Search Results

In our final podcast of 2020, Bill and Josh discuss CP&DR's most popular stories of the year, including the impact of the COVID pandemic on cities and planning's responses to the year's social justice movements.   Click here to listen on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other platforms.  Related Article A Year Like No Other

A Laguna Beach property owner must remove an existing seawall along the beach because the remodel of the property owner’s beachfront house violated the terms of the relevant coastal development permit – and the property owner didn’t stop the remodel even when the Coastal Commission undertook an enforcement action. The case could be a harbinger of things to come, as the Coastal Commission seems to crack down on other old seawalls along the beach. “This ruling sends a couple messages, including that people can’t play games behind our backs to avoid working with us,” Coastal Commission attorney Alex Helperin told the Orange County Register . “If you’re going to play games, you’re just going to make more trouble for yourself.” The case involves a blufftop home on Victoria Beach built in 1952. In 2014, the city issued a coastal development permit until its local coastal plan that permitted a renovation of the building – and allow the previously unpermitted seawall to remain – so long as the renovation did not constitute “new development”. The permit was appealed to the Coastal Commission. In the course of negotiating with the Coastal Commission, the property owner gave up on plans to expand the house and agreed to focus instead on “some cosmetic remodeling”. In 2015, Jeffrey and Tracy Katz, who live next door, purchased the property and undertook the construction project. They returned to the city to receive permits to reinforce the seawall and engage in additional renovation work, which the city did not classify as a “major remodel” because it did not involve demolition of 50% of the footprint or the roof. However, the Katzes did not inform the Coastal Commission of these additional steps.

CP&DR Vol. 35 No. 12 December 2020

Feds Narrow Definition of “Habitat” for Endangered Species Act Protection The Trump administration finalized its adoption of a regulatory definition of “habitat" for purposes of species protection under the Endangered Species Act, likely narrowing the range of lands that can be protected. The new definition stipulates that even if an area could, by human restoration or other artificial means, contain requisite features of habitat, the absence of features will disqualify the area from being designated as protected habitat under the act. The rule protects habitat currently occupied by a given endangered species but does not include lands that might be restored in the future. Critics  argue that the new definition may exclude lands that are not currently critical habitat but that could become critical habitat in the future, depending on the effects of climate change and other factors. The new definition will become effective on January 15, 2021, less than a week before the inauguration of the new administration, and will apply only to habitat designations occurring on or before Jan 15. California Population Growth Remains Flat; L.A. County Loses 40,000 Residents  The California Department of Finance reports that California saw a net gain of only 21,200 new residents from July 2019 to July 2020. Not since 1900 has California seem such a low growth rate. Los Angeles County reported a net loss of 40,036 residents, more than any other county in the state. COVID-19 has affected the declining growth trend in several ways: directly in terms of 6,000 excess deaths over the 12-month period and indirectly as work and travel patterns dramatically shifted. Declining birth rates contributed; high home prices and wildfires also played a role in population changes, the report said. Realtors who market to Californians moving out of the state say the cost-of-living paired with increasingly available remote work has sped up the out-migration that began pre-COVID. (See prior CP&DR commentary .) Approval of S.D. County Greenfield Development Raises Concerns  San Diego County will move forward with controversial Otay Ranch Village 13 , relying on the testimony of a Cal Fire Unit Chief who said the development is the safest of the projects brought before the board. The proposed development, which would feature 1,938 homes, a hotel, a school, and 40,000 square feet of commercial space, and over 1,100 acres of preserved open space met resistance from environmental activists and Attorney General Xavier Beccera. Both questioned building such a large development in a fire-prone area, though Beccera said he would not bring legal action from the state if the project moved forward. Moreover, some critics expressed concerns about the development’s inclusion of carbon offsets to meet its greenhouse gas goals. Carbon offsets are part of a controversial countywide Climate Action Plan that was struck down by an appeals court several months ago. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) CP&DR Coverage: San Mateo’s Slow-Growth Ballot Measure  The narrow passage of Measure Y, a ballot item extending previously implemented height and density caps on developments in San Mateo, could hinder the city’s quest to build more housing and alleviate the severity of its housing crisis, critics say. More legalistically, the measure’s passage may make compliance with San Mateo’s housing target under the Bay Area’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation, expected to be around 5,000 units, all but impossible. The measure, which won by 43 votes out of 45,000 cast, caps citywide building heights at 55 feet (about four stories) and residential density at 50 units per acre. It also mandates that 10% of any development be affordable housing. Measure R, an alternative measure that would have provided the City Council with more flexibility in allowing dense development around transit stations, failed despite receiving vastly more financial support.  Quick Hits & Updates  San Francisco has given Genentech the green light to add up to 4.3 million square feet of campus space over the next 15 years. The company has around 15,000 employees, with 10,000 in the Bay Area. Around half have been working remotely, but many workers continue to go to labs, according to a spokesperson. Genentech is working on 10 therapeutics that could potentially lessen the effects of COVID-19. Google unveiled a new tool that maps 'hot spots' in cities related to the heat island effect. The Tree Canopy Lab , which piloted in Los Angeles, uses aerial imagery and Google's AI to figure out where every tree is in the city. It then generates an interactive map along with additional data on which neighborhoods are more densely populated and are more vulnerable to high temperatures. The hope is to blunt the effects of climate change, including saving lives during heat waves. The San Diego City Council approved the development of a 195-acre development with 430 affordable housing units and 4,300 housing units total. The plan, which is intended to transform an existing golf club into a walkable, transit-friendly neighborhood, also includes 55 acres of parks, a Metro trolley stop, and 5 miles of trails. The broader area will have a major focus on open space, with 100 acres of parks and trails, and 47 acres of protected riparian area long the river. Sacramento is looking to block marijuana dispensaries, massage parlors, check-cashing shops, and tobacco retailers from opening along two sections of downtown Sacramento streets. A proposed ordinance would prohibit new storefront cannabis dispensaries, as well as new delivery-only dispensaries. A controversial proposal to build a gas station and restaurants on a vacant lot was unanimously rejected by Sacramento City Council. City staff and the Planning and Design Commission were at odds over the proposal, with city staff recommending the council deny it. The community rallied against the project, citing concerns that the project would serve interstate drivers instead of the neighborhood. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The whiteback pine, which dots the California landscape in Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Lake Tahoe, will become the first tree recommended for protection under the Endangered Species Act because of climate change. A combination of fungus, bark beetles and wildfire has ravaged the population. More than half of all standing whiteback pines are dead as of 2016. The Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) is fighting to retain ownership of the school after records revealed that Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) holds the title for significant portions of the school's grounds. The records were discovered during an eminent domain claim for a planned subway tunnel beneath the campus. Now BHUSD legal representation is threatening to sue for $750 million if LAUSD takes further steps to exert ownership of the land. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve Promenade 2035 , a $1 billion project that will replace a shopping mall in Warner Center with a "downtown district" that will include a new sports arena, two hotels, a 28-story office tower and more than 1,400 apartments. The project's developer agreed to set aside 5 percent of the project's housing units for very low-income families and another 5 percent for "workforce" housing, targeting households up to 150 percent of area media income. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Businessman Samuel Leng, a Torrance-based real estate developer, pled guilty to felony conspiracy for campaign money laundering, admitting he bribes eight politicians just as his apartment project was under review at Los Angeles City Hall. The guilty plea comes more than four years after a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed a network of more than 100 people who donated more than $600,000 on Leung's behalf before the project was approved in 2015. A biotech office developer has purchased more than 8 acres of waterfront land to build an R&D site along the San Diego Bay. The investment group, IQHQ, has secured five city blocks--or around two thirds--of the eventual development site known as Manchester Pacific Gateway.  The firm hopes to build a "dynamic, waterfront urban life science city," that includes a 17-story tower, a museum, and 3 acres of greenspace and rooftop decks. California has reallocated nearly $600 million in private bonds from a Las Vegas train project to affordable housing needs after the rail company failed to get enough investors onboard. With the reclaimed bonds, the state will have enough to fund about a third of projects that didn't receive any bond awards this year, according to an analysis by the nonprofit California Housing Partnership.

