling that could have significant implications for water agencies statewide, an Alameda County Judge has ordered the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to continue providing irrigation water to ranchers who lease its pasturelands over the agency’s objections. LADWP defended its stance on the grounds that the Sierra Nevada watershed is increasingly unreliable. An urgency ordinance proposed by El Dorado County Supervisors that would restrict chain stores like Dollar General in the county was voted down at a Board of Supervisors meeting. The vote amidst a project application for a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General that is currently being processed by the county. That application and two others in the works are creating a growing controversy among city leaders and residents, who cite concerns for the loss of rural character in the county. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Drawing on PG&E settlement money, Santa Rosa and Sonoma County have pooled resources to create $20 million housing fund, overseen by a joint city-county agency called “the RED,” for short. The RED is focused on “gap funding”: the district’s policy is to fund only up to 10 percent of a project’s total cost. Despite being sued in 2019 for years of lacking affordable housing, the City of Clovis has not built a single unit that fits the state’s standard of low-income affordable. The state goal for Clovis in the 2013 to 2023 RHNA cycle is 3,466 that are supposed to fit in the low income and very low income categories, but as of 2020 only 87 affordable housing had been built.

Kern County Fast-Tracks Oil Drilling, Faces Lawsuit The Kern County Board of Supervisors approved , 5-0, an ordinance that would allow the county to use a blanket environmental impact report for as many as 2,700 new oil wells a year--more than 40,000 new wells over the next 15 years. Kern County is California’s leading fossil fuel-producing county by far, and more than 10% of the county’s jobs relate to the fossil fuel industry. Almost immediately, environmental and community groups responded with a lawsuit asking the court to bar county leaders from approving any drilling permits. Drilling has been on hold in Kern County since last year when an earlier version of the ordinance was struck down by a state appeals court that determined the county had not adequately assessed likely environmental damage. In that case, the court ruled, "The ordinance’s basic purpose is the acceleration of oil and gas development and the economic benefits that might be achieved by that development…. its basic purpose is not the protection of the environment.” The revised ordinance lowers caps on new wells, from 72,000 to 43,000, and creates larger buffers between homes and wells. San Jose Updates Station Area Plan, Anticipating Google Development San Jose’s latest iteration of the Diridon Station Area Plan widens the downtown boundaries and allows for much taller buildings and greater densities. The new environmental report calls for a 10 percent increase in office space, a 2.5 percent increase in residential units and more than three times as many hotel rooms. The updated development plan suggests that over the next two decades, the Diridon Station Area could experience a wide range of new development in the form of up to 12,944 residential units,14 million square feet of office space, 469,000 square feet of retail, and 1,100 hotel rooms. The latest updates come as San Jose officials place the final touches on a draft of the development agreement reached between Google and the city that will spell out how much land Google will be allowed to develop and how much money it will contribute to cover the project’s impacts. (See related CPD&R coverage .) Site for 4,000 Homes in Richmond May Be Contaminated Just two years after voting against a housing development on a contaminated site, the Richmond City Council approved 4,000 housing units after a partial cleanup effort. Now environmental and community groups are challenging the city's decision in court. The suit said the city's environmental assessment of the project ignored cancer-causing contaminants, including radioactive material. It also alleges that Richmond ignored updated state guidelines from January 2020 warning that rising sea levels would make groundwater contamination likely. In 1998, the site was added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "superfund" list of contaminated sites. AstraZeneca, the former owner of the property, spent $20 million on soil cleanup and removal in 2002, but incurred several fines from federal agencies for insufficient efforts. Despite the lawsuit, the city has granted entitlements to the developers, who have contractual rights to proceed. Increases in Auto Emissions Threaten State Climate Goals An audit of California's climate change program criticized state officials for over-reliance on reducing car emissions as a means of meeting emissions goals by 2030. Emissions from transportation have increased since 2013. The California Air Resources Board has overstated the effects of its incentive clean-care rebates and other voucher programs, and doesn't collect enough data to determine whether the majority of its programs led people to buy cleaner vehicles, the audit reported. California lawmakers have doled out more than $2 billion of cap and trade income to fund the clean transportation programs since the 2013-2014 fiscal year. But income from the carbon trading program is variable and is expected to dwindle as the state's polluters clean up emissions. The state needs more accurate program measurements to meet its greenhouse gas goals, the audit said. Meanwhile, an analysis of the most recently available data, conducted by nonpartisan think tank Next-10 and the consulting firm Beacon Economics, found that greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 rose for the first time since 2012. The authors attribute the 0.2 percent increase to commercial facilities that use refrigeration and power plants. To get back on track to meeting climate goals mandated by SB 32, California will need to reduce emissions by 4.9 percent yearly over the next decade. (See related CP&DR coverage .) CP&DR Coverage: Legislative Update: Potential Housing Tools Abound The California Legislature has come roaring back in 2021 with a whole new set of bills affecting planning and development. As in past years, the Legislature has not let up on housing. But instead of focusing on the number of units that it wants localities to allow, this year’s housing-related bills — which number in the hundreds — focus largely on the nuances of how localities can meet the state’s need. Many bills could be important for cities that want to meet RHNA targets but are having trouble deciding how to go about doing so. And they give resistant cities fewer excuses. Quick Hits & Updates San Francisco has instituted a $27 million program aimed at boosting home ownership. The program, which offers interest-free down payments to first-time home buyers, will favor low- to-moderate-income homebuyers and prioritize teachers and first responders. Eighty recipients will chosen by lottery to receive loans of up to $375,000. Home buyers aren't required to make monthly payments but when they sell their homs, they repay the loan amount plus an equitable share of the appreciation. The Milken Institute released its annual  Best-Performing Cities index that tracks economic performance in 400 metro areas nationwide. California's usual standouts, including number 24, San Francisco, and number 22, San Jose, dropped to tier 2 of the index due to the high cost of housing and a strong negative shift in short-term job growth amidst the pandemic. Agribusiness hubs in California's Central Valley like Stockton, Merced, and Visalia ranked in the index's top 25 percent for job and wage growth over the short- and medium-term. A draft environmental study published by the city of Inglewood reveals new details for a proposed monorail-like system intended to connect the Crenshaw/LAX Line with the Forum, SoFi Stadium, and a proposed basketball arena for the Los Angeles Clippers. The suggests that roughly 3,100 passengers would ride on an average weekday, and could swell to as much as 25,000 on days with events. Construction is slated to begin as early as late 2021. A Terner Center Analysis of San Francisco's successful 833 Bryant project, which is on pace to build homes 30 percent faster and at 25 percent less cost per unit than similar projects, found that streamlined ministerial approval under Senate Bill 35 was pivotal to the project's success. The analysis credits 3 other factors that set the project apart: committing to defined and ambitious cost and timeline goals, deploying unrestricted capital during construction, and using off-site construction of units. A 14,838-acre property north of San Francisco was purchased by Save the Redwoods League in a $24.7 million deal that will permanently protect the largest family-owned coast redwood forest that remained in California. The Mailliard family will still conduct commercial logging at a reduced rate, but more than 1,000 acres of land rich with old-growth giant redwoods will be preserved in perpetuity. San Francisco has sunk as much as 3.1 inches, on average, according to new research from a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. A well-documented case--Millennium Tower in downtown San Francisco--has dropped about 16 inches in a decade, but new findings suggest the net weight of buildings in metropolitan area is another drag on coastal areas already threatened by rising seas. The Golden State Warriors will pay Oakland and Alameda County's $1.2 million in legal fees in addition to millions of dollars in debt from its arena renovations. The announcement comes on the same day the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority voted to release $20 million that had been sitting in a reserve fund set up by the Authority in case the courts ruled in the Warriors' favor. A state appeals court has ordered a developer who dumped landfill into Suisan Bay marsh waters--to clear the way for a duck club and kite-surfing center--to pay multimillion dollar penalties, reversing orders from a lower court judge, who said the owner improved conditions on the 39-acre island. The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said there was no evidence to support the lower court decision. The Los Angeles Metro will seek board approval on pre-development work for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project. In March, Metro will recommend the award of separate Pre-Development Agreements to two companies for a monorail proposal ($63.6 million) and a heavy rail proposal ($69.8 million). The heavy rail proposal is slated to receive $9.5 billion from voter-approved Measure M, Metro said. The Coastal Commission released a staff report that outlines its opposition to Oceano Dunes, a proposed off-roading recreation area proposed by State Parks in San Luis Obispo County. The staff report suggests that the Coastal Commission eliminates off-highway vehicle (OHV) use over a five-year transition period, and says the OHV use in the dunes "is one of the most disruptive activities" that could be pursued in the dunes. Sacramento's Housing Element draft suggests the city could exceed state allocations with the right plans and policies. The city could see another 28,457 new units on vacant or underutilized land within the city. Practically speaking, the draft points to a mismatch between areas where vacant land is plentiful and high-resource areas near transit, potentially complicating the overall picture of bringing more housing to Sacramento. The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan for two high-rise residential towers on the site of the former Los Angeles Times building. The developer plans to build more than 1,1000 apartments and commercial space on the property. The project will have 24 moderate-income units and 10 low-income units. SPUR issued a report disputing the LAO's assessment of renter debt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, asserting that the assumptions in the research report are likely to dramatically underestimate the true amount of rental debt. SPUR's revised analysis estimates that California renters owe $400 million in unpaid rent, down from $1.7 billion estimated for California in the nationwide analysis, as of December 2020, due to unprecedented UI benefits.

