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In this week’s election, Bernie Sanders won big in the Democratic presidential race, and local measures to promote development and smart growth got slaughtered. Coincidence? Only partially.

Package of Bills Takes Aim at Development Fees  Seven bills aimed at slashing development and impact fees -- which comprise up to 18 percent of the cost of new Californian homes -- have been proposed in the legislature recently. The bills, jointly authored by five Democratic assembly members, aim to combat the housing crisis in California. If passed in full, the package would substantially modify the way fees are assessed, including nexus standards reform; impact fee reduction for affordable housing units and units built using the state's density bonus program; tie fees to median home prices; and assess fees on a per-square-foot basis, giving developers the option to build smaller, more affordable units without being penalized. Impact fees would be payable "under protest," allowing developers to defer fee negotiations and continue building. Overall, the package pares down requirements and development costs, with one exception: cities and counties would be required to report essential housing data to HCD, including the number of new housing units that have been issued a completed entitlement, a building permit, or a certificate of occupancy. The bills are currently being sent to Assembly Committees where they are expected to be heard in the spring.  Ruling Stalls Approval of 72,000 Oil Wells  Kern County oil producers will no longer be allowed to use a single environmental report for 72,000 new oil wells after an appellate court ruled that the report concealed impacts on air quality, drinking water, and wildlife. Kern County officials ignored threats to public health from particulate soot, and impacts to drinking and agricultural water supplies, the panel ruled. The environmental impact report had set a cap of 3,647 new well approvals a year, for a total of 72,900 permits over 20 years, but the sweeping ruling invalidates the entire policy until county officials can demonstrate CEQA compliance. While the decision is a blow to the industry, the overall concept of blanket approval and quick permitting remains intact. "We're committed to this ordinance. If we need to fix it, we'll fix it," said Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Director Lorelei Oviatt, who helped craft the policy. "I'm very pleased we won on the very important issues for this innovative approach ... covering 2.3 million acres." Her statement gets to the heart of environmentalist's concerns. "The scheme they set up is basically rubber-stamping all the applications that come across the county's desk for oil and gas wells, and all of the ancillary equipment," said Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. There's no word yet whether there will be an appeal, but one more timely option on the table would be to kick the matter up to state authorities. Bakersfield-Palmale Segment of High Speed Rail to Cost $18.1 Billion The segment of California High Speed Rail from Bakersfield to Palmdale would incur significant losses, financial and otherwise, says a draft environmental statement by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The rail line route would cut through 253 residential housing units, 311 businesses, 175 farm fields, a homeless shelter, and an alternative high school. Among impacts that are "significant and unavoidable under CEQA" is the relocation of a section of the iconic Pacific Crest Trail. The estimated $18.1 billion price tag is a reflection of the route's challenging terrain. To achieve 4,000 feet of elevation - as crossing the Tehachapi Mountains requires - plans call for 9.3 miles of tunnels,15.8 miles of elevated structures, and 75 overpass or underpass structures to cross highways. A federal bill, H.R. 5805, has been introduced in the House of Representatives by by Rep. Jim Costa that would authorize $32 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail corridors, but whether those funds make it to California is an open question as the federal administration has been show to disburse funds and has tried to take already granted funds back. LAO Analyzes Costs, Benefits of Governor’s Climate Proposals The Legislative Affairs Office has issued a report examining Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed investments related to climate change. The four main proposals evaluated by the LAO include a $965 million cap-and-trade expenditure plan, $25 million for expanded climate adaptation research and technical assistance, $250 million for a new climate catalyst loan fund, and a $4.8 billion climate bond. The report sets forth a series of key issues for the legislature to consider, including thinking broadly - beyond the governor's recommendations - about its climate change-related priorities. Since the climate catalyst loan, for example, comes out of the General Fund, the legislature will have to weight multiple priorities before those funds are issued to their ultimate destination. A common thread throughout the report is California's potential contributions to the private sector and impacts beyond the state's borders. Because California emits roughly 1 percent of global greenhouse gas gases,. the most significant effect of California's climate policies may be how they influence greenhouse gas reduction activities in other jurisdictions. If California were to successfully implement cost-effective policies, for example, a reasonable assumption is that other states or even countries could follow suit. Quick Hits & Updates The California High-Speed Rail Authority estimates the state bullet train project will cost $80.3 billion, up from a previous estimate of $70 billion, mainly because the plan pushes back the completion of a high-speed rail link between Silicon Valley and the Central Valley by 18 months, to late 2031. But, managers insist they are on pace to meet a 2022 federal deadline for laying track along the first segment in the Central Valley. New figures from BART indicate that ridership has decreased during off-peak hours, particularly on weekends and at night. The total amount of rides outside of commuting hours have dropped by nearly 10 million, from 62.2 million in 2015 to 52.7 million in 2019. In a survey of 662 BART riders, reasons for not taking rides in off-peak hours includes lower frequency of trains on the weekend and the rail system not reaching places BART riders want to travel to. Crime, lack of cleanliness, and homeless riders were also cited as reasons riders chose alternative transit options. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sided with the California attorney general's office and HCD, asserting Huntington Beach must respond to a state lawsuit accusing the city of falling out of compliance with the state housing mandate. UCLA Luskin research team won the 2019 Pyke Johnson Award from the Transportation Research Board for a recent paper about the mobility needs of aging adults. The award-winning paper, "Physical Accessibility and Employment Among Older Adults in California," found that adults age 60 and older are able to stay in the workforce longer when they have access to a car or to public transit, or if they live in an urban area. More than half of all California counties should begin preparing for a large and long lasting period of declining student enrollment by as much as seven percent, according to projections from the California Department of Finance. Since funding is allocated on a per pupil basis, schools will contend with shrinking budgets. There is at least one silver lining: with continued economic growth, lower enrollment could result in funding increases for K-12 schools of up to $100 per student in each of the next several years. The San Bernadino County Transportation Authority voted to initiate a $3 million study to explore three rail access options and choose a "preferred alternative" that would allow car-free access to Ontario International Airport. In broad strokes, officials are looking at either extending the Gold Line from Pomona to the airport, building a heavy-rail line from Metrolink's Rancho Cucamonga station, or converting existing cargo train tracks to a heavy-rail passenger service from Metrolink's Ontario-East Station. San Diego's Planning and Development Services has created an online portal through which the public can track progress on the general plan and local development, as the city seeks to add up to 60,748 residences. The portal includes text summary reports, maps that show how many residences have been built in each unincorporated community, the capacity the general plan would still allow to be built in each community, and a search tool, all updated quarterly. Los Angeles Metro expects to receive a $1.3 billion grant for the purple line, a Los Angeles County subway line that will connect downtown to the Westside, the last piece of major funding needed to finish the project. The nine-mile project, which will run beneath Wilshire Boulevard, is expected to generate 78,000 new daily trips. Los Angeles is considering a car-free zone on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. The initiative, Bringing Back Broadway, includes a streetscape master plan that would extend sidewalks and divert traffic. A new streetcar loop for Broadway is also in the works; nearly $590-million has been secured for construction and operations. The Coastal Commission unanimously rejected a massive seawall barrier proposal that would protect expensive homes on Dana's Point's Strands Beach from landslides. Commissioners objected to the large taxpayer expense that would predominantly benefit wealthy homeowners, as well as the loss of beach that would occur as a result of the plan. CCC rejected a similar proposal in 2012, signaling commissioner's preference for protecting coastline over private property. President Trump signed a presidential memorandum that is intended to divert water to Central Valley's agricultural regions, once again setting up a legal battle between the state and the federal Justice Department. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra immediately responded, saying in a news release that California will challenge the action. Implications are unclear for Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent announcement that he will seek "voluntary agreements" to manage delta resources. The developer of Cupertino's Vallco Mall filed a complaint against the city of Cupertino, setting the stage to sue the city over general plan amendments made in August. The company had "no choice" to file a claim, Sand Hill managing director said in an email, alleging the amendments would amount to "downzoning" the project and "radically the value of the Site, as they left no potential for a project that can feasibly be built.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has created Housing Central Command, a new initiative to establish real-time awareness of LA's permanent supportive housing portfolio across all jurisdictions and funding streams. Developed by HUD, the crisis response model will allow homeless service agencies and government authorities to coordinate with a common set of housing inventory data. A San Mateo development is on track to be the first success story for AB 1763, the bill that allows projects near major transit hubs to be built taller and denser. A developer is relying on the new law to bump a five-story, 164-unit project up to a seven-story complex with 225 units for low-income families.  San Francisco's car ban on Market Street went into effect last month. Newly released data from Inrix, a traffic analytics firm, shows worries regarding traffic snarls on surrounding streets were unfounded. An independent data set provided to the San Francisco Examiner confirms Inrix's findings, which show negligible, slightly slower car travel times, while Muni and bus times have seen a commensurate boost.