CP&;DR;s top stories list for 2020 looks much different than those in years past. 2020 unexpectedly generated more writing about urban planning in the mainstream media than any other year in recent memory. And not for pleasant reasons. The COVID-19 pandemic brought urban life to a halt, inspiring news articles and photo essays about newly desolate streets, strained finances, and imperiled businesses. Fact-based pieces, though, were overwhelmed by commentary — let;s call it speculation — about the future of cities, from writers of all walks of life. Would the threat of contagion make density seem deadly? Would urbanites flee to the suburbs? Is the office dead? Where will the hipsters find brunch?; CP&;DR covered the COVID-19 crisis in many ways, particularly its immediate impact on the planning profession. Our coverage of race, the other major story of 2020, revolved around commentary. Inequities in cities, from explicit policies like redlining, to the de facto racial exclusivity of suburbs, to everyday realities of Black and Brown poverty were not breaking news. But 2020 brought a heightened awareness of them and newfound willingness to discuss them, and we tried to do our part. And, of course, there was plenty of “regular” planning news to go around. The pandemic and race get their own categories among our top stories this year, presented according to readership statistics, within several categories of CP&;DR coverage.; Planning &; The Pandemic For professionals accustomed to working on and in the built environment, COVID-19 took a major toll. CP&;DR;s most-read story of the year was about how planners, planning departments, and planning commissions adapted — rapidly — to the constraints of quarantine.; The virus arrived at a moment when California;s housing crisis had already reached devastating proportions. A slowdown in construction and economic worries among lenders and developers stands to make it worse. Whatever developers; worries are, they are nothing compared to those of city managers and planning directors, whose budgets are devastated by the economic slowdown — especially in retail, which provides California cities with a significant share of their budgets. We took the moment to remind everyone to be wary of predictions and armchair planning.; Finally, we investigated what could be a long-term, and positive, effect of the pandemic: staid “community meetings” could give way to more innovative forms of electronic outreach and greater public participation in hearings—if planning departments get the technology right.; Race;&; Equity; The death of George Floyd and the ensuing national discussion about race touches nearly every element of American life. Urban planning is one of them. George Floyd could have been killed in any American city. Minneapolis could have been Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Fresno, or any of the other places in California where diversity and inequity intersect. For these reasons, Bill Fulton established CP&;DR;s role and obligations to promote equitable cities and racial sensitivity in planning. For our new podcast series, we convened a roundtable of Black planners who spoke frankly about their experiences as professionals and the role planners can play in achieving equity. A crucial complement to racial equity is that of gender equity (and intersectionality), which Leslie Kern discusses in her book Feminist City. The call for equity is already influencing policy. Rex Richardson, a Long Beach City Council member and new president of the Southern California Association of Governments, put race at the forefront of the agency;s agenda.;One the purely bureaucratic front, there is progress: Senate Bill 1000, which mandates that general plans account for environmental justice, is finally being implemented. Regular News; Beyond the year;s mega-stories, planning in California proceeded apace, as planners at the state, regional, and local levels all tried to figure out how exactly they would contribute to meeting California;s multimillion-unit housing need. Metropolitan planning organizations in San Diego County and Southern California adopted new regional transportation plans and Sustainable Communities Strategies (the third generation thereof) in order to integrate land use planning with transportation planning. A story at the local level symbolized statewide battles over housing, as an infamous proposed development in Lafayette finally got the green light, at full size, after years of dispute and litigation.; New state laws have compelled cities to rethink their design standards, as many types of design considerations will no longer be considered legitimate grounds for denying the approval of housing. One of the most eagerly awaited laws has finally been implemented, requiring cities to analyze new developments; transportation impacts according to vehicle miles travelled metrics. Yet another pro-housing law was put to the test against slow-growth forces over a major development in Santa Clara — and it seems to have worked as designed.; Commentary &; Blogs; We had a few opinions.; Sen. Scott Weiner;s Senate Bill 50, which would have promoted denser development statewide, imploded early in the legislative year. It may not matter, though, because a host of other laws, plus the demands of the Regional Housing Needs Allocations, will compel many jurisdictions to enact the principles of SB 50 anyway. Plans are great, but planning is inherently visual. It helps to see what progressive urbanism can look like — it;s just a shame when it;s a fictional Los Angeles neighborhood built on a studio lot. Ever since the ;49ers made landfall in San Francisco, California has been growing. Is the state;s 170-year run finally at an end?; Even before the pandemic, the types of independent stores that enrich their cities in ways chains stores and web-based emporia never could were already hurting. If fictional cities are