Surrounded by farmland, the small city of Davis has long been a fitting setting for its namesake University of California campus, which, among other things, is known as one of the top agricultural and veterinary universities in the world. But even UC Davis has urban ambitions: The university is moving forward with Aggie Square, the university’s billion-dollar innovation hub set to break ground at its Sacramento campus in 2021. In the process, UC Davis is getting a lesson in the challenges of urban development. The $1.1 billion project was approved by the University of California Board of Regents in November of last year, clearing the way for construction to begin in 2021 on its first phase – four buildings to include lab, research, classroom and retail space as well as student housing. University officials and local elected leaders say the project, which has two construction phases, will be a catalyst for revitalization of both the adjacent UC Davis Medical Center and Oak Park, the surrounding Sacramento neighborhood. But Oak Park residents have sued, reflecting their concern about the project’s potential impact to neighboring Oak Park. At the same time, the university has committed to a novel use of revenue from an enhanced infrastructure financing district to provide affordable housing. Many of the neighborhood’s residents are low income, people of color and renters, advocates said, and could be displaced or otherwise harmed by the demand for housing in the area likely to be caused by Aggie Square. In early January, Sacramento Investment Without Displacement (SIWD), a coalition of community organizations, filed the first of the two CEQA suits against the project. Their primary concern is displacement of Oak Park residents, according to SIWD Board Member Matthew Baker. “If the affordability of housing in proximity to the project isn’t addressed, then all of those other benefits will go to new residents,” Baker said. The second suit, also based on CEQA, was filed not long afterward by AFSCME Local 3299, a service and patient care technical workers’ union, to seek an injunction on the project over job-outsourcing concerns and potential impact on surrounding communities, where many of its members live.

The rush to abolish single-family zoning in California – especially Northern California – is on. Sacramento was the first city to make the commitment, followed by Berkeley . Oakland and South San Francisco appear likely to follow and there is no tremendous pressure on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to do the same. It’s quite clear that the dominos will fall quickly in the Bay Area at least and perhaps elsewhere in the state.

The California Legislature has come roaring back in 2021 with a whole new set of bills affecting planning and development. As in past years , the Legislature has not let up on housing. But instead of focusing on the number of units that it wants localities to allow, this year’s housing-related bills — which number in the hundreds — focus largely on the nuances of how localities can meet the state’s need.