CP&DR Vol. 35 No. 2 February 2020

Will the federal government soon try to transportation funds – and possibly other funds from higher levels of government -- to local zoning reform?

Newsom Promises Aggressive Action on Homelessness in State of the State Address  Gov. Gavin Newsom devoted  almost the entirety of his State of the Union address to California's homelessness crisis, imploring legislators to act on the local level and reiterating his willingness to work with the Trump administration. "The public has lost patience, you have all lost patience, and so have I," Newsom said to lawmakers in Sacramento. "Every day, the California dream is dimmed by the wrenching reality of families and children and seniors living unfed on a concrete bed." In addition to emotional pleas, Newsom laid out concrete measures. He announced 286 state-owned properties, including fairgrounds, armories and vacant lots, that became available in February for "homelessness solutions," in addition to 100 camping trailers that would be deployed across the state for emergency shelter." He also called attention to $1.5 billion the state has made available to local governments, and called on legislators to make permanent financial commitments for long-term solutions. Newsom would like to bypass state environmental laws, a common roadblock to affordable housing development, and advocated for land use reform to eliminate delays on affordable housing projects around transit. "I respect local control, but not at the cost of creating a two-class California," Newsom said. HCD Warns Encinitas of Violations of Housing Law  The City of Encinitas , long a battleground over growth, must take "affirmative, definitive corrective action," or fall out of compliance, according to a six-page letter from the Department of Housing and Community Development. Encinitas is running afoul of state housing law in five categories, according to the letter. The city isn't meeting the requirements for adopting its new Housing Element plan, a key driver for the city's compliance certification last year. Additionally, Encinitas did not put Proposition A on the ballot, without which Encinitas cannot meet housing goals. Third, the city's extremely limited stock of accessible, low-income housing violates California fair housing and anti-discrimination land-use law, the letter said, and Encinitas is out of compliance with the Housing Crisis Act, which went into effect Jan. Recent moves by the city have exacerbated compliance issues. City-imposed limitations on a new overnight parking lot for homeless people was on example cited in the letter, as was a housing development that faced unnecessary and prohibitive regulatory barriers from the city. Encinitas has struggled for years to achieve compliance, as ballot measures to amend the city's housing element have failed, and Measure U, the city's current plan, was only adopted in response to a court order. Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear said the state's announcement was an "absolute" surprise. "We worked really hard to achieve state certification.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Report Examines Causes of Jobs-Housing Spatial Mismatch A new paper by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation of UC Berkeley examines the relationship between land use regulations and six spatial mismatch indicators in cities across California, including the mismatch between residents and workers employed in a city, low-income jobs and affordable housing units in a city, and the earnings of employed residents and workers in a city. It also measures commute burdens by calculating the percentage of workers who live in the city in which they work and the share of workers who commute more than 10 minutes and more than 30 minutes from home to work. The report found five key takeaways for stakeholders and policymakers: First, cities with affordable housing incentives, urban growth boundaries, and eased restrictions on accessory dwelling units have lower commute burdens. Second, cities with affordable housing incentives and no lot size restrictions on accessory dwelling units have a better balance between residents and workers, as well as between affordable units and low-income workers. Third, cities that prohibit high-density development house residents with higher earnings than local workers. The study ultimately concludes that local governments can effectively draw on a number of policy tools to encourage affordable housing development and reduce commute burdens for their local workforce. California Home to Six of Nation’s Ten Most Diverse Cities California is home to six of the top ten most diverse cities in America, according to a U.S. News special report . Stockton tops the list, with 78 percent residents of color, followed by Oakland (73 percent), and Sacramento, which tied with New York City (67 percent). Also on the top ten list were Long Beach, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Fresno. The diversity of California's cities mirrors the demographics of the state, which is home to large immigrant enclaves from more than 60 countries, and where no one racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of the population. The report attributes California's diversity to immigration that took place between 1980 to 2000, when many U.S. cities, including cities in California, saw rapid growth in their Hispanic and Asian populations, moderate African American growth and a slowly dwindling non-Hispanic white population. In 2006, Asia surpassed Latin America as the top place of origin for new immigrants to the state, and in 2015, Latinos became the largest ethnic group in the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Quick Hits & Updates Rich Hillis has been appointed  director of the San Francisco Planning Department, succeeding John Rahaim. He is currently the Executive Director of the Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture and served on the Planning Commission from 2012 to 2019. As Planning Director, Hillis will focus on addressing the housing shortage in San Francisco by working to streamline the Department's process for entitling new housing and identifying opportunities to create new and more equitable housing opportunities in areas of San Francisco that have not seen significant new housing in decades.  100 Resilient Cities will relaunch as an independent network after Rockefeller Foundation announced in 2019 it would end six years of funding the effort. The organization is now bifurcated into two new organizations, Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC) and the Global Cities Network. With nine employees, RCC is currently working on resiliency projects in Tampa, FL and Southern California. RCC has modeled itself a a more nimble consultancy acting as a go-between for cities and non governmental bodies. In Southern California, RCC is part of the Southern California Resilience Initiative, which helps combat wildfires in the state. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) A 2,600-unit waterfront project is one step closer to approval after the San Francisco Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve redevelopment of the former plant station. Redevelopment plans were initiated in 2012; in 2016 Associate Capital purchased the property. If the project gets final approval from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Associate Capital says construction will take 16 years for 2,600 homes and 1.8 million feet of commercial development. Under pressure from the state, the Simi Valley Planning Commission will recommend the city council approve a proposed 278-unit, four-story apartment complex. A Dec. 16 letter from HCD warned that denying approval would violate state housing laws, including the Housing Accountability Act, which curbs local authority to deny housing developments. Further, Simi Valley is behind in fulfilling its RHNA for very low and low-income housing. Rather than risk revocation of the city's housing element, the council has decided to allow the project to move forward. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is investigating options to build housing for its employees on Muni-owned land. Currently, Muni's Portrero Yard serves as a parking lot for hundreds of buses, but with the current shortage of operators, Muni is in discussions to incorporate roughly 525 housing units above the buses .The agency has said it hopes half of which it hopes to make half of the units affordable housing. The innovative solution would solve the current efficiency paradox: most Muni bus operators have to drive to work from more affordable city outskirts because their shifts starts before regional transit like BART begins running. The San Francisco Board of Education adopted an educator housing resolution to add more than 500 affordable educator housing units by 2030. Voters passed two propositions that will aid in the effort: one dedicates $20 million for educator housing, the other rezones school district properties to enable such projects. Currently, teachers are forced to commute as many as five hours a day as teacher salaries have significantly lagged behind housing costs. HCD recently announced the release of the Local Early Action Planning Grants NOFA for approximately $119 million. HCD will be hosting targeted technical assistance workshops at a sub-regional and county level from March to May. Workshops will focus on providing application assistance and discussing long-term technical assistance needs.  