Category Archives: Politics

deregulated housing bills, Housing, Planning, Politics

Housing for ‘families’ or corporate rentals?

By Tim Redmond : 48hihlls – excerpt

Planning Commission approves the conversion of units that were supposed to help the housing crisis into very expensive places for short-term use.

When the Planning Commission approved a condo project at 1863 Mission in 2018, the staff wrote: The Project will add 37 units to the City’s housing stock, including 15 two-bedroom, family-sized units and will replace long vacant site that has been a blight to the neighborhood with a high quality mixed-income development.

That’s typical. We hear this over and over when developers want to build market-rate housing: Families in San Francisco need places to live.

When the supes rejected the Environmental Impact Report for 469 Stevenson, Yimby Law noted: Hundreds of families were denied housing in San Francisco because of Supervisors Gordon Mar, Dean Preston, Myrna Melgar, Connie Chan, Rafael Mandelman, Aaron Peskin, Hillary Ronen, and Shamann Walton.

But as of today, the planners have agreed that at least seven of the units at 1863 Mission will not be available for families who need housing. They will be corporate rentals, in essence high-priced hotel rooms for people who are in the city for more than 30 days but less than a year…(more)

Some of us have a different approach to the “landlord’s dilemma,” that strikes at the heart of the Tenants Bill of Rights by proposing a compromise that not only protects landlords from risky tenants, but also protects tenants from risky sub-letters, friends, family, and scammers who take advantage of the Tenants Bill of Rights. Too many cases of bad outcomes from turning temporary arrangements into long term nightmares, as depicted here: “Housemate From Hell Forces Elderly SF Artist To Move Across the Country”

We have heard a lot of horror stories about housemates and tenants from hell. What will it take for someone to step in and solve this problem? How many more rental units would go on the market if the laws that protect landlords from nightmare tenants were not curtailed? There has to be a way for people to protect themselves from predators. Which our of supervisors will solve this problem? How can we level the playing field?

CEQA, Housing, Politics

Wiener bill would kick elected officials out of critical land-use and housing decisions

By Zelda Bronstein : 48hills – excerpt

Mitts-Off

If cities don’t meet the state’s impossible housing goals, unelected bureaucrats could be approving development projects with no oversight.

State Sen. Scott Wiener just introduced a new bill, SB 423, that extends the absurd provisions of his 2017 bill SB 35. That law forces cities to approve—that is, “streamline”—certain housing projects if the number of building permits they’ve issued halfway in the eight-year Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) cycle falls short of their respective allocations.

The mandate is absurd, because cities can approve projects, but they can’t compel developers to pull building permits on projects that have been approved. Builders are not going to build if they can’t make a profit; that’s why in San Francisco right now, tens of thousands of approved housing units are not getting built.

In a further absurdity, the allocations themselves, especially the low-income numbers, are so enormous as to be unrealizable. SB 35 sets up cities to fail.

Now comes SB 423. The mainstream press has focused on two controversial aspects of Wiener’s new bill: it adds Builder’s Remedy to SB 35’s penalties, and it loosens SB 35’s requirements for employing union labor.

My focus here is on another problematic aspect of SB 423…

Here’s the relevant passage in SB 423: Section 65913.4 of the Government Code is amended to read:

…. (c) (1) If a local government government’s planning director or any equivalent local government staff, including all relevant planning and permitting departments, determines that a development submitted pursuant to this section is consistent with the objective planning standards specified in subdivision (a) and pursuant to paragraph (3) of this subdivision, it shall approve the development. …(more)

Homeowners and would-be homeowners take exception to Wiener’s claims that single family homes are immoral. The more you know about the plans to limit your lifestyle the less you like it.

Housing, Planning, Politics

State rejects Oakland’s housing plan, asks for revisions

by Natalie Orenstein : oaklandside – excerpt

Like most Bay Area cities, Oakland’s newly approved Housing Element doesn’t comply with state requirements, which could impact the city’s funding and ability to control development.

Just two days after Oakland officials adopted the city’s eight-year housing plan, the state determined it didn’t meet the requirements, state records show.

In a Feb. 2 letter, the California Housing and Community Development Department told Oakland it must make revisions to its Housing Element to be found in compliance. Without that certification, Oakland immediately loses the ability to place certain restrictions on development, and could lose out on significant state funding for housing.

The Housing Element is a significant piece of the city’s General Plan, which is undergoing an update. The section spells out how Oakland will plan to build enough housing to meet state targets over the coming eight years, and what policies and programs the city will pursue to achieve affordability and equal access to housing.

The Oakland City Council unanimously approved its Housing Element on Jan. 31, the state-imposed deadline. City planners told the council at that meeting that they’ve been in close contact with state housing authorities, and expected the element to be approved. They said that the council would still be able to make tweaks to the document in the coming days…

Where Oakland’s housing element is still out of compliance

A central piece of Oakland’s plan is the identification of specific locations where housing could be developed, so that Oakland meets targets for both affordable and market-rate construction in the coming years. The city is required to plan for 26,000 new units.

The city’s submission is missing details on why these sites are primed for redevelopment, such as whether the property owner is amenable, if the site is vacant, and analysis of recent development trends, the state said.

State planners also said Oakland’s document should include more details about how it will ensure housing access for historically excluded groups, though they noted the element “includes many meaningful policies and actions.” They also told the city that a section on neighborhood improvement shouldn’t be limited to housing plans, but also include goals around infrastructure, transportation, and parks…(more)

This is a new low for the state and or HCD, AFter demanding the cities allow development on the open space they now demand more open space? And since when did they need to see details on infrastructure, transportation and parks to meet housing goals?

 

deregulated housing bills, Housing, Politics

Bay Area Cities Just Lost Zoning Control. See the Wildest Homes That Could Come to Your Neighborhood

By Sarah Wright : sfstandard – excerpt

The state’s Jan. 31 deadline has come and gone, and 69 out of 109 jurisdictions in the Bay Area have failed to submit their required eight-year housing plan to the state.

Advocacy groups like YIMBY Law are already suing cities and counties, claiming they’ve violated state law by missing the deadline. But in the meantime, developers are preparing to file projects under the “builder’s remedy,” which means cities and counties cannot deny housing projects just because they violate local zoning plans.

That enticing possibility brought a crowd to Downtown San Francisco on Wednesday night, where housing advocates and architects gathered to celebrate the chance to build more aggressively and to share their dream projects.

The proposals offer a glimpse into what new developments might be popping up in cities, from Berkeley to Hillsborough, that are out of compliance with state law…(more)

Planning, Politics

Can a City Thrive When Its Downtown Is Empty?

By Alan Greenblatt : governing – excerpt

The office recession is real, with downtowns in major cities still missing a majority of their pre-pandemic workforce. San Francisco offers a case study in terms of the consequences.

DSC01596.jpg

Market Street, the main drag through San Francisco’s downtown, was closed to private cars just before the pandemic. It’s missing office workers and pedestrian life. (All photos Alan Greenblatt/Governing)

Sales were slow during the holidays but Alphonse Verkler stayed optimistic. He manages a cheese and sandwich shop in downtown San Francisco and says that foot traffic had improved from a low point last summer. “Obviously, as you can imagine, it’s not as busy as it once was, but things have picked up,” he says.

Verkler’s shop is half a block from Salesforce Tower, the second-tallest building on the West Coast and headquarters of San Francisco’s largest private employer. It wasn’t great news for the neighborhood when Salesforce announced it was laying off 8,000 people and cutting back on office space at the beginning of the year. The mass layoffs announced in recent days by Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Meta (Facebook and Instagram), while certainly not all impacting San Francisco directly, aren’t a good sign for the city either. Tech companies make up nearly a third of the city’s private-sector payrolls. “It’s not the first time that I have wished San Francisco’s economy was a little more diversified than tech,” says Supervisor Matt Dorsey.

San Francisco already suffers an all-time record office vacancy rate of 27.6 percent. Meta has just put up 34 stories of office space — 435,000 square feet, enough space for 2,000 workers — for sublease…(more)

RELATED:

Turning Downtown Residential: Why It’s Poised to Happen

Politics, Transportation

Using California gas tax to reduce traffic lanes? Not how it should be spent, some say

By Patrick McGreevy : latimes – excerpt

Reporting from Sacramento —

Two years after state lawmakers boosted the gas tax with a promise to improve California streets, some cities have raised the ire of drivers by spending millions of the new dollars on “road diet” projects that reduce the number and size of lanes for motor vehicles.

Projects have touched off a debate as taxpayer advocates and motorists complain that the higher gas taxes they are paying for smoother trips will actually fund projects that increase traffic congestion.

Cities counter that they are making the roads safer by slowing traffic and that motorists benefit by being separated from cyclists and scooter users in the bike lanes.

Gas tax money can legally go to such projects, but that does not mean it should, said David Wolfe, legislative director for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which opposed the original gas tax increase and supported an unsuccessful statewide ballot measure last year to repeal it. It has since continued to watch and criticize how state and local governments are spending the money.

“When Proposition 6 was on the ballot, all voters heard was money would go to road repair and maintenance,” Wolfe said. “They want roads to be repaired. They don’t want roads to be taken away with their taxpayer dollars.”

Senate Bill 1, the legislation that increased the gas tax, includes $100 million in gas tax money annually designated for bicycle and pedestrian projects, which are key elements of many road diets.

The bulk of SB 1 money, $2.27 billion in the first year, went to state projects to repair and maintain roads, while $750 million annually was set aside for public transportation capital projects and operating expenses…

In Los Angeles, residents have sued the city over its decision to reduce the number of traffic lanes on a stretch of Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista to make space for a protected bicycle lane.

That project, funded before SB 1 was approved, was part of a larger plan that eliminated some nine miles of Westside traffic lanes in Mar Vista and Playa del Rey. Residents took the city to court, and some of the road diets were reversed.

“It’s creating gridlock on Venice Boulevard, which is then causing cut-through traffic into our neighborhoods,” said Selena Inouye, board president of the Westside Los Angeles Neighbors Network, a group formed in response to the project….

Inouye, a retired social worker, said having motorists pay higher gas taxes so the money can be used to reduce the capacity of roads is contradictory…

State officials who oversee the spending of gas tax money say public safety was a key priority of SB 1 when it was debated and approved by the Legislature in April 2017. The measure is bringing in more than $5 billion annually for road and bridge repairs and expanded mass transit in the state.

The bill raised the state gas tax by 12 cents a gallon that year and provides a 5.6-cent increase this July 1…

Part of the current debate is whether road diets improve the flow of traffic…

Snyder, of the bicycle coalition, said the protected bike lanes are helping the economy by making business districts safer for pedestrians and bicyclists…(more)

Politics

Is gentrification an environmental impact?

By Tim Redmond : 48jills – excerpt

The battle over People’s Park has been raging since I was in sixth grade, and we could spend a huge amount of time talking about the role of the three-acre lot in the history of Berkeley. It’s been a point of contention representing so much and so many issues, and it’s back in the news now that UC Berkeley once again is trying to build a dorm on the site as part of a much larger campus expansion plan.

And this week, the Court of Appeal for the First Circuit of California issued a ruling on what started out as a technical legal issue around the project but has now, potentially, changed the way environmental law applies to cities in Northern California.

Specifically, the tentative court ruling holds that gentrification and displacement are issues that have to be analyzed under the California Environmental Quality Act.

That would, among other things, justify the Board of Supes decision on 469 Stevenson Street and force the city and developers to do an entirely new type of analysis before they put luxury housing projects in vulnerable communities.

This isn’t final: The opinion is still in draft form, and won’t be finalized until after the court hears oral arguments Jan. 12. Even if the court sticks to its tentative ruling, the Supreme Court could take up the case.

But if it holds, development-friendly folks are already freaking out. From today’s Business Times… (more)

Alameda Court cases are not always predictable and this case proves that point. Will this become a precedent setting case or only a blip on the radar? Stay tuned.

Politics

Grassroots Democrats denounce PAC that helped get Haney elected to Assembly

By Tim Redmond :48hills – excerpt

Govern for California is anti-labor, anti-teacher, anti-single-payer, and pro-Matt Haney. Now county committees around the state are telling Democrats not to take the money.
Several county chapters of the California Democratic Party have passed or are considering resolutions condemning the anti-labor plutocratic group Govern for California and calling on Democratic candidates to refuse to accept the group’s money.

The SF County Central Committee approved that resolution Sept. 28, with Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Phil Ting the only ones voting no…

The resolution has no binding authority, but it’s part of a growing movement among grassroots Democrats to distance the party from a powerful group of very rich donors who are under investigation for dubious campaign spending and openly seeking to end tenure for teachers, end organized labor in government, and block single-payer health care.

Haney insisted he supported single-payer, but he took $285,000 in direct contributions from Govern for California affiliates. Check out this video where David Crane, the co-founder of the group, explains how he helped kill single-payer:..(more)

Sounds like a lobbying organization if they are working on that many subjects. David Crane must be a lobbyist if he killed the California single payer bill.

Politics

Nearly Half of San Franciscans Have Been Victims of Theft, New Poll Says

By Garrett Leahy : sfstandard – excerpt

Nearly half of San Franciscans have been a victim of theft in the past five years and a quarter have been threatened or physically attacked, according to a new poll.

Findings from the SF Chronicle survey underscored the challenges of the city and the unhappiness of its residents, with 65% saying life in SF is worse today than when they moved here.

The survey also found that 39% of residents have had their property damaged in the past five years…(more)