EPA Makes Development of Redwood City Salt Flats Less Likely The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently abandoned its appeal of a federal judge's ruling last year holding that a sprawling collection of Redwood City salt ponds is protected from development under provisions of the Clean Water Act. The move, which was encouraged by a letter from nearly 60 Bay Area organizations nad individuals to the Biden administration, is a reversal from an initiative under the Trump Administration to make the area open for potential development. Cargill, a privately held company, evaporates water on the 1,365-acre property in "crystallizer beds" for industrial uses. The company has been considering development since 2009. Several conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the EPA in an effort to protect the site from development. Cargill says it plans to move forward with an appeal in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) California Exodus Exaggerated, But Bay Area Loses Residents New analyses from the U.S. Postal Service and nonpartisan California Policy Lab say reports of mass exodus from California, with perhaps the exception of San Francisco, are overhyped at best. For California as a whole, the share of residents leaving the state has grown since 2015 by two percentage points, though fewer than usual residents have moved into California to replace those leaving. Even in the Bay Area, which is an outlier in terms of address changes, 72 percent of address changes resulted in moves to other Bay counties, and about a fifth of the 115,243 address changes went elsewhere in California. The most popular out-of-state destination was Washington state, followed by Texas, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, and New York. “While a mass exodus from California clearly didn’t happen in 2020, the pandemic did change some historical patterns. For example, fewer people moved into the state to replace those who left,” Natalie Holmes, research fellow at the California Policy Lab, said in a statement as reported in the Los Angeles Times. “At the county level, however, San Francisco is experiencing a unique and dramatic exodus, which is causing 50% or 100% increases in Bay Area in-migration for some counties in the Sierras.” (See related CP&DR coverage .) Bakersfield Makes Breakthrough on Homelessness Bakersfield , in partnership with Kern County, has become the fifth community to be certified for reaching "functional zero" for chronic homelessness, a standard achieved when a community can keep the number of homeless at or below three individuals. The national recognition comes from Built for Zero, an initiative of more than 80 cities and counties working to end homelessness. The number of people experiencing chronic homelessness has been reduced from 62 in January of 2019 to just two people today. The community has maintained an average of four people experiencing chronic homelessness throughout the entirety of 2020. At the beginning of the initiative, Bakersfield built a regional team, or a "command center" around a goal of getting to functional zero. They created a by-name list of real-time data to know every person experiencing chronic homelessness by name, and used that data to direct resources. CP&DR Podcast: L.A. Planner-Turned-Councilmember Nithya Raman Elected to the Los Angeles City Council in November, Nithya Raman ran on an explicitly urbanist platform. Her slogan: "Nithya for the city." Raman arrived at public service via urban planning. She earned her master's in urban planning from MIT and spend several years working her in native India, advocating for impoverished populations in Delhi and Chennai.Raman is the second urban planner to serve on the Los Angeles City Council and the first to serve since Ed Reyes was termed out in 2013. Josh Stephens spoke with Raman on for the CP&DR podcast. Quick Hits & Updates  Attorneys for Treasure Island residents has filed a motion to drop Treasure Island developers Lennar Corp. and Five Points Holding LLC from a lawsuit alleging that developers and regulators falsely assured residents of the property's safety. Attorneys for the defendants have been unable to find evidence against the developers. Instead, the lawsuit will focus on city and state regulators. Petulama is garnering national media attention after prohibiting the construction of any new gas stations. The ban has been in the works since 2019 and is meant to encourage a switch to electric and hydrogen charging stations. The city has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2030; a recent analysis shows 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Sonoma County originate in the transportation sector. The city currently has 16 gas stations for 60,000 residents and an area of 14 square miles.  The San Jose City County City Council voted to rezone a school district parcel from "quasi-public-land"--currently a grass field--to a residential site, paving the way for 35 new housing units and a means by which the district can begin to make up for an estimated $1.7 million shortfall in the coming years. The two council votes against sided with housing advocates who argued the site could accommodate many more affordable homes. (See related CP&DR coverage .) An advocacy group is suing the Coastal Commission, arguing in a lawsuit that the commission should not have granted a permit to Southern California Edison to take down building and infrastructure at the now-defunct San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. The case, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is expected to go trial in late June. The Coastal Commission is slated to file an opposition brief in May. Oakland released its draft environmental impact report for the A's proposed baseball stadium at Howard Terminal. The release marks a big step in the effort to build a 35,000-seat waterfront ballpark complex with housing, offices, and retail space. The document said the development would worsen traffic congestion and violate the city's noise ordinance; construction could emit pollutants that pose health risks in West Oakland. The California Strategic Growth Council has released a draft of grant guidelines and applications for for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program , which is a component of the Strategic Growth Council's Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program. A new study