Uber will have to share real-time data on its riders' trip to maintain operating permits in Los Angeles, according to a court decision. Uber will appeal the decision, according to a spokesperson. Despite ongoing litigation, scooters and electric bikes have been and will continue to operate through the Jump app. Uber has defended the right to withhold detailed real-time trip information on the grounds of privacy concerns. But the city has argued that the data is necessary to regulate the 32,000 scooters and bikes that see about 1 million trips per month. The Strategic Growth Council is opening applications for 3-5 Proposition 84 Wildfire Resilience and Recovery Planning Grant Applications between $150,000 and $250,000. Eligible applicants include cities, counties, tribes, and metropolitan planning organizations representing California areas affected by wildfires between 2017-2019. The application deadline is Thursday, March 18. Californians largely agree when it comes to housing and Governor Gavin Newsom's plan to address homelessness, according to a new poll from Public Policy Institute of California. Californians are much more divided on the governor's high-speed rail plan and a March ballot measure to authorize state bonds for public education facilities, however, with only a slight majority in support of the ballot measure and 49 percent in favor of Newsom's rail plan. California YIMBY is calling for an investigation into the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed funding to oppose failed SB 50, the More HOMES Act. The formal complaint with California's Fair Political Practices Commission alleges the foundation backed advertisement campaigns to oppose the bill without disclosing its involvement. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Planning Commissioner Dennis Richards filed a lawsuit against San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection, claiming DBI officials revoked nine building permits on a building he co-owns after Richards criticized the department during a Planning Commission meeting. Richards, a frequent DBI critic, stated that he had "lost faith" in the department for playing favorites and corruption. A working paper from UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs explores a frequently invoked statement in the housing debate that relatively high vacancy rates in newer market-rate and mixed-income housing developments are a reliable indicator of Los Angeles' ineffective housing policies. The analysis found that Los Angeles vacancy rates rank among the lowest in the nation, and are lower than they were for most of the past 15 years, suggesting that proposals such as vacancy taxes will do little to address the housing crisis.

A plan to convert a Super 8 motel in San Diego into a housing for homeless individuals apparently will move forward now that both the Coastal Commission and the Fourth District Court of Appeal have sided with the city’s.

The score of land use measures on local ballots statewide on March 3 present an exquisite microcosm of California land use issues. They include an typical array of typical questions — on approving developments, preserving open space, and improving infrastructure — as well as some unique, only-in-California questions that are sure to baffle all but the most fervent community activists. Several measures speak to the future of California development: will it be a compact, transit-oriented future — or will growth be stopped in its tracks?  Several measures vie for the title of most consequential, but the City of San Diego’s Measure C wins. It would raise $2 billion through a hotel tax increase to fund revelation and expansion of the city’s convention center. To sweeten the deal, some of the funds would go toward improving city streets and reducing homelessness. Aside from its explicit goals, Measure C promises to finally put to rest years of debate, dealmaking, heartache, and lawsuits—not to mention a previous 2016 ballot measure that would have funded a new football stadium and convention center, thus giving us the word “convadium"—surrounding the convention center. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Further debates are afoot on San Diego’s urban fringe. Measure A is a sweeping policy-related measure with flavors of slow growth and of environmentalism. It would require voter approval for any proposed project that would increase density in areas that the country’s general plan designates as rural or semi-rural. The measure could provide powerful protection for open space. But if it is not complemented by increased housing density in the county’s urban cores, it could also contribute to the county’s housing crisis.  Lo and behold, the county ballot also includes a measure to approve a project that would increase density in a semi-rural area. Measure B would amend the county’s general plan to accommodate the Newland Sierra project, a master planned development east of Vista that would include over 2,000 homes, over 80,000 square feet of retail and over 1.7 million square feet of commercial space. The project would occupy 1,985 acres, 1,209 of which would be preserved as open space.  Measure B has a little cousin in the Contra Costa County city of Danville. Measure Y would permit the development of 69 homes on 29 acres, while preserving over 380 acres as open space. Both Measure B and Measure Y present voters with the quintessential California land-use bargain: a number of new homes that developers hope voters will find palatable accompanied by just enough open space that they hope voters will find attractive. The vote tally will tell whether the developers got their ratios right.  Back in the urban core, two measures present visions of development pulled from adjacent chapters of the smart growth textbook.  Measure I in Sonoma and Marin counties asks voters to extend a 1/4-cent sales takes to fund the extension of the Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit District (SMART). The commuter line currently runs from Larkspur to the Sonoma County Airport; the extension adds three stations north of the airport. Cities in the two counties are hesitantly planning to intensify development around SMART stations, and the extension would presumably make the line more useful and the station areas more attractive to developers. Anemic ridership numbers, though, might dampen enthusiasm for the roughly $40 million annual expenditure. By some accounts, weekday ridership is 60 percent below projections for 2025. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Voters in Redlands are faced with a complementary question, not about building rail transit but about what to do with it. The 9-mile Redlands Passenger Rail Project is currently under construction, linking Redlands with the San Bernardino Metrolink commuter rail station. Measure G goes full-on smart growth by upzoning 782 acres around the city’s two stations. The Transit Villages Plan would essentially create a brand-new medium-density downtown in a region known far more for single-home residential areas. Though the Inland Empire already has commuter rail service, Measure G would arguably be the most aggressive effort to promote transit oriented development in the whole region. Opponents have expressed concern about the introduction of relatively tall buildings (4-6) stories to Redlands’ downtown. Proponents note that at the turn of the 20th century, Redlands, which is one of the oldest cities in Riverside County, was dominated by mid-rise buildings. They were torn down during the era of urban renewal.  With all of those battles stirring statewide, the City and County of San Francisco, never to be outdone, says, “hold my kombucha.”  One of San Francisco’s two land use measures holds immense intuitive appeal, at least for anyone concerned about the “retail apocalypse.” Proposition D would impose stiff fines on landlords who allow storefronts to go vacant for more than six months. A version of a use tax—concept that has recently been promoted in academic circles—it is designed to combat the deadening effects of vacancies and support local businesses, presumably by encouraging landlords to lower their asking rents rather than hold out for something exorbitant.  The relative simplicity of Proposition D is no match for the nearly complexity, and unpredictability, of Proposition E. Grounded in the pretense of correcting for the city’s infamous jobs-housing imbalance, Proposition E is an only-in-San Francisco measure that would link approval of new office space to production of new affordable housing according to its Regional Housing Needs Allocation. In any year when the city falls short of its affordable housing goals, its ability to approve new office space would be docked by the same percentage of the affordable housing shortfall, which has often been significant. While the measure may seem like common sense, opponents claim that the connection between office production and affordable housing is arbitrary. Many of the stakeholders supporting Proposition E are the very same people and groups who oppose development generally, meaning that Proposition E could curb office production—losing the tax revenue and economic development that comes with it—without doing anything to actually increase housing production. The measure also includes myriad provisions that are not included in the ballot question.  