planning.lacity.gov – excerpt

The Los Angeles City Council recently adopted a Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (No. 188,793) that establishes zoning incentives and streamlined procedures for the conversion of existing commercial buildings and structures resulting in the creation of five or more residential units. The original Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, first adopted in 1999, only applied to buildings built before 1974 and located in or near Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA). The provisions of the original ARO were expanded in 2003 to include four small areas of the city, now defined as Adaptive Reuse Subareas.

The updated Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO) expands eligibility beyond DTLA to all neighborhoods within Los Angeles city limits. Under the new ARO, all buildings that are at least 15 years old are now eligible, if they are located in Multifamily Residential, Commercial, Parking or Public Facilities Zones1. Parking structures or parking areas within an existing building that are at least five years old are also eligible, as is any existing building of this age, subject to Zoning Administrator approval (Sections 12.24 X.1 and 13B.2.1 of the Code).

The intent of the updated ARO is to remove most Zoning Code barriers to the reuse of existing buildings, allowing many more applicants to apply directly to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) to obtain their building permit. A few of the more significant incentives that have been added include:

• More flexibility in how interior spaces may be reconfigured without counting as new floor area, either by adding floor levels or new additions to replace any space removed to create light wells, courtyards or other open space within the existing building
• Unified Adaptive Reuse Projects that provide affordable housing are eligible for unlimited density in the new construction portion of the project.
• Unified Adaptive Reuse Projects that provide affordable housing may add up to two new residential floors above an existing building
• Minimum unit size requirements have been eliminated; units can now be as small as allowed by Building Code standards
• A new rooftop story may be added, without counting towards a project’s building height or floor area, to provide new shared amenities or open space for residents… (more)

Audrey Denney is trying to win a House seat twice – first in a special election, and then again after the district is redrawn.
Districts 1 and 2 were re-aligned so now Chico is in District 1. Audrey Denny is running in District 1. https://audreyforcongress.com/

Inside an old Craftsman on the northern end of California’s Sacramento valley, Audrey Denney is spending the day on the phone – calling constituent after constituent to discuss rising healthcare costs, wildfire insurance premiums and cuts to benefits – and to solicit donations.

It’s the mundane way in which an epic, and uphill, battle for control of the US Congress is being fought.

Denney, a 41-year-old Democrat who has pledged not to take any money from corporate Pacs, is trying to win a region comfortably held by Republicans for nearly half a century. She’s trying to win it not just once, but twice, in what can rightly be described as one of the most chaotic and confusing election years in this rural corner of the state.

Last year, California’s first congressional district, which extends from the almond orchards and rice fields of the Sacramento valley to the forested and fire-prone foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Cascades, was thrust at the center of a political firestorm.

The district was one of several remade under a bold redistricting proposal that redrew the state’s voting map to favor Democrats. Its new boundaries include counties to the west and south, making it competitive for Democrats for the first time in years. Doug LaMalfa, the Republican who had long held the district’s seat, was readying for a long-shot bid for re-election. Denney saw her opening.

Then, on 6 January, LaMalfa suddenly died…(more) scroll down the page for the link to the article

RELATED:

In his radically redrawn new district, a Marin congressman gets thrown to the wolves.

By Joe Garofali : sfchronicle – excerpt

ALTURAS (Modoc County) — The Supreme Court has not yet signed off on California’s Proposition 50, which redrew the state’s congressional boundaries in order to boost the number of Democrats in Congress. But  is not waiting. He’s already started visiting the most remote parts of his radically redrawn district, which is now set to include one of the most conservative corners of the state.

At times, it felt like a scene from a sitcom: A progressive congressman from Marin County trying to woo Trump-loving locals in California’s MAGA-iest corner. A place so right-leaning that the Democratic Party doesn’t even have a local chapter… 

During a two-day barnstorm of the region that included stops to meet with a local Indivisible chapter, a native tribe and at a biofuel mini power plant.

Huffman, clad in a fleece U.S. Congress vest, assured Indivisible club members that he understands them…

Huffman spent the tour emphasizing that he’s fished on rivers here for years and that he’s not going to be pushing culture war issues. That may be more of a challenge in the future… (more)

Continue reading Rural California is seeing its craziest election in years. Can a progressive win it? →

By Sam Mantros : sfstandard – excerpt

State lawmakers criticized the governor for earmarking millions for the private art school amid a budget deficit.

Students and faculty of California College of the Arts weren’t the only ones shocked by the abrupt announcement Tuesday that San Francisco’s oldest art school would be closing and its campus taken over by Vanderbilt University.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who caught flak from the press and lawmakers last year after securing $20 million in the state budget for CCA, was also caught off guard.

In text messages reviewed by The Standard, Newsom wrote that he “Had no clue” and was given “no heads up” about the 119-year-old CCA’s dissolution, which was announced in an email to students and faculty by CCA president David Howse…

In an interview Wednesday, The Standard asked Howse if he had notified the governor about the closure.

“We have been in touch with the governor’s office, and we’ll continue to keep in conversation with him as we go through this transition,” Howse said, adding that he had not spoken directly with Newsom.

A spokesperson for CCA said Howse notified the governor’s office of the closure Monday, the day before the news was announced publicly, and has a meeting scheduled with Newsom’s office next week…

All four Democrats on an education finance budget subcommittee voted against the governor’s request. Sen. Scott Wiener backed Newsom’s proposal.

Shortly after Newsom proposed the $20 million grant, $45 million in donations came in — half from the Jen-Hsun & Lori Huang Foundation and the rest matched by private donors. The contribution by the Nvidia CEO’s foundation was the largest donation in the school’s history by $5 million…(more)

More bad news for Newsom at a bad time for Newsom.

Amelia Benavides-Colón : applenews – excerpt

Trump to the rescue?

The president said he would roll out a new affordable housing agenda during a planned speech in Davos, Switzerland, later this month.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he wants to bar large corporations from purchasing single-family housing stock as part of his new affordable housing agenda.

“I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it,” Trump said in a lengthy Truth Social post on Wednesday. “People live in homes, not corporations.”…

Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno , a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee, wasted no time in announcing his plans to introduce legislation in response to the Trump administration’s proposal.

“Millions of young Americans have been locked out of the American Dream, @realDonaldTrump is finally fighting back,” Moreno posted to X in response to Trump’s post. “I will introduce legislation in the Senate to codify this into law.”

In the House, Republican Rep. Riley Moore, a member of the Appropriations committee, praised the announcement. (more)

How will Wiener and Company and the Democrats compete with that? What will they say or do to stop this?

By Laura Waxmann : sfchronicle – excerpt

For nearly four decades, the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. has operated on a rare promise in San Francisco real estate: acquire or build affordable housing and hold it forever.

That covenant is now shifting.

For the first time in its history, the nonprofit housing developer and operator is planning to sell four buildings from its extensive Tenderloin housing portfolio, citing the need to shore up its long-term financial health. The decision marks a significant change in course for one of the city’s most influential nonprofit landlords, and could be a sign of trouble facing the nonprofit affordable housing sector…

Vacancy rates across the four properties range from 12% to 22%, compounding financial losses, the nonprofit said…

Deferred maintenance and aging building systems have added risk and expense, while outdated layouts — tiny rooms, shared bathrooms and limited kitchen access — have increased vacancy and turnover…

Meanwhile, new affordable housing construction is facing similar financing constraints: Thousands of units across 313 projects are currently stuck in San Francisco’s affordable housing pipeline. Katie Lamont, TNDC’s chief operating officer, said the organization is pausing work on two of its big projects: the 199-unit senior project at 1234 Great Highway and the 120-unit 149 Pennsylvania St…

“The city’s priority is ensuring that any changes involving these properties are tenant-centered and protect the long-term housing stability of residents: They must remain stably housed and continue to receive the supports they rely on,” representatives of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said in a joint statement to the Chronicle.

The departments said that they are “actively coordinating with partners to understand potential impacts and to ensure tenant protections remain central throughout this process.”…(more)

By Gaetan Lion : medium – excerpt (see graphics with projects on the source)
Executive Summary

MTC/ABAG’s Bay Area Population Projections Are Fundamentally Flawed This analysis examines the Plan Bay Area 2050+ population projections and concludes they are fundamentally unrealistic, built on demographic impossibilities and questionable economic assumptions. These projections were developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission(MTC) in conjunction with the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).

The Core Problem MTC/ABAG projects the Bay Area population will grow 24.1% from 2025 to 2050 — nearly 10 times faster than the rest of California (2.5%) — despite facing severe demographic headwinds. This projection requires reversing decades of trends and overcoming structural challenges that make such growth implausible.

Demographic Reality The Bay Area faces fundamental constraints making rapid population growth extraordinarily unlikely. With a median age of 41 years (compared to California’s 38.4), the region produces more deaths than births, yielding minimal or negative natural population change. Post-pandemic migration has turned consistently negative as remote work enables relocation to more affordable regions. Reflecting the impact of remote work, San Francisco now has the nation’s highest office vacancy rate at 35.4%, continuing to rise five years after the pandemic began…

Global demographic aging fundamentally constrains migration flows. UN projections show U.S. population growth from 2025–2050 will be 59% lower than 2000–2025, while major source countries like Mexico face 62% declines in such growth rates. Asian countries are experiencing rapid population contraction. Bipartisan convergence toward restrictive immigration policies further limits migration pathways.

Benchmarking Reveals Unrealistic Assumptions Two alternative benchmarks expose MTC/ABAG’s flawed projections. The California Department of Finance Demographic Research Unit (DRU) projects only 6.4% Bay Area growth from 2025 to 2050 — still unrealistically assuming the Bay Area will grow nearly three times faster than the rest of California (2.5%). An Alternate Scenario, adjusting for historical deceleration trends, projects just 1.9% growth, aligning with the remainder of the state’s 2.5% projection. MTC/ABAG’s forecast dramatically diverges from both benchmarks; its 24.1% projected growth for the Bay Area over the 2025–2050 period is nearly 10 times higher than DRU’s projection for the remainder of the state at 2.5%… (more)

Source: DRU, MTC/ABAG, author’s calculations. Note that 2020 and 2025 are Actuals. As noted MTC/ABAG has slightly different figures for these two periods.

Via email : from savoursausalito – excerpt

Thank You City Council & SOS Supporters

On Tuesday night (12/2), the City Council voted unanimously to keep Chapter 3: View Protection in Sausalito’s new Objective Design & Development Standards (ODDS). With strong turnout both in person and on Zoom — and more than 115 public comments submitted — the community’s support for protecting Sausalito’s views was clear.

This is a significant win for SOS supporters and all of Sausalito.

The unanimous vote shows the Council heard residents’ concerns, and it reflects the strength of Chapter 3, which was carefully developed by Sausalito volunteers over many months.

“If not for this effort by these volunteers and by the members of the city there wouldn’t be view protection.” – Mayor Joan Cox

What Was At Stake

Heading into the meeting, View Protection was at risk. Some Planning Commissioners had pushed to remove Chapter 3 and leave Sausalito without View Protection. Without this Chapter, a developer could get approval for a project and still block resident views.

Your advocacy helped ensure that did not happen.

Software Enabling Chapter 3: ViewSync

Chapter 3’s View Protection standards require a reliable, objective way to measure view impacts. The answer was a software tool called ViewSync which was created by talented Sausalito based software developers and other experts with input from SOS supporters. It provides a clear, consistent analysis that gives the City a fair enforcement tool and developers predictable standards. Without a software tool Chapter 3 could not be adopted.

“This software is brilliant, and it works.” – Vice Mayor Steven Woodside

How it works: ViewSync is built on a super-detailed specialized aerial map of Sausalito with elevation data recorded every six inches, capturing buildings, hillsides, trees, and terrain. These billions of data points create a precise digital “LEGO” model of the entire city.

Using that model, we can draw a straight line from any property to the water and see precisely what is in the way. Because the dataset is so large, the calculations run on Google’s cloud computers, giving us access to the same scale and high reliability that powers Google.

“This is a design tool that we architects really welcome.” – Michael Rex, Architect

Through a simple web app, developers can insert a proposed building and quickly see how it affects surrounding views. Developers will appreciate this benefit too: once they build a project, their own views will be protected under the same standards as everyone else’s.

The magic of this system is that it also allows us to identify perfect places and forms for development that fit into the community.

“Congratulations. It’s really cool and innovative.” – Councilmember Ian Sobieski

Watch the presentation and discussion of view protection here >>