that looked at the effects of an "Urban Village" planning strategy implemented in San Jose, California, found that the initiative's effects were limited. The policy, intended to promote higher density and mixed use development, had almost zero effect on parcel land use, treatment period, and identification strategies. The study's authors say zoning changes never materialized. A white paper from the UCLA Lewis Center explores how California's Housing Element Law could be the answer to removing local barriers and addressing neighborhood-level opposition to change. Chief among the author's recommendations is a fee deferral program that would allow developers to pay when the city actually needs the money, not early on in the process when costs are most prohibitive. The California Department of Housing and Community Development approved a $500,000 grant for Lancaster under the Local Early Action Planning, or LEAP, grants program. Lancaster plans to use the funds toward the Parkway Village Specific Plan, a proposed development that would allow for both single-family and multi-family development. A new report from Sustainability Sonoma, an organization that spent two years collaborating with businesses, government agencies and other stakeholders, explores the strategies necessary to address the Valley's inequalities. A new report says the San Jose metro area is the nation's top market for the future development of office space and is also seen as a hot market for retail and apartment development. The commercial real estate firm that issued the report also ranked highly the East Bay and the San Francisco-San Mateo metro regions. A group disputing the legality of Measure P, Fresno's parks tax ballot initiative, will appeal after a circuit court ruled that the measure only needed a simple majority to pass. Measure P on the November 2018 ballot proposed a 3/8-cent sales tax that would've generated $37.5 million annually for 30 years for Fresno parks and cultural arts. San Diego County may purchase  98 acres of scenic land in El Monte Valley for $3 million. The land is a popular destination for hikers, and is home to bats, owls, kestrels, roadrunners, eagles, mountain lions, and much more. If the county passes on the deal, the land can then be offered to conservation groups, after which it would be available for purchase by private groups. A light rail transit project in the San Fernando Valley is likely to proceed after a decision by the Federal Transit Authority opened the door to federal funding. The FTA's action allows LA County Metro to seek federal dollars for the final design and construction of the 9.2-mile project, which is planned to connect the Van Nuys Station with the San Fernando Metrolink Station.

Elected to the Los Angeles City Council in November,  Nithya Raman ran on an explicitly urbanist platform. Her slogan: "Nithya for the city." Raman arrived at public service via urban planning. She earned her master's in urban planning from MIT and spend several years working her in native India, advocating for impoverished populations in Delhi and Chennai. Raman's council district,  District 4 , spans both sides of the Hollywood Hills, including wealthy, homeowner-dominated neighborhoods like Larchmont Village and Sherman Oaks as well as denser, lower-income neighborhoods like Van Nuys and Hollywood. Raman's city council platform includes several planks related to progressive land use and attention to disadvantaged populations, including rent forgiveness, subsidized housing, and vastly increased services and housing options for unhoused people. Raman is the second urban planner to serve on the Los Angeles City Council and the first to serve since Ed Reyes was termed out in 2013. CP&DR's Josh Stephens spoke with Raman on February 18. Available on other platforms, including Spotify and Google Podcasts, here .

In 1917, the Supreme Court ruled in Buchanan vs. Warley , that cities could not impose race-based residential segregation. Two years later, the City of Berkeley became one of the first municipalities to try an innovation: zoning that excluded anything but single-family residences. Last week, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously, 9-0, to reverse a 101-year-old policy that detractors say had been allowed to stain the city for far too long. The message of social justice resonated with stakeholders and council members alike. Berkeley is the second city in as many months to commit to challenge the sanctity of single-family neighborhoods and allow residences of up to four units via conversion or new construction. The Sacramento City Council voted unanimously in January to move in the same direction and several other cities are considering similar moves. The department will draft zoning regulations in conjunction with its update of the city’s housing element. The housing element update is, in turn, motivated by the city’s forthcoming Regional Housing Needs Allocation, expected to be around 9,000 units for the upcoming eight-year cycle. Jordan Klein, the city’s interim planning director, said he is hopeful that a signification portion of the expected RHNA can be accommodated by upzoning of single-family lots. Without it, in fact, the city would be limited to only a handful of commercial corridors and existing multifamily neighborhoods. “We can’t just rely on our commercial districts and our avenues,” said Klein. “We can’t just rely on our downtown to accommodate these new units.” In explaining Berkeley’s recent move – after decades of slow-growth policies – Klein credited a recent report from the UC Berkeley Othering and Belonging Institute that essentially contended that racial segregation persists in the Bay Area and correlates strongly with single-unit zoning. “As planners it’s so critical that we understand the history of our profession,” said Klein. "So often planning and development policies have been used as a means of furthering racial inequities and even white supremacy." While many members of Berkeley’s famously progressive citizenry are likely celebrating the move, the arduous work of implementing it now falls to the city’s planning department. Though the upzoning policy is clearly considered by many stakeholders to be a moral victory, the pragmatic victory will depend on whether multi-unit buildings actually get built. Klein said the city is very early in the process but said the city does want units to actually get built.