Notably absent from local ballots are questions about rent control. While they had been popular in recent years (see prior CP&DR coverage ), the legislature’s passage of Assembly Bill 1482 last year has likely satisfied tenants rights activists for the moment. The moment will run out in November, when a new statewide measure called the Rental Affordability Act, sponsored yet again by the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, will again ask voters to do away with the Costa-Hawkins Act and give cities more freedom to implement rent control.  The March ballot includes only one statewide measure, a massive, $15 billion bond measure to repair and upgrade K-12 schools and colleges statewide. The measure bears the unfortunate title of Proposition 13, thus causing some voters to confuse it with the landmark 1978 property tax measure. The new Proposition 13 is not designed to have anything to do with the original. However, because Proposition 13 requires localities to match a certain percentage of the bond funds, it could prompt them to seek temporary increases in local property taxes. Prop 13 also comes with an interesting planning-related twist. It eliminates school-related impact fees for multifamily developments near major transit stops. It's sort of a school funding version of the erstwhile SB 50. The logic is, apparently, that apartment-dwellers are less likely to have school-age children and, therefore, shouldn't have to contribute to capital funds. Or it's just a sneaky way to support smart growth. Though bond measures have proven popular during the economic boom of the past decade, polling suggests that Proposition 13 is a toss-up.  See below for a full list of local land use measures statewide.  California Proposition 13 School and College Facilities Bond  Authorizes Bonds for Facility Repair, Construction, and Modernization at Public Preschools, K–12 Schools, Community Colleges, and Universities. Legislative Statute. Authorizes $15 billion in state general obligation bonds for public education facilities: $9 billion for preschools and K–12 (includes $5.2 billion for modernization, $2.8 billion for new construction, $500 million for charter schools, and $500 million for career technical education); $6 billion for public universities and community colleges. Danville (Contra Costa County) Measure Y Magee Preserve Project Referendum Shall Town Council Ordinance No. 2019-06, rezoning a 410 acre parcel from agricultural preserve, general agricultural, and planned development district to a new planned development district and approving the Magee Preserve project, which creates 69 single family lots of approximately 29 acres of the 410 acre site, preserves the remaining 381 acres as permanent open space and dedicates easements for hiking and biking trails for public use on the site, be approved? Selma (Fresno County) Measure L Licensed Gambling Establishment Shall one licensed gambling establishment in which any controlled games permitted by law, such as draw poker, low- ball poker, panguine (pan), seven-card stud, or other lawful card games or tile games, are played, be allowed in the City of Selma? Avalon (Los Angeles County) Measure F Advisory Vote on Allowing Marijuana Dispensaries in City Limits Should the City of Avalon expand its current commercial cannabis ordinance to allow for a cannabis business storefront location or dispensary within the City of Avalon city limits? Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District (Sonoma and Marin counties) Measure I Sales Tax Extension To continue relieving traffic congestion, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (having carried 1.5-million passengers by providing quality transportation alternatives to Highway 101), connecting stations with pathways, expanding rail service to Healdsburg/Cloverdale as grants become available, shall an extension of the existing Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District 1/4-cent voter approved sales tax, at the same rate, generating approximately $40,000,000 annually for an additional 30 years, subject to audits and citizens’ oversight, that the State cannot take away, be adopted? Mendocino County Measure C Mendocino Coast District Hospital Lease Agreement With no additional taxes to the taxpayers and to assure continuing emergency medical services, acute hospital inpatient services and outpatient services, with substantial investments by non-profit Stone Point Health to meet the needs of Mendocino Coast residents, shall the Mendocino Coast Health Care District enter into a lease agreement of Mendocino Coast District Hospital for up to thirty (30) years at fair market value to Stone Point Health, per terms approved by Resolution 2019-17 adopted November 22.2019? Soledad Unified School District (Monterey County), Measure E Teacher-Staff Housing Bond Supports authorizing the district to issue $11.5 million in bonds at an annual tax rate of $0.03 per $100 in assessed value for the purpose of constructing teacher-staff rental housing. Napa County Measure K Sales Tax for Water, Parks, and Open Space Preservation Water, Parks and Open Space, Restoration and Preservation Measure. To protect drinking water by preserving and restoring watersheds, rivers, creeks; protect natural open spaces and wildlife habitat; reduce wildfire risk; and maintain local parks and trails; shall Napa County enact a 1/4 percent sales tax for the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District raising an estimated nine million dollars annually for fifteen years with citizen oversight, annual audits, and funds that cannot be taken by the State? San Benito County Measure K Land Use Referendum Shall Ordinance No. 991, An Ordinance of the Board of Supervisors of the County of San Benito Amending the San Benito County Code to add text relating to the “Regional Commercial (C-3) District” be adopted? Redlands (San Bernardino County) Measure G City Charter Transit Development Amendment Shall Ordinance No. 2896, entitled 'An Ordinance of the People of Redlands facilitating and providing for the enhancement of sustainable development within the Transit Villages Planning Area of the City of Redlands by amending the City of Redlands General Plan and the 1978 voter-approved initiative measure commonly known as Proposition R, as amended by the 1987 voter-approved initiative measure commonly known as Measure N,' be adopted? Chula Vista (San Diego County) Measure E Project Labor Agreements Measure Shall the measure to preserve the City’s ability to receive state infrastructure funding for public works projects by giving the City discretion to allow the use of project labor agreements for City public works, in a manner consistent with state laws and best practices, including provisions for taxpayer protections, transparency, and accountability in the contracting process, by repealing and replacing Chapter 2.59 of the Chula Vista Municipal Code, be adopted? Del Mar (San Diego County) Measure G Land Use Plan Measure Shall the measure proposing the adoption of the Marisol Specific Plan and corresponding amendments to the City’s Community Plan, Zoning Map, and Local Coastal Plan and Implementing Ordinance, be adopted? San Diego (San Diego County) Measure C Lodging Tax for Convention Center Expansion, Street Repairs, and Homelessness Programs Shall the measure be adopted to: increase the City of San Diego’s 10.5% hotel visitor tax to 11.75, 12.75, and 13.75 percentage points, depending on hotel location, through at least 2061, designated to fund convention center expansion, modernization, promotion and operations, homelessness services and programs, and street repairs; and authorize related bonds; with a citizens’ oversight committee and audits by the City Auditor? San Diego County Measure A Voter Approval for Land Use Amendments to County General Plan Shall this Initiative be adopted for the purpose of amending the San Diego County General Plan to require voter approval for General Plan amendments that increase residential density for property designated by the General Plan as Semi-Rural or Rural? San Diego County Measure B General Plan Amendments for Newland Sierra Project Shall the San Diego County General Plan Amendment PDS2015-GPA-15-001 approved by the Board of Supervisors for the development of the Newland Sierra Project, be approved? The existing General Plan allows 99 homes and up to 2,000,000 square feet of commercial with open space. General Plan Amendment PDS2015-GPA-15-001 would authorize up to 2,199 homes and 1,777,684 square feet of commercial. The approved Newland Sierra Project includes a planned community of 2,135 homes, a school site, 81,000 square feet of retail, 36 acres of parks and 1,209 acres of open space. San Francisco (San Francisco County) Proposition E City Office Development Limit Initiative Shall the City tie annual square footage allotment for certain Large Office Projects to whether the City is meeting its Affordable Housing Goals, and change the criteria for approving certain office projects? San Francisco (San Francisco County) Proposition D Vacant Property Tax Shall the City tax owners or tenants who keep ground floor retail or other commercial space vacant in some areas of San Francisco, at rates of between $250 and $1,000 per street-facing foot, starting January 1, 2021 and without any expiration date, and use the annual revenues, estimated at a range of a minimal amount to $5 million dollars, to assist small businesses? Morgan Hill (Santa Clara County) Measure A Development Master Plan Referendum Shall the ordinance No. 2295, amending a Planned Development Master Plan for 'Madrone Village Shopping Center' located on the northwest corner of Madrone Parkway and Cochrane Road (APN's 726-33-029,030, and 031), to add hotels as an approved use, which is consistent with the City's General Plan and Economic Blueprint to encourage tourism, and that generates new City revenues for City services including public safety, street repairs and other infrastructure be adopted? Healdsburg (Sonoma County) Measure H Income-Restricted Housing for Rent or Sale Ordinance Shall the City of Healdsburg’s Growth Management Ordinance be amended to permit the currently allowed average of 50 units per year of multi-family, income-restricted rental housing, as authorized by the voters in 2018, to be offered either for rental or for sale?

Aesthetics have never been at the top of the legislature’s priorities. But provisions in two key housing bills put serious pressure on cities and counties to clarify and codify the types of design they want.

UCLA Proposes Strategies for Updating Housing Elements  In light of new rules local California governments face as they begin updating their local Housing Elements for the 2021 and 2022 planning cycles, UCLA's Lewis Center is proposing a new framework that researchers believe will lead to more housing production in locations that achieve social and environmental goals, while potentially resolving complications created for logical governments by recent legislation. AB 686 and AB 1397, in particular, push cities to go beyond inventories of vacant or underutilized sites to fulfill RHNA requirements. This traditional approach is flawed and unlikely to actually fulfill housing goals, the report argues, because vacant sites are likely to be vacant for a reason, a reason that makes their probability of development remote. Further, this approach does nothing to advance fair housing goals. Instead, the report recommends local governments strategically increase zoned capacity for new houses in neighborhoods near transit, near major amenities, and where the housing is more likely to actually be built. This recommendation is in line with research that shows zoning capacity has a much bigger housing-production payoff in high price locations. Even gentle density and marginal changes to zoning can increase the effectiveness of the HE by allowing cities to build low-income housing in high-density areas, thereby complying with AB 686. One challenge, of course, is AB 1397, which requires site-specific "likely to be discontinued" findings for potential low-income housing sites. To that end, researchers recommend that local governments estimate the development probability (within the eight-year planning period) of all sites with potential for housing development to ensure that the expected yield of housing production is equal or greater than their RHNA targets. Finally, the report offers research-backed proactive measures cities can take to increase affordable housing stock, including surplus land sales for $1, creating new sources of funds from parcel taxes or parking revenues, outreach, and super density bonus, by-right approval like Los Angeles' Transit Oriented Communities program. Newsom Takes New Approach to Sacramento Delta Management  Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a plan that would keep more water in the San Joaquin River Delta while preserving 60,000 acres of sensitive habitats, and generating $5 billion in revenue toward environmental concerns. The plan entails a new cooperation-based framework, rather than the traditional rules-based water agreements that are often challenged in court by farmers or environmental groups. For the past year the Newsom administration has been negotiating with water agencies to come up with "voluntary agreements" between the two sides with "partnership and oversight from environmental groups," Newsom wrote in an op-ed. The framework would increase water flow through the delta by up to 900,000 acre feet when conditions are dry, below normal or above normal. Flows would be decreased during wet years. Would provide more favorable conditions for endangered salmon and resotring 60,000 acres of habitat by strategically letting water flow through natural flood plains to create wetlands. Environmental groups have expressed reservations--favorable water temperatures for salmon is one hangup--but both sides have a strong interest in coming to an agreement when the alternative is likely years of litigation. There is one dark cloud over these potential agreements--a plan put out by the Trump administration that calls for more water to be taken out of the delta. California has said it will sue the federal administration, but no steps have been taken one way or the other by either side. Los Angeles Goes Big on Climate Action Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti kicked off a "Decade of Action" to confront and combat the climate crisis, with the signing of "L.A.'s Green New Deal: Leading By Example." Mayor Garcetti signed the Executive Directive to accelerate the work of the Green New Deal, and adopt new steps and stronger accountability measures to align City department policies and procedures with the City's climate objectives. The directive includes measures to: develop a series of bus and light rail infrastructure improvements, such as bus only lanes, signal priority, and queue jumpers; promote walking, bicycling and micro-mobility with Class IV protected bike lanes, Class I path along regional waterways, and Class III low-stress neighborhood bike improvements; encourage city pension boards to divest from fossil fuel companies; mandate that all new construction and renovations of municipally-owned buildings "demonstrate a pathway" to carbon neutrality; Accelerate the city's bus fleet target to be entirely zero emission by 2028; support Metro's Congestion Pricing pilot program; expand low-income and multi-family household access to local clean energy; ensure that city hall is zero waste by 2025; and amend the city's Green Building Code to ensure all new roofs and renovations are cool roofs. California Metros Among Nation's Best, Worst for Kids A Brandeis University report found that California's Central Valley have some of the lowest-opportunity neighborhoods for children. San Francisco and San Jose, on the other hand, were second and ninth highest in opportunity when compared to 25 United States metro areas. The study ranked cities with a Child Opportunity Index (COI), which quantifies, maps, and compares opportunity by looking at 29 neighborhood conditions--such as proximity to and enrollment in early care and education centers, high school graduation rates, high-skill employment, health insurance coverage, and poverty levels that matter for children. Bakersfield ranked last of all U.S. metros for the opportunities it affords children; 51 percent of children live in very low-opportunity neighborhoods. The report  named Bakersfield America's worst place for children to grow up. The report found "fifty-one percent of children in very low-opportunity neighborhoods." Fresno scored just one point above Bakersfield. Stockton and Riverside also scored in the bottom ten of U.S. metro areas. Reflecting a broader national trend, California's COI scores for black and Hispanic children are substantially lower than for white and Asian children. San Jose and Oxnard performed comparatively well on this measure with scores in the top 10. But even those cities had wide racial disparities. In San Jose, minority children had scores nearly 20 points lower than white children. Quick Hits & Updates  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. Years of rocket engine manufacturing may disqualify one of Los Angeles' largest undeveloped parcels 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. 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. 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. In a bid to attract and retain teaching talent, San Francisco's Board of Education passed a resolution to set in motion development of 550 units of rent-controlled teacher housing by 2030. Funds to the tune of $20 million will come from Proposition A, a measure voters passed in November for affordable teacher housing projects. Another voter-approved measure, Proposition E, will ease approval and zoning requirements. Construction of a gondola to connect Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows ski resorts in Tahoe will move forward after the dismissal of a lawsuit aimed at blocking construction. The 2.2-mile gondola will carry 1,400 skiers an hour along cables stretched over 33 lift towers in about 16 minutes. As part of the agreement to dismiss the lawsuit, the ski resorts will conserve 27 acres of the resorts' private property as habitat for the endangered Sierra Nevada yellow legged frog, and will help fund study on the protection of the frog. The resorts also agreed to reroute the gondola line away from the wilderness and to make other changes to reduce noise and visual impacts on the wilderness. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club is opposing a 100 percent affordable housing development near Pacifica, delaying construction that would add 76 homes to an area in which job growth has far outpaced home construction. The group argues the development, which has been under public review for four years, is too far away from supermarkets, schools, and medical offices, with insufficient public transportation. Taken together, the Sierra Club Chapter says, VMT required by residents of the development "would be significant." Affordable housing advocates point to the worsening current situation, in which multiple families share a home or commute to work from neighboring towns. The former Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency has agreed to pay $3.1 million in a settlement for its predecessor agency that knowingly failed to comply with accessibility laws when it used federal funds to finance affordable housing developments. The suit, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, alleged multiple defects that made the buildings inaccessible for wheelchair bound residents, including steep slopes and ramps; out of reach appliances, mailboxes, and shelves; and insufficient accessible parking spaces. Litigation is ongoing in this case and others in California as the DOJ and HUD pursue other violations under the False Claims Act.

New Rent Control Measure Qualifies for November Ballot  Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced that a rent control measure has garnered enough signatures for it to appear on the November ballot. The initiative would end current restrictions in state law, allowing cities and counties to implement and expand rent control policies that limit how much rents can increase each year. Last year's attempt to adopt a similar measure failed in an expensive PR battle between housing advocates and real estate groups, who argue property values will fall if the measure is adopted. Rent control advocates had some success last year when state legislators passed legislation that limited annual rent increases to five percent and made it illegal for landlords to evict current residents without cause so as to charge higher rent for the new tenant. But the state Senate rejected requiring local governments to allow apartment homes in neighborhoods zoned for single family residences. In hopes of boosting this year's chances, the bill's sponsor, Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which sponsored a failed rent control measure in 2018, has made concessions to rent control opponents, keeping a provision of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that exempts single-family homes and new buildings from rent caps. Other elements of Costa-Hawkins, which gave broad protections to landlords, have been reversed over the years. In 1995, a bill restored the ability of California cities to compel developers to include affordable units in new rental projects. United Transit Fare System for Bay Area Proposed  In response to increased public transit investment even as ridership continues to fall, a San Francisco congressman will introduce Assembly Bill 2057, the Bay Area Seamless Transit Act , that would standardize fees and schedules across San Francisco's 27 transit agencies. If passed, AB2057 will require cities and counties to charge the same bus fare, to apply the same discounts for people transferring from one bus line to another, and to define each population, such as youths and seniors, in the same terms. The legislation would also require agencies to use the same regional transit map, smartphone apps and Clipper card payment technology, to make it easier for people to navigate from one system to another. The bill will also look to link scheduled among transit agencies and automatically apply discounts when riders transfer. Additionally he wants agencies to work together on capital projects, to avert such outcomes as the new Larkspur SMART terminal, which requires a 10-minute walk from the Larkspur ferry, across a street and through a shopping mall. His bill would set up a task force to begin that larger institutional change. The bill does not include a financing mechanism, but it coincides with the Faster Bay Area campaign for a sales tax to raise $100 billion for transportation funding over 40 years. Report Favors Statewide Policies to Promote Housing  UC Berkeley’s Terner Center conducted an analysis of five land use reform efforts in supply-constrained markets that pointed to best practices in both passing and implementing land use reform. " Getting It Right:Lessons in Designing, Passing, and Implementing Effective Land Use Reform ” cites officials in Oregon, Portland, Denver, Grand Rapids, and Los Angeles who agreed that fair distribution guaranteed at higher jurisdiction levels is key. At the same time, granting a degree of local discretion helped build local support in Oregon, for example, when it implemented mandatory upzoning measures. Moreover, housing stock substantially increased in jurisdictions that prioritized housing around transit corridors and job centers, but didn’t exclude single-family neighborhoods. This point is particularly relevant for California, in which a previous Terner Center study found is 75 percent zoned for single-family residences. Another finding was that coalition building is crucial. Denver officials learned from failed attempts that lack of engagement leads to pushback. They found success with Blueprint Denver -- adopted in 2019 -- after receiving over 25,000 unique interactions with its latest update. And as Oregon has learned, land use reform can and should be a vehicle for protecting residents from displacement and exclusion. Stakeholders in Oregon noted that broad tenant protections in HB 608 were critical to the passage of statewide land reform bill HB 200. Finally, providing certainty in the development process Grand Rapids put in place straightforward land use regulations in 2010, and since then it is nearly unheard of for the city to deny a project application. The authors of the report conclude that “if done thoughtfully, statewide land use reform could prove to be an important tool for localities to meet new RHNA requirements.” Quick Hits & Updates The federal government put California on notice, announcing a planned high-speed rail project from Victorville to Las Vegas is on hold until California has an adequate plan in place for the $300 million project. The letter comes as California's high-speed bullet train has come under fire from internal audits by federal regulators who faulted both state and federal agencies for lack of oversight. According to current estimates, the train could be operational in three years. Communities can apply for nearly $5 million in grants made available through a partnership between California's Strategic Growth Council and the Thriving Earth Exchange. Three February application deadlines are approaching: the Transformative Climate Communities Program will award $200,000 to three applicants who apply by February 28, 2020. The Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC) is making $500 million in grants available to support infill and compact development. Applications are due on February 11. Applications for a Climate Change Research Program grant, which allocates up to $4.75 million in awards to greenhouse gas reduction programs, is due February 12. In a letter to HUD secretary Ben Carson, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the Trump administration to grant access to federally owned surplus land in California to build housing for homeless people. He also repeated a request for 50,000 additional housing vouchers, which Carson denied last year. Newsom has expressed hope that federal resistance to increasing aid will soften, noting recent successful negotiations between Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Carson regarding emergency medical care and homeless shelters on federally owned land. Federal regulators are at fault for failing to adequately supervise California's ailing High Speed Rail project, according to an audit by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The audit confirms the factual basis for repeated attacks by the Trump administration regarding California's mismanagement of the project, but also places blame on on federal regulators for not doing due diligence before disbursing funds. "FRA provided technical assistance to improve future submissions but, prior to May 2019, did not make decisions on whether to take additional actions - such as withholding funds - to address CHRA's consistent failure to meet grant requirements," the report said. California and several environmental groups are suing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to block new fracking permits on federal land adjacent to state property in central California. The suit filed in federal court in Los Angeles contends that the federal government's environmental review did not adequately evaluate harmful effects on communities and the environment in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura counties, and requests that the court set aside the decision.  San Jose State University  announced a plan to build hundreds of new apartments and funnel millions of dollars toward preventing homelessness in the next several years. The university has had difficulty retaining staff due to high housing costs, and reports having students at risk of homelessness. As part of the plan, the school intends to repurpose a state-owned building into 800 - 1,200 apartments for students and faculty, most of which would be rented for below market value. The university will have to secure addition funds to supplement $3.135 million in grant money it has received from the California University Chancellor's Office.  The Lake County Local Area Formation Commission will annex  over 100 acres of Middletown Rancheria land into Callayomi County Water District to ensure water supply to the property, which includes hotels, casinos, a government administration complex, homes, and a commercial property for future development. Local leaders cited fire protection as a factor behind annexation after the Valley Fire razed much of the area. LA County Metro's board has approved a $32.5 million contract to conduct an environmental analysis and "advanced engineering design concepts," for the 4.6-mile Green Line rail extension to Torrance, in hopes of being operation in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. The 3.5 year analysis will study two potential routes through Lawndale to a station at 190th Street, in Torrance, which would then use an existing railroad right-of-way to a long-delayed station on Crenshaw Boulevard. The project is expected to begin next month, with public hearings on the draft environmental analysis slated for fall 2021. San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nurus has been charged with fraud following an FBI probe. Nuru, who is now on paid leave, has presided over DPW for years, leading a 1,600-person workforce with a $500 million annual budget In an unsealed federal complaint, the FBI alleges Nuru was quietly involved in a number of fraud schemes involving city resources. Allegations include buying commissioner votes, accepting expensive gifts to manipulate approval processes, in one case giving insider information to a homeless shelter developer. A voter-approved plan will move forward for a homeless encampment in Berkeley . The shelter, which will only operate for a year as a trial run, will consist of several wind-resistant tents with a 50-resident capacity. The plan has received pushback from the community, but the shelter is a significant step forward in fulfilling Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order to develop vacant properties throughout California into sites for affordable housing. A group of about 20 protesters  crashed "The Future of Downtown San Jose," a private event hosted by Silicon Valley Business Journal, chanting 'Google is not welcome here' and we won't be displaced!' to the more than 400 guests. The $115 price of admission and composition of the room, which included influential San Jose leaders, developers and stakeholders, fueled frustrations over what some have seen as an exclusionary process as downtown San Jose has seen rapid growth. Currently, Google is in closed-door negotiations with the city for a massive "transit village" that would create 6.5 million square feet of office space, according to project plans submitted to the city. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Santa Ana officials will make a big push in coming days for a route expansion of their $408 million streetcar to places like John Wayne Airport and Anaheim's tourist-heavy Resort District. City Council members unanimously approved  a resolution urging the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) to create new routes. The existing streetcar project, which has widespread support among OCTA board members, broke ground in 2018 and is expected to begin service in early 2022. San Jose is  launching an innovation zone where companies can test new technology and services, according to San Jose city officials and business leaders. The zone will be San Jose's third attempt at establishing an innovation zone in six years; the first two, which were entirely focused on transportation, fizzled after failing to garner enough support. This time around, early collaborators, including Amazon Web Services, Siemens, Bird and Verizon, come from a broader range of industries. Getting companies on board early with a publicly-announced commitment could pave the way for greater long-term innovation zone success. The Government Operations Agency has selected a developer to build housing in Stockton, and a request for qualifications was put out to developers for affordable housing in South Lake Tahoe, two major milestones toward affordable housing development on state excess land as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order. Visionary, a local Stockton developer, was selected to build a modular multi-family housing project that will bring 100 LEED Certified, 100 percent restricted affordable housing units to the city. The Department of General Services also began the process of soliciting a developer for a site that is expected to result in approximately 100 units, with an emphasis on workforce housing. Speaking at a forum of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg brought his homelessness housing mandate to the national stage. A state task-force chaired by Mayor Steinberg first publicly proposed the mandate in mid-January, calling for a constitutional amendment that would empower the state with legal action against cities that do not meet aggressive goals to shelter homeless people. Accountability is the key to securing funding, said Steinberg, who likened the mandate to other government mandates, such as public education for children. 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."

Over the past two years, Sen. Scott Weiner became the personification of growth and gentrification as he championed successive bills—SB 827 and SB 50—to increase residential density statewide. His speeches drew protesters. He was accused of doing the bidding of developers and the tech industry and of ignoring the plight of low-income residents who might not be able to afford units in the transit-oriented developments that he championed. He appeared in memes inexplicably wearing bell bottoms and gleefully touting high-rises. In a an unusually saucy bit of planning repartee, Wiener responded via Facebook , "Apparently, allowing small and mid-size apartment buildings near trains and buses leads to fire, brimstone, chaos, soviet flags, gay rainbows, and some exceptionally gay disco outfits.” For all of the excitement SB 50 generated among YIMBYs and many planners, Wiener never managed to neutralize the ill will he inspired — rightly or wrongly — from the start. Last week, SB 50 failed in the Senate Appropriations Committee on a vote of 18-15, with two fewer ayes than it needed. Meanwhile, the housing crisis boogies on.  Many of SB 50’s supporters, including increasingly prominent YIMBY groups as well as many housing developers (market-rate and affordable) and even some big-city mayors, fear that the state has missed its last, best hope to make headway on the estimated 3.5 million new units that it needs. And yet, SB 50 may have served its purpose – by provided cover for a great many pro-housing bills that passed while it and Wiener were taking their lumps. Absent SB 50, the same stakeholders who opposed SB 50 might have marshaled their forces against 2019’s SB 330, which compels cities to automatically approve projects as long they meet certain conditions. As CP&DR’s Bill Fulton wrote , SB 330 “cuts into local discretion on planning and zoning significantly – by essentially outlawing plan-level downzoning and moratoria on housing for the next five years.” That, too, may be perceived as a threat to local control—but, against the backdrop of the more radical SB 50, it passed. Wiener’s own SB 828 passed in 2018 after SB 827 went down. That law forces cities to zone for 100 percent of their projected local housing need and to add zoning, among other provisions. Those laws complement 2017’s SB 35, which also forces cities to approve housing developments under certain circumstances (strengthened by 2019’s AB 1485). And that’s not to mention the vaunted housing package of 2016 . As well, had homeowners not focused on SB 50 and its provision to essentially outlaw single-house zoning, they might have realized that laws promoting accessory dwelling units passed in the last four years – more than ten, by my count – have already done the job. If California is going to pull out of this crisis the real action may lie — and may have always lain — in the Regional Housing Needs Allocations. That’s the process by which the state, based on demographic projections, tells regions, via their respective metropolitan planning organizations, how much housing their and their component jurisdictions have to plan for. Previously, RHNA was famously toothless and, therefore, famously timid. But the laws that passed while everyone was watching SB 50 are the very laws that have strengthened the RHNA process. Meanwhile, Newsom has demonstrated that he’s more than willing to sue and fine noncompliant cities.  