Los Angeles Metro Approves $400 Billion Long-Range Plan, Service Cuts for 2021 Against the backdrop of plunging revenue due to the pandemic, the Los Angeles County Metro Board of Directors approved an updated 2020 Long Range Transportation Plan (2020 LRTP): a $400-billion, 30-year transportation blueprint for the county. The 2020 LRTP details plans to add more than 100 miles of rail over the next 30 years, the most aggressive transit expansion plan in the nation. Beyond transit, Metro will invest in arterial and freeway projects to reduce congestion, such as the I-5 North enhancements project and adding more Express Lanes. The plan calls for prioritizing bus travel on the county's busiest streets and implementing the recommendations of the NextGen Bus Plan to make bus service more frequent and faster. After implementation, Metro expects 21 percent of county residents and 36 percent of jobs will be within a 10-minute walk of high-quality rail or bus rapid transit options--up from only 8 percent and 16 percent, respectively. The comprehensive plan estimates an 81 percent increase in daily transit trips, a 31 percent decrease in transit delay and a 19 percent decrease in overall greenhouse gas emissions in the county. At the same time, Metro approved budget and service cuts for 2021. The budget will drop 20 percent, to $6 billion, and bus and rail service will drop by 1 million hours, to 5.6 million.  Sacramento Plans for Downtown Public Transit Hub The City of Sacramento revealed new plans for a downtown transit hub situated between the city's downtown and the railyard, which is being redeveloped as a massive mixed-use community. The vision for the 17-acre, city-owned site, which includes the historic Sacramento Valley Station depot, is centered around a new passenger station above existing Amtrak platforms, with adjacent plazas and bus hubs to be integrated into the station. This fall the city will update its planning guide for the area, which will open up state and federal grant opportunities to contribute to what is expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars in both public and private investment costs. Early designs suggest the hub will have a similar sleek and high-tech feel of nearby Downtown Commons, but with more recreational amenities like a community garden, a dog park, and a skate park along the river. Among the first steps are a plan to build a ramp into an existing train passenger tunnel to connect to planned developments including a medical center and a Major League Soccer stadium. Coastal Commission Approves Makeover of Dana Point Harbor The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to approve a redevelopment plan for 49-year-old Dana Point Harbor in Orange County. The plan, which is expected to cost $330 million, is the result of more than 20 years of collaborative efforts with the county, the city of Dana Point, and community stakeholders. As part of the Coastal Commission's approval--which includes re-configuring the harbor and replacing 2,409 boat slips with fewer, larger boat slips--the developer must meet special conditions. Among these are creating a sea lion and seal monitoring program, planning for post-construction water quality protection and enhancement, and maximizing public access and recreation so environmental justice considerations, such as educational access for youth, are addressed. For the latter, the developer said it is developing a program that would bring at least 1,000 low-income and disadvantaged youths to the harbor every year. The program will include a variety of water education programs including sailing and surfing. CP&DR Coverage: Infamous Apartment Proposed Approved in Lafayette  The Lafayette City Council voted to approve the Terraces at Lafayette, an apartment complex planned for 22 acres in the upscale Bay Area suburb. The Terraces saga gained widespread attention early this year when it was recounted in Conor Dougherty’s recently published book  Golden Gates . Over the years, the project’s size has wavered between 44 units and 315 units. Some local residents at one point favored the diminutive version, while housing advocates insisted that the project accommodate as many residents as possible – and famously sued the city, unsuccessfully, to force the larger project. Even so, the controversy is far from over. Opponents, led by the citizens’ group Save Lafayette, filed a lawsuit suit against the project in late September – the second suit brought by the group under the California Environmental Quality Quick Hits & Updates  City officials have delayed the release of a crucial report about a transit village proposed by Google for downtown San Jose, saying the game-changing project is so complex that more time is needed to fashion the study. The next major step in the city planning process was an initial environmental impact report that had been slated for release by the end of August. The report is now slated to be released in October. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Following newly released details of the Burbank to Los Angeles leg of California High-Speed Rail , officials will now study how to extend service into Orange County. Under the proposed plan, the roughly 30-mile corridor would feature an electrified track for high-speed trains and other passenger rail services. The environmental study will also evaluate the construction of two new satellite rail facilities in the San Bernardino County communities of Lenwood and Colton. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have unveiled a plan to protect California from a looming wave of evictions caused by economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The proposed deal has some eviction protection provisions for tenants, but no rent forgiveness. Proponents of the bill say it's a stopgap measure meant to help Californians in need until federal aid comes through. Los Angeles plans to spend nearly $10 million on a new program to help tenants threatened with eviction defend themselves in court, along with an additional $40 million to help low income residents. The "emergency eviction defense" program will be funded with up to $8 million from federal block grants and nearly $2 million previously set aside for a renters relief program. The board of Los Angeles commuter rail system  Metrolink has greenlit the planning of two extensions for a $5 billion high-speed train to Las Vegas that would tie it into existing Los Angeles-area commuter rail lines and California's high-speed rail project. Each of the extensions would be about 50 miles from Victorville, California, and add about $2 billion of additional construction costs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance payments flowed improperly to former employees, an audit of the San Diego Association of Governments found. Hasan Ikhrata, who took over as SANDAG's top executive in 2018, approved more than $227,000 in payments without telling the board of directors. The actions were not isolated cases, the audit said: Ikhrata regularly operated outside of existing procedures and established his own policy objectives. A proposed development in Upland is now in jeopardy due to a conflict regarding whether the project can bypass environmental review pursuant to SB 35. Due to initial backlash from the city of Upland, the developer has said that it will either go through a ministerial approval process or not build at all. The case is complicated by the fact that part of the project straddles two jurisdictions. The city of Claremont disputes Upland's claim that the environmental report does not qualify for construction through SB 35. San Francisco's Muni Metro light-rail system, which shut down abruptly after a short reopening, is expected to remain closed through the end of the year as extensive repairs are made. Muni shut down the light-rail system after equipment malfunctions and reports of employees infected with the coronavirus. Officials said after worrying back-to-back breakdowns it makes sense to do the repairs now while ridership is low. Details are emerging for a proposed gondola line that could take one of four routes from the San Fernando Valley to a viewing platform below the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles. The proposed tram would require the construction of a series of tower structures which would be used to support cable-driven gondolas. Ridership forecasts anticipate as many 13,000 passengers per day with ample parking and inexpensive fares.

Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court, has a thin judicial record on property and environmental issues. But the one recent opinion she wrote provides some insight into how she might approach those issues on the high court: carefully, narrowly, and with deference to local government. Environmental groups are excoriating Barrett as a threat to all efforts at environmental protection, particularly combatting climate change. Typical is the statement from the Center for Biological Diversity , a public interest law firm that has been extremely effective in California land-use law. The statement called Barrett “an ideological fanatic who lacks the temperament to rule fairly in the interest of all Americans” and predicted Barrett “will slam shut the courthouse doors to public interest advocates, to the delight of corporate polluters.” And many environmentalists are concerned that by reducing the number of liberal justices on the high court to three, public-interest-oriented cases in the environmental and property arenas won’t even get a hearing in front of the Supreme Court because it takes four votes to hear a case. To be sure, Barrett’s confirmation would pull the court in a conservative direction on property and environmental issues. Recently she joined a majority of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in rejecting the argument that wetlands surrounded by residential development, 11 miles from the nearest navigable waterway, required a federal permit, as the Army Corps of Engineers argued. But she did not write the ruling. In the one environmental/property opinion she has written as a member of the Seventh Circuit – issued only a month ago – Barrett rejected a very expansive federal takings claim and showed extreme deference to the City of Chicago. She also showed herself to be extremely careful in her legal reasoning and an unusually clear and accessible writer of judicial opinions. The case involved a legal challenge by a parks watchdog group and Chicago residents to Chicago’s deal with the Barack Obama Foundation to place the Obama Presidential Center in historic Jackson Park, originally the site of the famous Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The deal granted an extraordinary amount of control over a public park to a private foundation. The watchdog group sued on a wide variety of arguments, but the one of most interest to those outside of Illinois was the group’s attempt to claim that the deal with between the city and the Obama Foundation amounted to a taking of public property for private gain under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. In short, the plaintiffs invoked Illinois’ “public trust” doctrine to claim that the deal illegally transferred control of a public park to a private entity for private purposes. Then the plaintiffs argued that, as Chicago residents and taxpayers, they have a “beneficial interest” in the park under the public trust doctrine. This beneficial interest, they argued, constitutes a property right worthy of protection under the Fifth Amendment – and the Obama deal was a taking of that property right. The plaintiffs also argued that their substantive due process rights were violated under the Constitution. This