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CP&DR Vol. 35 No. 1 January 2020

Lawsuit Could Complicate Redevelopment of Treasure Island  Current and former residents of Treasure Island , in the San Francisco Bay, filed a class-action lawsuit seeking $2 billion in damages from authorities who allegedly concealed problems with nuclear contamination. The lawsuit says plaintiffs have been unknowingly exposed to carcinogenic and radioactive materials for years because of "untrue and misleading statements" that led residents to believe the area was safe. Beyond financial compensation, the lawsuit demands "independent verified reports" to confirm "complete and total remediation of all toxic materials." These demands come as a major revitalization project for the island is on the horizon. The city is partnering with private developers to build condos, parks, and a hotel as part of a $6 billion construction project. Meanwhile, separate investigations by state technicians and the Center for Investigative Reporting in 2011 and 2013 uncovered evidence of radioactive materials in areas that had been "cleared" by the Navy as safe. And between 2008 and 2019, contractors found and cataloged 1,300 radioactive objects, some next to occupied units. But the Navy, the city's development authority and the health department declined to investigate further. Several defendants are named in the suit, including city development authorities, the U.S. Navy, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, the Treasure Island Homeless Development Initiative, the San Francisco health department, a development firm and two engineering firms that performed cleanup tasks. Los Angeles County to Revamp Bus System  In response to a decline in bus ridership, Los Angeles Metro has released a draft service plan that would increase frequency of buses across the Metro system. Ridership has fallen by an average of 26,000 riders on weekdays from 2013 to 2019, and chief among riders' complaints were unpredictable wait times and infrequent service. Under the draft NextGen Bus Plan, there would be much more frequent bus service on most routes, shorter waits for buses and more reliable service. Under the new plan, buses would arrive every five to 10 minutes for 83 percent of current riders, up from 49 percent today. The number of bus lines running every five to 10 minutes would increase from 16 to 29 on weekdays and from two to 14 on weekends. Additionally, the number of LA County residents who would walk to bus lines running every five to 10 minutes would more than double from 900,000 currently to almost 2.2 million. To do this, the plan consolidates routes on streets with the highest demand and combines local and most Rapid lines with the overall number of stops. Metro is exploring ways to accommodate underused areas with on-demand shuttle service. If approved, the new bus system rollout would take place in three phases beginning in December 2020 with expected completion in December 2021. (See prior CP&DR commentary .) State Streamlines Vegetation-Clearing Permits for Fire Protection California regulators have streamlined the approval process for vegetation clearing projects from the usual three- to five-year timeline to less than a year in order to protect homes in fire danger zones. The move is a result of more than a decade of environmental analysis to determine how to systematically make communities safer while protecting the environment. The resulting environmental impact report will serve as a blueprint that allows agencies like Cal Fire to follow report parameters rather than create an entirely new environmental document for every project. Fuel-thinning is just one piece of a broader puzzle for legislators and regulatory agencies. It isn't effective against wind-driven fires like the devastating Paradise fire, for example, and clearings will have to be maintained in perpetuity to be effective. But the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection cites the Cave fire as proof of efficacy: "Most recently, in Santa Barbara County, two priority treatment projects had direct benefits to firefighters and the evacuating public during the Cave Fire," the board said on its website. "By using fuel breaks, firefighters were able to access the fire and strategically and safely fight the Cave fire, resulting in zero structures destroyed." California, which owns three percent of California's forestland, hopes to treat 500,000 acres of non-federal land annually. The federal government is attempting to match that amount on the 58 percent of California forestland under federal ownership. Major Student Housing Project in S.F. Faces Lawsuit Residents of San Francisco's Laurel Heights neighborhood have filed a lawsuit challenging a 744-unit housing and retail complex on the former UCSF Laurel Heights Campus. The lawsuit claims the development--which includes 186 units of low-income senior housing--would cause "needless significant impacts," putting San Francisco in violation of CEQA. The project has taken five years to work its way through the approval process, going through 100 meetings in the community and amendments to shrink retail space to accommodate affordable housing. Ultimately it won unanimous approval from the Board of Supervisors and San Francisco Planning Commission. Developers anticipated a CEQA challenge. In public meetings, residents had expressed wariness of construction noise, dust and congestion, as well as concern regarding continued public access to a historic site located near the property. In preparation for legal action, developers used AB 900 --the same law used by the Golden State Warriors to speed legal challenges to the team's new arena in Mission Bay. Under AB 900, "environmental leadership development projects" that meet green city standards and are transit-oriented get fast-tracked through the appeals process and must be resolved within 270 days. Quick Hits & Updates  The Salinas City Council approved three resolutions that will add nearly 4,400 homes across approximately 800 acres. The first to be built under an inclusionary housing ordinance passed two years ago, the project will also add parks, three new schools, a 30-acre community park, and is estimated to bring in millions in revenue. The three resolutions certified the project's environmental impact report, adopted its CEQA findings, and incorporated minor modifications. About 1,360 of the units planned are to be single-family homes, while 1,800 would be town homes. The remaining 1,176 are projected to be multi-family apartments. For the first time in 20 years, Ventura is updating an approval process for new developments. “Ventura has had a negative reputation for many years, not just in the county but in Southern California,” said a former long-time council member who is now a land use consultant. “I’ve had people who meet with me on a regular basis over the years who want to do projects here … and they’ve heard the horror stories. Our system can be difficult to navigate.” Ventura’s economic developer said the changes are aimed at correcting three fundamental deficiencies in the city’s process: lack of clarify, lack of certainty, and high costs that stem from a lack of clear and objective design guidelines. The Department of Housing and Community Development announced the release of $297 million as part of the January 2020 Multifamily Housing Program. NOFA workshops will be held in Sacramento, Oakland, Riverside, and Santa Ana at the end of January. Eligible applications who have successfully developed at least one affordable housing project are invited to apply by the March 2 deadline. Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman has been named by Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve as Chair of the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), which is leading a revival of regional ferry service. First appointed to the WETA Board of Directors in 2015, Wunderman helped in the development of a 20-year plan to extend ferry service to every region of the Bay Area. He played an instrumental role in the creation of WETA and helped lead successful regional funding measures in 2006 and 2017 that provided the agency with $550 million to build out its fleet. Glendale's art and entertainment district is getting a an $8.3 million overhaul. To date only rough design and technical elements of the two-block area have been approved by city council, but the proposal lays out a plan for a pedestrian-friendly district with an outdoor plaza that would include dining, an interactive play zone for kids, performances, and contemporary art installations. The projected is slated to be completed by 2022. A San Francisco agency is proposing to divert future property tax revenue increases from schools and BART to construct nearly 6,000 units of below market-rate housing, according to a public document detailing the proposal. The former redevelopment agency would seek to correct some of the historical wrongs that caused its dissolution in the 2000s, in which the agency demolished 14,207 housing units as part of "slum removal" that resulted in a net loss of 6,709 units. Los Angeles’s first Proposition HHH housing project--a 62-unit building that offers supportive services-- opened in mid-December. About 20 additional units are currently under construction, and work will begin on another 30 in 2020. Officials are undoubtedly relieved to have produced tangible results, but the problem has only accelerated. Homelessness in Los Angeles has increased 16 percent since the bond measure for $1.2 billion passed in 2016, with more than 27,000 people going unsheltered in the city each night. After years of legal spats between a Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Kholsa and local surfers over access to Martins Beach , the state is throwing its legal muscle behind the case. Lawsuits against Khosla have relied on whether the former property owners had already granted public rights through "implied dedication" to use the beach, road, and parking lot. The Coastal Commission, officials said, spent several years collecting evidence from more than 225 people- including written accounts, photographs, personal journal entries and news articles that show public use as early as the 1800s. State legislators are proposing a "California Green New Deal" to reduce homelessness, curb emissions, and buoy living standards in under-served communities within 10 years. Like its federal counterpart, the California Green New Deal is a broad outline of goals rather than a detailed policy proposal. The proposal--which is backed by 14 legislators--largely seeks to accelerate California's already ambitious climate goals like Senate Bill 100, which mandates 60 percent renewable energy sources by 2030. The New Deal targets 100 percent renewable energy within the same time frame. Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed to join an appeal over a proposed condominium project in San Mateo as part of an effort to defend the Housing Accountability Act. As one of 120 charter cities, San Jose has broad authority over local matters, but developers, activists, and lawmakers worry that if the initial ruling stands, San Jose and other charter cities will use the case as precedent to exercise unilateral authority over development approvals.  A new proposal by the Trump administration to help Los Angeles' homeless population ties federal dollars to sweeping changes to California's "housing first" approach, potentially putting city officials at odds with local leaders and advocates. In a recent letter to California officials, HUD Secretary Ben Carson made clear California officials will need to shift policy priorities to "empower and utilize local law enforcement" if they expect to receive federal dollars. His written remarks echo recent comments on Fox News that officials need to "uncuff law enforcement so that people can be removed now and placed in transitional places." Friends of Waverly, a neighborhood group, filed a lawsuit to block construction of a homeless shelter in Griffith Park,. The lawsuit alleges Los Angeles officials abused discretion when they granted the project emergency exemption from environmental review. The $6.6-million project, which will include a 10,800-square-foot structure with approximately 100 beds and trailers to showers, restrooms and administrative offices, is part of L.A.'s "bridge housing" program, a stopgap measure meant to shelter the homeless while permanent structures are under construction. The Laguna Beach City Council passed a resolution opposing SCAG's updated housing needs assessment, which calls for 390 units, up from an October assessment that called for 55 new housing units. The resolution argues SCAG's modified methodology lacks specificity, supporting documentation and vetting by SCAG staff, and a "near total absence of stakeholder engagement." SCAG issued a statement urging cities to wait for the process to unfold: "We have a set process to follow, and these numbers are far from final." Years of rocket engine manufacturing may disqualify one of Los Angeles' largest undeveloped areas from residential use. The owner of the Warner Center property had previously marketed the site as one with high-rise urban development potential. But in documents filed with LA's Water Quality Control Board, property owner United Technologies Corp. indicates it will only seek to bring pollution standards up to commercial use after environmental tests detected several cancer-causing chemicals still permeating the area. The Center for Biological Diversity is suing Placer County for approving the Sunset Area Plan, a sprawling 8,500 acre project that includes 8,000 housing units and 34 million square feet of retail, commercial, and industrial space. The lawsuit argues that the project will destroy 5,000 acres of rare wetlands that are home to rare and threatened species, including fairy shrimp and the western spadefoot toad.  The Newsom administration appears poised to settle a suit with Huntington Beach over the city's affordable housing targets. Huntington Beach's general plan was initially in compliance with state mandated targets, but officials backtracked, decreasing the amount of land set aside for housing. A year later, state housing officials say they have a proposal to increase low-income housing development. If Huntington Beach City Council approves the proposal by March, the city would then be in compliance, rendering the suit moot--for now. Owners of The Forum, an Inglewood events venue, have filed suit to block construction of the proposed Los Angeles Clippers arena. The suit alleges Gov. Gavin Newsom violated the constitution when he used AB 987 to prevent any litigation from stalling the project for more than 270 days. The stadium bypassed a full environmental review through a ballot measure, but arena developers are litigating several lawsuits related to the matter. City officials have expressed confidence construction will move forward as planned. Supporters of Measure E--a ballot initiative that would tax San Jose properties worth $2 million or more to fund affordable housing-- have officially launched their campaign outside of an affordable housing development. Measure E is a progressive tax based on a property's transfer value that would levy a .75 percent tax for properties valued between $2 million -$5 million a 1 percent tax for $5 million-$10 million properties and a 1.5 percent tax on properties valued over $10 million. The new tax would be on top of an existing flat .33 percent transfer tax. City officials estimate Measure E could generate between $22 million and $73 million annually. An underground tunnel project that would pump billions of gallons of water from the San Joaquin Delta to southern California is officially under reconsideration. Gov. Gavin Newsom's office issued a Notice of Preparation, reviving a more ambitious tunnel project that was dropped last year. State officials say they need the tunnel because intake for the current system is only three feet above the average sea level, making it vulnerable to climate change.

