Category Archives: Planning

CA, CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Planning, Politics

As new North Bay neighborhood nears approval, environmental concerns weigh heavily

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By Keith Mizuguchi : kqed – excerpt

For the past 11 months, Jennifer Sullivan has been anxiously trying to sound an alarm. The Esmeralda Land Company has proposed building a resort hotel, hundreds of homes, an event center, a preschool and a public park on a 266-acre property that once housed a wood treatment plant.

Tucked in the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale, the 8-acre plant was known to use harmful chemicals and discharged them into the soil and groundwater, she said. Sullivan worries that disturbing the site with new development could resurface those chemicals and expose current residents to new harms. “This is the community that I live in,” Sullivan said. “The decision to approve this development is serious — it’s got serious consequences for our water, for public health.”

On Wednesday, the Cloverdale City Council will consider whether to approve the project — one of the largest developments in the city’s recent history — along with its extensive community benefits package and already-completed environmental reviews, essentially clearing the path for its eventual construction. As it does, however, council members are weighing the homes, jobs and tax revenue such a project might generate against a new wave of concerns from residents over environmental harms.

Esmeralda CEO Devon Zuegel said she generally understands those concerns but argues the project has already undergone extensive environmental reviews. “This site has been studied for over two decades continuously,” Zuegel said. “And if 20 years is not a long enough review, I just don’t understand, is 100 years enough — 25 years? What is the point where it becomes enough?”

Still, Sullivan isn’t satisfied. And she’s preparing to take the fight to voters. If the city council approves the Esmeralda development as is, Sullivan wants a referendum and said she’ll start collecting signatures to place such a measure on a ballot… (more)

Anybody see a reason to vote NO on Prop 45 to make these projects more transparent? And a reason why half the cities in California are ready to fight the Wiener bills that overplayed the state’s hand by removing local control?
Efforts by Our Neighborhood Voices to reverse the trend are paying off. 

CEQA, Energy, Planning, Politics, water

AI Data Centers Have a Heat Problem

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US data centers convert vast amounts of electricity into waste heat, which can raise temperatures in nearby neighborhoods. Researchers in Phoenix found temperatures increasing downwind of one data center there.

As the artificial intelligence boom drives greater power use and the expansion of data-center clusters near urban areas, cooling alternatives and heat-reuse systems offer potential solutions. But cost, infrastructure and limited incentives have slowed their adoption.

AI Data Centers Release Heat, Posing New Problem for Cities: https://bloom.bg/4jk7YmS

As facilities to power artificial intelligence grow larger and are built in clusters, they are sending hot air into surrounding neighborhoods.

CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Housing, Planning, Politics

Has Wiener’s avalanche of housing bills actually led to more homes? Here’s what we know

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By Hannah Wiley, JD Morris : sfchronicle – excerpt

Marina Safeway Towers are only supported by Scott Wiener. Both Lurie and Supervisor Sherrill claim to oppose it. Neighbors hate it. Wiener has to bear the full responsibility for this project on his own along with the SF planning Department that hides behind him.

When one of state Sen. Scott Wiener’s first major housing bills died in its first committee hearing in 2018, the logical option would have been for the lawmaker to retreat after such a resounding loss. ..

It took Wiener seven years to finally pass legislation that cleared the way for more housing near transit hubs. Senate Bill 79, which went into effect in July, requires cities in a handful of counties, including San Francisco, to allow larger apartment buildings near train stations, ferry terminals and bus stops…

But it’s also true some of Wiener’s bills that once inspired major fights in the state Capitol have since created little to no housing. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s notorious housing crunch is getting worse — a point Wiener’s critics have seized on in his bid this year to represent the city in Congress. 

“If he’s such a champion of housing, why are we here?” Wiener’s opponent in the race, Supervisor Connie Chan, said in a recent interview with the Chronicle. She and Wiener have routinely been on opposing sides of San Francisco’s housing policy debates, and she has led some local efforts to resist state legislation he passed….

In the 15 years since Wiener first started working on housing policy, stretching back to his time on the Board of Supervisors, home prices have only skyrocketed across the state. The trend is even more pronounced in San Francisco, where an AI boom has attracted a new wave of wealthy tech workers. Rents and evictions are way up, heightening concerns that the expensive city is becoming unaffordable to all but the uber wealthy…

But Wiener’s approach has lost him some friends along the way, chief among them various unions that represent construction workers…

Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, which endorsed Chan, said she voted for at least one of Wiener’s housing bills when she served in the Assembly. At the time, Gonzalez said she exchanged her vote for a guarantee on certain labor terms.

“And then he just kept coming back and taking away more from organized labor,” Gonzalez said. “With every bill, everything got worse.” …

Wiener’s approach has similarly rankled environmentalists, tenants’ rights activists and neighborhood preservationists who feel he often disregards their concerns with climate harms or gentrification.

