Judicial Council Curbs Evictions, Extends CEQA Suit Deadlines The rule-making arm of the California court system, the Judicial Council, issued new rules designed to halt evictions and foreclosures for court cases in California for the duration of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s emergency shelter-in-place orders. The rules suspend tenants’ obligation to quickly file a response to eviction cases, state that no default judgments for eviction will be issued against tenants during shelter-in-place, and suspend all orders to appear in court for eviction cases. Tenants can expect relief until 90 days after California’s state of emergency is lifted, unless altered by the Judicial Council, which is making every effort to minimize the court’s workload. The state legislature is expected to address issues such as terms for repayment plans for missed housing payments when it reconvenes next month. The council also adopted emergency regulations giving interested parties significantly more time to challenge project approvals under the California Environmental Quality Action . Normal requirements allow litigants 30 days to file after the approving agency files a Notice of Determination. Under the new rules, developers can be challenged up to 90 days after Gov. Newsom declares that the state of emergency is lifted. The change gives potential opponents more time to file suit, and it may delay development projects if developers choose not to break ground for fear of potential suits.  Analysis Ranks Inland Empire among Most Economically Fragile Regions Nationwide  Relative to other U.S. cities, the Inland Empire housing market is highly vulnerable to the economic fallout likely to result from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis. ATTOM Data Solutions, a property data provider, determined counties’ respective levels of risk based on the percentage of housing units in foreclosure or underwater in Q4, and the percentage of local wages required to pay for major homeownership expenses. With a $387,500 median selling price and 61 percent of income required to buy, Riverside County was graded with the third-lowest stability of the 50 U.S. counties with the largest populations. San Bernadino County ranked tenth least stable among the 50 counties. Its $335,000 median pushed it to No. 16 worst for affordability with 47.8 percent of pay needed to buy. Los Angeles County was ranked No. 25, but ninth-worst in affordability at 64.1 percent, while Orange County was five places higher than LA.at number 20, but second-worst for affordability at 80.3 percent of income. The lowest risk was in Harris County, Texas, with a $252,500 median and 31.1 percent affordability. Most at risk was Florida’s Broward County with a $252,500 median and affordability at 31.1 percent. (See related CP&DR coverage .)  San Diego Considers New Method for Allocating Housing To meet ambitious housing targets, San Diego leaders say they may take cues from Los Angeles and San Francisco for allocating housing throughout the city. The city council is considering a plan whereby, housing goals are allocated by neighborhood based on the neighborhood’s estimated capacity, proximity to mass transit, and other factors that make density more or less desirable. The hope is that measurable outcomes will bolster accountability and make it more likely that each of the city’s 52 neighborhoods will absorb its fair share of housing despite expected pushback from primarily single-family neighborhoods. Built-in accountability measures, such as twice-yearly reports from the mayor on how much housing is built in each neighborhood, are part of the proposal that has already been unanimously approved by the council’s Land Use and Housing Committee. Also driving momentum is a warm reception among key stakeholders: environmentalists, the local construction industry and the rental housing industry have all praised the proposal. Council staff are working with lawyers to craft the goals, which will return to the Land Use and Housing Committee before potentially going to the full council for approval. Quick Hits & Updates  A concrete proposal for Las Vegas-to-Los Angeles train service by Florida-based XpressWest has advanced in recent weeks. The firm has taken steps to secure funding under state and federal bond programs. The company told the Los Angeles Times the $4.8-billion project should have full funding for a 170-mile line along Interstate 15 and start construction later this year with trains running by 2023. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Kaiser Permanente has canceled its $900 million headquarters project in Oakland, in what would have been Oakland's biggest commercial project and would have freed up substantial office space for smaller tenants to occupy. City officials said the move was not related to disruptions due to the coronavirus. A proposed events center in Stateline received unanimous support from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board. Petitioners say they have sufficient signatures to place the redevelopment area on the ballot. The California Department of Housing and Community Development has determined "The Plaza at Santa Monica" project is exempt from California's recently expanded Surplus Land Act. Santa Monica and the developer entered into a verbal exclusive negotiating agreement before Sept. 30 of last year. The finding comes one month after the city council halted negotiations over concerns it may violate the new law. A bold five-year plan to protect California's ocean ecosystem from climate change and prepare for sea-level rise was approved by the state’s Ocean Protection Council, setting the stage for sweeping coastal restoration, trash cleanup, research and rule-making involving several state agencies. The strategic plan is a blueprint for how stage agencies should collaborate to prepare for ocean warming, acidification, rising seas and plastic pollution. For cities scrambling to manage a crisis with fewer hands on deck and shrinking budgets, the League of Cities requested urgent relief in a letter addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The letter requests a pause in statutory requirements and deadline extensions for HCD grant programs, annual progress reports, CEQA compliance, and development application review, among others. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Santa Monica-based Assemblymember Richard Bloom  introduced a bill that would open up commercial zones to developments where at least 20 percent of the units are affordable. Santa Monica would join several jurisdictions across the state that already allow residential development in commercial areas, an effort that brings people closer to transit, businesses, and jobs. The Dept. of Housing and Community Development released the Draft 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice , the results of efforts last fall to gather data from Californians on the barriers they face in accessing housing. In response to outreach, stakeholder interviews, a community needs survey, and extensive data gathering and analysis, the draft explores impediments to fair housing choice and issues affecting protected classes in California.

If all goes well in the worlds of virology and epidemiology, the coronavirus crisis will wane before long. Vaccines will be developed, microbes will be obliterated, and residents of California and the rest of the world will be able to once again walk carefree out their front doors.

California’s local governments have already been struggling to move their planning processes online – a difficult trick given that many planning projects require approval of appointed or elected officials at in-person meetings. But now, cities and counties are about to face an even greater challenge – a financial meltdown that could decimate their ability to even keep their planners and other development specialists employed. With retail businesses closed and travel greatly restricted, it’s clear that, at a minimum, local governments will suffer steep losses in sales tax and hotel/bed tax revenue for the rest of this fiscal year and into the next. Cities, which are more dependent on sales and bed tax, are likely to suffer more severely than counties, which are more dependent on property tax. Making matters worse is the fact that Gov. Gavin Newsom has given all businesses that pay less than $1 million a year in taxes– an extra 90 days to pay second-quarter sales tax. No estimates yet exist – at least not publicly – about the severity of the drop but it’s likely to be at least equivalent to the 15-20% drop that the locals saw in the 2008-2010 recession. That recession – which was touched off by a meltdown in the mortgage market – saw virtually all cities reduce their planning and development departments. “With retail shut down, this probably will be a bigger hit for local government tax revenue than ‘08-’09,” said David Shulman, senior economist at the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate. “Local government is in real trouble right now, especially those that sold their soul for sales taxes.” After the 2008 recession, many cities, especially in the Central Valley, wound up with no staff planners at all for several years. For most local governments, it took a decade to return to pre-2008 levels of tax revenue. Some revenue will be coming from the state and federal governments – especially for big cities – but these funds are not likely to make up for the lost revenue. Although it’s early, indications are that local governments will move aggressively to try to get ahead of the curve on the fiscal crisis, in part because they don’t know how severe their drop in revenue will be. The City of Santa Barbara, expecting a 25% drop in revenue , laid off 400 employees at the end of March. According to the State Controller’s office, Santa Barbara receives almost half of its $100 million a year in tax revenue from sales and bed tax. Meanwhile, the City of San Diego – which had already ordered most employees to work from home – ordered non-essential workers to start taking paid leave as of April 6, though it was not clear whether the order constituted a furlough. The State Controller estimates that San Diego gets about 40% of its $1.3 billion in annual tax revenue from sales and hotel bed tax. And San Francisco is estimating a revenue drop of at least $1 billion . The Controller’s figures for FY 2017-18 – the most recent year for which figures are available – suggest that smaller tourist and resort towns and cities that have chased retail sales might be the hardest hit by the downtown. For example, Cerritos – famous for aggressively building up its auto mall – receives 65% of its tax revenue from retail sales. California Cities Most Dependent on Sales Tax

Newsom Names New HCD Chief, Other Housing Officials Governor Newsom announced three appointments that impact housing. The first is the new director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, Gustavo Velasquez. Velasquez is a Maryland native who has been senior director at the Urban Institute since 2017. Prior to that role, Velasquez was assistant secretary for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2013 to 2014. Zachary Olmstead, of Sacramento, will step up from his current position where he has served as deputy director since 2016 to chief deputy director of HCD. Before his HCD posts, Olmstead was homeless policy director at Housing California. Doug McCauley, also of Sacramento, will serve as commissioner of the Department of Real Estate. McCauley was executive officer at the California Architects Board before joining HCD, first as chief deputy director in 2018 and acting director of the Department since 2019. All three have masters degrees in Public Administration. Supreme Court Refusal Upholds Inclusionary Fees San Jose's high-profile case  California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose  will not go before the Supreme Court, leaving the legality of developer fees instituted to spur affordable housing "a live issue when implemented as a condition on a permit approval," according to Pacific Legal Foundation the nonprofit firm representing the developers' case. The legal challenge arose after San Jose adopted an ordinance that requires developers of new residential housing of 20 units or more to sell 15 percent of the homes at below-market prices to low-income buyers, or pay a $122,000 in-lieu fee per unit. Pacific Legal, a conservative legal organization, filed a petition for the plaintiff claiming the city violated the Takings Clause, which "bar(s) Government from forcing some people alone to bear the public burdens, which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as whole." In June 2019, the California Supreme Court sided with the city of San Jose, citing the well-established scarcity of affordable housing that "might be described as epic proportions in many of the state's localities.” State Disburses over $400 Million in Homelessness Funding The Department of Housing and Community Development  announced awards totaling $427.9 million to help counties address mental illness and homelessness. The No Place Like Home program dedicates up to $2 billion in bond funds to build permanent housing with supportive services for Californians who live with severe mental illness and are experiencing homelessness, chronic homelessness, or are at-risk of chronic homelessness. The bonds will be repaid by funding from California's Mental Health Services Act. The awarded counties represent jurisdictions with five percent or more of the state's homeless population that have self-selected to be "Alternative Process Counties," which allows them to administer their own competitive distributions of No Place like Home funding within their respective jurisdictions. Los Angeles received the largest sum, with $310 million. San Diego and Santa Clara were awarded $40 million and 40.9 million, respectively. San Francisco was close behind with $36.5 million. The next round of competitive funding is scheduled to be announced this summer. Quick Hits & Updates UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation has hired Ben Metcalf as its new managing director. Metcalf, who has nearly 20 years of experience researching and implementing housing policy, including his most recent post as director of HCD, will lead the center's policy work around housing affordability. Previously he served as deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The National League of Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies have teamed up to create a Location Action Tracker to collect and share actions taken by localities nationwide in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The wide-ranging database includes information on actions such as State of Emergency Declarations, closure announcements, and economic relief packages, among others. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Southern California Association of Governments' Connect SoCal plan, its project list and 20 supporting technical reports are now available for download on SCAG's website. SCAG, as Lead Agency, has prepared a Proposed Final PEIR for Connect SoCal, which is also available for review. Demographers say the United States could be facing its first ever yearly decline in population, based on the latest Census Data that shows declining birth rates and slowing immigration in combination with higher than usual death rates. "If this epidemic is as significant as some think, we could have deaths exceeding births in the nation as a whole, which has never happened in the history of this country," said Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire, who analyzed the numbers. The California Department of Housing and Community Development released its 2018-2019 annual report that highlights the past year's accomplishments and shares progress and improvements. The report includes descriptions of HCD's programs, profiles of affordable housing developments made possible by HCD funding, and details on funding awarded to build and preserve affordable homes. After a meteoric rise in metros around the globe, Lime and Bird scooter- and bike-share companies have drastically reduced their scooter fleets. Santa Monica-based Bird began major layoffs Friday, cutting 30% of its workforce "due to the financial and operational impact" of the pandemic, according to an internal memo from Chief Executive Travis VanderZanden. Bird announced it is removing its fleet in six U.S. cities, including San Francisco and San Jose. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The California Natural Resources Agency has announced $18.5 million for competitive green infrastructure grants for disadvantaged communities, funded by Proposition 68. Project component examples include: urban tree canopy expansion, park development, greening public schoolyards; and constructing non-motorized trails. Two grants have been awarded to date: Alamedia County has received $1.4 million, and Calaveras County was awarded $190,000. The  Santa Monica City Council passed an emergency ordinance that will allow all affordable housing and most market-rate housing to go through a rapid approval process. Planning Commission Chair Lambert stressed the importance of market rate housing's inclusion in the ordinance: "Neither the city nor the state has the money to build all the units required under RHNA.” A community group has filed a lawsuit against Anaheim for allegedly breaking state transparency laws, in hopes of overturning the city's land sale for the future site of Angel Stadium. A land sale proposal wasn't discussed in public before the vote, which violates the Ralph M. Brown Act, argues the open government attorney who represents the Task Force. The city's response from the City Attorney's office disputed all the allegations. San Francisco mayor London Breed wants the city to look into charging metered parking seven days a week and congestion pricing on crowded streets. The San Francisco County Transportation Agency is also looking into the possibility of charging a fee to drive downtown. It expects to have a proposal in 2021. A Laguna Beach community group has withdrawn a ballot initiative that would require majority voter approval for new developments, citing the spread of COVID-19. Laguna Residents First plans to submit a new letter of intent in six months to allow more time to gather signatures.

A ban on new vineyards in the Santa Monica Mountains – which touched off a fierce battle that has lasted several years – has been upheld by the Second District Court of Appeal.

I’m an urbanist and a sometime architecture critic, so I'm supposed to hate Solvang. The ersatz windmills. The fake half-timber walls. The fairy-princess towers. The kitschy buildings housing kitschy stores selling kitschy curios. Did I mention the windmills? Solvang is so ridiculous, it seems like it doesn’t even know the difference between Danish and Dutch. It goes nuts for anything with an umlaut. Or so I thought until a few weeks ago, when I visited Solvang for the first time in decades. What I found, beneath the ornament and frivolity, is a town that every city in California should aspire to become. Solvang’s secret is that it isn’t a fake town. It’s a real town only pretending to be a fake town. For starters, Solvang has real history. Mission Santa Ines is as exquisite as it is problematic. It is a quintessential California Mission, with whitewashed walls and a bell tower not quite as tall as you’d expect and yet in perfect proportion with the rest of the complex, and therefore a potent symbol of genocide and subjugation. That’s real architecture and real history. How a place like Solvang grew up around it is beyond me. Solvang gets attention for its style. It deserves attention for its substance. Fake windmills are no more or less admirable than fake arcades or fake tile roofs. Modernism taught us that style doesn’t matter, and postmodernism taught us that styles don’t matter. Timbers aren’t any less fake than girders. So I don’t care whether Solvang has windmills, bell towers, clock towers, or molehills. Solvang would be a tourist trap whether it’s Dutch or Danish or Spanish or Swedish. If you don’t believe me, check out downtown Santa Barbara, just 40 miles down Highway 101. So let’s get over ourselves. Solvang succeeds because it has good bones: the streets, the massing, the public realm, the relationship among buildings, the relationship between buildings and streets — and the way the urban landscape makes people feel. Forget the Danish kitsch. Solvang has great bones. Solvang’s main street, Mission Street, includes a predictable mix of restaurants, gift shops, and bakeries, with the odd second-floor office above. And a pleasant canopy of street trees. Something wonderful happens when you turn off Main Street: more of the same. More bakeries. More gift shops. More hanging signs. More half-timbers, more trees, and more umlauts. This pattern repeats itself for several blocks in several directions. In Solvang, you can walk out the door of one store, turn a corner, walk a block, turn another corner, and walk into another store. If this doesn’t sound like much, that’s because it’s not. But by California standards, it’s a revelation. If you don’t think so, then ask yourself why a town of 5,900 residents has 18 hotels. If we disregard the outliers — the big city downtowns and the idiosyncratic gems like Santa Barbara — the vast majority of California cities are built around strip malls (especially suburbs) and, at best, main streets (small towns). Many of California's most beloved small towns consist of little more than a single commercial main street. Consider Bishop, Weaverville, Willits, Truckee, Idyllwild--even Ojai. They're charming, but the charm diminishes the moment you turn a corner. The number of towns in which the “grid” includes more than a single street and more than 2-3 blocks is miniscule. Compare that with Europe, where almost every town, no matter its size, is built around a complete, pre-automobile core. Most cities and towns in California — and across the country — allow their downtowns to languish so their outskirts can thrive, chewing up cheap land and generating tax revenue. Of course, that’s a ridiculous bargain. The more city centers thrive, the more outskirts thrive. And the bigger those city centers are, the better the towns are. Naturally, even a state as large as California probably can’t handle more than one Danish capital. We don’t need another Solvang. And yet, other cities could take inspiration from it. They can mimic its streetscape, devise new design standards, and create something functional, attractive, and authentically Californian (whatever that may be). Fortunately, this is not some Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Thanks to a combination of demographic pressure, state policies (like SB 375), and changing tastes, California cities are upzoning, and they are expanding their downtowns. I’m thinking of places as dissimilar as Truckee, Temecula, and, almost, Redlands (where a downtown density plan was voted down last week). They are welcoming density. In its own fake way, Solvang illustrates that these efforts will be worthwhile. Maybe European-style urbanism doesn’t mean tilting at windmills after all. As for actual windmills: I think Solvang’s got us covered. Image courtesy of Prayitno, via Flickr .

CP&DR Podcast: Coronavirus; SB 50; Future of California Housing  Check out the March 26, 2020 episode of the CP&DR podcast.  Labor Dispute Kills Plan to Redevelop Concord Naval Weapons Station Amidst a labor dispute impasse, the  Concord City Council has parted ways with the developer of a massive Concord Naval Weapons Station massive mixed-use project. At 12,800 acres and 13,000 housing units, it was to be the Bay Area's largest housing development. "Both parties are kind of walking away," Mayor Tim McGallian said in an interview. Negotiations broke down between between developer Lennar and the Contra Costa Building and Constructions Trades Council. The disagreement spilled into public view at a meeting that drew crowds after city council was asked to step in to determine whether the labor agreement satisfies city-approved terms. The council decided not to confirm whether Lennar had acted in good faith or with whom Lennar could negotiate, and declined to continue Lennar's exclusive negotiating agreement. The city will be out $330,000 and will have to return any unspent money given by Lennar for the project. But pieces of the project may be salvaged; a new developer could use the specific plan drafted by Lennar, for example. "The project will still happen, just maybe not in its current form," said McGallian. "The whole thing is frustrating. But luckily we still have the ability to make it happen.” (Prior CP&DR coverage here and here .) APA Asks Newsom to Extend Deadlines for Applications, Project Reviews The California Chapter of the American Planning Association has issued several requests to Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay local government statutory deadlines in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has left planners scrambling to quickly shift operations on-line. APA is asking for a pause specifically in requirements related to review and approval of development projects, housing elements, HCD Grant Programs, Public Records Act, and Solar Permits and Wireless Telecommunication Facilities. In addition, the association is asking to a 120 day extension of SB 35 deadlines and provide that a Notice of Exemption or Notice of Determination can qualify for the states of limitation specified under CEQA guidelines by posting notices on the agency's website while a local or statewide shelter-in-place order is in effect. Newsom Curbs Evictions During Virus Crisis  Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning the enforcement of eviction orders for renters affected by COVID-19 through May 31. The order prohibits landlords from evicting tenants for nonpayment of rent and prohibits enforcement of evictions by law enforcement or courts. It also requires tenants to declare in writing, no more than seven days after the rent comes due, that the tenant cannot pay all or part of their rent due to COVID-19. To be protected, tenants should retain documentation but are not required to submit it to the landlord in advance. And the tenant would remain obligated to repay full rent in a timely manner and could still face eviction after the enforcement moratorium is lifted. The order took effect on March 27. Quick Hits & Updates Former Housing and Community Development secretary Ben Metcalf will join the UC Berkeley Terner Center leadership team as Managing Director. Appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015, Ben led HCD during a period of expansion of the state's financial and regulatory reach into housing and land use matters following the passage of the 2017 Housing Package. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Oakland A’s' proposed Howard Terminal ballpark is once again facing a lawsuit, this time by a coalition of shipping, steel, and trucking companies that contends Gov. Newsom lacks the right to exempt projects from lengthy environmental review processes. The A's applied to certify the project for the fast-tracking process after AB 734's expiration date on Jan 1, opening the door for a lawsuit against Newsom and the City of Oakland, who are both named in the suit. The Trump administration has sought to block California's climate agreement with Quebec, claiming that the carbon-trading provision is unconstitutional unless California seeks and obtains congressional approval. A federal judge rejected the administration's central claim within days of the hearing. San Diego is a step closer to putting a $900 million housing bond on the ballot after a key committee voted to recommend the property tax, which would pay for thousands of subsidized apartments for veterans, senior citizens, the disabled, low-income families, and the formerly homeless. If passed by two-thirds of voters, San Diego would receive matching federal funds. A new report reinforces a claim long made by progressive planners: more roads does not mean less traffic. Transportation for America found that over a 24-year period, 30,511 new lane-miles of road were added to the nation's largest 100 urban centers, a 42 percent increase. Traffic delays, meanwhile, rose by 144 percent. Population growth was 32 percent over the same time period. The County of San Mateo purchased  a picturesque mile of previously privately-owned beach property about eight miles south of Half Moon Bay. The city plans to build a fully outfitted public park with restrooms, hiking trails, picnic tables, interpretative signs, overlooks, and parking. Los Angeles Metro board members have decided Whittier will be the Gold Line's last stop. An alternate plan that would have run tracks parallel to the 60 Freeway fell out of favor because of a wide range of concerns, including a flood plain, a toxic waste landfill, and a lack of connections to minority, transit-dependent communities. The Riverside City Council rejected a 50-unit complex for homeless or low-income people on church property in a 6-3 vote, citing the size of the project and the 100 parking spaces (required by code) would disrupt the neighborhood. The project would have had 24 units set aside for supported homeless residents, 25 for low-income residents, and one unit for the manager.

CP&DR’s inaugural podcast episode: Bill Fulton and Josh Stephens discuss how California's planning departments are adapting to remote work; how the legislature has promoted housing development even with the failure of Senate Bill 50; and how the virus crisis may exacerbate the housing crisis. Related Articles:  Virus Crisis Forces Planning to Go Virtual Wiener Loses Again. Or Does He? What Does California Housing Look Like In A Post-COVID World? Huntington Beach Ends One Housing Fight, with More to Come Via Anchor Podcast:  Mar. 26, 2020: Coronavirus; SB 50; Future of California Housing

CP&DR Vol. 35 No. 3 March 2020

Across the state, nearly every municipal planning department has retreated from its offices but otherwise remains open for business, at least to some extent. With the state essentially shut down for the next few weeks, with weeks or months of uncertainty thereafter, attending to matters that are measured in decades — such as general plan updates — may seem futile.

With Governor’s Encouragement, Cities Halt Evictions During Epidemic  Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order encouraging local governments to pass eviction moratoriums as a statewide shelter-in-place order keeps thousands out of work. Some cities have taken steps to protect tenants affected by the coronavirus, including Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, but ultimately decisions are being left to cities and counties. Some city law enforcement officers, including San Francisco and Alameda County's sheriff's offices, are acting unilaterally by pausing eviction enforcement, reasoning that keeping people in homes prevents more people falling into the vulnerable category that is already prevalent in Northern California.The order also requests that banks and financial institutions forgive late mortgage payments and delay foreclosures if homeowners cannot make payments due to lost wages. The executive order will remain in effect until May 31, but state lawmakers are anticipating the need for longer-term solutions. State Assemblyman Phil Ting says he plans to introduce a bill that would freeze evictions for as long as a year and block home foreclosures. The moratorium would not, Ting stressed in a statement, mean tenants and mortgage holders would not pay eventually, but rather give involved parties, including banks, time to work out a payment plan. Encinitas Sues State over Housing Element Compliance  The San Diego County city of Encinitas , which has been involved in a series of disputes over housing, is looking to the courts to decide whether the Department of Housing and Community Development Department has authority to revoke the city's compliance status after voters approved Proposition A, a measure that requires the city to obtain voter approval before up-zoning properties for development. Measures that would allow the city to act unilaterally have failed, once in 2016 and again in 2019. In a dramatic turn of events, the court exempted Encinitas from public vote requirements temporarily in order to meet the city's housing planning requirements. Once again Encinitas is getting squeezed on both sides, unable to win approval to fulfill state housing planning requirements, and at risk of losing the right altogether if the state wins the suit. The state is seeking a permanent exemption from the general public vote requirement, arguing Encinitas will continue to fail to meet state housing planning requirements. Mayor Catherine Blakespear framed the issue as one of local control versus state overreach: "We need a judge to determine the ultimate question of how far the state can go in clawing away residents' ability to vote in Encinitas.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) UC Berkeley Program Encourages Implementation of Complete Streets  UC Berkeley's SafeTRECT is accepting applications from cities for a free Complete Streets Assessment by professional planners and engineers for the areas the city chooses for evaluation. If selected, cities are awarded professional consultation to assess high-injury areas and to provide safety recommendations that ensure safety for the full spectrum of street users, including persons on foot, on bike, on transit, scooter, car, or wheelchair. The program is explicitly for technical experts, primarily city planners and engineers, who will meet with a wide range of city personnel from Public Works personnel to planning departments to police, depending on need. Relevant personnel are invited to co-conduct a field audit in order to zero in on safety concerns and discuss potential solutions. "The people who do the assessments," said Jill Cooper, SafeTREC's co-director, "have strong backgrounds in bike and pedestrian safety and mobility. They are looking at safety in a different way" that can prompt any number of solutions from policy changes to traffic signal timing adjustments, new pedestrian or bicycle facilities, pavement markings, or roadway geometry changes. Quick Hits & Updates HCD released the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Housing Program draft guidelines, under which low-interest loans are available as gap financing for rental housing developments near transit that include affordable units. Localities may apply for grants up to $10 million for infrastructure improvements necessary for the development of housing near transit. The Los Angeles City Council voted to approve $47 million in loans for the development and preservation of affordable housing across Southern California. Eleven projects -- three of which are within LA city limits -- will add more than 850 apartments to the region. Sen. Nancy Skinner has introduced a bill that would force corporate developers to rent properties within 90 days or face government seizure of the property through eminent domain. If enacted, the bill would also give cities authority to levy fines against property owners for empty units. Housing advocates are eyeing Google's 50-acre campus near Diridion Station in San Jose as a high-opportunity area for new housing. SV@Home,  a housing advocacy organization, conducted an analysis of the surrounding 240 acres, and found that after accounting for land consumed by supportive infrastructure, nearly 60 acres would be left over that could accommodate 15,000 housing units in addition to the between 3,000 and 6,000 homes Google is planning to build. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) A magnitude 6.9 earthquake on the Rose Canyon fault would devastate San Diego, says a new study by the Earthquake Engineering Institute. The ground would shift 6 to 7 feet, enough to collapse buildings and bridges, cut gas and water service, displace 36,000 households, and cost an estimated $38 billion in building and infrastructure damage. In a split vote, Pleasanton city council approved the broad outlines of a revitalization project that has been on hold for years. The move to begin the East Pleasanton Specific Plan is a welcome development for housing advocates who have long seen an opportunity zone on the east side of town. The regional council of the Southern California Association of Governments voted to adopt an eight-year regional housing plan, but not without significant pushback from some city representatives who say the new methodology -- which allocates affordable housing requirements according to transit and job proximity-- led to unfairly high housing targets. The SCAG Regional Council is expected to publish a draft of the RHNA allocations on April 2. Sacramento's new bridge will cost $210 million dollars and will have a first-of-its kind combined lift and arch bridge. The bridge will have walkways for pedestrians, buffered bike lanes and three lanes for vehicle or potential light rail traffic.

An appellate court has affirmed a Superior Court judge’s decision to set aside Agoura Hills’ approval of a mixed-use development project until an environmental impact report is completed for the project. What’s significant about the case is the fact that the Second District Court of Appeal didn’t defer to the city’s judgment but, rather, drew its own conclusions about the adequacy of mitigation for native plants and oak trees.