helpful, semi-fictional cities—like Solvang--are semi-helpful. The California Environmental Quality Act turned 50 this year; some planners celebrated and others did not. Bill Fulton breaks down the past, present, and future of California;s signature law.; Legal Digest &; Analysis; CP&;DR;s top legal story was not about CEQA or Senate Bill 35. It was, instead, about national jurisprudence and the glimpses that past rulings (one ruling, to be exact) offer into now Justice Amy Coney Barrett;s perspective on land use. In a precursor to his piece on CEQA;s 50th anniversary, Bill Fulton put his finger on the current era of CEQA application (and evasion): the era of exemptions, largely in the service of infill projects. Back to the national scene, Bill noted a series of decidedly conservative decisions by judges appointed by President Trump to the historically liberal Ninth Circuit. Meanwhile, two cases out of the San Diego region attracted readers. In the first, the court ruled that the City of San Diego was entitled to approve a lower-density infill development than zoning allowed if geological situations warranted doing so. In the second, the court shot down elements of the county;s much-debated climate action plan. Podcasts; We at CP&;DR were delighted to inaugurate our podcast this year, featuring banter and interviews with prominent figures in planning. In addition to our Black Planners Roundtable, which was our most popular episode, listeners tuned in to Josh and Bill discussing COVID;s impact on the planning profession and into Josh;s interview with Diana Lind, author of Brave New Home, about the history and future of housing. And we just posted a sure crowd-pleaser: a rundown of the top planning books of the year, as designated by our friends at Planetizen.; Thanks to everyone for following CP&;DR during an intense, interesting year. We look forward to an eventful 2021.; CP&;DR is a subscriber-supported publication. This article is being provided free of charge, but most articles are available only on a premium basis. For;FULL ACCESS;to all our premium content;-;Subscribe Online;Today! (If you're not a subscriber premium articles can be purchased for just $5 each by visiting our online Single Purchase Store) COMMENTS:

Wiener Gets Jump-Start on Housing Legislation for 2021 Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Robert Rivas co-introduced legislation that would allow local governments to upzone neighborhoods to 10-unit apartment buildings in an expedited process, as long as the upzoned areas are not sprawl. Senate Bill 10 is intended to help ease California's housing affordability crisis and climate crisis, spurred by a statewide shortage of 3.5 million homes. The bill allows cities to upzone areas that are close to job centers, transit, and areas that are in existing urbanized locations, thus reducing vehicle usage and long commutes. An earlier version of the bill was introduced in 2020 and passed the Senate and the Assembly Local Government Committee. It was killed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Chiu to Introduce Legislation to Stave Off Pandemic-Related Evictions Assemblymember David Chiu  plans to introduce two bills to protect homeowners and renters in light of economic pressures from the pandemic. One would extend the eviction protections afforded under AB 3088 into 2021, heading off lawsuits landlords have preemptively filed to take those behind in rent to court. A second bill would provide an "eventual framework for how rental assistance would be dispersed in California," in part to protect renters and in part to protect small property owners by extending foreclosure protections. According to research conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles, an additional 10,700 Covid-19 related deaths and 433,700 cases were reported in states that lifted eviction moratoriums. Trump Administration Seeks Last-Minute Sale of Drilling Rights The Trump administration plans to hold the first oil lease sale in California in eight years, part of a last-minute rush to auction off as much federal land as possible before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. The Bureau of Land Management said the sale would encompass just over 4,100 acres of federal land and mineral estate in Kern County, where the majority of drilling in the state takes place. In theory, as many as 10 new wells could be drilled on the land, but even if the leases sell, the owners would almost certainly face numerous lawsuits from the incoming Biden administration. Under Biden, the Bureau of Land Management could cancel the leases by finding them "improperly issued" and in violation of environmental laws and regulations, even months after the leases are sold. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen Xavier Becerra have come out against the lease sale, nearly guaranteeing that California would sue as well. Embarcadero Institute Responds to CP&DR Criticism Recently, the Bay Area-based Embarcadero Institute released a report, authored by Executive Director Gab Layton, contending that that the Department of Housing and Community Development had vastly over-counted the number of housing units California needs in the coming years. CP&DR’s Bill Fulton and Josh Stephens both offered critiques and analyses of the report. The institute responded, making CP&DR’s commentary the focus of its recent newslettter  article by Layton. Among other points, Layton contends that Fulton’s analysis  misunderstands the relationship between Senate Bill 828 and HCD’s calculations and muddled Embarcadero’s position on market-rate versus affordable housing. Layton further offers a perspective on the relationship between overcrowding and housing need. Responding to Stephens’s claim that whatever the housing need is, it’s huge (and therefore specific, finely calculated numbers are almost beside the point), Layton notes that unduly high housing allocations (based