Shanti Singh, legislative and communications director for Tenants Together, said her organization has in the past had issues with Wiener’s rezoning bills. Singh said it often felt like Wiener and his YIMBY allies failed to consider how massive development might create a domino effect of displacement for low-income renters. …

Wiener promised to take his same boundary-pushing approach on housing to Congress, where he said he would push a plan to build 8 million homes in the next decade. Among his proposals: paying cities $10,000 for every home they build, standing up more mixed-income social housing programs and stabilizing the construction workforce so it isn’t as disrupted by the boom-and-bust housing cycles...(more)

A lot of people are going to vote him out and then demand their representatives ignore his future bills that are going no where…

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, Economy, Energy, Farms, food, Housing, Planning, Politics

California’s clashes over business regulation rage on as legislative session nears end

By Dan Walters : calmatters – excerpt (excerpt)

Back room dealers

Keep an eye on these 5 deals as California lawmakers close out the legislative session

Assembly Bill 2564, carried by Assemblymember Christopher Ward, …would prohibit retailers from engaging in “surveillance pricing,” which is a form of algorithmic pricing in which sellers use personal information to tailor prices to specific consumers….

Assembly Bill 1776, authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, .. would broaden California’s anti-monopoly Cartwright Act, first enacted in 1907 to allow civil or criminal actions against corporations that monopolize markets….is aimed at collusion between two or more corporations to stifle competition and raise prices. But AB 1776 would also sanction actions against corporations that become dominant without colluding….The change was recommended by the California Law Revision Commission to curb monopolistic behavior framers of the original law never envisioned. It is backed by a long list of consumer advocates and unions…

RELATED:
Keep an eye on these 5 deals as California lawmakers close out the legislative session

Who does your representative work for?  How much help are the voters getting and how much help are our elected  representatives selling to the highest bidder?

CEQA, Housing, Planning, water

‘We cannot magic up more water’: the supply problems putting housing targets in England at risk

By Sandra Leville : theguardian – excerpt

WATER IN ENGLAND:  Council leaders say crumbling infrastructure and lack of water are jeopardising government’s plans for new homes

The government’s housebuilding agenda is hitting the stark reality of a lack of water and crumbling infrastructure across the east and south-east of England.

Half the country was declared to be in serious drought this week, for the second consecutive year, with the Environment Agency warning of dire consequences for the economy, environment and wildlife.

The parts of England in extreme water stress with residents under hosepipe bans are also where the government’s “build, baby, build” agenda is being targeted. Labour has promised to build 1.5m homes by the end of this parliament – a strategy retained by Andy Burnham…

Harvey said: “The Labour government’s unrealistic imposed housing targets don’t take account of the fact that the Environment Agency, Natural England and the water companies are all waving red flags about whether the water exists to supply them.”… (more)

From Gray Brechin, “

WATER IN AMERICA:  As you will see from the Guardian article below, Scott Wiener, the developers, and the YIMBYs who have gotten the California legislature to override local zoning controls and environmental constraints have their counterparts in the UK where massive new developments are projected for known floodplains and sensitive environmental sites. But now those counterparts are running headlong into the accelerating impacts of climate breakdown which is inescapable here where the heat is rising the rain has stopped, the hills and fields have bleached, the rivers, reservoirs, and aquifers are falling and the crops are failing. Although it’s still not as bad as France and Spain, wildfires have broken out in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. And El Niño hasn’t kicked in yet. But there are still people here as there are there who insist that if you build it, water (and energy) will magically be found. But what if it isn’t?

 

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

One of Marin’s biggest new housing projects could get derailed by a lawsuit

By Julie Johnson : sfchronicle – excerpt
The Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary campus in Strawberry is set to be converted into housing. A new legal challenge could derail it.
 

A group of neighbors is challenging Marin County’s approval of a major housing development project on the Tiburon Peninsula, arguing in a lawsuit filed this month that the county was wrong to allow plans to build residences on the slopes of a ridgetop.

The new buildings would be part of a large overhaul of the former Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary campus, a 127-acre site with academic buildings and residences in the unincorporated community of Strawberry covering prime hillsides overlooking the bay.

On June 9, the county approved developer North Coast Land Holdings’ plans to build 337 residential units that would include 70 low-income sites plus a 150-unit residential care facility, a daycare, fitness center and 944 parking spaces. The plans call for demolishing all but 13 existing residences and to preserve open spaces on the property.

But 40 of those market-rate units in 25 buildings are too close to the ridgeline known as Chapel Hill, “effectively blocking views of the Bay from many vantage points,” according to the lawsuit, filed July 6 in Marin County Superior Court by the Strawberry Residents for Sensible Development. The plaintiffs, who are also suing North Coast, argue the county’s decision violated both environmental laws and local plans governing future development… (more)

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

BUILT ON PROMISES, MANAGED BY CONTRADICTIONS – PRICE OF BEING POOR – PART 9

By Malik Washington : davisvanguard – excerpt

A federally subsidized “showpiece” of San Francisco redevelopment is telling its residents that mold, roaches, ventilation failures and a reported cluster of deaths are their problem – and that their overdue rent is the city’s. Before pouring billions more into Candlestick Point, the City and County of San Francisco owes the public an independent investigation into what has actually happened at Alice Griffith Apartments.