Guidelines Released for $405 Million Round of State Planning Grants The Strategic Growth Council (SGC) adopted the Round 6 Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC) Guidelines at its public meeting on February 24, 2021, following a process that incorporated feedback received through three public comment periods, multiple Council meetings, and stakeholder meetings. AHSC is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing GHG emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment – particularly in disadvantaged communities. SGC’s AHSC program implementation partner, the California Department of Housing and Community Development will soon release the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) with a value of approximately $405 million, thereby opening the Round 6 application period. Soon thereafter, the AHSC program will release its application. The application period will remain open until June 2021, and SGC expects to make awards decisions in October of this year. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Increases in Auto Emissions Threaten State Climate Goals  An audit of California's climate change program criticized state officials for over-reliance on reducing car emissions as a means of meeting emissions goals by 2030. Emissions from transportation have increased since 2013. The California Air Resources Board has overstated the effects of its incentive clean-care rebates and other voucher programs, and doesn't collect enough data to determine whether the majority of its programs led people to buy cleaner vehicles, the audit reported. California lawmakers have doled out more than $2 billion of cap and trade income to fund the clean transportation programs since the 2013-2014 fiscal year. But income from the carbon trading program is variable and is expected to dwindle as the state's polluters clean up emissions. The state needs more accurate program measurements to meet its greenhouse gas goals, the audit said. Meanwhile, an analysis of the most recently available data, conducted by nonpartisan think tank Next-10 and the consulting firm Beacon Economics, found that greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 rose for the first time since 2012. The authors attribute the 0.2 percent increase to commercial facilities that use refrigeration and power plants. To get back on track to meeting climate goals mandated by SB 32, California will need to reduce emissions by 4.9 percent yearly over the next decade. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Sacramento Establishes New Rules, Programs for Homeless  The city of Sacramento will allow small sanctioned homeless encampments to open in vacant lots across the city, a move homeless activists have been pushing for for years. The so-called "Safe Grounds" have basic bathroom facilities, and allow people to sleep in tents, vehicles, or tiny homes without fear of being harassed by the city. The sites come at a much lower cost to the city than traditional homeless shelters. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is also pushing for over 60 tiny homes in as many days. The projected upfront cost of $300,000 to start and another $24,000 and $600,000 in ongoing costs are much lower than the $5 million to $10 million it costs the city to open and operate large shelters for two years. City councilmembers, who have largely been on board, will decide where the sites are allocated around the city. The council has already passed an ordinance that allows Safe Grounds to open on properties zoned for assembly use, and would allow them to open on industrial or commercial-zoned properties with a buffer zone for schools, child care facilities, parks, and museums. CP&DR Coverage: Cities Lose Bids to Reduce Housing Allocations Essentially all of the Southern California Association of Governments’ 198 jurisdictions received significantly higher RHNA allocations — by factors of two and three, in some cases — than in past cycles. Many cities welcomed their allocations, and many were resigned. But a handful of largely suburban cities, clustered in Orange County, filed appeals, hoping for SCAG to reduce their allocations. Because metropolitan planning organizations such as SCAGs have no power to reduce their state-mandated regional RHNA numbers, reduction in any city’s allocation would have required an increase in other cities’ allocations. The agreed-upon allocation, known as the “coastal plan,” resulted from intense negotiations last year that SCAG would have been loathe to undo. Quick Hits & Updates The Santa Ana Regional Water Board released a tentative order detailing proposed revisions to Poseidon Water's controversial proposed $1.4-billion water desalination project in Huntington Beach. Should Poseidon ultimately receive approval, it would still need approval from the California Coastal Commission before the desalination plant and five mitigation projects included in the order could move forward. California wildlife regulators will challenge a recent court ruling that found four species of bumblebees to be outside of California's jurisdiction under the Endangered Species Act, which has no provision for protecting insects. The state and three environmental organizations filed a notice to appeal. If courts rule in favor of the appeal, it would be the first time