Need proof of RHNA’s efficacy — or at least its potential? Look no further than Southern California.  Over the summer, the Southern California Association of Government’s regional council asked the state Department of Housing and Community Development for a relatively modest (i.e. pathetic) allocation of 660,000 units. What did it get? Over 1.3 million units. The regional council had little choice but to approve that number, and they did so by adopting a plan to allocate a significant share of the units to coastal cities — over some coastal cities’ objections (see prior CP&DR coverage ).  When you’re pissing off Manhattan Beach, you know you’ve done something right.  When we extend SCAG’s numbers to the state’s other MPOs, that 3.5 million all of a sudden seems attainable. The great benefit of RHNA is that it’s actually based on numbers. SB 50 was based on an assumption: that developers would respond to upzoning and that residents would want to live near transit. Those aren’t unreasonable assumptions. But there’s no telling how many units might have actually resulted, nor is there any telling about how those units would have been allocated throughout the state. SB 50 was designed to spread units equitably — there are over 200 light rail stations in California that could have absorbed SB 50’s largesse. But who knows how it would have played out.  The RHNA process is far from perfect — but, then again, so was SB 50. Many city officials found SB 50 threatening because it literally encroached on their turf. It would have taken a scalpel to cities’ zoning codes and rewritten them with minimal local input. The RHNA process, for all of its bureaucracy and technocracy at both the state and MPO levels, at least creates the illusion of local control.  And what will cities do with that control? Well, here’s the thing: public officials who have said they favor housing but oppose SB 50. They’ve gotten half of what they wanted. Now they have all the freedom in the world to deliver on the other half. So, they’re gong to have to zone for their allocations. And that means that, in a great many cases, cities are going to have to adopt their own miniature versions of SB 50 anyway. Whether you’re San Diego, Santa Clara, Modesto, or, indeed, Manhattan Beach, you’re going to have to increase density. And where does increased density make sense? Around transit, so people can drive less, and around job centers, so people can shorten their commutes. Throw in a few duplexes and accessory dwelling units, and many cities are going to be good to go.  Some cities are already following this principle. Los Angels adopted “Transit Oriented Communities” in 2018. Sacramento adopted a transit oriented development ordinance in December 2018. This summer, San Diego adopted “Housing SD,” which provides generous density bonuses. if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor, the housing density movement is picking up steam. As a bonus, whereas SB 50 fell short on affordable housing, the RHNA process mandates that cities zone for low-income residents. Of course, zoning doesn’t mean developing, and mandating doesn’t mean funding. RHNA forces cities to zone, but it doesn’t put financing in developers’ bank accounts, and it doesn’t force cities to actually approve projects. It does, though, make projects politically easier to approve, especially when local elected officials can tell stakeholders that they’re just complying with the law. RHNA doesn’t involve the political gamesmanship of Wiener vs. NIMBYs, and it’s not going to inspire disco-themed memes. But it, and all the other bills that the legislature passed in the past two years—and whatever others it passes this year—has the distinct advantage of the power of law. Wiener and other legislators have promised introduce new bills this year to promote housing production and legislators continue to take the crisis seriously. As long as those bill appear more moderate than SB 50 did (not hard to do), they have a good chance of passing. And let’s not forget: SB 50 itself almost prevailed. SB 50’s 18-15 vote suggests, Scott Wiener’s loss—or three losses—may yet turn out to be California’s gain.

The oldest city in California, Monterey dates back to 1770. But it’s population has declined 10% since 1990 and water restrictions placed on the city have substantially curbed its ability to develop new housing. According to the state’s Demographic Research Unit, Monterey has only added 110 housing units – less than 1 percent – since 2010. Consequently, it’s failed to meet the mandate of the state’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) program. Soon, though, the Monterey could see a change in pace in its residential development. After stagnant growth over the last nine years, Monterey City Council in December approved three projects that could allow the city to approve over 600 new housing units. The three projects are spread through the city of Monterey; one, on Garden Road, could accommodate up to 405 multifamily units; another, downtown, would allow for approximately 200 multifamily units. A third, at 300 Cannery Row, would create an additional eight units. Twenty percent will be designated as low or moderate income housing, according to Community Development Director Kim Cole. Those kinds of numbers would constitute a breakthrough for a city in which new development is heavily burdened by local and state regulation on water use, according to Community Development Director Kim Cole. “We can’t set a new water meter in the City of Monterey, meaning there must be adequate, existing water units on development sites,” Cole said. It’s been that way since the late 1990s, she added, when the California Public Utilities Commission found that the city’s water provider had been pumping water from the Carmel River illegally. “We cannot just take a vacant lot and build,” Cole said. “We have vacant lots, and it’s an absolute no.” That’s one of the reasons the city’s population has dropped from 32,000 in 1990 to 28,000 today. And it means the city has had to get creative when the popular tourist town seeks to build new housing for its growing workforce population. For example, Cole said, a shuttered nightclub on Alvarado Street was successfully converted into a 33-unit residential structure because the property already had water credits. Empty commercially or industrially zoned plots of land create a critical window for residential development The 405- and 200-unit projects are also the product of working with existing water credits, according to Principal Planner Ande Flower. The 405-unit site, located near the Monterey Regional Airport, was made feasible by an overlay that changed the area’s zoning from industrial to residential – what the city is calling a “multifamily overlay.” The overlay is critical, Flower explained, because it allows existing water credits once intended for industrial use, to be repurposed for new residential developments. The site with approximately 200 units was made possible by a density cap overlay, Flower said. The overlay allows the project flexibility in that it would not have to conform with Monterey’s 30-unit-per-acre restriction for residential developments. Instead, Flower said, the project will operate with a 30-unit-per-acre average. That could allow for developments of 60 or more units in some portions, while other portions may go empty, give developers flexibility when it comes to unit type. “It’s not like it’s doubling the number of units, but it’s allowing people to have a diversity of housing options,” Flower said. She added that the city lacks studio and one-bedroom apartments and believes the density overlay could foster more of those kinds of units. The third project, at 300 Cannery Row, was approved by the City Council at its December 17 meeting. That approval marked the end of a 12-year process for the mixed-use project, which will add eight top-floor dwelling units over bottom-floor commercial space. Twenty percent of the new units will be designated as affordable housing, Flower said, for which there is high demand within the city. “We have developers reaching out to (employers) like the (Monterey Bay) Aquarium,” she added, noting that community support for the additional housing has been profound. “When news of the multifamily overlay first came out, we had folks show up that we had no idea would be there, including the superintendent of schools.”