If recent events have proven anything, it’s this: The future of California is a Rubik’s Cube:

Change of Committee Helps Senate Bill 50 Senate Bill 50 , the controversial bill to promote denser housing around transit that abruptly died in the Senate Appropriations Committee last April, will not suffer the same fate as it did last year thanks to a recent procedural move. Sen. Toni Atkins has sent the new bill, which includes several provisions designed to increase local control, to the Rules Committee. The move could advance the bill directly to the Senate floor for a vote later this year, giving author Sen. Scott Wiener more time to amend the bill. Were it to stay in Appropriations, it would have to pass or fail by the end of this month —under the leadership of Sen. Anthony Portantino, who singlehandedly put the bill in suspense last year. “While many communities still have clear concerns about SB50, our affordable housing crisis demands we make every attempt to reach agreement on potential solutions,” Atkins said in a statement. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Sacramento Adopts Complete Streets Policy The Sacramento City Council voted to adopt a "complete streets" policy that formalizes street design safety standards to provide a framework for safer, more accessible streets. Complete street policies seek to require more accountability from jurisdictions and provisions that account for the needs of the most vulnerable users, according to Smart Growth America, a national nonprofit that advocates for less car-centric transportation policies. A key aspect of Complete Streets, said supportive council members, is shifting the conversation from fiscal impact to prioritizing safety, though city staff say the policy will not affect the city's transportation budget--directly contradicting CalTrans' claim that adopting a similar statewide policy with S.B. 127 would cost billions to implement. The updated policy improves on previous guidelines by bringing non-car users into the foreground of the planning process, and then outlines a clear plan for what success looks like. "It's about better aligning and clarifying the authority to do some of the things we're already doing, in a better way," said Chief of Staff Matt Read. "Right now we have a somewhat frentic approach to the question of what is a good street improvement... With this policy, we're not creating a new expensive thing, we're just being clearer about what we already call for.” State Considers Possibility of Suing Cities over Homelessness  A task force appointed by Gavin Newsom is recommending an amendment to the California Constitution that would empower the state to sue cities and counties for failing to reduce homelessness within their jurisdictions. "We've tried moral persuasion. We've tried economic incentives," said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, leader of the 13-member task force. "But all of it is optional... and people are telling us this is a priority." Indeed, according to the latest federal HUD data, more than 150,000 California residents live in cars, in shelters, or outdoors, and the problem is increasingly visible as the number and size of encampments continues to grow. Members of the Council of Regional Homeless Advisors say they expect local governments will likely chafe at state intervention. Lack of accountability has been an ongoing problem as elected officials and the local and regional agencies charged with managing homeless services have failed to coordinate effectively. But coercive measures in conjunction with the more than $1.4 billion in funds flowing to homeless services are likely to be politically popular, as homelessness and housing topped Californian's list of concerns in a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. San Francisco Expands Program to Tax Vacant Storefronts  The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to create 12 new commercial districts, expanding the reach of a potential tax on vacant storefronts that will go before voters in March. Without commercial designation, neighborhoods are subject to general zoning laws that are considerably less restrictive. If passed by voters, the ballot measure will penalize landlords whose storefronts have been vacant for more than six months. The point of the controversial measure is to address a rising trend of empty storefronts by compelling landlords to rent out space with greater urgency rather than hold out for higher rents. If the tax passes, landlords would incur a fee based on the size of the space and how long it has been empty. Lawmakers included exemptions to landlords if they have been hurt by a disaster or are making improvements to their property. The dozen newly specified commercial districts are inner Balboa, outer Balboa, Bayview, Cortland Avenue, Geary Boulevard, Mission Bernal, San Bruno Avenue, Cole Valley, Ocean Avenue, lower Haight, lower Polk Street and inner Taraval. The tax would go into effect January 2021. (See prior CP&DR commentary .) Quick Hits & Updates Oxford University is rumored to be in negotiations to open a center for advanced study on a former seminary campus in Marin County. The facility would be part of a controversial mixed-use development on 120 acres of unincorporated land. In addition to the Oxford center, the project -- which is subject to a nondisclosure agreement -- would include 234 units of housing, 47 of which would be affordable, as well as a 150-unit continuing care retirement community and 84 acres of open space. Historically, prospective developers have faced resistance from the neighboring community, where homes sell for well above $2 million. A newly released draft environmental report for the prospective Los Angeles Clippers arena in Inglewood found it might create a “large number of significant and unavoidable transportation impacts,” but would also add almost 1,000 full-time jobs and won’t contribute to gentrification or impact the viability of competing arenas in the region. An estimated 62 major events held each year would bring between 18,000 and 20,000 vehicle trips that would significantly impact 42 intersections and two major freeways. A proposed expansion of Mineta San Jose Airport would spew a “significant and unavoidable” amount of pollution, according to a draft environmental report that is undergoing public review. At predicted levels ozone and greenhouse gases emitted would conflict with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s 2017 Clean Air Plan. San Jose City Council is expected to meet mid-January to discuss proposed amendments to the plan, which includes 14 new gates, a 330-room hotel, and a 5,000-space parking garage. A $200 million air cargo facility in San Bernardino has gained final approval, adding 26 new cargo flights per day to the rumored occupant - an Amazon fulfillment center. It would be the fifteenth Amazon logistics and fulfillment center in San Bernadino and Riverside counties. Additions to the site include a 658,500-square-foot building for sorting air cargo, two 25,000-square-foot ground support buildings, and 41 acres of structural apron and taxi lanes for aircraft parking and positioning. Global bicycle trips per year will double in major cities around the world in 2022, according to projects in a report from Deloitte. Explosive growth in the tens of billions can be attributed to technological innovations, including predictive analytics, product and application design, wireless connectivity, digital urban planning tools, 3D-printed parts, and electrification that make bicycle growth safer, faster, and more convenient. The San Diego Sockers have submitted plans to build an indoor, multi-use sports arena in Oceanside, where it is pending review before the council. The 5,000 to 8,000-seat building would be an addition to an existing sports complex that the Sockers General Manager Sean Bowers says could host events ranging from concerts to high school contests and championships. “For sure, we’ll be a multi-faceted arena,” Bowers said. “The scope of what we’d like to do is broad. We want to evolve as an up-and-coming arena.” Two controversial measures that may have a significant impact on housing development in San Diego County’s rural unincorporated areas will be decided by voters in March. Measure A -- called the Save Our San Diego Countryside Initiative -- would require countywide votes on every major project that has been granted a General Plan amendment.Measure B seeks to revoke approval for a housing development project that would build 2,135 homes north of Escondido. The development was granted an amendment by San Diego’s Board of Supervisors in 2018, spurring petitions for Measure A. San Clemente has submitted a Sea Level Rise report to the Coastal Commission for approval and funding. If approved, San Clemente can implement measures laid out in the program that would rely heavily on sand replacement.to restore beaches. The report, which was funded by the Coastal Commission, found that shoreline erosion is expected to accelerate by 2050, with smaller beaches becoming strictly seasonal with low tide, and larger beaches losing almost half their size in width. The Department of Housing and Community Development released a brief that outlines how Assembly Bill 1486, a new bill aimed at building affordable housing on public lands, will go into effect this year and beyond. Beginning in 2020, local agencies must send notices of availability to HCD and to developers who have expressed interest in building affordable housing on local surplus land. HCD for its part will kick off technical assistance, education, and outreach to develop uniform standards to ensure local agencies comply with state law. Implementation of AB 1486 will begin in 2021, when HCD will release finalized guidelines and notify the Attorney General of violations of the Surplus Lands Act. Steve Padilla, a resident of San Diego County, was voted in as the new chair of the California Coastal Commission . Padilla’s stated priorities include addressing the effects of climate change and sea-level rise, expanding public access to the coast, and focusing on environmental justice in low-income areas. San Clemente has submitted a Sea Level Rise report to the Coastal Commission for approval and funding. If approved, San Clemente can implement measures laid out in the program that would rely heavily on sand replacement.to restore beaches. The report, which was funded by the Coastal Commission, found that shoreline erosion is expected to accelerate by 2050, with smaller beaches becoming strictly seasonal with low tide, and larger beaches losing almost half their size in width. A bill that would establish an Affordable Housing and Community Investment Program to help cities and counties afford to build more affordable housing is being reintroduced after Gov, Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill October. Formerly SB 5, SB 795 would reallocate tax revenue from schools to increase affordable housing construction. Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a veto letter that "Legislation with such a significant fiscal impact needs to be part of budget deliberations so that it can be considered in light of other priorities." Last year, Save the Redwoods League negotiated an agreement to buy the largest privately-owned sequoia grove in the United States if they could raise the funds by December 2020. Just four months after putting out a call for donations, the group collected the $8 million shortfall in donations ranging from $1 to several million. The 785-acre Sierra Nevada property boasts 483 giant sequoias that are at least 25.5 feet in diameter, including the 3,000-year-old Stagg Tree, the fifth largest tree in the world. The Sierra Nevada red fox may soon be protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to a proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Poisoning, trapping, and habitat destruction have all contributed to the species' decline. If the foxes do receive protection, it will be a result of a sustained multi-year effort by the Center for Wildlife Diversity to pressure wildlife services to classify them as endangered. Only 70 are thought to remain in the wild. San Francisco has teamed up with two nonprofits to lease and rent two hotels that will provide 151 city-subsidized housing units. The nonprofits will oversee day-to-day operations when residents move-in in April--which will cost between $1,300 and $1,400 a month--will mostly house residents from the streets, shelters, or Navigation Centers. Occupants will be expected to pay 30 percent of their income toward rent. The Abigail is the latest city-funded housing to be folded into San Francisco's Moving On Initiative, which aims to provide apartments and single-resident-occupancy units for people able to move out of permanent supportive housing. The Bay Area's biggest housing project, the 13,000-unit redevelopment of Concord Naval Air Station in Contra Costa County, is under threat as developers and labor unions battle over how much of the construction crew will be union workers. The developers are arguing the union's labor agreement would kill the project because it would lose money, raising costs by $542 million and cutting profits from 17 percent to a loss. The redevelopment would convert a former military base to include a sports complex and playing fields, six million square feet of office space near a BART station, and 3,000 affordable homes. In an announcement, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a raft of "new accountability measures, proposed new resources, and an executive order to reduce street homelessness, connect people to services and build housing faster." Per the executive order, California jurisdictions at the state and local level will be required to develop metrics and release progress reports as they work to reduce homelessness. The announcement included a preview of the 2020-21 State Budget proposal that will include $750 million in a new California Access to Housing and Services Fund and more than $1 billion to fight homelessness.

Unlike last year, Gov. Newsom’s proposed budget does not include major policy and funding initiatives for housing that will affect local land use planning in California. Instead, Newsom appears to have pivoted toward an emphasis on homelessness.

San Diego Falls Short on Housing Production  Despite recent incentive boosts and increasingly streamlined regulations, San Diego has  produced fewer housing units since 2017, reversing an upward trend that began after the Great Recession. San Diego's 2019 Housing Inventory Report found that new unit production peaked at 7,384 in 2016, then fell to 5,020 in 2017 and 3,895 in 2018. To meet state-mandated goals, an average production of 13,500 units per year would be needed to reach 108,000 new units by 2029. Most of the housing produced was out of reach for all but the highest income earners. While San Diego nearly met RHNA requirements for “high income” residents, only 10 of the 15,462 required units were built for “moderate income” residents. “Low income” units saw greater increases, but still fell far short with 2,633 of the 16,703 required units built. Next year, San Diego will approve a new housing element of the city’s general plan that shows how the city will meet the state-mandated goals, a draft of which is available on-line. San Diego city officials have signaled they want to begin taking a more holistic approach to solving the city’s housing crisis that will create more vibrant neighborhoods, not just more housing units. That approach is outlined in Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s Complete Communities Housing Initiative that will also encourage developers to build more studio and one-bedroom apartments instead of larger, less affordable units. California Ranks Highly for Bike-Friendliness  California ranks fourth among U.S. states--behind Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota--in bicycle friendliness, according to the League of American Bicyclists, a nonprofit organization that sets targets, tracks, and assesses bicycle standards set by state DOTs and legislatures based on over 100 data points. Notably, of all 50 states, California ranked fourth in ridership (1.1 percent of commuters biking to work), first in “policies and programs,” and second in “infrastructure and funding.” Compared to similarly overall high-scoring states, California fell short in restricting bicyclist and pedestrian behavior. The report took particular issue with Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of S.B. 127, the Complete Streets for All bill, which would have required Caltrans to include safety improvements for people on foot, bike, and public transit whenever it performs road maintenance. Meanwhile, the analysis reports California often has the most traffic deaths for people biking and walking of any state. State Disburses $262 Million for Housing from Prop. 1 Funds  The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has awarded more than $262 million from the Multifamily Housing Program to preserve and build new affordable homes. The awards are funded from Proposition 1 — the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2018 — authorizing bonds providing $1.5 billion in new funding for the new construction of affordable homes and acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of permanent and transitional rental housing for lower-income households. The 24 recipients received awards ranging from just under $2 million to Kern County’s Housing Authority to a $20 million grant to PATH Ventures in Los Angeles. The next largest grants went to developers in San Diego, Contra Costa, and Ventura. “This voter-approved funding represents a significant investment in affordable rental housing across California,” said Alexis Podesta, Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, which oversees HCD. “California is experiencing an extreme housing shortage and this funding shows continued commitment to create ‘A California for All’.” Quick Hits & Updates Starting in 2020, new residential buildings on city-owned land in Los Angeles must be 100 percent affordable housing or apply for an exemption. Mixed-income projects will be considered if having market-rate units allows developers to build more affordable housing units than they would have without them. The Coastal Commission  voted to temporarily halt two Orange County development proposals, despite the proposals having already passed the city’s approval process. One of the developments, a 51-room six-level harbor-view hotel on Dana Point’s Headlands, is on hold until hotel developers provide additional detail as to how they plan to provide 25 percent of its room at “lower cost” to meet commission requirements. The second development is a Newport Beach residential fourplex. The commission is reviewing the project over concerns about incipient rising sea levels. After initially opposing A.B. 2923, Berkeley  will be the first city in compliance with the new law after Berkley City Council unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Berkeley and BART, making Berkley the first city in compliance with A.B. 2923. The MOU stipulates that Berkley agrees to begin its rezoning process immediately for completion by 2020. In return, BART will prepare a draft of its guidance in February to help guide Berkeley’s process. The MOU does not address affordable housing requirements, nor does it specify funding sources, financial arrangements, environmental review, or other project-level considerations. Despite objections from federal regulators, California High-Speed Rail Authority board voted unanimously to issue a request for bids valued at $1.6 billion to construct a central Valley bullet train route. The vote occurred just one day after receiving a letter of disapproval from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which oversees and administers $2.6 billion in federal grants awarded for the rail project. California rail authorities say the FRA is acting in bad faith, intentionally delaying funds months after receiving required paperwork. California  expanded its one-year ban on home insurers dropping policies in wildfire-hit areas to include 200,000 homes that were within the Sandalwood and Hillside fire boundaries. The moratorium now includes more than one million homes that were in or adjacent to 16 wildfires this year. The move is meant to protect both homeowners who want to rebuild and incoming residents who were unable to get insurance. After days of hearings, a controversial wind project was voted down by Humboldt County supervisors in a 4-1 vote. The project promised to deliver 56 percent of Humboldt County’s electricity load from 47 wind turbines -- but planned to do so by placing 20 of them on a sacred ancestral prayer site of the Wiyot Tribe. Gov. Gavin Newsom has approved fast-tracking the Los Angeles Clippers’ Inglewood arena project, shielding it from extended environmental litigation. The decision came after the California Air Resources Board found the project would be net carbon neutral. The environmental impact report will be released in 30 days. A group calling itself YIGBY , for “Yes in God’s Backyard,” successfully lobbied San Diego City Council to approve rezoning measures that allow churches to build low-income housing on their parking lots. Previously, city code required churches and other public assembly spaces to tie parking space numbers to either overall square footage or square inches of pew space. New rules reduce required parking minimums as long as the site is near public transit. YIGBY leaders hope to have tapped into a receptive, charitable community that possesses over 2,000 acres of land across San Diego County, most of which are zoned for both religious and residential uses. Caltrans ’ board will consider a recommendation from board members requiring residential projects on agency land to be at least 20 percent affordable. Board member staff presented the recommendation to regional transit district offices earlier this year, and is expected to be considered by the full board early next year. As plans currently stand, board staff will only recommend affordability caps on a limited number of stations. San Francisco Mayor London Breed has withdrawn a ballot measure that would make it easier to build office space in San Francisco, clearing the way for Proposition E. If approved, Proposition E will reduce future office development from the existing cap of 875,000 square feet of large office space by a percentage equal to the city’s shortfall on state-mandated affordable housing goals. A group of University of California Santa Cruz graduate students is striking, withholding student grades until monthly stipends keep up with the high cost of living. While graduate students across the country report long hours and meager stipends that are incommensurate with workload and expertise, graduate students at UCSC report living in deprivation--skipping meals, living in garages, and periods of homelessness--largely due to rents that cost between 50 and 60 percent of monthly income, according to a press release associated with the unauthorized strike. Graduate students are asking for a monthly increase of just under $1,400 a month.

Sen. Scott Wiener has waited eight long months to reintroduce his controversial transit-oriented housing bill, Senate Bill 50 — the “More HOMES Act” — after it got abruptly continued in Appropriations Committee in April of last year. He wasted not a day.  Yesterday, in the first day of the new legislative session, Wiener announced a revised version of SB 50 (which itself was a revised version of 2018’s SB 827 ). The bill still seeks to increase housing density near high-frequency transit stops and “jobs-rich” areas. It also still effectively outlaws single-family zoning across the state, replacing it with zoning to allow duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes.  The major change is a less prescriptive mandate for increased densities. Whereas previous versions of the bill required cities to adopt certain height requirements within certain radii from transit stops and job areas, the amended bill gives cities the freedom to spread out densities in more flexible ways. Local plans would have to meet with approval of the Department of Housing and Community Development. Cities that failed to submit approved plans would then be subject to more prescriptive requirements under SB 50.  The change was designed to appeal to cities that decried SB 50’s purported infringement on local control.  Under the new provisions added to SB 50, all will have two years after the bill is signed to develop a housing plan that works for their specific needs. Local governments will take the lead in creating housing plans, including the prerogative to protect renters and sensitive communities against displacement as they see fit. Certain communities that are under-resourced and need to pair zoning reform with anti-displacement policy will not experience any zoning changes until five years after the bill is signed. “The amendments allow cities this flexibility while ensuring that any local alternative plan meets SB 50’s goals to increase housing supply, promote environmental sustainability, and fight for fair, non-discriminatory housing policy,” Wiener said in a statement.  The bill still includes a provision to exempt smaller counties — including wealthy coastal counties like Marin and Santa Barbara — from many of the density requirements.  The question is, is it enough of a change? Perhaps more importantly, has statewide demand for housing increased? Or have two years’ worth of defeats sapped Wiener’s political capital?  Backers of SB 50 clearly believe the former.  “The changes we’ve made to SB 50 give cities a broader menu of options that help them take a leadership role in solving the housing shortage,” said Brian Hanlon, President and CEO of California YIMBY, in a statement; his group sponsored the bill. “Cities that want to stay ahead on this issue can make their own plans for how they add homes to their communities, while cities that fall behind will be subjected to the bill’s specific requirements. This gives cities all the flexibility they need to be a part of the solution.” Opposition to the new SB 50 will likely center on its affordable housing requirements—or lack thereof. Critics, including vocal protestors who reportedly shouted down Wiener at a press conference yesterday, criticize the bill for failing to mandate or fund sufficient amounts of affordable housing and for potentially threatening incumbent low-income tenants. Wiener has countered that the bill in no way prevents cities from imposing their own affordable housing requirements or anti-displacement measures.  Gov. Gavin Newsom did not take a position on SB 50 last year and has not yet indicated a position this year. “The governor remains focused as a top priority on getting more housing built all across the state, for people at all income levels,” Newsom spokesman Jesse Melgar said in a statement, as reported in the Los Angeles Times. Because SB 50 is a reintroduced bill, it must pass out of committee by Jan. 24 and be passed by each house by Jan. 31. Prior CP&DR Coverage of SB 50

If you’re interested in cities, then you probably spend a lot of time online reading content that discusses urban issues and the role of cities in fostering both prosperity and quality of life on sites such as  CityLab ,  NextCity , Emily Badger’s  contributions to The Upshot  on  The New York Times ’ website, and countless other outlets, including CP&DR . But you may not have heard of  Neal Peirce , the guy who started this conversation. Peirce, a longtime writer about cities and urban affairs,  died in Washington on Dec. 27,  at the age of 87. Neal wrote the first — and so far, only — nationally syndicated newspaper column about cities and states. He wrote numerous books about them and took the lead in producing 25 reports in the 1980s and ‘90s on America’s metropolitan regions and how they could work better. He traveled around the country for decades, talking to mayors, governors and economic development experts about the latest trends in a very pragmatic what-works kind of way. His efforts set the stage not only for CityLab and NextCity but for nonprofit web-based journalism in general. He was also a mentor to me. With CP&DR , I wanted to do for California what he was doing for the country.   The conversation started with Neal Peirce More or less single-handedly, he started the discussion about urbanism in the United States. This conversation would not be going on — at least not in the as robust a way — if Neal hadn’t started it. How he did it is a remarkable story. In the ‘60s, Neal had been a straight-up political reporter — he wrote a book in 1968 calling for the end of the Electoral College — but after the urban riots of the late ‘60s he did an amazing about-face that no normal inside-the-Beltway journalist would even dream of: He turned his attention to cities and states. He began traveling the country and writing about what was going on at the local and state level in a way that no one else was doing — primarily through his syndicated column with the Washington Post Writers Group. Meeting my mentor As a young man, I was trained to be an inside-the-Beltway journalist — somebody like  Michael Isikoff  digging up scandals about people like Monica Lewinsky. But I wanted to do an about-face too. I was always a policy wonk and an urbanist, so I never really wanted to be anybody except Neal Peirce.  I first encountered Neal in the winter of 1980, as he stepped out of the elevator at 1730 M Street Northwest in Washington D.C., and into the newsroom of  National Journal , a D.C. insider’s magazine that he had helped found and where I was working as an intern. He had flaming red hair and he was wearing his trademark oversized glasses and a typical optimistic smile. He was also wearing a bicycle helmet and pushing his bike out of the elevator. Urban bicycling is so common these days that it’s hard to describe how quirky this seemed at the time. Nobody rode bikes in those days, least of all across a large, crowded city to get to work. Yet this guy standing in front of me in a bicycle helmet was probably the most important person of the last half-century in moving forward a conversation in the United States about urbanism and how cities can help make people’s lives better. When I first met him, Neal and his associate  Jerry Hagstrom  were writing their landmark book,  The Book of America: Inside Fifty States Today , an update of John Gunther’s classic  Inside USA  — essentially a Cook’s Tour of states and communities across the country. I was so in awe of what Neal was doing that I barely dared to speak to him. Peirce never stopped exploring A few years later, after I had moved to California and studied urban planning at UCLA, I set up shop as a freelance writer covering cities, local government and urban development. In other words, I tried to compete with Neal. It wasn’t hard in those days to get one-off op-eds published in major newspapers on urban topics, but it proved impossible to make a deal with a news syndicate that would distribute a regular column. I was told that there was only one Neal Peirce (which was right) and that there “wasn’t another generation” in writing about cities (which, in the age of the internet, couldn’t have turned out to be more wrong). So, I settled into a career of writing about cities for specialized publications such as  Governing  (which just recently shut down). But by this time Neal was on to his next big thing — the so-called Peirce Reports. Teaming up with longtime collaborator  Curtis Johnson  and others, Neal roamed the country, writing about metropolitan regions and the steps they might take to become stronger, more prosperous and more equitable. The Peirce Reports are often credited with stimulating regional action on economic development, transit and other policy issues in cities ranging from Dallas to Charlotte to Seattle. (I worked with him on  one of the last reports , for Charleston, S.C., in 2007.) Over time, Neal wrote about 25 such reports. In the process, he foreshadowed today’s model of nonprofit journalism. He would make connections with local political leaders he knew, who would help persuade a local foundation to pay for Peirce’s team to do a big report, which would then be published in the local newspaper. There’s a need for metro-area leaders to work together Neal became so convinced that metropolitan regions were the most powerful players in the future of cities and states that in the 1990s he wrote a book about the topic called  Citistates , in which he argued that America would be competitive in the 21st Century only if all the leaders in the country’s metropolitan regions worked together for shared prosperity. As a result of all this activity, in the mid-‘90s, Neal and Curt created the Citistates Group, which served as a business hub, speakers’ bureau and watering hole for the crowd of people Neal had gathered around him over the years. Many of them were regional economic development experts he had run across in his travels. These were the folks who understood that whether you lived in a city or a suburb or a rural area, it was the regional economy that made things go. I became a part of this group and — especially as an elected official in a mid-sized city in California — benefited greatly from the expertise on urban and regional issues that gathered around Neal. We met each year for a kind of free-flowing seminar on cities — sometimes near Neal’s summer home in New Hampshire and sometimes in various cities around the country, ranging from Seattle to Pittsburgh and even Ventura, where I was on the city council. You could always count on the Citistates gathering for a stimulating discussion on where cities were going — and somebody in the group was usually ahead of all the trends. (I first heard the word “wiki” at a Citistates gathering in the early 2000s.) Creating an online site for city news Remarkably, as Neal got older, he did not slow down but instead got more interested in cities around the world, outside of the United States. He continued to write his column until the age of 81. At 76, he published a forward-looking book sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation  laying out the challenges cities face in the 21st Century . At 82, he founded  Citiscope , a nonprofit web-based news site reporting on cities around the world. (Citiscope was later absorbed by the  Thompson Reuters Foundation .) As recently as three or four years ago, I would still run into Neal randomly at airports around the country as he was researching some interesting new urban topic. Almost every day, when I read something online about the role of cities, local governments, urban development and a sense of  place , I think of Neal. He was the godfather of that whole conversation. But what must have been heartbreaking to him was the fact that the  regional  conversation — the one he cared about the most — has withered away, largely a victim of our partisan times. First to cover the ‘laboratories of democracy’ Neal’s heyday in the 1980s was an unusual time for cities and states. Under the Reagan Administration, the federal government was shedding many traditional roles. A remarkable group of moderate governors on both sides of the aisle picked up the baton: Tom Kean in New Jersey, Bruce Babbitt in Arizona, Dick Thornburgh in Pennsylvania, even Bill Clinton in Arkansas. They saw the states as “laboratories of democracy,” in the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and experimented with new policies. Often, they worked together with moderate mayors — Henry Cisneros in San Antonio, Charles Royer in Seattle, Bill Hudnut (Neal’s college classmate) in Indianapolis — to promote the idea that cities and states could work together to nurture prosperity at the regional level. As Keith Schneider — another longtime collaborator of Neal’s —  wrote in his  New York Times  obituary of Neal : “He paid particular attention to the alliances among elected leaders, nonprofit groups, neighborhood organizations and business executives. Such groups, he reported, formed a hive of ideas that generated unorthodox strategies to enhance local quality of life.” Nobody but Neal was writing about this stuff back in the '80s. The dangers of the red and blue divide Since then, however, the red/blue divide in America has hardened along geographical lines, with cities and inner suburbs on one side of the divide and outer suburbs and rural areas on the other. Regional economic development entities still work for the benefit of an entire metropolitan region, but politicians usually don’t. I thought of Neal and his regionalism agenda a year ago at the Texas Public Policy Foundation conference in Austin, when Dennis Bonnen, the newly elected Texas House Speaker,  laid out his vision for governing the state . He didn’t specifically say he was  going to make life difficult for local governments  — that came later — but he did go out of his way to say he was from a small town (Angleton) and big-city political pressure from Houston wasn’t going to influence him. As a former mayor of Ventura, I very much understand the appeal of living in a small city on the edge of a large metropolis — and politically distancing yourself from the big city nearby. What Bonnen was doing, of course, was speaking code to his audience about the geographical red/blue divide. But as Neal would be the first to point out, Angleton is very much part of the Houston metropolitan region. It’s the county seat of Brazoria County, which is served by both Houston’s regional planning agency and its regional chamber of commerce. Angleton would not have the economic prosperity it has today were it not for its proximity to Houston, and Houston would not be such a formidable economic engine without communities like Angleton and many others that surround it. Locked in the mindset of a red-blue state-local war , politicians like Bonnen usually miss the strength of the cross-sector regional alliances that Neal always saw — and therefore miss the power of the entire metropolitan region in strengthening both prosperity and quality of life for the people who live throughout the region. Yet it seems to me that these alliances are more important than ever. They can help bring people together who live in the same metropolitan area but might otherwise see nothing in common. They can also help foster economic growth and an improved quality of life that helps everyone. An unstoppable and infectious optimism Despite these partisan setbacks late in life, Neal never lost his optimism. This optimism spills over into today’s conversations about cities because — despite concerns about gentrification and equity — most people engaged in the urban realm today have a similar optimistic approach. You can see it in  Richard Florida’s  infectious good nature about cities. Even the perpetually grumpy  Joel Kotkin  has never given up hope that cities can be vehicles for upward mobility. Most of this optimism comes, in one way or another, from Neal’s sunny approach to his work and his faith in cities and regions about their role in helping people improve their quality of life. It’s an optimism we should all carry forward in his memory as we work every day to make cities — and regions — better places to live and work. Reprinted with permission from Urban Edge , the blog of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

LAO Calls on Coastal Cities to Double Housing Targets Coastal cities should plan to double annual housing targets to 200,000 a year, according to a new climate change report from California’s Legislative Analyst Office. The report stresses the outsize role local governments will have in adapting to sea level rise (SLR) and highlights complications encroaching seas will pose to increasing housing availability and affordability. Report projections show coastal cities will have to contend with between half a foot and a foot of SLR within the next 10 years that will cause some existing housing units along the coast to become unlivable due to regular flooding. It further warns that local governments should carefully consider granting development permits on undeveloped coastal lands that also face the likelihood of flooding in future years. A total of almost $30 million in state funds have either been disbursed or are still available to local governments seeking funds for coastal adaptation projects. Recommendations came from consultation with 100 individuals in all levels of government, academia, and think tanks in addition to review of academic literature and statewide surveys.  Sale of Anaheim Stadium May Lead to Major Redevelopment  The Anaheim City Council approved the sale of Anaheim Stadium and surrounding parking lots to a company controlled by Angels owner Arte Moreno. Last year, the Angels opted out of their stadium lease with Anaheim, saying they wanted to pursue “a high-quality fan experience beyond what the original lease allows.” Moreno’s company has six months to deliver a development plan to the city, including a decision on whether to build a new stadium or rebuild the existing one. The Angels have considered building homes, shops, restaurants, offices and a hotel on the 153-acre stadium site. Angels Chairman Dennis Kuhl says he envisions a complex like Fenway Park, with a robust collection of restaurants, lounges, venues, and bars that would become a gathering spot and attraction for visitors and residents regardless of whether they were attending a game. The sale agreement calls on the Angels to commit to play in Anaheim through 2050, with five options that would extend that tenure for five years apiece. The deal is not expected to close until 2025 and development will likely continue into 2050. Report: CEQA Suits Stifle Housing Development  In 2018, housing was targeted in 60 percent of all California Environmental Quality Act lawsuits against construction projects in the state, a new report by Holland & Knight reveals. The report, " California Getting in Its Own Way ," concludes that CEQA remains the litigation of choice for housing opponents and that this litigation is a major contributor to California's housing crisis. It was published by the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy. According to the study, one culprit in the housing crisis is the lengthy and costly environmental review process required under CEQA, even for housing that complies with local General Plans and zoning codes and the hundreds of applicable environmental, health, safety, and labor laws and regulations. But after new housing is finally approved, any party can – even anonymously – file a CEQA lawsuit seeking to block the housing for "environmental" reasons, resulting in costly, multi-year delays. High-density, multi-family apartments and condos in existing urban neighborhoods are by far the top target of anti-housing CEQA lawsuits, according to the study. But the "not in my backyard" use of anti-development CEQA lawsuits against even one single-family home (e.g., to prevent approved construction based on an aesthetics objection by a neighbor) also dramatically increased to 21 percent of lawsuits in 2018 compared to 13 percent of the lawsuits filed in 2013-2015. Overall, the study found that those filing CEQA lawsuits win nearly 50 percent of them, a vastly higher rate than the 20 percent of such lawsuits won across the country. Quick Hits & Updates  The California Department of Housing and Community Development  announced that 114 California cities and counties have been awarded $26 million in Senate Bill 2 planning grant money. An additional $70 million in awards is currently pending, and an HCD announcement reports five local governments gained eligibility to apply for SB 2 planning grants. SB 2, the Building Homes and Jobs Act (2017), provide cities and counties funding to help prepare, adopt, and implement plans and process improvements that streamline housing approvals and accelerate housing production. Carlsbad City Council declined to retroactively approve San Diego County’s purchase of three acres near McClellan-Palomar Airport. San Diego officials say the purchase will make the county-owned airport safer; the latest airport master plan outlines a series of proposed projects for the disputed parcel that would extend the runway by 800 feet and repurpose an office building for storage. Councilmembers pushed back, saying the county did not go through the proper channels, setting up a potential battle between Carlsbad and San Diego County. Alameda County will sell its half-share in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex it jointly owned with the city of Oakland. The A’s hope to redevelop the area into a “multisports facility” that would include affordable housing and parks, though the city as co-owner of the site will have to approve future plans. For half-ownership of the stadium, the A’s will pay $85 million over six years to Alameda County. The county will save up to $13 million a year in debt payments. The Trump administration has green-lit new oil-drilling leases on federal land in eight Central California counties, across more than 1 million acres between Bakersfield and Santa Barbara. The move follows a previous decision to open up parts of the Bay Area and Central Coast to drilling. Environmental groups are suing to have time to study impacts of fracking in the area, and Gov. Newsom and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra say they will push back, and environmental groups are suing to have time to study impacts of fracking in the area. A San Francisco Planning Commissioner who has been a crusader against building code violators and house flippers is facing allegations that he and his investment group are ignoring city planning and building codes to make millions. The commissioner’s investment group, Six Dogs, LLC, bought a San Francisco property for $2.7 million, bought out the four tenants, spent millions renovating and is now marketing the property for $7.88 million. The matter has been appealed. A division of  AIDS Healthcare Foundation has gathered over one million signatures for a November 2020 ballot initiative that would expand rent control statewide. Last year a similar measure failed, but organizers say they hope the more streamlined initiative that exempts single-family homes will garner more support. In July, a poll claimed that 75 percent of likely California voters said they were “likely to support” a rent control expansion, but similarly high polling in the past has not results at the ballot box. This year, San Francisco surpassed New York for the highest construction costs in the world. An analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle found that a worker shortage, long waits for permits, restrictive zoning and high fees, are likely contributors to an average construction cost of $417-per-square-foot citywide. Environmental impact reports and associated litigation is a big driver in long delays and high costs, the report noted. Gov. Gavin Newsom is authorizing the  release  of $500 million to cities to combat homelessness, relying on preliminary federal homeless counts to disburse state funds. Cities will have wide discretionary power to determine how the funds will be used. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, says the $20 million awarded to San Jose will go toward small grants to help families at risk of losing their housing and toward converting motels into apartments. A spokeswoman for Oakland said an anticipated $12 million will go toward transitional housing, emergency beds, safe parking spaces, and “allow for more robust employment strategies to support housing stability.” Crossings : Transformative Investments for an Uncertain Future, the first of a series of Perspective Papers by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments (MTC/ABAG), is now available on MTC’s website. It tests the extent to which potential new crossings of San Francisco Bay can be expected to perform under each of three population growth models--conservative, moderate, and expansive growth between one and six million additional residents in the next 30 years. Crossings makes observations about the relative merits of seven different potential Transbay crossings under these different population growth models. It also identifies which crossings should be analyzed further in the coming months and years. Two Los Angeles city ordinances aimed at speeding up permitting for temporary homeless housing survived a suit brought by Fight Back, Venice!, a local group that self-describes as working to prevent homeless housing and services in Venice. One of the ordinances allows housing projects to bypass environmental review; the other made it easier to convert old motels to temporary housing. The suit argued the ordinances are unconstitutional because they bypass state environmental review laws. But state lawmakers stepped in to exempt the L.A. ordinances, leading a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to conclude the state had rendered the lawsuit moot.

San Diego Moves Forward with Pro-Density Plan San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced a proposal to slash height and density limits within a half-mile of high frequency rail stations on land parcels already zoned for multi-family housing--in exchange for community benefits, such as below-market units, neighborhood plazas or pedestrianized streetscapes. The proposal bears similarity to one vetoed last year by Mayor Faulconer, but moderates the initial proposal in ways that have garnered business community backing, most notably by raising affordable housing income thresholds to 60 percent, up from 50 percent under the previous proposal, as well as additional treats like a faster permitting process and lower fees. But developers would still be restricted in two notable ways--one being compliance with setbacks and another being floor-to-area ratio, or FAR. Instead of height and density restrictions, developers would be subject to total square footage, a move meant to incentivize smaller, cheaper homes. The proposal has received widespread support from business and community groups, as well as unanimous support from city council.  Southern California Cities Falling Far Short of Housing Goals Southern California cities and counties do far better at planning for housing than they do at meeting housing goals, particularly at the lower income range, according to an analysis by the Los Angeles Daily News and the Orange County Register that gives A through F ratings to California jurisdictions based on RHNA, or Regional Housing Needs Assessments, targets versus actual number of permits issued. The analysis used data from 2018 progress reports to extrapolate where cities were in the late 2013 to late 2021 RHNA cycle--whether “on track” to be in compliance by end of cycle or not on track, and weighted results to reward cities that were very close to target in the bottom two income tiers, had improved substantially over previous years, or had a larger than usual burden (10 percent or greater). Of 538 jurisdictions scored, over half received an A grade for fulfilling moderate and above moderate income housing permits (defined as between 81 and 120 percent of median income). Yet only 47 (9 percent) received a grade of A for very low income housing and just 70 (13 percent) received an A grade for low income housing. Los Angeles to Limit Developers’ Donations to City Candidates  The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve a law that will limit campaign contributions from real estate developers to key government officials while the city weighs key approvals for building projects. The move is largely in response to an FBI raid conducted three years ago that turned up correspondence between developers and officials that showed developers were steering decision-making with regards to zone changes and height allowances.. In support, one council member said, “Doing nothing will cost us the trust of Angelenos. It is the public’s trust that is the foundation of everything we do.” Critics both on and off the council say the law is more an inconvenience than a solution because, like SuperPACs, developers can still host fundraisers and bundle contributions from other donors. As real estate developer Tom Gilmore put it, “ is a nice PR stunt at best … I don’t think it’s meaningful to block developers from giving $800 checks while still allowing them to raise $20,000.” A critic on the council didn't mince words, calling the law “piecemeal crap.” Quick Hits & Updates  The Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to fund a $47 million renovation to Old Sacramento’s waterfront. There are three revitalization projects planned, though only two are funded with the $47 million. One project is an events venue that would hold up to 5,000 people with an open-air space, planned for completion by Aug. 2023. The second is a Museum Event Deck project--another events venue with waterfront views--planned for completion by May 2022. The third project, dubbed the River Dock Renovation, is pending additional funding. The  Goleta City Council approved a new housing policy that requires developers to designate at least 20 percent of units as affordable housing for all projects with at least five units. Within the policy is a provision allowing council discretion to reduce that amount to 15 percent. Development projects that are already underway will not be affected. Insufficient parking is spelling trouble for a $250 million Palm Springs arena project. An initial study by a tribe that owns the building land site purported to show that parking in the area and planned on-site parking structures to sufficient to absorb event traffic. But when Palm Springs commissioned its own consultant review, the new analysis said Palm Springs streets and parking would be overwhelmed even by conservative estimates of one car for every five event attendees. The proposed arena is on land owned by a tribe, but the city will have to absorb traffic, parking, and public safety costs. Analyses show that after on-site parking structures are accounted for, 1,603 spaces would still be needed, and if filled by event attendees, would choke off parking for local businesses and other tourist attractions. The Bay Area Counci l Foundation launched a request for proposals to offer $2 million in funding for local governments to support innovative projects that address climate change-related threats and help safeguard the state against wildfire, drought, flood and extreme heat events. Cities, counties, and special districts may apply for rewards of up to $200,000 of a mix of public and private funds. The Institute for Local Government launched the Housing and Public Engagement Toolkit, a resource to help California local governments establish more trust and transparency by collaborating with and engaging their residents on housing-related issues. The robust report offers high level and granular public engagement strategies, policy considerations, and funding opportunities. The League of California Cities convened with more than 100 committee and caucus stakeholders at an annual meeting at which they developed and released five strategic advocacy priorities for 2020 that fell under five broad umbrellas: affordable housing, homelessness prevention and assistance, fiscal sustainability, disaster preparedness, and public safety. The League is a nonprofit that advocates for cities and provides education and training services to elected and appointed city officials. BART’s South Bay extension won’t be realized until April 2020 at the earliest, four months later than previously promised by BART and Valley Transportation Authority. BART has declined to designate a hard 2020 target for opening South Bay’s Milpitas Station and Berryessa Station. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) After two years of gains, last year Los Angeles rail ridership dipped 4.2 percent, a downward trend that has continued into 2019 across all rail lines. While data shows all U.S. cities are experiencing declining public transportation ridership, Los Angeles rails have been particularly impacted in past years by closures, mechanical issues, and delays that make it hard for commuters to depend on. “We had one shot to get it right and have a good experience and have folks come back,” Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said at a Metro board meeting last week. “I think we certainly did not achieve that.” Metro buses, which account for two-thirds of LA’s public transit ridership, have been hit even harder on almost all routes, including those in Santa Monica, the San Gabriel Valley, the Antelope Valley, and Orange County. (See prior CP&DR commentary .) Political scientists studying the public trade-offs between ‘districtwide’ versus ‘at large’ elections found that district elections, like those implemented after the California Voting Rights Act , tend to produce more equitable results, while citywide elections tend to produce more efficient results. To come to that conclusion, researchers looked at the number of multifamily housing permits issued and found that before the Voting Rights Act, affordable multifamily housing - the kind California cities desperately need but homeowners often reject - was approved more frequently, but were disproportionately located in districts that were ‘logrolled,’ meaning city officials were ignoring that district’s preferences to gain political advantage elsewhere. Conversely, district elections produce fewer housing permits, but the permits are more equally distributed across districts and the housing more affordable.

Reversing a lower-court ruling , the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled that San Jose’s surplus land ordinance conflicts with state law.

In the first appellate ruling involving SB 743, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled that the Sacramento was correct in concluding that traffic congestion is not a significant environmental impact resulting from the city’s new general plan.