on HCD numbers) that are difficult to zone for can result loss of state funds for cities that fail to comply. CP&DR Coverage: Fulton on 50 Years California's Most "Confounding" Land Use Law On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the California Environmental Quality Act, Bill Fulton writes about its many eras of litigation, interpretation, and attempted reforms. CEQA is not technically a land-use law, but it has probably had as much impact on California land use as any statute on the books. It’s confounding in many ways – confoundingly complicated, confoundingly resistant to reform, and indeed confoundingly resistant to any rational assessment of whether it has “worked,” whatever “worked” means. Business leaders and developers blame it for every economic downturn in California whether CEQA deserves the rap or not, and environmentalists and labor unions cling to it as the only way to extract what they want from developers. Quick Hits & Updates  The San Jose Sharks  NHL team are pleading with the public to help save SAP Center, home to the NHL team's games and soon-to-be neighbor of Google's new Diridion Station campus. In an open letter, the Sharks said the ongoing construction, lack of parking, and street closures within the neighborhood could jeopardize access to the SAP Center and force the Sharks out of San Jose. San Francisco's subway line that would shuttle passengers between downtown San Francisco to Chinatown will delay its opening, pushing the timeline back to spring of 2022 at the earliest. The route was supposed to begin in 2018 until it was rescheduled for mid-2021, but the coronavirus is at least in part to blame for slowed progress on the subway. Three separate coronavirus outbreaks among the construction crew and supply chain interruptions factored into the delays. Anaheim will join a handful of California cities with a program that allows them to reduce rent on 1,000 apartments in an attempt to provide affordable options to middle-income families. The new state program allows cities to borrow money without an obligation to repay. But cities agree to waive property taxes on apartment buildings, and the developers pay expenses by taking out bonds that are repaid by tenants' rents. The Novato City Council has declared a climate emergency and made plans to develop new strategies on how to reduce greenhouse emissions. Novato's vote makes it the third municipality in Marin to adopt a climate emergency declaration. After adopting a climate action plan in 2009, Novato reduced emissions by 24 percent over 10 years. The council hopes to set more aggressive goals by inviting community input. Indio adopted a Downtown Specific Plan that sets the city on a course for rapid and diverse development. Some of the goals outlined for the area include a nightlife and entertainment district, just over a thousand housing units, and 2.5 million square-feet of mixed commercial and retail space. The city has entered into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with an LLC to retain exclusive negotiating rights for 23 city-owned parcels in the downtown area. The Housing and Community Development Department is withdrawing its 2020-21 fiscal year funding availability calendar. In an announcement, HCD explained that it will wait until its sister agencies resolve conflicting scoring criteria and definitions before reissuing the Notice of Funding Availability calendar. Also paused until further notice are Multifamily Housing Program (MHP) guidelines, Infill Infrastructure Grant (IIG) guidelines, and AHSC guidelines. Nine California cities are at high risk for serious financial distress in the next several years according to a state audit , largely due to their lack of rainy-day funds and heavy debt loads. Compton in Los Angeles County topped the list of high-risk cities for the second year, followed by Blythe, Calexico, Atwater, Richmond, El Cerrito, San Fernando, Lindsay, West Covina, and Torrance. Oakland will expand a pilot program that city leaders hope will attract and retain talent in the public school teaching ranks by subsidizing their housing. In addition to paying the bulk of six teachers' rent, the pilot this year will grant a $1,500 a month subsidy for 1 additional teacher's rent and offer $500 stipends to five new teachers in the district. Officials said they hope to use the program to recruit and retain more than 100 teachers over the next nine years, particularly in STEM fields. (See related CP&DR coverage .) A plan to open up more than 130 miles of San Gabriel Valley Waterways to bicyclists and pedestrians is expected to be completed by fall of next year, followed by an environmental review that would culminate in 2022. Though the SGV Greenway Strategic Implementation Plan is still a few years out from being finalized, 13 projects are already in development, and a steering committee of 13 organizations have convened monthly since April to provide input and guidance. In a letter to the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Palo Alto City Council challenged its housing allocation as unrealistic. One councilman charged the organization with setting standards that are "impossible to meet," without opening up the Baylands to development. ABAG has called for Bay Area cities to provide more than over 441,000 homes over the next decade. Palo Alto, as a "high opportunity area," was assigned a disproportionately high construction target. Santa Cruz County released a 24-page document that outlines the county's plans to reduce the county's overall homeless population by 30 percent and its unsheltered population by 50 percent by 2024. The roadmap's core goals including taking steps toward adding 160 year-round emergency shelter beds, 350 new rapid rehousing options and 100 new permanent housing options with supportive services for homeless adults. The plan will go before local jurisdictions and community members for feedback.