is a pretty far-out argument even for a citizen group, and it’s easy to imagine Barrett’s mentor, Antonin Scalia, dismissing it with memorably snarky language. Indeed, Barrett does note that “the alleged property right” is “highly unusual” and “one might be immediately skeptical about whether it exists”. But her ruling dispatches the constitutional claims carefully, with admirable restraint, and with considerable deference to the city. On the takings claim, she relies heavily on an Illinois Supreme Court case that concluded that private landowners near a public park have no private property right in having the park used a particular way. “If adjacent landowners have no protected interest in public land, then the plaintiffs don’t have one either,” she wrote. “Although the plaintiffs wish it were otherwise, the Illinois cases make clear that the public trust doctrine functions as a restraint on government action, not as an affirmative grant of property rights.” And she added: “What’s more, the City’s judgment that a particular transfer and use has a public purpose is entitled to deference.” She noted that it’s hard to argue that the Obama Center, which includes a museum, a branch library, an auditorium, an athletic center, and gardens, does not have a public benefit. On the substantive due process claim, she also deferred to the City of Chicago and also the state. She quoted a previous Seventh Circuit ruling concluding that one legislative determination “provides all the process that is due”. Noting that the city adopted four different ordinances – after “multiple public hearings” and the state also amended laws to accommodate the Obama Center, she concluded: “If one legislative determination is enough, then five determinations are overkill.” 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:

An otherwise unassuming apartment project that became a symbol of California’s housing crisis may finally move forward, nine years after its initial proposal. The Lafayette City Council has voted to approve the Terraces at Lafayette , an apartment complex planned for 22 acres in the upscale Bay Area suburb. The Terraces saga gained widespread attention early this year when it was recounted in Conor Dougherty’s book Golden Gates . Over the years, the project’s size has wavered between 44 units and 315 units. Some local residents at one point favored the diminutive version, while housing advocates insisted that the project accommodate as many residents as possible – and famously sued the city, unsuccessfully, to force the larger project. The City Council approval came at a late August meeting that was the last allocated to Lafayette City Council under the provisions of SB 330 , which amended the Housing Accountability Act (HAA) to allow local municipalities just five meetings to approve housing developments or otherwise give a reason to deny. Even so, the controversy is far from over. Opponents – led by the citizens’ group Save Lafayette filed a lawsuit suit against the project in late September – the second suit brought by the group under the California Environmental Quality Act. Richard Drury , the attorney representing Save Lafayette, claims the city must conduct a supplemental environmental impact report of the Terraces before the project can proceed. “The city is relying on an EIR prepared in 2011. It was for a similar project, but it was different in many respects,” Drury said. The EIR for the project was originally certified in 2013 – a few months before community comments prompted Lafayette to work with Terraces developer O’Brien Land Company on an alternative project, one “better suited” to the community’s “semi-rural character,” according to city documents. The city subsequently approved a new development to include 44 single-family homes, a community park, a sports complex, a dog park and a parking lot.

San Jose Adopts Commercial Linkage Fee for Affordable Housing After more than five years of stalled talks, the City of San Jose will begin charging commercial developers fees to fund affordable housing. Under the new plan, office developers with projects more than 100,000 square feet will pay between $12 and $15 per square foot unless they agree to build affordable housing. Projects below the 100,000 square foot threshold will be exempt. The fee amounts were higher than those proposed by city housing and economic development officials who recommended $10 per square foot for downtown office developments with 100,000 square feet or more and $5 per square foot for outside of downtown. Retail developers fees will be $0, regardless of their size, due to increased retail vacancies during the pandemic. The council will explore allowing incentives such as fee reductions for developers who choose to build affordable housing right away and will create an additional fee structure for projects above one million square feet in the future Councilmembers called for a future feasibility study in two years to monitor the impact of the fees in an economy recovering from COVID-19. ADU Permitting Increases Threefold Statewide Largely through recently adopted legislation, California has spurred accessory dwelling units (ADUs) construction, especially in urban areas, according to an analysis from UC Berkeley's Terner Center. Between 2018 and 2019, permits increased from almost 6,000 to almost 16,000. To build upon the early success of ADU legislation, the Terner Center’s study suggests more financial tools are needed to facilitate ADU development amongst homeowners who don't have access to cash or equity. Constructing an ADU in California remains prohibitively expensive for many. An analysis of ADU construction data found that the average ADU cost in California is $167,000. Many owners reported needing to use multiple sources of financing. Programs like the Backyard Homes Project in Los Angeles, a pilot program that provides loans for homeowners that rent ADUs to low-income residents. The authors recommend making these financing options widely available on both the federal and state level. SCAG Adopts Updated Sustainable Communities Strategy and Transportation Plan The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) regional council voted unanimously to approve Connect SoCal, which among other things will serve as the basis for the region's Regional Housing Needs Assessments through 2029. SCAG staff will now notify each of the region's six counties and 191 cities of its draft allocation of new homes based on population, household, and job forecasts contained in the report. Local governments that disagree with those allocations will be able to appeal those numbers starting Sept. 11. The state Department of Housing and Community Development determined that the region must provide sufficient zoning for more than 1.3 million new homes--more than triple what they were in the latest RHNA cycle. The appeals will be heard by SCAG's RHNA subcommittee in December and January, and final allocations will be adopted in February. RHNA subcommittee members have publicly stated they expect a considerable number of appeals. (Further CP&DR coverage forthcoming.) CP&DR Coverage: Duplexes on the Rise Bill Fulton attended two panels on land use and housing last week, where housing experts said the problem of restrictive zoning may be more complicated because even when housing is allowed, costs are so high. But the solution may come back to housing reform – and, in particular, allowing small-scale projects that would have been facilitated by the doomed SB 1120, a duplex bill that died on the last night of the legislative session. Quick Hits & Updates  Amid a push for policies that promote racial equity, San Diego city officials will consider paving 40 miles of dirt streets in low-income neighborhoods and take over long-term maintenance costs. In areas where roads were never paved, many residents have a lesser understanding of the political process, and can't afford to donate to political campaigns, activists say. Community leaders reasoned that dirt streets and alleys can leave visitors and developers with a negative image of the areas. A stretch of concrete and asphalt in Alameda that was once an aircraft taxiway will be removed so the site along San Francisco Bay can be converted to a wetlands park, according to a proposal being considered by the city. The $14 million project would potentially come from the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority through a grant under Measure AA, a 20-year parcel tax passed in 2016 to fund habitat restoration. Based on data provided to San Francisco's Chamber of Commerce by credit-card companies, San Francisco restaurant sales are down 84 percent year-over-year; restaurant sales have dropped by 91 percent since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. About 51.5 percent of the city's restaurants aren't currently ringing up any sales, suggesting that they've closed temporarily or for good. Los Angeles Metro CEO Phil Washington announced a new internal task force intended to plan and implement a fareless transit system pilot. The initiative is billed as "a moral obligation to explore how a fareless system can aid those that have been hit hardest by the pandemic" and "a mitigation for targeting BIPOC on the system." Washington stated the task force will deliver its recommendations in December for implementation starting early 2021. The Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors has awarded a $48.3-million contract to move forward on the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project, a public transit line between the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles. The contract will fund advanced conceptual engineering and environmental studies for current Metro concepts and recently submitted proposed, private-industry concepts. Metro's designs include an underground subway or a partially above-ground aerial train. The Sacramento City Council approved a controversial revitalization plan that leaves the door open to a large historic public housing complex to be demolished and rebuilt. The West Broadway Specific Plan creates a vision for the area for the next 20 years. While it does not require the demolition of more than 750 units for low-income families, the plan contains language that leaves demolition as an option. That has concerned residents, activists and preservationists, including a former mayor and former NFL player Malcom Floyd, who participated in demonstrations at the site. The Modesto City Council approved a downtown master plan that calls for dense housing, walkable streets, and connections to the Tuolomne River and other trail corridors. The plan notes that downtown already has strong office, restaurant and entertainment sectors, but only 1 percent of Modesto's housing. That could change significantly as the plan calls for building 1,550 new homes. With widespread support from residents and businesses, San Luis Obispo's City Council passed an initiative that aims to encourage no net new building emissions from onsite energy use by 2020, and a 50 percent reduction in existing onsite building emissions by 2030. To reach the city's goal of carbon neutrality by 2035, the climate action plan also calls for 40 percent use of electric vehicles by 2030 and 50 percent use of green transportation by 2030.

An environmental review challenge to the construction of self-storage facilities in the Placer County community of Granite Bay has been declared moot by the Third District Court of Appeal.

The recent debate over housing in California has focused on land-use regulations – specifically, the idea that the biggest impediment to more housing in California is local regulation that restricts construction and the solution.

Anaheim, Angels Reach Deal for Stadium Redevelopment  The City of Anaheim and Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno have agreed on a cash and community benefits package of $150 million in cash, 466 affordable housing units, and a 7-acre park at a combined cost of $170 million for a 150-acre stadium property. The site was originally priced at $325 million, but the price and size of the parcel shrunk slightly by about $5 million and roughly 3 acres after the city decided to reserve land for city services. SRB Management, Moreno's business partnership, agreed to make 15 percent of housing units affordable at no extra cost to the city, adding 311 units, mostly for moderate-income families in an area expected to eventually be home to 30,000 residents. The plan also calls for 5,175 units of market-rate housing, 2.7 million square feet of office space, two hotels with 943 rooms combined, 1.1 million square feet of retail space, and parking structures. Los Altos Reluctantly Approves SB 35 Project After deciding not to appeal a judge's adverse ruling, the Los Altos City Council r eluctantly approved a five-story mixed-use project in its small-scale downtown last week. “If you’ve been to our downtown you know it just doesn’t fit there,” said Mayor Jan Pepper. “It’s unfortunate that SB 35 doesn’t allow cities to do the review of a project like this to make sure they conform with our requirements.” But a Superior Court judge had ruled the city's denial of the project was not based on any specific objective standard.  SGC Annual Report Highlights $1.6 Billion in Sustainability Grants  The 2020 Annual Report for the California Strategic Growth Council is now available. Highlights from 2019 and 2020 include the fifth and largest round of Affordable Housing and Sustainable communities (AHSC) projects, bringing the total invested through the program to over $1.6 billion. Three of SGC's Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) awardees secured federal grants to expand work in their TCC project areas. Two notable grants were the $35 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative award in Watts and U.S. EPA Brownfields awards in Fresno and Sacramento. SGC established the Health and Equity program within the council, which builds on the public-private Health in All Policies partnership. The council began laying the groundwork for Regional Climate Collaboratives by building a community leadership development training program that will serve under-resources communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, SGC reports having adapted grant timelines and activities to applicants and grant recipients to adjust to uncertain conditions. SGC staff are also partnering with other state agencies to contribute to response and recovery activities. SANDAG Executive Director Under Fire in Disputed Report  The public version of a report accusing the San Diego Association of Governments' executive director of improper payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars was "incomplete and manipulated," according to the report's author. In an open letter to SANDAG, Mary Khoshmashrab railed against "redacted dollar amounts, position titles, dates and percentages that are not confidential in nature." Hasan Ikhrata, the SANDAG executive director, awarded bonuses, severance and other payments to current and former workers without alerting the full board of directors, according to the audit. SANDAG and Ikhrata have both pushed back on the audit's findings: Ikhrata produced a 38-page response disputing the report's claims and SANDAG released a lengthy memorandum from a hired law firm concluding that the severance payments were permitted. The report is the first out of the Office of Independent Performance Auditor, an agency created after SANDAG was found to have inflated the number of projects it could develop under a proposed tax measure. Quick Hits & Updates  Three possible routes will be considered  by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the Crenshaw Northern Extension Project, as well as a $50.3-million contract for environmental analysis and conceptual engineering of the project. Early ridership estimates for all the routes were promising, showing about 90,000 boardings being taken on the line on weekdays, says L.A. Metro. The Los Angeles City Planning Department released plans for an incentive-based zoning system for downtown projects to include more affordable housing. The new system would replace the existing program for the Transfer of Floor Area Rights (TFAR). Under the draft proposal, the new Downtown Community Plan update would rezone every parcel within its boundaries, more than doubling the land area currently eligible for housing. UC Merced's 2020 Project, which broke ground in 2016, is complete after a $1.3 billion investment over four years that doubled the size of the campus. California's youngest university added 13 structures with new classrooms, student wellness and counseling facilities, student housing, recreational areas, and more research space. The additional room will help the university get to its 2030 goal of 15,000 students, up from the 8,800 currently enrolled. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) In a surprise decision, the California Fish and Game Commission chose to delay an up-or-down vote that would have granted the western Joshua tree legal protection under the California Endangered Species Act. The tree will be up again for listing under the act in late September. Commission members indicated they believe the petition to protect Joshua Trees had already passed muster. A long-planned cleanup of a contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory  site is in jeopardy after the State Historical Resources Commission backed a NASA proposal to designate the entire site as a Native American cultural district. Cleanup activists note that an agreement to clean up up the site contains exemptions for land containing Native American artifacts, and fear those exemptions might be applied sitewide if the designation moves forward. The XpressWest high-speed rail line--expected to begin construction later this year--will connect Las Vegas with Southern California, but not before the project's backers and Los Angeles County officials grapple with how to connect the rail line with Metrolink and California's high-speed rail system. To date, Metro and others have committed $5 million to a development plan that will include an analysis of potential stations, ridership potential, and travel demand. Ventura County Planning Commission approved recommendations for the county's General Plan and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that will now to go the Board of Supervisors. Public comments have either called for strong climate action or a delay in the process to allow for a proper review of the economic impacts of proposed restrictions on oil and gas operations. The General Plan was originally slated to be the county's Climate Action Plan, but the EIR demonstrated that the proposed plans fail to meet emission reductions. A plan to build a light-rail line that would have connected downtown Sacramento with West Sacramento was rejected last-minute by a divided Sacramento Regional Transit Board. The board's refusal likely marks the end of a decade-long effort, despite backers having banked $50 million in federal funding for the project. City officials could not guarantee full funding to build the new project, nor funding to cover an estimated $1.5 million annual operating cost. Moreover, a feasibility study was never conducted. After decades of fierce opposition from resident groups, Lafayette City Council voted to approve a 315-unit apartment development on a 22-acre parcel. Under the Housing Accountability Act, the city had little choice but to allow the apartments: the project has set aside aside 20 percent of its units for affordable housing. The developer vowed to file a lawsuit if the city rejected the project, a fight the city was likely to lose. If that happened, Lafayette could have been on the hook for more than $15 million in fines and legal fees.

After going to the appellate court for the second time in five years, the City of Brentwood has come up empty-handed in its attempt to use funds from its former redevelopment agency to pay for five public construction projects.

In December, the City of Minneapolis did the unthinkable: as part of its  Minneapolis 2040  Comprehensive Plan, it eliminated single-unit zoning throughout the entire city. Now, any lot that currently includes a single home can be redeveloped as a duplex or triplex. While Minneapolis's housing crisis -- like its population -- is diminutive compared to that of California, the housing pressures are real, and planners and advocates believe that limiting the dominance of single-unit lots is an important step toward affordability and equity. One of the leading advocacy groups supporting Minneapolis 2040, and especially its loosening of zoning restrictions, was Neighbors for More Neighbors. Somewhat, though not entirely, affiliated with the YIMBY movement that has arisen in many housing-constrained cities, Neighbors for More Neighbors is a grassroots housing advocacy group that takes Minnesota's famed neighborliness seriously and literally. As California struggles with its housing crisis -- and considers many local and statewide efforts to loosen zoning -- the California Chapter of the American Planning Association invited Anna Nelson , one of MN4N's volunteer leaders, to speak at its virtual  statewide conference , to be held Sept. 14-16 on the internet. She will participate in " Big Conversation #2 : Thinking Outside the Toolbox to House California" the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 15. CP&DR 's Josh Stephens spoke with Nelson about what the planners in California can learn from Minnesota. For access on other platforms, including Spotify and Google Podcasts, please click here .

Concerned about the possible loss of a $7 million bond the city must post, the Los Altos City Council has reversed its earlier decision to appeal an SB 35-related ruling to an appellate court. The council will likely issue the relevant permits for a five-story mixed-used project in the city’s small-scale downtown later this week.

Vast Majority of Cities Remain Subject to SB 35 Streamlining Provisions In the Department of Housing and Community Development's newly released SB 35 Statewide Determination Summary  reports that all but 29 jurisdictions fall under some provision of SB 35, designed to streamline permitting for cities that have failed to meet their affordable housing goals. As previous CP&DR  coverage reported , among the 29 places that have satisfied housing expectations are Atherton, Beverly Hills, Carpinteria, Menlo Park, Newport Beach, and Santa Monica. The majority of metros and counties--289 statewide--are subject to streamlining for proposed developments with at least ten percent affordable housing as a result of insufficient progress toward their Above Moderate income RHNA. 221 jurisdictions have made insufficient progress toward their Lower income RHNA, and are therefore subject to streamlining for proposed developments with at least 50 percent affordability. The latter category includes the state’s three largest cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.  Southern California Driving Dropped 80 Percent Early in Pandemic The Southern California region, one of the nation's most congested metropolitan areas has experienced a significant decline in vehicle traffic, transit use and air travel since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the first comprehensive analysis of the coronavirus' impact on planes, trains, and automobiles in Southern California. The study, conducted by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), analyzed roadway, rail and air traffic in the six-county region during the early months of the pandemic. Among the key findings of this first snapshot: Vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) fell by nearly 80 percent in April from January 2020, then gradually increased beginning in mid-April as many businesses and public spaces started reopening. Total VMT is now nearing pre-pandemic levels. Transit ridership began dropping in March and fell sharply the following month--down 65 percent to 85 percent from the prior year. The impact on Metrolink ridership was the most dramatic--down 90 percent in April and May from the year before. Air travel suffered immediate and significant impacts--down 65 percent year-over-year in March and 95 percent in April. San Diego Expands Density Bonus Program  The San Diego City Council unanimously approved a Moderate-Income Housing Density Bonus that will complement the Affordable Housing Density Bonus program, which the council approved in 2016. As the law stood, projects could earn an affordable housing density bonus of 50 percent. The new rule goes further, allowing projects to use the moderate-income program to obtain an additional 25 percent density bonus as long as 10 percent of pre-density units are deed-restricted at 120 percent AMI or lower. While the city has had success in driving new affordable housing construction, that hasn't translated to middle-income units. The 2010 to 2020 Regional Housing Needs Assessment called for 15,462 middle-income units to be built over the ten year period, but only 34 had been constructed through 2019. Quick Hits & Updates  The governor appointed  former Santa Ana City Councilmember Michele Martinez to the California Transportation Commission, and the commissioners elected Hilary Norton as chair. Both have strong support from active transportation and environmental advocates throughout the state. The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) announced the completion and opening of the Downtown San Francisco Ferry Terminal Expansion Project. The $98 million expansion triples WETA's San Francisco Bay Ferry capacity in the city core, creates infrastructure for emergency response activities, and opens up new public space on the San Francisco Waterfront. Metro Planning and Programming Committee board members will consider reallocating funds from the now-defunct High Desert Corridor freeway to a high-speed rail. The 63-mile High Desert Corridor freeway was planned to connect Palmdale in north L.A. County to Victorville in San Bernadino County. Metro's Measure M revenues, which total $170 million for property acquisition, plus $1.8 billion for construction, could now shift from freeway to high-speed rail. An ongoing battle to keep a Costco Warehouse from relocating in Redding seemed to have culminated after an attempt to overturn the project's approval with a ballot measure failed. The project may yet be subject to a CEQA lawsuit, according to a Redding City Attorney. The Redding City Council unanimously approved the project in May. Cypress is on track to be the first city in Orange County to resolve its "successor agency," which took the place of local redevelopment agencies in 2012. The decade long effort in Cypress will go to the county oversight board for official consideration. To dissolve, the law requires any successor agency to have all of their obligations paid in full, all litigation resoled and get the oversight board of approval. Santa Ana , which has for years exceeded state-set affordable housing goals, is now set to relax standards to allow developers to built market-rate apartments in the city, while lowering affordable housing requirements. The local law, known as the Housing Opportunity Ordinance (HOO), by reducing the number of affordable housing units required in future projects, and lower the in lieu fee. Most Californians support  policies to address climate change, according to a new statewide survey from the Public Policy Institute of California, including laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Two-thirds say air pollution is a serious threat, with Latinos and African Americans most likely to say it is a health concern. The survey also found that majorities oppose offshore drilling and favor protecting marine sanctuaries. Tenant activists in Santa Ana have failed to collect enough signatures to place a rent control measure before voters. A signature gathering drive for a local rent control initiative in 2018 also failed to get enough signatures, and Santa Ana voters rejected statewide ballot measure Prop. 10, which 54 percent of Santa Ana voters rejected. Proposition 21 , a rent control measure on November's statewide ballot, contains "false and misleading statements," according to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court. At issue is a claim to "protect single family home owners" from new rent caps, and that Proposition 21 "encourages the construction of new homes."

The last major piece of the Senate’s housing production package failed to make it to the governor’s desk last night when SB 1120 , the duplex bill, passed the Assembly by three votes – but ran out of time before it could be sent back to the Senate for concurrence. Some said the bill would have passed the Senate easily but that Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon held up the re-referral. (The best source is the Twitter feed of Matt Levin , housing reporter for CalMatters.)