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Ninety-three years ago, when the population of the United States was about a third of what it is today, a very conservative U.S. Supreme Court shocked everybody in the planning and development world by ruling that zoning is constitutional in the now-famous case of Euclid v. Ambler . To understand what a surprise this was, imagine Chief Justice John Roberts joining with his conservative colleagues on today’s court to strengthen the power of the Environmental Protection Agency. It was that out of character with the conservative, business-oriented 1920s court.

Bay Area Groups Promote $100 Billion Transportation Tax Bay Area transportation officials are considering a cross-regional transportation overhaul tax measure to raise over $100 billion over several decades. The plan, devised from a partnership between the Bay Area Council, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and SPUR, will raise money from all nine Bay Area counties to provide comprehensive transit improvements. Dubbed Faster Bay Area, the proposal follows similarly ambitious transportation tax measures passed in Seattle and Los Angeles in 2016. The need for such improvements is clear: data from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission shows that vehicle congestion region-wide increased by 80 percent from 2010 to 2016. Details of the plan have yet to be determined, but will likely include overhauls of both the BART and Caltrain systems. Both systems were built as commuter trains, not urban rail systems – and both have trouble supporting growing demand. The plan may also focus on revamping highway toll lanes and an expansion of the region’s ferry network. Some officials and advocacy groups have also suggested adding affordable housing funds to the bill. “The farther people travel, the more demand there is for bigger solutions,” Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, told the Mercury News. “There is no question that this region has to address housing, but how we do that, that is still to be discussed.” Trump Eviction Plan Could Displace 936,830 California Residents The National Housing Law Project released data suggesting that a Trump Administration plan to evict undocumented family members from public housing could cause nearly one million people to lose their homes. In April, the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) released a proposal for a $327 million policy to systematically remove non-citizen family members from public housing. The federal government argues that this policy will help provide more affordable housing to citizens. However, the housing advocacy group found that such a policy would force either family separation or total eviction for residents nationwide, citizen and non-citizen. Their analysis found that California would be the second-most impacted state – after only New York – with approximately 936,830 people impacted by the law. Of those potentially impacted, 846,670 are citizens. The public has until July 9 to submit comments on HUD’s policy proposal. Local and statewide lawmakers alike object to the affect this will have on residents. “If finalized, this rule would effectively evict households with mixed immigration status or force families to choose between their housing and keeping their family together,” said Preston Prince, executive director and chief executive officer for the Fresno Housing Authority, according to reporting from the Sacramento Bee. San Francisco Considers Overhaul of Waterfront Concluding three years of planning, the Port of San Francisco unveiled its first waterfront plan update in 22 years. Key recommendations for the 7.5 mile stretch between Fisherman’s Wharf and Heron’s Head Park in Bayview include: offering the dilapidated Piers 30-32 to private developers; adding a privately-funded “true piazza” to the paved area behind the Ferry Building; continuing to seek a ship repair firm to reopen Pier 70 facilities and thus restore as many as 800 jobs; and shortening leases of historic waterfront buildings to as little as 11 years. One cited benefit of shortening property leases is that any restoration effort triggers necessary seismic upgrades for waterfront structures. Similarly, the plan acknowledges the need to rebuild much of the Embarcadero seawall to accommodate rising sea levels. The port will seek public comments on the new plan this summer, followed by an environmental impact study. The state’s Bay Conservation and Development Commission must also review and approve the plans. The 222-page plan deliberately omits the words “land use” from its title, aiming to take a more holistic approach and account for both urban demands and rising sea levels. Coastal Commission Sued over Waivers for San Onofre Nuclear Plant A San Diego lawyer is suing the Coastal Commission over alleged technicalities and breaches of policy related to the seawall at the now-decommissioned San Onofre nuclear power plant. In 2015, state regulators allowed Southern California Edison to temporarily store millions of pounds of spent fuel at the San Onofre nuclear site as long as the company agreed not extend or replace the sea barrier. However, records show that the commission has granted Edison two administrative waivers that allowed the company to protect the seawall from further erosion. The plaintiff claims that the commission is undermining its own rules, as well as refusing to release emails and other communications with Edison. It accuses the commission of concealing the waivers from the public. “The waiver was not placed on the commission’s public agenda,” the lawsuit writes. “The public was given no fair opportunity to oppose the issuance of the waiver." The suit asks the court to order the commission to immediately release records related to the $950,000 building project. Long Beach Unveils Aggressive Climate Plan The City of Long Beach released a draft of its Climate Action and Adaptation Plan for public comment, joining a trend of cities statewide planning to keep on pace with Paris Climate Agreement goals. The Long Beach plan cited research that found that transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions citywide, followed by energy and waste. Accordingly, the plan targets improvements in transportation and energy, including: more connected transit options, better bikeway infrastructure, access to renewable energy, access to community and solar microgrids, and compliance with recycling and organic waste diversion requirements. The plan also included scientific research projecting future effects of climate change on the area. In response, the city devised “adaptability actions," which aim to reduce the impact of climate change on communities. These action plans targeted four major “high vulnerability” sectors countywide particularly at risk for extreme heat, poor air quality, drought, and flooding. Dept. of Conservation Offers Planning Grants for Agricultural Lands, Coastal Adaptation  The Department of Conservation (DOC) has $950,000 for local and regional planning grants to support the integration of natural and working lands, specifically agricultural lands, into local and regional planning documents. – grant applications are due July 31. $17 million is also available through DOC's Agricultural Land Mitigation Program (ALMP) for the purchase of agricultural conservation easements on important farmland within Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties. ALMP has no match requirement and includes funding for direct acquisition costs, associated costs, and stewardship funds. Eligible applicants include counties, cities, nonprofit organizations, resource conservation districts, and regional park or open space districts. Similarly, the Coastal Conservancy’s Climate Ready Program is helping natural resources and human communities along California’s coast and San Francisco Bay adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Conservancy will support multi-benefit projects that use natural systems to assist communities in adapting to the impacts of climate change. It is accepting applications for the sixth round of Climate Ready grants until July 1. Quick Hits & Updates The California State Senate’s Housing Committee unanimously approved a State Constitutional Amendment of Article 34, a controversial measure that has slowed down affordable housing projects statewide since the 1950s. Article 34 mandates a local ballot referendum to approve any affordable housing project subsidized mostly by the public. The recently-approved bill has gained cross-factional support as a promising measure to drive down inflated costs for subsidized housing projects. The proposed repeal will now appear on the 2020 state ballot for voter approval. Following the $41.2 million purchase of a fire training station from the San Jose Fire Department, Google's spending topped $350 million on downtown San Jose properties. These purchases, which began in 2016, come as part of its plans to build a mixed-use transit-oriented village near the Diridon train station. The proposed community will consist of office buildings, homes, restaurants, shops, and open spaces where 25,000 people would work – including 20,000 Google employees. (See prior CP&DR coverage .) The Department of Conservation has $950,000 for local and regional planning grants to support the integration of natural and working lands, specifically agricultural lands, into local and regional planning documents. Grant applications are due July 31.  The City of Anaheim launched RideArt , a resort transportation system formed in a partnership between parks and the city. RideArt links major destinations in downtown Anaheim – including the Disneyland resort, the Angels Stadium, and the Anaheim Convention Center – with common destinations outside of the city. The service funnels buses from Los Angeles Union Station, the parks at Buena Vista, Costa Mesa, and Orange into Anaheim and between these destinations. As San Francisco legislators consider a significant fee increases on tech building downtown, a new feasibility study suggests that drastic “jobs-housing linkage fee" increases will strain developers and slow down building. Such linkage fees are designed to provide funding for affordable housing for each square foot of office space built. The study responds to San Francisco affordable housing advocates who believe that developer fees should increase far beyond the current $28.57 per square foot. It finds that any fee increase above $10 per square foot may prevent projects from reaching completion. In a much-need vote of support, San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Chair Georgette Gomez affirmed a united vision between MTS and SANDAG Director Hasan Ikhrata. Ikhrata, who unveiled plans for an ambitious and comprehensive transportation overhaul earlier this year, has received pushback for his apparent abandonment of voter-approved road improvements funded by the 2004 TransNet tax. In a joint press conference with Gomez, Ikhrata asserted that TransNet in fact has a $10 billion shortfall and cannot fund promised projects. Following nearly a year of negotiations, Kings County settled its lawsuit against the California high-speed rail project. In a recent board meeting, the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority expressed confidence that the rail line will be adjusted to accommodate slower Amtrak trains, and will thus close a more immediate gaps in the Central Valley transportation system. Currently, Amtrak is a popular service in the valley, but shares a line with freight trains. This more-pragmatic vision for the line belies Governor Gavin Newsom’s persistent vision for a Merced-to- Bakersfield 220 mph high-speed train, which requires $20.4 billion by 2027 to successfully complete. The San Francisco Planning Commission approved plans for a massive three-building office complex in SoMa, which will accommodate nearly 5,000 workers. Developer Tishman Speyer’s 598 Brannan Streey project includes 711,136 square feet off office space, 65,322 square feet of light industrial and retail space, a child care center, open space, and land donated to the city for future affordable housing. This approval comes as part of a series of new projects in SoMa, including major redevelopments of the Flower Mart and San Francisco Tennis Club. Still, construction is unlikely to begin until lawsuits against SoMa's new zoning laws – which allow buildings over 400 feet – are settled. The San Diego City Council officially severed ties with the controversial downtown planning agency Civic San Dieg o. In a 5-2 vote, the council agreed to a settlement that leaves downtown planning decisions to the council, and leaves Civic as an unaffiliated public benefit company. Civic San Diego was formed in 2012 after the statewide dissolution of redevelopment agencies. However, 2015 and 2018 lawsuits alleged that the agency engaged in corrupt and illegal practices, currying favor with the private sector with major planning decisions downtown. Under a limited five-year agreement, Civic will act as a part-time consultant to the city for projects already in progress. Ride-sharing company Lyft sued its hometown city of San Francisco, alleging the city reneged on a deal giving the company exclusive rights to street-rented bikes. The lawsuit responds to the city’s recent solicitation of vendors to offer free floating dockless bikes for hourly rentals, and asks for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order to prevent the city from issuing permits to other vendors. Lyft operates the Ford GoBike service in the city, and says that it invested millions of dollars under the assumption that it would be the only bike-rental service on city streets. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority says the exclusivity only applies to docked bikes, not to free-floating ones. In response to the city’s growing housing and homelessness crises, Los Angeles City Council members proposed penalizing landlords who keep housing vacant. Several members of the city council jointly proposed an “empty homes penalty,” or vacancy tax, citing U.S. Census Bureau data that as of two years ago, the city had over 100,000 vacant units. By contrast, a recent point-in-time count shows a 16 percent homeless population increase in the past two years. Councilmembers hope to get a measure in front of voters by March of next year. Joining more than a dozen California municipalities regulating rent prices, Inglewood approved a five percent rent increase cap. The unanimous city council decision lowered the increase cap from eight percent. Still, they backtracked on a key section of the ordinance: a requirement that landlords pay a relocation free for any tenant who can’t afford an increase. This ordinance responds to skyrocketing housing prices in the area: some residents reported as much as a 140 percent increase in rent. In March, Inglewood adopted an emergency ordinance to limit rent increases to five percent until this ordinance could be passed.

The California Legislature has 3.5 million reasons to try to ease the state’s housing crisis. That’s the estimated number of units by which the state currently falls short of sustainable, affordable levels. And it is, seemingly, the number of housing-related bills that have come up in the legislature this year.

Poll Finds Broad Support for Upzoning Near Transit Sixty-two percent of Californians are in favor of forcing cities to permit apartments in areas currently zoned for single-family homes near transit, according to a recent survey from the Public Policy Institute of California. The survey, which paraphrased goals outlined in the recently-shelved Senate Bill 50, asked voters statewide whether they would support a bill requiring cities and counties to permit apartment construction in communities that now comprise only single-family homes if they’re near rail stations or in job-dense areas. Every region in the state reported at least 60 percent support of the bill. And, surprisingly, 51 percent of homeowners were in support of the bill – despite vocal opposition from homeowner interest groups. This suggests that these interest groups don’t necessarily represent majority interests. “This really demonstrates that housing is truly a crisis today,” Mark Baldassare, the institute’s president, told the Los Angeles Times. “Every survey we’ve done this year, something comes out that just points to the fact that Californians are deeply concerned about housing. These findings say that they want something to get done and they want the Legislature to go boldly.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Homelessness Surges in Los Angeles County Homelessness in Los Angeles County is on the rise, according to a recent count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). LAHSA's three-day annual count of homeless people living in shelters, in vehicles, and on the street found that nearly 59,000 people go homeless on any given night – a 12 percent increase from the 2018 count. The authority also found that since last year, nearly 55,000 people living in the county became newly homeless. Experts attribute the increase to the housing affordability crisis: research from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that approximately one-third of all the renting households in Los Angeles and Orange counties pay more than half of their income on housing. And the problem is escalating. LAHSA also found that about a quarter of the people on the street today became homeless for the first time in their lives in the past year, and about half of those people cite economic hardship as the primary cause. Since Los Angeles County passed the 2017 Measure M sales tax increase toward homelessness services, $400 million annually has been committed to bring people into housing. Still, LAHSA argues that these services cannot support the increase in homelessness: last year, LAHSA and other public programs housed only 21,631 people. Breed to Dedicate Much of S.F. Budget Windfall to Housing, Homelessness San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a 10 percent increase in city budget to $12.3 billion this year – the largest budget in city history. City officials claim extra funds came from a county education fund and “better than expected” gains from property-transfer and business taxes. In her announcement, the mayor made it clear that the increased funds will prioritize supporting homeless services and affordable housing. Breed’s proposed budget sets aside over $100 million in additional funding to increase homeless services over two years, helping her meet her campaign goal of 1,000 new shelter beds by 2020. Breed also proposed over $118 million to buy land and build 100 percent affordable housing, as well as $10.5 million to fund a five-year rent subsidy program for 350 low income households and seniors. “It’s all about housing,” Breed said in her announcement, according to reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle. “We all know the cost of housing is too high. We all know the problem did not happen overnight and will not be solved overnight. ”Breed’s plan also increases funding to mental health services, equity programs, transportation, small businesses, and street cleaning. It will head to the Board of Supervisors for a two-month review, and will be approved and signed by August 1st. Santa Monica Climate Plan Seeks to Go Carbon-Neutral, Mitigate Sea Level Rise Joining a growing trend of cities setting climate goals absent federal standards, the Santa Monica City Council passed an $800 million climate action plan to reach net carbon neutral by 2020. The Climate Action and Adaptation plan, unanimously approved by the council, priorities buildings and transportation through eight main objectives. These objectives include converting 50 percent of vehicles to electric or zero emission cars and converting 50 percent of local mobility to trips taken on foot, bike, scooter or skateboard. The plan also calls on the city to achieve 100 percent renewable grid electricity, install 100 megawatts of local solar energy and reduce fossil fuel use in existing buildings by 20 percent. The plan also addresses mitigating future threats from climate change: including extreme weather, sea level rise, drought and wildfire, and worsening air quality. The plan will keep Santa Monica on track to meet the goals of the United Nations Paris climate change agreement. "We can talk about the absolute amount of money it's going to cost us to do this,” said Santa Monica chief sustainability officer Dean Kubani during the council meeting. "It's going to cost an awful lot more if we don't do this." District Attorney Faults Inglewood City Council over Clippers Arena Negotiations The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office found that the Inglewood City Council violated state law by failing to report a June 2017 special meeting with a Clippers-controlled company to explore building an arena. The D.A. sent a letter finding that the council violated the state’s open meetings law by not providing sufficient description of the meeting’s events. The June 2017 special meeting with Murphy Brown LLC, which is controlled by the Clippers, resulted in a unanimous city council vote approving a three-year agreement to lease a 22-acre property to the team. However, the complaint finds that the lone agenda item for the meeting does not mention the Clippers team. “It should be noted that the deficiency of the agenda description appears to have been part of concerted efforts between representatives of the city and the Murphy’s Bowl LLC to limit the notice given to the public,” the letter said. “Furthermore, the generic name of Murphy’s Bowl LLC was used intentionally to obfuscate the identity of the proposed project and those associated with it.” Still, the D.A.’s office failed to take any action on this finding. Quick Hits & Updates The proposed Oakland A’s stadium at Howard Terminal could generate over $7.3 billion in economic benefits over ten years and create more than 6,100 permanent jobs, according to a recently released report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The report, commissioned by the A's, expands upon a 2017 estimate that projected $3 billion in benefits. The new report includes economic benefits of the greater commercial and housing project beyond the proposed 35,000-seat waterfront park, and breaks down the estimate into $902 million per year for the next ten years. Critics of the stadium expressed fears that a large ask for public funding will soon follow the report. California senators urged the federal Department of Transportation to take immediate action on a $1.25 billion grant request to increase BART capacity. In a recent letter, the senators cited a recent crash on the Bay Bridge that added 10,000 unexpected passengers to the rail line, and asked federal officials to expedite the eighteen-month-old request. Currently, the BART system runs 23 trains for 27,000 total passengers. The proposed expansion adds new rail cars, lines, and a new train-control system to increase capacity to 39,000 passengers. Caltrans executive director Laurie Berman will step down following a 36-year tenure at the agency and one year as its chief. Berman is leaving during a transitional period for transportation statewide: the state is grappling with a $137 million road maintenance backlog, and Governor Gavin Newsom recently downsized the state’s high-speed rail project to focus on a Merced-Bakersfield segment of the high-speed rail project. As part of his new transportation agenda, the governor also recently appointed David Kim secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, and appointed Brian Annis chief financial officer of the California High Speed Rail Authority. Berman’s replacement has not yet been named. San Jose city officials are considering a new property transfer tax to help solve the city’s affordable housing and homelessness crises. Such a tax is paid by either the buyer, the seller, or split when a property is sold or ownership transfers – excepting inherited property. Unlike a bond measure – which city officials have also considered – this tax will only need a simple majority to pass, rather than a two-thirds majority. If it passes, San Jose will join several East Bay cities to approve or amend new property taxes in the past year. A new House of Representatives bill would accelerate the expansion of Riverside County protected land under the 2004 Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. At the time of the plan's passage, 347,000 acres were already set aside, with hopes that state and federal money would help acquire the remaining 153,000. But the rate of land acquisition slowed in recent years and only 61,000 have yet been preserved. The new bill, HR 2956, would open another federal funding source to buy more land. Oakland’s Planning Commission will review plans for a massive development near the West Oakland BART – the largest development project that the area has seen in decades. Approval of the plans would greenlight the development of more than 1,000 apartments, eighty-five of which are affordable housing units for families earning less than 50 percent of the area’s median income. Plans also include 59 parking spaces, as well as space for retail, parks and offices. The plans face little opposition from city residents, in part because developer Panoramic Interests fielded community input, and plans to revitalize the area’s jazz scene and accommodate small businesses.

Is there any city that illustrates California’s developmental and demographic trends more exquisitely than the City of Dublin? Dublin — an outer suburb in Alameda County of 60,939 — normally wouldn’t merit much of a mention. It’s an achingly ordinary place stuck between the chaotic vibrancy of the Bay Area and the pastoral constancy of the Central Valley. It engages in fierce battles to distinguish itself from its neighbor Pleasanton, which wins if only because of its ridiculously cliched name. Generic though it may be, Dublin grew faster — at 4.5 percent — from 2017 to 2018 than any other city in California. It was the only California city to rank in the top 15 nationwide. This comes against the backdrop of a statewide slowdown caused largely by high housing costs statewide (see CP&DR commentary ). Granted, 4.5 percent of 60,000 isn’t much, amounting to a whopping 2,706 residents. Leading the state in absolute growth, San Diego added 12,000 residents and grew 0.91 percent. But, in many ways, Dublin is the obvious, quintessential choice for California’s fastest-growing city. It is, literally and figuratively, right in the middle of California’s housing wars. Dublin really shouldn’t be in such high demand. It’s a full 24 miles from Oakland, and another 16 miles from San Francisco. Its immediate region has its share of jobs and its share of amenities, but no one would mistake it for Silicon Valley. And if you’re not a nuclear family, Dublin probably isn’t your scene. Dublin hits some sweet spots, though. It’s just close enough to the Bay to afford access to jobs and amenities for people willing to commute, but not close enough to feel included. It can’t compete with Tracy or Mountain House on price, but it’s still affordable for mere middle-class mortals. It has a freeway interchange, but it also has a BART station. Most importantly, it has just enough space and just enough appetite for growth. And yet, Dublin is the kind of place that makes planners and environmentalists recoil in horror. By any rational account, center cities such as Los Angeles, Oakland, and, of course, San Francisco ought to be growing the fastest -- or at least fast enough to take growth pressures off places like Dublin. Center cities are, generally, where prices are highest and demand is fiercest. Center cities are where the jobs are, where the infrastructure is, and where the people are. If Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose acted more like their counterparts in Texas, where center cities are adding huge numbers of new residents (see my recent interview with the planning director of Fort Worth), alongside suburbs whose growth rates are in league with Dublin, housing costs would likely level off and the benefits of density might come to fruition. But, in most center cities, the forces opposing growth are even stronger than those promoting it. Homeowners protest against upzoning. Construction costs prevent projects from penciling out. Complex rules and bureaucratic delays drive developers crazy. For-profit and nonprofit developers chase after too few sites. Indeed, any discussion of development in center cities has to include housing for low-income residents. Meanwhile, Dublin’s housing boom includes "just a handful of units for families with very low, low and moderate incomes." Of course, there are plenty of places where the powers-that-be would be delighted to grow even more radically than Dublin has. Mega-developments continue to be approved in the Central Valley and Inland Empire. But those places lag so far behind coastal cities economically, they might as well be in different states. That’s how Dublin ends up staking out California's radical middle ground. California center cities will never reach 4.5 percent. They’ll probably never reach the 2 percent growth rates of their Texas counterparts. But, surely they can do better than San Diego's 0.91 percent or Los Angeles’s abysmal 0.02 percent. If supply even remotely kept up with demand, they’d absorb enough residents that places like Dublin would probably grow more slowly. As for the Tracys and Mountain Houses: maybe they wouldn’t grow at all. City boosters might not like to hear it, but regional planners and anyone concerned about traffic and pollution would rejoice. Again, Dublin seems like a pleasant enough place. But if California’s growth is ever going to pick up again, we have to do a little better than “pleasant" to accommodate a growing, increasingly dynamic population. And I don’t mean Pleasanton. Image courtesy of Wikipedia user Pi.1415926535.

The paradox of Napa Valley is that its famous vine-ripened pastoral character, marked by a pleasing mix of small towns and agricultural land, is appealing and prosperous enough to attract more than just wine-tasting day trippers. Indeed, Wine Country has a housing crisis of its own. That crisis has landed in the City of St. Helena, one of many Napa County towns aiming to accommodate growing populations while remaining small towns. These tensions played out in a general plan update that included outsized controversies for a town of just 6,196. The St. Helena Planning Commission unanimously voted April 16 to recommend that the city council adopt the revised 2040 General Plan; the council voted to adopt it, 3-1, May 14. The votes came nearly a decade after the commission first recommended adoption of an earlier version of the plan, drafted in 2010. Modifications to that plan dragged on for nearly a decade, in part due to disagreements over the city’s water supply. The new plan replaces a 1993 update that was adopted when the town had over 1,000 fewer residents. The updated plan primarily focuses on preserving agricultural lands, improving and enhancing pedestrian and bicycle areas throughout the community, and modernizing policies to maintain the city’s historic buildings and open spaces. It also strives to allow just enough housing to accommodate some new residents without overwhelming the town. Complicating this provision was a multi-year lawsuit, recently settled, over infill development that demonstrated just how sensitive some St. Helena residents are to even relatively small developments. “Maintaining the community character while also ensuring enough growth occurs to maintain a healthy community is a top priority of this City Council,” said Noah Housh, Planning & Community Improvement Director. “Adoption of the 2040 General Plan Update is the first step toward modernizing the city’s land use policies to ensure this balance is met.” The most noticeable proposals in the revised plan suggest extending an avenue and removing plans to rezone land in a residential neighborhood. Planning Commission Chair Lester Hardy recommended that the commission review the plan in coming months. Some St. Helena residents may not support the city’s ­­­­response to growth pressures, however. In McCorkle Eastside Neighborhood Group v. City of St. Helena , Citizens filed suit against the city in 2017 after the city invoked an infill exemption to grant an eight-unit project proposal. The council’s action was in keeping with a 2016 update to the city’s housing element and zoning ordinance, making it only necessary for the city to review design aspects for projects intended for the High Density Residential zoning district. Plaintiffs claimed that St. Helena violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not holding the project to stricter environmental review standards. (See prior CP&DR coverage.) The trial court ruled in favor of St. Helena, and the appellate court upheld the ruling Dec. 18, 2018. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs contended that plaintiffs saw themselves as watchdogs policing the city rather than activists with an ideological agenda. “The residents of St. Helena were generally supportive of the recent General Plan update,” said Matthew D. Hinks, partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell. “The case was not animated by ‘anti-growth’ sentiments, but rather the actions of various city officials that we continue to believe were unlawful.” The court dismissed these claims, writing, “There was no improper delegation of the city’s authority under CEQA…. he City Council in this case did act—just not in the way that appellants had hoped.” According to Hardy, however, the rise of anti-growth “hopes” in St. Helena is not a recent development. “Limiting population growth has been a priority for many residents and voters in St. Helena for the last 30 years or more; this sentiment is always a factor in the city's land use policy decisions, of varying significance depending on the particulars,” said Hardy. “Comparing the 2040 General Plan Update with the 1993 General Plan…I would say that anti-growth sentiment has as much influence today as it did then.” With the lawsuit settled, the new plan further ingrains the council’s 2016 infill exemption. According to Housh, City Council has made housing development in St. Helena a priority, and the council expects to initiate a citywide housing strategy by mid-summer. The updated General Plan estimates that the city will construct roughly 330 new housing units, increasing housing units by approximately 10 percent. To maintain the city’s character, to the plan calls for the creation of a mixed-use land use designation and reclassify select properties located in the city’s downtown commercial center. St. Helena has started drafting the Citywide Design Guidelines, which will offer nuanced direction on the overall architectural and landscape designs in St. Helena. The guidelines should be completed later this year. These developments amount to a more progressive general plan than the previous version, which has been described as more of a plan for “tourist management” than for true city-building. * * * In related Napa Valley planning news, St. Helena’s neighbor and fellow tourist destination Yountville also recently adopted a general plan that gingerly invites growth. Yountville’s previous general plan was also a product of the early 1990s, having been adopted in 1992. Most notably, the new plan for the town of 2,924 permits the development of three-story buildings in the downtown area for the first time while imposing a limit of two stories on residential properties. The regulations are tighter than the previous 30-foot height limit. To build three stories, developers must prove a public benefit, such as inclusion of affordable housing, storefronts for locally serving businesses, or accommodations for “under-represented” activities. The plan also provides for slightly higher residential densities in certain areas. Contacts & Resources City of St. Helena General Plan McCorkle Eastside Neighborhood Group v. City of St. Helena: Infill Exemption Upheld for 8-Unit Project Yountville General Plan Noah Housh , Planning & Community Improvement Director, NHoush@cityofsthelena.org Lester Hardy , Commission Chair, lhardy@cityofsthelena.org Matthew D. Hinks , partner of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP, MH2@jmbm.com

Environmentalists Sue to Block Development of Tejon Ranch Environmental groups are suing the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for approving the controversial 12,000-acre Centennial Tejon Ranch development in Antelope Valley. The Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society filed a lawsuit accusing county officials of mishandling the environmental review process when it approved the development of nearly 20,000 new homes. The groups ask to halt construction pending further analysis of the project’s impact on auto use in the area, as well as its susceptibility to wildfire damage. Additionally, critics of the project expressed concerns that building large a development so far from major city centers will drive up greenhouse gas emissions. After receiving approval for the project, the Tejon Ranch Company announced that 18 percent of the 19,333 planned homes would be set aside as affordable housing. Additionally, about 90 percent of the 240,000 acres around the project site will be conserved as open space. In a recent statement, the company argued that the lawsuit unnecessarily blocked “an approved development that will bring thousands of much-needed price-attainable homes to Southern California families who are struggling to find housing they can afford.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .) Google Makes Major Planning Grant to San Jose for Diridon Station and Environs In Google’s latest massive investment in west San Jose, the tech giant agreed to pay the city $4.5 million to help fund projects related to the planning of its new 20,000-worker mixed-use development near Diridon Station. Pending city council approval, the also city plans to contribute approximately $1.1 million to the project. All funding will contribute to an overhaul of Diridon Station: the city is planning a BART connection and eventual link to high-speed rail. Critics of Google's grant to the city say that it will give the tech giant undue planning influence; this payment will also help fund a review of Google’s own proposed massive campus near the station. But Google has funded planning efforts before: last year, it paid $1.33 million for community meetings that led to the eventual sale of city property to the company. “Rest assured Google has to follow the same processes that every other applicant has to follow,” Nanci Klein, the assistant director of economic development and director of real estate told the Mercury News. “There’s no difference and, in fact, Google will undergo and is undergoing more scrutiny than other projects.” (See prior CP&DR coverage .)  Copper Bluff Mine Named Superfund Site The EPA added the Copper Bluff Mine in Hoopa to the Superfund National Priorities list – the only named site in California. The list, which named seven sites this year, includes the most serious or abandoned releases of contamination nationwide. EPA officials prioritized these sites to begin restoring the nation’s most contaminated areas for productive reuse, and to protect the health of local communities. Copper Bluff Mine operated from 1924 to 1964 as a copper and zinc resource. In the decades since its closure, it has consistently leaked acid drainage into the neighboring Trinity River – anywhere from three to 500 gallons of contaminants per minute. Identifying the site as Superfund will open it up for tens of millions in funding, according to EPA officials. Though it may take a few years before a cleanup begins, but the Superfund recognition will likely expedite the process. “The Hoopa Valley Tribe and the tribal fishery are still affected by this mine, despite its closure decades ago,” EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Adminstrator Mike Stoker told the Eureka Times-Standard. “Adding the site to the National Priorities List is an important step toward cleaning up this toxic legacy.”  Report Urges Equitable Transition to Low-Carbon Economy Researchers at the University of Southern California and Occidental College developed a roadmap to transition low-income communities to a green economy. The report, titled “ A Roadmap to an Equitable Low-Carbon Future: Four Pillars for a Just Transition ,” summarizes research showing that pollution and other environmental hazards disproportionately affect low-income communities. The authors stress the need for strategies to bring these communities the benefits of a low-carbon economy to avoid “replicat the mistakes and inequalities of the extractive past and present.” To achieve this, the report proposes “four pillars” for an equitable future: strong governmental support, dedicated funding streams, diverse and strong coalitions, and economic diversification. Its authors expressed hope that these pillars can inform the development of Los Angeles's recently announced "Green New Deal” plan. "As we move away from extraction and a carbon economy, we need to ensure that not only are those workers and communities protected in the transition,” lead author J. Mijin Cha told the California Health Report, "but that we’re also acknowledging this historic burden that they have had to bear.” Nine California Cites Named Top 50 for Biking Southern California cities placed highly recently released rankings of City Ratings’ " best places for bikes ." Nine California cities made the ranking’s top 50: Santa Barbara (12), Santa Monica (17), San Diego (25), Ventura (31), Lompoc (32), Goleta (35), Long Beach (39), Santa Maria (42), and Carpenteria (49). Using their own community surveys and analysis as well as publicly available U.S. Census data, the study scored cities according to five major metrics: ridership, safety, reach, network, and acceleration. “Ridership” counted the number of riders in a community, “safety” considered fatalities and injuries of people on bikes, and “network” considered how well routes connect local destinations. “Reach” determined how well that network served all community members, and “acceleration” assessed how fast the city was improving its biking infrastructure and encouragement programs. Quick Hits & Updates  A California Department of Finance report shows that Los Angeles produced more housing in 2018 than any other California city. According to the report, the city's 16,525 units built more than triples the amount built by any other city, and puts the city on track to exceed its 2021 production goals. But experts say the city still has a lot of catching up to do: in 2018, population growth hit its slowest-recorded rates citywide, largely due to the affordable housing shortage. Sacramento built more housing than any other California city north of Los Angeles in 2018, according to the same Department of Finance report. The city added 2,400 new units last year, most of them detached single-family units. It topped San Francisco’s production, despite its smaller size. Statewide, 97,000 new units were built, but only 77,000 net new units, minus homes destroyed by wildfire or otherwise demolished. For the second time in four years, Ohlone College and its development partner abandoned plans to build 275 residential rental units and 6,500 square feet of retail space on its frontage property. Located in Fremont, the college hoped that leasing the 15-acre property to a developer would generate needed revenue for educational services. However, students and community members claimed the project included too much housing, and would thus bring overdevelopment and traffic issues to the area. Santa Barbara is set to launch a three-year bikeshare pilot program after a unanimous approval from the city council. The pilot will allow operator HOPR Bikeshare, which has successful programs in Santa Monica and at UCLA and UCSB, to operate self-service rental bicycles in the city. After the 3-year period, city staff and the Transportation and Circulation Committee will evaluate the success of the program. Los Angeles County Metro initiated an environmental study for a new bus rapid transit line between North Hollywood and Pasadena. The long-awaited 18-mile BRT project, which will serve an area that currently sees over 700,000 trips, was formalized with the passing of Measure M in 2016. Metro will study multiple alignments for the BRT line, including one running within the 134 Freeway, and one more-promising street-running alternative. The street-running line would have 18 to 21 stops, attracting 30,000 weekday passengers with an end-to-end travel time of 65 minutes, according to Metro estimates. The environmental study will be ready for public review by fall 2020. The Livermore City Council unanimously approved amendments to its Downtown Specific Plan. The proposed amendments, some of which were repealed in 2018, target improving parking access downtown: they remove the city's height limited exception and delineate public and private parking facilities as a permitted use in a portion of the downtown.  Landlords in Long Beach will have to compensate tenants forced to relocate due to steep rent hikes under an ordinance finalized by the city council. In a 6-3 vote, the city council passed a tenant relocation ordinance that requires landlords who increase rent by more than ten percent to compensate tenants $2,706 to $4,500, depending on the number of bedrooms in the unit. The ordinance intends to both discourage landlords from evicting low-paying tenants, and to protect those who are forced to leave. Construction of Los Angeles's Purple Line subway moved forward after the Metro board approved a builder contract. The much-anticipated $9-billion twin tunnel project between Century City and West L.A. will be built by a joint venture led by Tutor Perini Corporation. Metro expects to finish the project and add 78,000 daily trips to the city’s most-traveled line by 2027, in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

CP&DR Vol. 34 No. 5 May 2019

High Speed Rail Authority Sues Trump Administration over Withheld Funds In the latest escalation of the state's face-off with the Trump Administration over bullet train funding, the California High Speed Rail Authority is suing the U.S. Department of Transportation over its decision to pull a $929 million grant. Since its 2010 inception, California’s ambitious project has experienced significant delays and increasing costs, and Governor Gavin Newsom’s February State of the State address reduced its short-term scope. Recently, following a series of tweeted threats by President Donald Trump, the Federal Rail Authority officially terminated $929 million in remaining funding for the project, and threatened to reclaim $2.5 billion in funds already spent by the state. Now, in a 20-page complaint, the state claims that the administration’s decision contradicts federal regulations and makes false allegations about the project’s progress. Newsom’s office is also seeking a temporary restraining order arguing that “the real motive underlying FRA’s action was political: to punish California for opposing President Trump’s proposed border wall." BLM to Allow Expanded Drilling in Central Valley, Central Coast  The Trump Administration will open up federal land in the Central Valley and Central Coast to oil and gas drilling, according to new documents released by the Bureau of Land Management. This plan directly contradicts many statewide efforts to curtail drilling and fracking, and thousands of Californians submitted comments to the agency protesting the plan. According to the BLM’s proposal, the agency’s plan could result in up to 37 new oil and gas wells drilling on new land leases over the next 20 years. This could effect land within the field office’s boundaries across 11 California counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Stanislaus. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that opposes the plan, the proposal could open up 725,000 acres of federally managed land and subsurface mineral area to oil and gas leasing. While many industry lobbying groups support the move, local officials have expressed concerns about increased air pollution and potential groundwater contamination from fracking. In a recent statement, Representative Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, commented that the decision is “a step backward given the increasingly urgent warnings from our scientific community on the unchecked effects of climate change,” according to the Sacramento Bee.  San Diego’s Horton Plaza Mall to be Redeveloped as Tech Hub Downtown San Diego’s iconic postmodern Horton Plaza mall, considered one of the most innovative outdoor malls in the country upon its opening in 1985, will become a mixed-use tech hub. The San Diego City Council voted unanimously to approve developer Stockdale Capital Partner’s proposal to convert the mall into the “Campus at Horton.” Plans will cut current retail space in half, and convert the rest of the space into 772,000 square feet of office space catered to tech companies. The developer expects the facility to create 4,000 jobs and generate more than $1.8 billion annually. As part of the agreement, the city will amend land use restrictions to allow for the downsizing of retail space. In return, Stockdale will be required to provide $6.7 million in public benefits to the city to recoup lost retail revenue. Stockdale representatives affirmed that current Horton Plaza tenants will not be evicted in favor of new retail outlets. Stockton hopes to begin the project later this year and complete the first phase by 2020. City Councilwoman Barbara Bry hopes that this project will create jobs that will keep college graduates in the city. “UCSD has said that within five years, we lose about half of the engineering graduates to other cities,” she told KPBS. Audit Finds Fault with S.F. Bay Conservation Commission  The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission has failed in its key duties and allowed ongoing harm to the bay, according to a recently published state audit. The commission was formed in 1967 to “protect the Bay’s health and ensure public access,” and is responsible for approving permits for material dumping and removal. The audit found, however, that the commission has accumulated a backlog of over 230 enforcement cases, some of which are over a decade old. This number is projected to grow, since the audit found that the commission opens an average of 14 more cases annually than it closes. The audit also asserts that the commissioners are wrongfully considering amnesty for cases of clear harm done, don’t provide sufficient guidance for their enforcement process, and inconsistently impose fines. Furthermore, the commission hasn’t implemented plans to safeguard the Suisun Marsh, as state law requires, increasing the possibility of harm to the marsh. The audit recommends that the commission should simplify its enforcement process, and create and implement regulations by January 2021 to identify harm done and set a timeline for enforcement cases. Report Finds Shortfall of over 700,000 Affordable Units Major California cities are falling far short of affordable housing demand, according to a new report by nonprofit California Housing Partnership. The report found that fewer than a third of low-income families in Southern California have access to affordable housing that costs no more than 30 percent of a household’s gross income – amounting to a shortfall of nearly 759,000 low-income units. These findings point to twin issues statewide: limited housing drives up livings costs, and wage gaps drive down residents’ ability to afford housing. For example, Sacramento County has a shortfall of 63,000 affordable units, which has caused the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment to jump from $950 a month to $1445 a month over just two years. Similarly, according to the report, in L.A. County, the minimum income needed is over $8,200 a month to afford the mid-priced asking rent of $2,471. For this reason, the biggest impact of these shortages fall on the state's poorest renters. The report urged the state to replace the redevelopment funding slashed in 2012, and called for expanding the affordable housing tax credit program by $500 million a year. It also urged cities and counties to adopt rent caps and tenant protections while also granting developers density bonuses to incentivize new housing construction. Quick Hits & Updates  One day after Senate Bill 50 housing bill failed in senate proceedings, survey results were published showing that two-thirds of Californians support the bill. California YIMBY, a housing development advocacy group, released the results of poll of 1,200 voters – 66 parent of whom said they would support the proposal. These findings suggest that the bill, which would encourage taller and denser housing development near transit lines, has greater public support than it found in the legislature. (See prior CP&DR coverage .)  In response to the stalled Senate Bill 50, a group of activists filed a petition to amend to the state constitution that affirms local powers over planning and land use. The Workforce Housing and Neighborhood Protection Act proposes repealing state goals to improve affordability and replacing it with a series of amendments that place land-use planning and zoning rights in the hands of local governments. The amendment allows the state to enforce state housing laws only if it has provided sufficient funding to enact such laws, and only if it does not prescribe the minimum square footage of any dwelling unit, among other provisions. Plans for a baseball stadium for the Angels in Long Beach could cost the city over $1 billion, according to newly-released documents. The documents, made public by city officials, detail several bond options to finance a $900 million stadium on the 13-acre proposed site downtown – each amounting to over $1.1 billion after interest. The city is also exploring other funding options, including as new taxes, boosting parking fees, or selling the team’s naming rights and sponsorships. Plans also require funding and citywide approval for several new parking lots downtown. Several Bay Area cities topped CDP’s Global Cities A List for environmental action. Top-ranked areas from the 43-city list include Benicia, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Oakland, Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, and San Leandro. The list recognizes cities “acting to reduce emissions, adapt to climate risks, and manage water resources.” Notably, the list recognizes San Francisco for its target to be carbon neutral by 2050. San Francisco officials announced spending plan details for a $500 million affordable housing bond which could hit the ballot in November. The bond will allocate $210 million to construct new low-income housing, and the rest to build more affordable senior units and restore public housing facilities. The bill, proposed by Mayor London Breed and cosponsored by five supervisors still needs three more city board member votes to make it on the ballot. From there, it will require a two-thirds majority vote. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and a coalition of fishing groups sued Fresno's Wetlands Water District for cooperating with the Trump administration on a project to increase Shasta Dam capacity. Wetlands, which owns over 3,000 acres along the McCloud River, is cost-sharing the $1.3 billion project with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to raise the height of the dam by 18.5 feet and thus increase storage capacity by 14 percent. The Attorney General and coalition claim that Wetlands’ plans circumvent the state’s Wild and Scenic River Act, and that their environmental impact report underestimates impacts to a local wild trout fishery. The Bureau of Reclamation hopes to begin construction by 2020. Flood risk at Southern California’s Prado Dam has escalated from “moderate” to “high urgency”, according to a recent assessment from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The assessment found that a “significant flood event” would compromise the dam, and affect 1.4 million people who live in Orange County communities from Disneyland to Newport Beach. This comes on the heels of a series of major issues and lax safety cultures identified by the Corps at California dams – in one case leading to the 2017 disintegration of a concrete spillway at Oroville Dam. The agency is working to develop risk-reduction measures as well as public outreach strategies in the event of a spill. The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) approved a feasibility study of plans for a ferry terminal in the Berkeley Marina. Berkeley city officials have expressed hope that the ferry, which currently serves Vallejo, Oakland, Alameda, Richmond, Harbor Bay and Mare Island, will link local commuters to Berkeley and provide a potential emergency evacuation route for the city. WETA will contribute $250,000 to the feasibility study, and the city of Berkeley will add $110,000 toward the study, as well as contribute $330,000 to the terminal project. Anticipating potential earthquakes and flooding, San Francisco city officials are preparing a $628.5 million disaster preparedness bond. The bill, set for the March 2020 ballot, would finance citywide seismic improvements, strengthen public infrastructure for fire and police stations, and upgrade recreational centers for potential shelter use, among other measures. These improvements are designed to address emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. A local advocacy group sued the city of Santa Clara for proposing new homes between the city’s historic housing developments by the noted modernist architect Joseph Eichler. Citing an “irreparable harm to the historic fabric” of the developments, the Pomeroy Eichler Neighborhood Preservation Society filed a lawsuit to stop construction of four new, standalone single family homes until the city completes an environmental impact report. Notably, the definition of “environment" in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) includes historical significance.  A majority of likely voters in San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties would support a sales tax to pay for new Caltrain projects, according to poll released by EMC Research of Oakland. This shows promising support for Caltrains’ plans for a one-quarter or one-eighth percent sales tax to fund an electric commuter line and increased train frequency and capacity. However, the poll put this majority at 63% – still short of the two-thirds majority it would need to pass. The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) and SPUR published the “San Francisco Bay Shoreline Adaptation Atlas,” the first installment of a comprehensive initiative to plan the Bay Area for climate change by 2070. The Atlas builds a cross-jurisdictional response to sea level rise by dividing the 400-mile Bay shoreline into 30 distinct “operational landscape units,” or OLUs. OLUs share common characteristics, and therefore common adaptation strategies – from nature-based options to policy tools. The complete SPUR Regional Strategy will be published in 2020. A controversial $126 million UC Berkeley classroom-and-housing development will move forward, following a budget approval from a regents’ finance committee. The Upper Hearst project, which seeks to provide housing for new faculty and additional classroom space, faces lawsuits from Save Berkeley Neighborhoods and the city of Berkeley. Both groups claim that the university is avoiding addressing the costs of rising enrollment on the surrounding area. The UC Berkeley Faculty Senate also objects to the project: it vote 174-69 to ask to “immediately suspend” development plans. The project would repack a 350-car parking garage with 150 faculty apartments over 170 parking spots.  In the latest expansion in one of the largest office campuses in the Bay Area, Google purchased three additional office buildings in north San Jose. Now Google owns a total of 1.27 million square feet within eight office and industrial buildings in the northern section of the city, and six of these buildings have never been occupied. Google has also recently invested in the city’s downtown : in partnership with developer Trammell Crow, Google purchased properties near the Diridon train station where they’re planning a transit-oriented neighborhood with office buildings, homes, restaurants, and shops for 25,000 people to work. (See prior CP&DR coverage .)  Homeless populations have grown significantly since 2017 in Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Francisco counties, according to January’s initial point-in-time counts. Alameda reported a staggering 43 percent increase since 2017, with a total of 8,022 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people counted on a single day. Santa Clara County reported a 31 percent increase, with the largest unhoused population in the Bay Area: 9,700 homeless people. San Francisco County reported a 17 percent increase, with a population just over 8,000 – the county’s highest number since 2004. In effort to increase city understanding of ridesharing on local traffic, safety, pollution, and parking, a San Francisco appeals court ruled that Uber must share its ridership data with the city. The California First District Court of Appeals rejected Uber’s objections to the city subpoena, saying that the subpoena was within the city attorney’s investigative powers. Ridesharing competitor Lyft has been sharing similar data with the city since February 2018. A Santa Clara County assessor sued  the county assessment board for giving the San Francisco 49ers NFL team a multimillion dollar tax break. Assessor Larry Stone claims that the board’s decision to award a $6 million property tax break and $36 million refund to the team was unlawful, and unnecessarily hurt local governments and school districts. After the assessment board’s decision to slash property taxes on Levi Stadium, owned by the team, the Santa Clara Unified School District refunded the team $13 million in tax revenue, the county refunded $5 million, and the city of Santa Clara and the West Valley Community College each refunded $3 million. Housing production in Los Angeles has slowed since Measure JJJ took effect, according to a recent study by UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. The measure, approved by city voters in 2016, requires all Los Angeles developments that seek zone changes or general plan amendments employ prevailing wage labor and set aside low-income housing units. But the study finds that in the two years since, developments needing zone changes or other legislative actions have decreased from nearly 19,000 to almost none at all. Authors of the study expressed concerns that this measure only marginally encouraged developing affordable units, and significantly discourages housing production overall. In response to an influx of RV dwellers on public streets, the Mountain View City Council declared a shelter crisis and passed ordinances banning RV parking and ticketing vehicles that “discharge domestic sewage on the public right of way." At the March city council vote, opponents of the ban blamed Google and other Silicon Valley tech centers for the area's affordable housing crisis. The median rent in Mountain View has almost doubled since late 2010 to $4,151 a month – which is nearly triple the national average.  The San Francisco Flower Market Tenants Association may withdraw participation a controversial project to redevelop the market. The project, which proposes 2.1 million square feet of tech office space above the city’s famous SoMa flower market, faces approval from city officials this spring. However, the association’s 53 vendors have claimed that the mixed-use project’s goals do not fit their needs – and would prefer relocating to another site elsewhere in the city.  In response to heated objections from Emeryville and Oakland officials and residents, Caltrans announced it is pausing its plans to rebuild portions of the MacArthur Maze  freeway interchange. In January, Caltrans issued an initial study and environmental assessment of plans to increase vertical clearance on several points of the webbed overpasses. However, city officials, including Mayor Libby Schaaf, claimed that Caltrans failed to notify them of the project, and raised concerns about its impacts on both the environment and the community.

The winding highways leading into the Lake Tahoe Basin offer staggering vistas: snow-dusted Sierra peaks, lush alpine forests, and 192 square miles of improbable blue water spanning the Nevada-California border. But, during peak winter and summer seasons, your most-likely view may be of someone else’s bumper. Traffic into, out of, and within the Tahoe Basin has gotten so severe that local planning agencies have launched an all-out assault on it through the 2017 Linking Tahoe: Regional Transportation Plan . The first phase won this year’s American Planning Association’s Achievement Awards for Transportation (Gold), using big data to measure traffic impacts in the great outdoors. To solve a traffic bottleneck, many planners opt to increase capacity by building bigger roads. But in Tahoe, that’s not an option. Tahoe’s 1982 Bi-State Compact, which strictly regulates land use, effectively took road expansion off the table. “We made a commitment a long time ago not to develop the land anymore,” Nick Haven, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Long Range Planning and Transportation Division Manager, said. “We’re not building our way out of this.” That pledge has led to congestion. And congestion risks more than inconvenience: idling vehicles puff particulate matter that fouls the air and threatens the lake’s world-renowned clarity. “Tahoe can handle a lot of people. It cannot handle a lot of vehicles,” said Carl Hasty, District Manager of the Tahoe Transportation District (TTD). “We need to get people out of their cars, and onto transit.” “But that starts with finding out: where are people traveling from, and where are they trying to go?” said Hasty. To answer these questions, TRPA and TTD – along with the planning firm Stantec Consulting Services – embarked on a two-year mobile data collection and analysis project. Their insights informed Linking Tahoe , TRPA’s 2017 cross-regional multimodal transportation master plan. The project didn’t just catch the attention of the APA’s awards jury – it set a new precedent for data-backed planning. In 2015, while preparing for a master plan update, TTD and TRPA agreed they had a data problem: they simply didn’t know how many cars used the basin’s roads in a given year. It’s a challenge that many transportation engineers face – but the region’s layout and governance made data collection particularly tough. Roads around Lake Tahoe are not always so clear Both agencies span the region’s two states, five counties, and two cities – and each entity supplied different traveler population metrics. Estimates gathered from hotel taxes and traffic counts put annual visitors at 8-10 million. But hotel tax measurements exclude day-trippers. And biweekly car counts, designed to measure regular commuter patterns, doesn’t scale accurately with the flux of seasonal traffic. “The folks at TRPA had this suggestion,” Hasty said. “They asked: what if we could use big data to capture a larger visitation story?” They found their story in cell phone data. With help from Stantec, the agencies connected with AirSage Analytics, which uses wireless signal data from cell phone carriers to analyze traffic mobility patterns. Once an idling cell phone enters a given region, it gives off a signal to local cell towers. AirSage processes and analyzes these signals, matching origin-destination pairs to classify devices into user groups: commuters, residents, or visitors. Working with Stantec, TTD and TRPA bought six data sets for each user group during the peak visitation months of February, July, and August. The first four sets analyzed how people entered and exited the area, where they came from, and how long they stayed. The last two tracked movement within the region, measuring the number and types of trips between specific locations. The analysis offered a more comprehensive look at movement into and around the basin – and the agencies weren’t always prepared for what they learned. The first shock came from visitor counts. TTD and TRPA thought they were struggling to accommodate 8-10 million annual guests. But AirSage showed that Tahoe in fact attracted 25 million travelers per year – two and a half times previous estimates. Counting an average of 2.5 visitors per vehicle, that equated to 10 million vehicles on the roads per year. “Probably the biggest challenge was getting the client to have faith in the data,” Stantec’s project lead Cynthia Albright said. “They asked us to go back and check our numbers, which of course I had already done.” According to Albright, the agencies finally got on board when Stantec demonstrated correlations between the two analyses. “We brought in traffic engineers who could look at the data sets side-by-side and explain how the old data actually supported the new data. AirSage simply offered a bigger picture,” she said. “We also found that 43 percent of visitors were day visitors and not recorded as hotel stays, which explained part of the gap. Put together, the figures made sense.” “We’re still reconciling that number,” Haven admitted. “We knew our day-visitor market was booming. But we didn’t know by how much.” The next surprise came from cross-comparing with transit counts: transit comprised merely 1.4 percent of the 80 million trips within the region in 2014. To explain the lack of transit riders, Albright pointed to changing ridership needs. “Most regional transit options are built for inbound and outbound commuters, not for all these visitors who want to navigate around the lake,” she said. The analysis also exposed a serious parking shortage: the entire bi-state region offers only 18,725 public parking spaces. On a busy summer day, roughly 126,881 vehicles enter the basin – seven times the number of spaces. This scarcity worsens congestion, as vehicles prowl for available spaces, many of which are especially scarce in places that are attractive to day-trippers. But the data didn’t just reveal problems; it offered insights to solve them. For example, to identify popular areas within the basin, Stantec charted all trip endpoints in a given month onto a GPS map of the region. Overlaying transit ridership metrics onto this map, the team discovered seasonal high-activity zones, or “hotspots,” underserved by transit. One hotspot in an unlikely corner of Pioneer Meadows pointed the team to a popular mountain biking destination. So they didn’t just propose a new bus line to the Meadows – they recommended fitting buses with bike trailers. The findings also helped address the parking gap. Examining high-traffic areas, the team proposed transforming lots into “mobility hubs”: places visitors can leave their vehicles and link to a network of bikes, buses, rideshare services, and ferries. TTD and Stantec assembled solutions into a “Corridor Connection Plan,” which split the region into six cross-jurisdictional corridors according to land use and transportation needs. “The Corridor Connection Plan helps mobilize different partners around common projects,” Haven said. For instance, to build a bike trail along the Highway 28 corridor, TTD will work with the General Improvement District, California State Parks, the Forest Service, and Placer County. “That’s a lot of cats to herd. The plan gets people in alignment.” The Linking Tahoe transportation master plan offers a bigger picture, targeting three multimodal priorities: “trails, transit and technology.” Its major proposals include a continuous bike trail around the lake, linked bus and shuttle services, and real-time parking availability updates. It sets an ambitious new goal: to reach 20 percent active or transit mode share in the next 20 years. That’s a far cry from current estimates of 1.4 percent. But if it’s reached, the region will take seven million cars off of the road. “That number helps us send our message.” Hasty said. “Now we’re involved in the hard work of making it happen.” In awarding their Transportation Planning Prize, the APA jury saw the promise of using big data to solve inter-regional transportation problems: if a place as complex as Tahoe could make it work, other areas should take note. “The jury always asks: how transferable is the project to other localities?” said APA jury chair Wendy Shabay. “This project showed that planning doesn’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries. We saw opportunity for planners nationwide to get smarter about linking people across regions.” For Albright, the project’s success story is simple: it improves visitor experience while still protecting the famous clarity of the lake. “The less time people spend in their car, the more time they’ll get to enjoy the view,” she said. “And the fewer cars on the road, the better that view will be.” Contacts & Resources American Planning Association 2019 Achievement Awards 2017 Linking Tahoe: Regional Transportation Plan Nick Haven , Long Range Planning and Transportation Division Manager, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency,  nhaven@trpa.org Carl Hasty , District Manager, Tahoe Transportation District, chasty@tahoetransportation.org Cynthia Albright , Principal Urban Planning & Design, Stantec Consulting Services Inc., cynthia.albright@stantec.com Wendy Shabay , Planner, Freese and Nichols, wds@freese.com Prior CP&DR Coverage of Lake Tahoe Will A New Regional Plan Keep Tahoe Blue? TRPA wins Tahoe plan update approval Image courtesy of Ken Lund via Flickr .

Nexus studies are always tricky. In determining what impact fees to charge new developers, how do you value the cost of services to existing development? Perhaps more difficult is the question of what assumptions to make about the likely value of expensive urban and suburban land in California for parks and other facilities.

Schools don’t usually run into zoning and land-use problems – because under state law school districts are exempt from local zoning. But the advent of charter schools means that school facilities are once again a land-use battleground – and school land-use issues appear to be getting jumbled up in the charter school fight.