Planetizen.com recently came out with its annual list of the  Top Urban Planning Books of 2020 , including contributions from CP&DR's Josh Stephens. The books cover timeless topics like housing and the history of planning as well as vital issues that have received increased attention of late, including those of social justice, race, and gender.  Bill Fulton spoke with Josh and Planetizen Managing Editor  James Brasuell  about this year's list and how it reflects the present and future of urban planning.  Click here to listen on other platforms, including Google Podcasts and Spotify.  Related Articles  YIMBYism's Golden Moment  (Review of Golden Gates ) Sexism and the City  (Review of Feminist City ) Considering the Varieties of Housing (Q&A with Diana Lind)

Los Angeles to Incubate Innovative Transportation Technologies Los Angeles established what it is calling a "Transportation Technology Innovation Zone" at Warner Center in West San Fernando Valley to field-test new transportation technologies. The zone's first pilot project is a zero-emissions, last-mile delivery service that connects individuals homebound by the pandemic to food from local businesses. The second pilot project is expected to launch in Spring 2021, featuring mini-mobility hubs throughout the Warner Center campus. The Transportation Technology Innovation Zone is one of the flagship programs of Urban Movement Labs (UML), the transportation solutions accelerator launched by Mayor Garcetti in November 2019. "There's no place in L.A. as perfect as the Warner Center to test innovative transportation technology," said Councilmember Blumenfield, who cosponsored the project with Mayor Garcetti. "Since we rolled out the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan, the City's boldest and greenest specific plan, the Warner Center has become the focus of intense residential and commercial development." Lawsuit Takes Aim at Tejon Ranch Conservation Efforts In a lawsuit filed in Kern County Superior Court, environmental groups accused Tejon Ranch Conservancy of failing to make promised payments of about $800,000 a year in interest free loans to the coalition tasked with conserving the ranch as wilderness. The 240,000 acres are located in the Tehachapi Mountains, an hour's drive north of Los Angeles, and have been set aside for public tours, education, and research as a condition of development of what is essentially a new city. A spokesperson for Tejon Ranch Co. defended the company's decision to withhold funds in an escrow account, saying the environmental groups did not hold up their promise to not oppose developments on the property. The agreement allows Tejon Ranch Co. to build on 30,000 acres of the region. Three massive developments, totaling 19,000 residential units, in Los Angeles and Kern County are in the pipeline. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) State Makes Recommendations for Gas Tax Investments The California Transportation Commission released their recommendations for funding projects in three gas tax programs for the next year. All three programs include funding to widen highways despite broad agreement among California's transportation agencies that California should move away from encouraging solo driving. The projects recommended for about $500 million include $60 million towards a long-planned upgrade to BART that increases the number of trains across the bay, $25 million for a roundabout in Napa, $65 million for bus lines along I-10 in San Bernardino, and $67 million for mass transit, pedestrian, and bike trail improvements along the I-80 corridor in Placer and Sacramento. The agency is considering $283 million in freeway upgrades, including $40 million to widen Highway 101, $150 million to widen I-105 and add toll lanes through L.A., and $93 million to widen Highway 1 and add bike lanes along the Watsonville-Santa Cruz corridor. CP&DR Coverage: Cities Revolt Against Housing Allocations  No fewer than 50 of the region’s 191 cities have filed formal appeals to the Southern California Association fo Governments asking for reductions in their targets under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. The resistance is centered in Orange County, where 21 cities out of 34 – more than 60 percent – have challenged their targets. In Los Angeles County, 24 cities out of 88 have appealed. Collectively, the cities are asking for a reduction of tens of over 100,000 units. The surge in RHNA challenges is the predictable result of two things: First, a gigantic increase in the targets given SCAG by the state; and, second, a shift in the geographical distribution of the targets, so that more units were allocated toward jobs-rich, high-cost cities than in the past. Quick Hits & Updates San Bernardino County planning manager Gabriel Chavez resigned less than two weeks after his home was raided by the FBI in connection with a cannabis-related corruption probe. A source told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents had been interviewing people about allegations that Baldwin Park officials requested illegal payments from cannabis businesses seeking permits. The San Jose City Council approved a plan to use funds from Measure E, a property transfer tax increase that passed in March, to fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention. Forty-five percent is dedicated to providing permanent supportive housing, 45 percent will make low-income rentals available, and 10 percent will support middle-income housing. The last 10 percent is reserved for homelessness prevention programs. The gray wolf will lose federal protections under a Trump administration decision that removes the gray wolf from the endangered species list. The move is expected to face legal challenges from conservationists who say the agency is acting prematurely. Before they were added to the endangered list in 1974, the grey wolf population was around 1,000. They now number more than 6,000. A state probe into the top consultant working on California High Speed Rail last year found that the official did not violate state laws for conflict of interest. The matter involved allegations that Hill signed a $51-million change order for a Spanish construction firm in the same year he may have owned $100,000 of stock in one of the firm's subsidiaries. The commission concluded the action resulted in a "nominal financial effect." Nearly a quarter million renter households in California have fallen behind on rent, with an average debt of $6,953 per household, a Federal Reserve study found . The Fed analysis suggests thousands of tenants face the risk of eviction after a moratorium ends Dec. 31. California's back rent is projected to reach nearly $1.7 billion by the end of the year, or almost a fourth of the total rental debate nationwide. San Diego approved a community plan update for Kearney Mesa that aims to address San Diego's need for affordable housing while reducing greenhouse gases. The plan will develop Kearny Mesa into one of San Diego's fastest growing residential neighborhoods by allowing for over 20,000 new housing units. The plan also would add 25,000 more jobs by encouraging mixed-use villages throughout the community.  The Walnut Creek City Council unanimously approved "Rethinking Mobility," a five-year transportation strategy to reduce private vehicle use and encourage public transit ridership. Among the plan's 13 goals are working with businesses to offer special discounts for transit riders, adding dedicated bus lanes, adding amenities for cyclists, and modifying parking pricing and requirements for new housing developments. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Palo Alto City Council voted to open up Foothills Park to the public following years of exclusive access to neighborhood residents. The vote came after the ACLU sued Palo Alto on the grounds of "a legacy of the city's history of racial discrimination." The ordinance imposes a limit of 1,000 visitors at a time and allows Palo Alto residents first access to reserve amenities in the park. The 1,400-acre park could open to the general public as soon as Dec. 17. The California Fish and Game Commission granted temporary endangered species status to the Mojave desert tortoise when it agreed to consider the animal as a candidate for permanent listing. The desert species was listed as threatened under state law in 1989 and under federal law the following year based on a severe decline in the tortoise population. A 2018 study found that adult tortoise populations had plummeted by 50 percent in some designated recovery areas since 2004, and by as much as 90 percent in some critical habitat management units since the 1980s. For the first time, housing developers who want to build in unincorporated parts of Santa Clara County will have to set aside 16 percent of new developments containing three or more units or pay an in-lieu fee of $259,000 per unit. The rules apply to both units intended for sale and for rent. The Board of Supervisors determined the fee amount, which will go into effect next year, based on an independent study presented to the county in July that accounts for 100 percent of the cost to create a replacement affordable unit. The fee will have a modest affect--most of Santa Clara County's 15 cities already have their own affordable housing ordinances in place. San Jose adopted a similar rule in 2010, requiring developers to either designate 15 percent of new sale or rental units as affordable or to pay an in-lieu fee. A group of conservations rallied to buy Oswit Canyon in a $7.15 million sale of over 100 acres in south Palm Springs. Shortly after purchase, the Save Oswit Canyon team removed removed the private property signs from the canyon, signaling the land is officially open to the public. The area is home to wildlife like desert fox, mountain lions and bighorn sheep.

Someday a city on the San Francisco Peninsula will embrace growth. It will recognize the pressures of the Bay Area’s housing crisis and fully capitalize on the economic juggernaut of the region’s tech industry. Today is not that day. And the city is definitely not San Mateo. The narrow passage of Measure Y, a ballot item extending previously implemented height and density caps on developments in San Mateo, could hinder the city’s quest to build more housing and alleviate the severity of its housing crisis, critics say. More legalistically, the measure’s passage may make compliance with San Mateo’s housing target under the Bay Area’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation, expected to be around 5,000 units, all but impossible. The measure, which won by 43 votes out of 45,000 cast, caps citywide building heights at 55 feet (about four stories) and residential density at 50 units per acre. It also mandates that 10% of any development be affordable housing. Measure R, an alternative measure that would have provided the City Council with more flexibility in allowing dense development around transit stations, failed despite receiving vastly more financial support. Measure Y has a long lineage. It is an extension of Measure H, passed in 2004 as an extension of Measure P, originally passed in 1991 in response to the approval of a series of 12-story developments in San Mateo’s downtown, according to San Mateo City Attorney Shawn Mason. (Nevertheless, San Mateo’s population density is over 8,000 per square mile, considerably higher than that of most of its neighbors.) Height and density caps existed in San Mateo prior to 1991, Mason said, but Measure P “ratcheted them down.” Proponents of the caps say they ensure controlled development in San Mateo, warding off developers and large property owners with interest in “over-developing” the city’s downtown. The same group that had originally lobbied for Measure H in 1991 and Measure P in 2004 successfully collected enough signatures to place Measure Y on the ballot in 2020, according to City Clerk Patrice Olds.

The other day I spent the afternoon writing up an appellate court ruling involving the California Environmental Quality Act for publication in CP&DR . In this particular case , the Fifth District Court of Appeal, interpreting a 2018 California Supreme Court ruling , ordered Fresno County Superior Court judge to order the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to throw out their approvals of the Friant Ranch development project – an action that occurred nine years ago – and start over again with the CEQA analysis.

Now that California both faces a multimillion-unit housing crisis and, for essentially the first time, a credible set of statewide housing regional mandates, a new front in the perennial battle over growth has opened up in Southern California.

UC Davis Moves Ahead with Major Medical Complex in Sacramento  The University of California Board of Regents voted to move forward with a $1.1 billion addition to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. The first phase of the " Aggie Square " project includes four new buildings--three for lab, classroom and research space and one for retail and student housing. According to a report released in July, the university plans to build 285 units of student housing, which will rent for $1,900 a month per unit. The board approved an amendment to ensure at least 200 beds of affordable housing for students be included in the development. The Sacramento City Council plans to approve a $30 million tax break to fill a funding gap for the project, along with an additional $37 million intended to spark new affordable housing in the area. Under the mechanism, called an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, a portion of the new property tax revenue that would normally go to the city's general funds will instead be routed to the developer for necessary infrastructure build-out. The project will also include a community benefits agreement, and a $37 million tax break will go toward efforts to spur new affordable housing in the area and cash to keep renters from being displaced. Nonetheless, critics say will fuel gentrification. OPR Releases Advisory Document to Help Cities Defend Against Wildfires  As California grapples with the most extensive wildfires in the state's history, the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) has released the draft updated Fire Hazard Planning Technical Advisory (Fire Hazard Planning TA), which includes specific land use strategies to reduce fire risk to buildings, infrastructure, and communities. The updated TA is a tool for local planners and stakeholders updating general plans as they balance new construction with the associated dangers of extending neighborhoods into fire-prone areas. Among the recommendations are a plan for community outreach, particularly with vulnerable and disadvantaged communities; incorporating avoidance and risk minimization policies and development review procedures in the land use element for high-risk areas; integrating land use and risk avoidance measures with conservation and open space element policies; and identifying the homes, businesses, and community assets at highest risk and instituting policies to "harden" homes or infrastructure. The document also features sample policies and programs, case studies, and potential funding sources. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Over 13,000 San Diego Affordable Housing Units in Peril A study that shows San Diego will likely lose more than half of the city's affordable housing stock unless city officials take action has spurred an aggressive new plan to spend at least $6 million annually on preservation incentives. The City Council unanimously approved a seven-part action plan that creates a regional "preservation collaborative" to tackle projects. The goal is to save the 13,450 affordable units that would be easiest to preserve--4,200 deed-restricted units and 9,250 units of "naturally occurring" affordable housing. The at-risk units would typically be sold to a private developer, which decreases the likelihood of deed restrictions getting extended. The law requires owners to alert city officials and nonprofit affordable housing developers before putting the property up for sale, and would require the owners of deed-restricted rental properties to provide both a "right of first offer" and "a right of first refusal" to qualified nonprofit developers of subsidized housing. CP&DR Legal Coverage: Fresno County Must Throw Out Friant Ranch Approvals After almost 10 years of litigation, an appellate court has ordered Fresno County to set aside its approvals of the 942-acre Friant Ranch project and prepare a revised environmental impact report providing more detail about the potential air quality impacts of the project. The Fifth District Court of Appeal’s ruling is a followup to the California Supreme Court’s ruling in the same case in 2018. In that ruling, the Supreme Court said the EIR in the Friant Ranch case didn’t tightly link the project’s air quality effects to actual human health consequences. Quick Hits & Updates Santa Clara County, which is home to a disproportionate number of California's 400,000 to 800,000 migrant farmworkers, will relax zoning laws and streamline the permitting progress for homes intended for agricultural workers. The county will reduce costs from $14,000 to a special permit costing between $500 and $6,000, depending on whether the project is for short-term of long-term housing. Fortress Investment Group is postponing plans for Desert Xpress, its high speed rail project that would connect Las Vegas and Southern California. Investors failed to sell $2.4 billion in debt that was to be financed through agencies in California and Nevada, postponed until market liquidity improves. California has given Fortress until Dec. 1 to sell the bonds. San Diego voters approved Measure E, a proposition that allows taller buildings in the Midway District by striking the area from the city's coastal zone, but the victory introduces the possibility of a legal battle that could invalidate the measure altogether. Nonprofit group Save Our Access filed a California Environmental Quality Act challenge before Measure A passed; a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the Midway District for the foreseeable future. As stores struggle, Palo Alto prepares to let offices fill retail spaces--but city council is split over whether proposed zone changes would help or hurt retailers amid the pandemic. The proposal would modify the city's definitions of "retail" uses to encompass medical offices, educational uses, banks, law firms, accounting firms and real estate agents, among other types of offices. It also calls for imposing size limitations to make sure offices don't occupy too much space in commercial corridors. The Trump administration announced it is removing gray wolves from U.S. Endangered Species Act protections--leaving California with reduced ability to track the species as its population grows, and prevents the state from criminally charging people who kill wolves. Since wolves returned to California, there have been at least 20 confirmed or probable cases of wolves attacking livestock. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's office  launched a $100,000 design challenge that invites architects to submit design models for appealing low-rise, multi-family housing in Los Angeles. The challenge is supported by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the James Irvine Foundation, and Citi, and calls for a focus on sustainability and confronting racial injustice. The competition is informed by a research project that solicits community feedback that will then be used by entrants to shape their designs. The BART Board of Directors selected a development team to build a long-awaited housing project that will add 780 units of housing to land adjacent to the El Cerrito BART Station. The project would be about 49 percent below market rate, with 37 percent of the units affordable to families of four making less than $104,000 a year. The plan will have to deal with the realities of commuter parking, which will inevitably decrease, but board members have expressed optimism for public support due to nearby street parking and an existing alternative parking lot.