Editor’s note. This article distinguishes among documented facts, publicly reported allegations, and reasonable inferences drawn from the record. It does not accuse the John Stewart Company, McCormack Baron Salazar, the Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, FivePoint, RBC Capital Markets, the San Francisco Housing Authority, the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, or any city official of fraud. It argues that the public record, as it currently stands, justifies an independent fact-finding investigation – and it identifies the specific questions such an investigation should answer.

Editor’s note. This article distinguishes among documented facts, publicly reported allegations, and reasonable inferences drawn from the record. It does not accuse the John Stewart Company, McCormack Baron Salazar, the Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, FivePoint, RBC Capital Markets, the San Francisco Housing Authority, the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, or any city official of fraud. It argues that the public record, as it currently stands, justifies an independent fact-finding investigation – and it identifies the specific questions such an investigation should answer.

One of those tenants, alarmed by the notice they had found waiting for them at the threshold of their own home, contacted this reporter directly. That contact is how this investigation obtained the two notices analyzed in the pages that follow, and how the pattern documented here – a landlord that moves at scale when it is collecting from tenants, and moves slowly, if at all, when tenants are asking it to protect them – came into public view. This reporter has been covering conditions at Alice Griffith Apartments at length in previous installments of “The Price of Being Poor,” published in partnership with The Davis Vanguard. The July 14 door-notice campaign is the newest, and one of the most publicly visible, chapters of that continuing record.

For months before those envelopes went out, residents of the same buildings had been publicly reporting a very different set of grievances: mold, water intrusion, ventilation failures, roach and rodent infestations, broken elevators, malfunctioning fire systems, recent roof concerns, and – most gravely – a reported cluster of approximately ten deaths since January 2026, including community activist Dewayne Gaines. Those grievances have not, to date, produced a comparable operational response from the landlord, from the property manager, or from the City and County of San Francisco… (more)

 

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

Exclusive: Historic ‘Julia Morgan’ campus to be redeveloped a block from Marina Safeway

By Laura Wasxman : sfchronicle – excerpt

Marina Safeway

A century after the historic Julia Morgan Building opened its doors on the Marina waterfront, the campus surrounding it is preparing for its biggest transformation yet: a redevelopment that would preserve the landmark structure, expand senior housing and bring Sequoia Living in as its nonprofit development partner.

The proposal arrives as another major redevelopment effort just a block away has become one of the neighborhood’s fiercest battles. The contrast between the two projects was on display Thursday evening at Fort Mason, where hundreds of Marina residents gathered to debate the future of the nearby Safeway site on Marina Boulevard, where a plan to add 850 homes has sparked organized opposition…

Residents leading the Safeway opposition said they are not fighting the creation of new homes, but a project they believe does not fit the neighborhood’s scale, character and waterfront setting. Just a block away, the Heritage on the Marina’s proposal for its campus offers a very different model of transformation: preserving the Julia Morgan Building, one of San Francisco’s most significant historic landmarks, while expanding an existing senior care community rather than introducing a new, glass-heavy high-rise residential complex.

Together, the two projects offer a window into a larger question confronting the Marina: What kind of change will the neighborhood accept?…

The Julia Morgan redevelopment plan represents a different kind of transformation.

Heritage on the Marina, the nonprofit that owns and operates the senior living campus, says the redevelopment is intended to modernize aging facilities, expand services for older adults and preserve a piece of San Francisco history.

The centerpiece of the campus is the Julia Morgan Building, a three-story brick landmark completed in 1925 for the San Francisco Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society. Named after California’s first licensed female architect — whose portfolio includes Hearst Castle — the U-shaped building occupies a prominent position on the 1.6-acre site, surrounded by later residential and administrative additions, including health care facilities and a caretaker’s cottage.

The redevelopment plan would preserve the Julia Morgan Building while replacing all other structures with a single, new eight-story residential building. The proposal would increase the campus’s residential capacity from its current level to 122 units while adding modern amenities and care facilities…

Carolyn Kiernat, a principal at Page & Turnbull, the preservation-focused architecture firm working on the restoration and expansion alongside HKIT Architects, said the proposal “carefully balances preservation with progress.”

“Great cities are measured by how well they care for people across every state of life,” said Sara McVey, Sequoia Living’s president and CEO. “The proposed plan preserves an important piece of San Francisco’s history while ensuring it can continue serving older adults and the Marina community for another 100 years.”…

The Julia Morgan campus redevelopment and the Safeway project have become symbols of two competing visions for the Marina’s future. Thursday’s community meeting underscored a growing reality facing neighborhoods across the city: They may have to make room for both. … (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)