since the act's inception in 1970. Kern County's Planning Commission voted to recommend a streamlined oil-and-gas permitting system that would provide regulatory certainty in exchange for new fees and mitigation measures protecting the environment and people who live in the surrounding areas. The proposal is expected to be sent to the county Board of Supervisors for consideration in March. The Elk Grove Planning Commission rejected California University's plans to build a $750 million teaching hospital in Elk Grove. Commissioners turned down the project by a unanimous vote, though the proposal will still go to the city council, which will have the final say. Commissioners took issue with the the project's location on a 200-year flood plain and the presence of a shopping mall on the proposed site. Oakland's planning department is finalizing a Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (DOSP) that would allow for the development of up to 20 million square feet of new commercial space and over 29,000 residential units over the next two decades. The plan includes up to 7,520 units of affordable housing, with an emphasis on housing located around BART and its connectors. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Department of Housing and Community Development released its 2019-2020 suite of reports that address a variety of housing challenges. Residential Impact Fees in California provides an overview and analysis of impact fees in California. A report entitled "California's Housing Future: Challenges and Opportunities," provides in depth research into California's housing challenges. Adventure Church, the prospective owner of Fresno's iconic downtown Tower Theater Theatre, is now the subject of an amended complaint that claims the church engaged in "tortious interference with contract." The Save the Tower Theatre campaign got a boost when comedian Sarah Silverman and actress Audra McDonald (a Fresno native) tweeted in support of saving the theater as a community resource. Landlords are suing the City of Santa Monica for a law adopted late last year that banned short term leases in a stated effort to increase rental housing stock for Santa Monica residents. The plaintiffs--32 limited liability companies--allege the ban violates the U.S. Constitution and the California Coastal Act. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria plans to revive regulations for sidewalk pushcart vendors that were dropped by his predecessor, Mayor Faulconer, after backlash. Faulconer's proposal would have banned pushcarts in high-traffic tourist areas, near ballparks on game days, and near a convention center on days when a convention is being held. The Port of San Diego advanced to Phase 4 of 5 of its Port Master Plan Update, a major milestone since launching the Integrated Planning effort in 2013. Next, staff will complete the Draft Program Environmental Impact Report, which they expect to circulate in mid-2021; then the plan will go to the California Coastal Commission for certification. San Francisco's rents are dropping and vacancies are climbing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, median two-bedroom monthly rents have fallen from over $3000 to $2,305. The vacancy rate is harder to pinpoint, but one survey of landlords who collectively owned 4,741 units found that those property owners had a 16.3 percent vacant rate. While rental prices are down in many cities across the nation, San Jose's lead the pack with rental prices down 13.7 percent in December over the previous year, according to a new report. San Francisco saw the third-biggest decline, 9.4 percent, after New York City. Conversely, the Inland Empire and Sacramento led the nation in metro areas where prices went up the most. Long Beach will allow property owners to legalize unpermitted units with no penalty if owners make the units affordable and bring them into compliance with safety codes. Density restrictions, parking requirements, and other planning standards will be waived if owners agree to rent the unit at an affordable level for low- or moderate-income tenants for a minimum of 10 years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will remove 3.4 million acres of critical habitat protections for the northern spotted owl in Oregon, Washington, and California. Conservation groups have already filed lawsuits, including the Center for Biological Diversity. They will also look to Democratic U.S. Senate and House members to apply the Congressional Review Act to overturn the decision with a simple majority vote. As part of an organized effort by tenant activists in March, families have seized a number of vacant homes in El Sereno. Many of the families have been granted occupancy rights by the L.A. Housing Authority, which is now collecting rent from them.. Caltrans, which acquired the properties for a now-axed plan to expand the 710 Freeway, had let many of the homes fall into disrepair as they lay vacant for years. Caltrans has issued new guidance that directs developers to consider street safety for everyone--not just drivers. Changes in the way car traffic is treated under the California Environmental Quality have spurred the changes in guidance to agencies that will now need to consider the safety of and access for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders.