Category Archives: Transportation

CA, CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Economy, Housing, Politics, Transportation

The Fay: When Housing Policy Meets the Real World

via email from wakeup

The Fay, 10 E Reed St, San Jose. Drone photo: Scott Keller, via C2K Architecture.

San Jose wanted to revitalize its downtown with more housing, and in 2022 the city waived nearly $9.9 million in taxes and fees for a fully market-rate development, The Fay. The concessions eliminated an $8.844 million affordable-housing obligation. The result was 336 market-rate apartments and no contribution of affordable units. The building opened to fanfare, but quickly proved a disappointment. Its studios leased out quickly, but the one- and two-bedroom units barely filled, leaving the building roughly 60% vacant.

With just 104 parking spaces for 336 apartments, city officials and renters both identified limited parking as a major factor that affected lease-up. The nearest garage was seven blocks away, and the only option was being continually ticketed for on-street parking. California housing laws have removed on-site parking requirements, both to reduce development costs and to encourage reliance on public transit. The Fay put that assumption to a real-world test. The policy removed the parking requirement. It did not remove the demand for parking, and transit did not make up the difference.

By January 2026, The Fay had gone through foreclosure and was valued at just $110 million. With 197 vacant units, the project was destabilized. San Jose stepped in to save it, committing $11.2 million from Measure E funds to master lease the 197 vacant units….

The city subsidized the 150 one-bedroom and 47 two-bedroom apartments, precisely the units that had failed to attract enough renters. The program serves middle-income tenants at 80% to 110% of Area Median Income — roughly $111,000 to $150,000 in annual earnings — with city workers bumped to the front of the applicant pool. It creates no low- or very-low-income units, and no permanently affordable units…

HOW THE CITY JUSTIFIES THE LIVE PROGRAM ON THEIR SITE

Continue reading The Fay: When Housing Policy Meets the Real World →

CA, CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Politics, Transportation

Calif. officials’ proposal sparks outrage over drive-on beach in Humboldt County

By Olivia Harden : sfgate – excerpt

Residents of a small coastal town in Humboldt County are protesting plans that a state conservation agency says are necessary to save a piece of the North Coast.

On Wednesday, the California Coastal Commission unanimously approved a coastal development permit for Humboldt County to repair Centerville Road outside of Ferndale. The road, which sits next to Centerville Beach, is being eroded by the ocean, and the county plans to reconstruct a 900-foot segment of the road by raising and building a new parking lot.

But the decision came with a condition: The commission would issue the permit only if vehicle access to the beach is discontinued. That requirement has rankled local residents and government officials, including Humboldt County Planning Commissioner Iver Skavdal, who represents District 1, where the beach is located. Skavdal came to the meeting to express his frustration during public comment.

“The Coastal Commission has attached a totally unrelated condition shutting down beach vehicular access to the project,” Skavdal said at the meeting. “There has been no community discussion as to why this is necessary …

This just appears to be a backroom deal stuck into the project, holding the project, the residents and the county hostage simply because you can.”… (more)

Please be aware of the state-wide problems people are facing thanks to Scott Wiener and Gavin Newsom’s power grabs in Sacramento that are being are used to control local governments everywhere. This is one of many examples of problem that Humbolt County residents are dealing with.

CA, deregulated housing bills, Housing, Planning, Politics, Transportation

State housing officials offer an opinion about Los Altos ballot proposal

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT : padailypost – excerpt

State housing officials have weighed in on a ballot measure to preserve downtown parking lots in Los Altos.

Los Altos City Council would need to consider new places for housing if voters approve Measure D on Nov. 3, according to a letter from state housing official Brian Heaton…

“If voters adopt the ordinance, the city will be required to amend its Housing Element to analyze the ordinance as a potential governmental constraint on housing development, including, but not limited to, whether the parking plazas are still appropriate to include in the site inventory,” Heaton said in an Aug. 28 letter to Development Services Director Stephanie Williams.

Housing mandate

The Housing Element is a state-mandated plan for where more than 1,958 homes could be developed throughout the city by 2031…

Council members have warned that new housing could go in residential neighborhoods if downtown lots are no longer an option.

“In my conversations with residents, there’s very little enthusiasm for that solution,” Vice Mayor Larry Lang said at a meeting on July 24.

Lang said the city will also consider commercial areas like the Lucky supermarket at 2175 Grant Road or Andronico’s Community Markets at 690 Fremont Ave.

Residents want a say

Residents gathered over 2,600 signatures from registered voters in April to qualify Measure D for the November ballot…

“Residents and business owners are not opposed to thoughtful change. But we’re asking that the public have a meaningful say before public land is permanently altered,” resident Cindy Andrews said in a statement for the campaign.… (more)

CA, CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Housing, Planning, Politics, Transportation

SANDAG spared 2 North County cities from more aggressive housing development — a move at odds with state guidance

By Lucas Robinson and Madeleine Kashkoolie : sandiegotribune – excerpt

Pro-housing groups say the agency’s decision to not upzone the areas around two transit hubs reeks of political influence.

For months, many North County leaders have criticized and tried to blunt the impacts of a new state law that overrides local zoning to allow high-rise housing near transit stops.

They just got some help in that effort from the San Diego Association of Governments.

In a move that conflicts with state guidance, SANDAG exempted Solana Beach and parts of Oceanside from the most dramatic potential impacts of that law, Senate Bill 79, which took effect at the beginning of July.

On the regional planning agency’s board of directors, North County politicians hold outsized sway — among them Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner, who has chaired the board for a year and a half….

The law allows for buildings up to 95 feet tall within a certain distance of transit stops, even if the area is zoned for single-family housing. It applies within a quarter-mile of all eligible transit stops, but for the busiest ones, it applies to everywhere within a half-mile.

In San Diego, the law could have a greater reach than the city anticipated. Officials had estimated only four bus stops would be subject to new higher-density allowances — but in SANDAG’s maps, 21 meet the criteria…

Yet in Solana Beach and Oceanside, a different story played out.

The area surrounding Solana Beach’s train station, which is serviced by the North County Transit District and Amtrak, is not subject to upzoning, according to the maps.

In Oceanside, the neighborhood around the city’s downtown transit center will see a laxer upzoning designation despite being serviced by four different train lines.

In an interview, Heebner said she gave agency staff no input on how to draft the maps… (more)

CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Housing, Planning, Politics, Transportation

We need help stopping Senate Bill 79

If you need a visual to understand the impacts of Wiener’s SB 79
The above links to a visual explanation that illustrates the significance of the changes SB 79 could make in your neighborhood.

It took Wiener three rounds of voting to get SB 79 passed in the Senate. It’s amended and scheduled for hearings in the Assembly Housing, Local Government, and Natural Resources committees.
The Housing Committee hearing is in the first week of July;
letters are due June 25th.

If you are concerned about this, consider taking some actions:

See contact info below.  You may call or  leave a message on the phone asking the Assembly members to vote NO on S B 79.
A  spreadsheet of Assemblymembers with contact info

Or send a letter to the Assembly members listed below:

Assembly Members on the Committees 

Text version of a sample letter and speaking points.

I strongly oppose SB 79 as an assault on local control that disregards state-certified housing elements. At first glance, the amendments made by Senator Wiener might appear reasonable, but actually offer nothing of substance.

• The new “affordability” component merely reflects incentives already available.

• The new option for localities to write alternative plans are of no benefit. By requiring that the same number of units and floor area ratio be maintained, this provision is a false alternative, as it merely creates a complex balancing act.

The thrust of SB 79 remains ministerially approved market-rate density without regard to local conditions. Our housing elements have already indicated which sites best serve our communities as infill.

SB 79 is deeply flawed in both concept and consequence. It would inflict disproportionate harm on the most affordable neighborhoods in our cities.

I OPPOSE SB 79 for these reasons:

  • It undermines affordable housing goals
  • 81% of all development under new laws is already market rate
  • It encourages gentrification
  • It undermines the housing element process
  • It does not exempt fire hazard zones
  • Affordable housing near transit is the avowed goal of state policy, but it is not the goal of this bill.

Sincerely,

Individuals: Your name and address
Organizations: Your name, title, and signature; add logo at top

If you want to learn how to post to the portal, go here: https://discoveryink.wordpress.com/ca-legislative-process/ca-bills/posting-letters

CEQA, Housing, Politics, Transportation

Abundance meets resistance: Are Democrats finally ready to go all in on building housing?

By JEANNE KUANG : calmatters – excerpt

Amid a post-2024 wave of Democratic interest in the burgeoning pro-development “abundance” movement, this seemed to be an easy year for California’s yes-in-my-backyard housing development activists.
Democratic leaders in the state Legislature declared their intention to tackle affordability this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom and other politicians have since embraced the “abundance” platform, which argues that Democrats must do more to quickly deliver housing, transportation and other infrastructure projects to their constituents.
Lawmakers have introduced ambitious bills that would, for housing developments in existing neighborhoods, blow a hole through the longstanding thicket of environmental reviews and regulations that often slow down projects and add costs. One of those passed its first committee on Monday.
Still, YIMBY-ism hit a stumbling block Tuesday in the form of the Senate housing committee. The committee, led by Sen. Aisha Wahab, nearly killed a closely watched bill to require cities to allow taller, denser apartments and condo construction near public transit stations.
Wahab said she was acting on a chorus of familiar objections from progressives and others who have long delayed housing construction in California: The legislation didn’t guarantee that projects would be built with union labor. It didn’t require that the new units be affordable for low-income residents. It could infringe on local governments’ ability to block or green-light projects. It opened up the possibility of bypassing certain environmental reviews.
In the end, the committee voted 6-2 against Wahab’s objections to narrowly advance Senate Bill 79, by Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat and prominent advocate for housing production. Some Democrats were absent or didn’t vote. The committee also killed a different Wiener bill that would have further loosened restrictions on property owners who want to split single-family homes into duplexes. It was a stark reversal from prior years in the Legislature, when Wiener chaired the housing committee and pushed through several bills to spur housing production…
A progressive who is focused on preserving explicitly affordable units for low-income tenants, Wahab, a Hayward Democrat, was pushing for legislation to help cities that enact rent caps compete with other municipalities for state housing and planning grants. Some studies have found rent control in San Francisco has reduced rental supply, while other economists say capping rents is still needed to help those who are housing insecure.
“The state has prioritized development, development, development,” Wahab said. “The types of development that are going up with zero parking and all these giveaways to developers have also not translated to housing that has dignity that people want to stay in and raise their families in.”
Her bill (SB 262) drew skepticism from some colleagues on the committee, who noted the state funding programs are for development and production, but nevertheless voted to advance it… (more)
 

SB 262: Housing element: prohousing designations: prohousing local policies. https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb262

Housing, Planning, Politics, Transportation

Meet the politician who could make or break California’s housing efforts. What’s her plan?

By Emily Hoeven : sfchronicle – excerpt (via email)

Following their devastating losses in the 2024 election, many Democrats have eagerly aligned themselves with the burgeoning “abundance” movement, which contends that blue states like California need to focus less on sluggish bureaucratic processes and more on tangible outcomes to win back voters.

But it’s one thing to embrace a slogan and another thing entirely to take action. Here in California, we’re about to see which side of that divide our leaders stand on.

Buffy Wicks, Chair of the Appropriations Committee
Buffy Wicks, Chair of the Appropriations Committee

 

Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, is pushing one of the biggest bills in recent memory, AB609, to exempt almost all infill housing development from California Environmental Quality Act review. And it’s just one of 20 bills in an ambitious, bipartisan package that aims to streamline and simplify the state’s housing approval process and make it easier to build the estimated 2.5 million homes California needs.

Actually passing these bills, however, will require that Democrats risk alienating some of their most influential constituencies, including labor unions and environmental justice groups — some of which have already come out swinging against Wicks’ bill and others.

It’s “a moment of truth for the Legislature,” Michael Lane, state policy director for the urbanist organization SPUR, told me.

Will lawmakers move forward with bold bills, or will they revert to the failed policies of the past?

Aisha Wahab, Chair of the California State Housing Committee
Aisha Wahab, Chair of the California State Housing Committee

One key lawmaker who will play a decisive role in answering that question is state Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont, whom Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, recently appointed as leader of the Senate Housing Committee.

Committee leaders have significant sway in the Legislature. Not only can their stance on a bill meaningfully influence its chance of passage, but they also can decide whether to give a bill a hearing or kill it in cold blood.

Wahab isn’t the only committee leader or legislative power broker who will determine the fate of California’s “abundance” agenda, but she may be one of the biggest wild cards. In her first hearing as housing committee chair last month, she proclaimed that it’s time for California to “move away from development, development, development” and also stated “transit-oriented development doesn’t necessarily work.”

Continue reading Meet the politician who could make or break California’s housing efforts. What’s her plan? →

Transportation

Tumlin reflects on his tenure leading the SFMTA

KTVU

SFMTA Executive Director Jeff Tumlin reflects on the time he spent leading the agency… Direct of MUNI,  Julie Kirschbaum will take over the department until Lurie chooses a new director.

For those of us who did not appreciate Tumlin, here is a little history.

Déjà vu:  Tumlin out as city consultant
by Ashley Archibald – March 15, 2013 : smdp – excerpt

CITY HALL — City officials confirmed Wednesday that they would no longer work with traffic and circulation consultant Jeffrey Tumlin after comments on an online biography proved even more controversial than the parking policies he espoused.

In the bio, Tumlin wrote that Santa Monica politics “had been dominated by NIMBYs who used traffic fear as their primary tool for stopping development.” The reference, indeed the entire section on Santa Monica, had been removed as of Wednesday.

The comment spurred outrage amongst residents, who called for Tumlin’s dismissal. Additionally, Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, or SMCLC, wrote an adjoining letter expressing distaste for Tumlin’s parking policies, which involve building less parking than currently required for new development and opening up existing lots to increase supply in some areas.

The net effect would be to drive down costs of development, and therefore the price of housing, and ostensibly cause fewer car trips by attracting fewer cars based on the premise that you will not drive where you cannot park.
The theory is embraced by planning professionals, although it constitutes “a huge transition,” said Juan Matute, of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, in January when Tumlin’s proposal first ricocheted through Santa Monica.
That holds little water for Santa Monicans aghast that large amounts of new development could ever result in the “no new net PM trips” promise enshrined in the 2010 Land Use and Circulation Element, a planning document that is supposed to dictate development in Santa Monica for decades to come.
“Mr. Tumlin’s central premise — that new development would yield no additional traffic — is an unsound prediction without basis,” SMCLC wrote. “It is fanciful social experimentation, embraced only by developers.”
It’s unclear if those unpopular ideas will exit along with Tumlin.… (more)

Look at the date on this article. We were cubically warned about him about the time this article came out. He claimed his firm had done some work in San Francisco that was not done by anyone. The product did not exist. So much for the wasted years and millions of dollars spent fulfilling his dreams on our streets. This document partially edited by Tumlin, because the treatise of sorts for those exposing his beliefs in a lifestyle for special interests. How many people and city authorities have been hoodwinked by this guy and his ideas on how to control the masses? How many cities have seen rents go down as promised when they were densified? And how many people have given up the privacy and freedom of owning their owning a car?

path-to-a-livable-city-1-pdf.jpg

The Path to a livable City, published in 2002 by such luminaries as  Gabriel Metcalf, edited by Steven Bodzin of the Congress for New Urbanism, Jeffrey Tumlin of Nelson\Nygaard Consulting, and Shannon Dodge and Doug Shoemaker of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. Lydia Tan of Bridge Housing helped the group gain perspective on housing issues. And thanks to the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition, on whose regional leadership Transportation for a Livable City (TLC) will rely heavily.

 

CEQA, Politics, Transportation

Sloat Street Quickbuild gives neighbors another reason to Recall Engardio

Who dreamed up this Sloat project and when was it first announced to the neighbors? The lack of transparency is one of the reasons Engardio is being recalled.

This project was sprung on us at the very last minute and passed by the SFMTA Board at a meeting under questionable  procedures. Director Heminger who voted to oppose the approval, questioned the wisdom of rushing this through.

Isn’t Sloat the preferred route for the cars to take to get to the beach and zoo now the Great Highway is going to be off-limits? Or is the plan to limit public access to Ocean Beach to bikers and walkers? No more families loading up the beach and picnic supplies for a beach day?

deregulated housing bills, Housing, Politics, Transportation

Bay Area Housing Finance Authority Pulls Regional Measure 4 from the November Ballot

For Immediate  Release:

San Francisco – This morning, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) voted to pull Regional Measure 4, the $20 billion dollar regional bond measure, off the November ballot. Gus Mattammal, President of the 20 Billion Reasons campaign to defeat the bond measure in November, hailed the move.

Said Mattammal, “This decision is a win for Bay Area taxpayers, and a win for affordable housing. To address housing affordability in a meaningful way, we have to address root causes, not soak taxpayers for billions of dollars at a time using bonds that would waste two thirds of the revenue on interest and overhead while barely making a dent in the issue.”

The 20 Billion Reasons campaign brought together Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Independents in a single campaign, a rarity in recent times, but a necessity. Said Mattammal, “Actually working on the root causes of the housing crisis in California, a crisis created by our legislature and the corporate interests to which they are beholden, is politically difficult. It’s much easier to simply raise taxes. That’s why it’s so important for voters to say ‘no’ to deeply flawed proposals such as Regional Measure 4: every time we do say no, it helps create the political conditions to work on the problem in a meaningful way.”

Though Regional Measure 4 is off the ballot for now, many other expensive proposals remain on the ballot, and the $20 Billion Reasons campaign team is excited to regroup and consider the best way forward to help ensure that Bay Area taxpayers are getting real solutions for the taxes they pay.

About Gus Mattammal – Gus is an entrepreneur and educator who has lived and worked in the Bay Area for over 17 years. He is proud to work with the committed Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Independents who seek to ensure that the public’s money is wisely spent. Learn more at: 20billionreasons.com