By Jackson Stromberg : marinij – excerpt

Let’s indulge in a fantasy. Imagine the California legislators and bureaucrats working on housing could see eight years into the future, when the next set of housing element plans are due. Maybe they can see 16 years into the future for the deadline after that.

If they could envision what will happen, these leaders could take responsibility and act accordingly.

Instead, we must face reality: A political steamroller is coming from Sacramento to deny local input on housing with the theory that any kind of housing is always good. And those driving that steamroller will tell you they know best.

The system has been created to build and build some more. In this reality, everyone profits – contractors, plumbers, carpenters, developers, mega investors, money managers, refrigerator salesmen and so on….(more)

The Sacramento Bulldozer is rolling over the American dream of homeownership. They are replacing personal equity and family securtiy for the middle-class with corporate faceless unapproachable landlords.

By Andrew Chamings : sfgate – excerpt

The long-planned express lane on a 22-mile stretch of Highway 101 on the San Francisco Peninsula is now open for business. Tasked with reducing traffic on one of the gnarliest commute stretches in the Bay Area, the lane rewards carpoolers — but comes at a cost to others.

Here’s a breakdown of how the new 101 express lanes work: They’re now open between I-380 in South San Francisco and Whipple Avenue in Redwood City. Use of the lane is free for vehicles with three or more people, two-seat cars with two people, buses and motorcycles. For the rest, the pricing gets a little more complicated.

The cost to enter the express lane is constantly changing, depending on traffic. That one-time charge — anywhere from 50 cents to $12 — will be displayed on electronic signage above the lane. Motorists traveling solo with a FasTrak tag can choose to take that price and enter the lane. The charge will be applied to their bill…(more)

by Shira Stein :sfchronicle – via email

State Sen. Scott Wiener has formed an exploratory committee to run for the congressional seat currently occupied by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

Wiener, D-San Francisco, is raising funds to run for Pelosi’s House seat in the event she doesn’t run for another term in 2024. Pelosi stepped down as leader of House Democrats in January and has held the San Francisco House seat since 1987.

Pelosi “is one of the most effective and transformational leaders we’ve ever had. I am and will continue to be grateful to have her as my representative in Congress for as long as she is willing to serve. I’m exploring my options for a potential congressional run in the event she decides to step down,” Wiener said in a statement through a spokesperson.

Forming an exploratory committee is the first step toward running for Congress, but is largely a placeholder that allows a candidate to raise funds, poll likely voters and conduct other acts to determine whether a candidate should run.

As a senator, Wiener has championed numerous bills aimed at dramatically boosting California’s housing production, as well as bills focused on civil liberties and the LGBTQ community.

So far this legislative session, he has proposed a bill to make permanent an earlier requirement he passed requiring local governments to streamline approval of some projects if the city hasn’t met its state-mandated housing targets. That measure has sped up the approval of more than 3,000 housing units in San Francisco alone. He’s also revived a push to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms, and is co-author of a proposal to remove Prop. 8 — a voter-approved initiative to ban gay marriage that was ruled unconstitutional — from the state Constitution.

“Speaker Emerita Pelosi plans to serve her entire term in Congress, representing the people of San Francisco. And in order to help win back the House for the Democrats, she has filed for re-election,” her spokesperson, Aaron Bennett, told The Chronicle on Friday.

Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi, an attorney who has never held public office but has been a leader in the state and national Democratic parties, and former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, now the California director of the Working Families Party, are also expected to consider making a run when Pelosi does retire.

Reach Shira Stein: shira.stein; Twitter: @shiramstein

By Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

Assemblymember Matt Haney has weighed in on San Francisco’s Downtown recovery with new legislation to expedite projects that convert office space to housing.

The Office to Housing Conversion Act promises to make approval for conversion projects—which tend to be very complicated and expensive—automatic. It would also block municipalities from adding on additional fees and requirements.

The bill is based in part on the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program, which offers qualifying projects in Calgary, Alberta, a dollar amount per-square-foot grant provided they meet certain criteria. According to a Calgary Herald article, that city has converted over a million square feet of office space and is considering expanding uses for empty office buildings to hotels and schools…

The bill would also set up a special fund that could provide grants for most office-to-housing conversions; San Francisco has been exploring similar incentive plans. Haney’s bill would also mandate 10% of any housing units in qualifying projects to be set aside for low- or moderate-income households.

At least one local architect has identified a cohort of office buildings—pre-1950 buildings less than nine stories tall—as relatively accessible candidates for conversion…(more)

By Amy Campbell, Holly Arnold, Doug Zucker : gensler – excerpt

This is the second in a blog series to explore ways to reimagine the future of downtown San Francisco. Read Part 1 here and Part 3 here.

Perhaps no other U.S. city’s downtown core is grappling with post-pandemic disruption more than downtown San Francisco, which The New York Times podcast “The Daily” recently called “The Most Empty Downtown in America.” San Francisco Mayor London Breed recognized these challenges during a client panel event on Feb. 15 in Gensler’s San Francisco office where she shared her vision for downtown San Francisco’s future. “We’re not going to be what we were before the pandemic, but I truly believe we can become something better,” Mayor Breed said. “My hope is that we start thinking differently and more creatively about all kinds of spaces that exists across the city and transform those spaces to become great places to eat and gather.”

In Part 1 of this blog series, we investigated the lack of vibrancy and diversity present in most downtown financial districts and how small adjustments to them are not going to create the change necessary to make them vibrant 24/7 neighborhoods. Although they are, for the most part, the most transit connected areas of a city or region, they lack adequate diversity of use. One of the easiest ways to create diversity in an area that is primarily office use is to look at converting some of the office buildings to other uses. Residential is an obvious choice.

Gensler is leading the conversation on office-to-residential conversions. We are actively overseeing research and conversion of underperforming assets across North America and have successfully completed conversion projects in both New York and Philadelphia. We’re also partnering with municipal agencies, such as Calgary’s Economic Development group and San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), to consult on ways downtown vacancy rates could be turned into a catalyst of positive change…(more)

By Richard Lee Abrams : citywatchla – excerpt

THE VIEW FROM HERE – No. The driving force behind Los Angeles excessive densification is Wall Street’s monetization of real estate based on the meme of the highest and best use. That means whatever use of a piece of land makes the greatest income for the owner is incontrovertibly the best and most morally righteous use of the land. Human beings will believe anything no matter how absurd as long as it is repeated enough. Beliefs regulate behavior and a society which lacks common set of beliefs cannot function. Perhaps, the wisest line from Monty Python is, “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.” There comes a time when a belief system turns upon and devours itself. When Los Angeles was open space, monetization of land for residential use was the best and highest use. The reason is that it resulted in a significantly enhanced quality of life for the average person.

When Los Angeles reached a particular density, the highest and best meme became a prescription for decline. As is the case with much of life, there was no single moment when Los Angeles should have posted No Vacancy Signs at the city limits, but there are ratios between various factors which signal when an urban area is reaching its maximum density per square mile. People being what they are, the public does not notice the problem until after they have significantly surpassed the maximum number of people per square mile…

Monetization of Rental Properties is Easy

It’s easy to monetize the value of land according to how much rent it will bring the developer. A single-family home will usually bring a one-time payment when a family purchases the home, at which point it ceases to generate income. A 24-unit apartment house on the same size lot is worth a lot more to the developers because it will generate income for the new owner…(more)

By Dick Platkin : citywatchla – excerpt

PLANNING WATCH – If you still believe that the worsening housing crisis is caused by a housing shortage, and that it can be solved by gutting zoning laws so real estate speculators have a free hand, you should look at LA’s Hollywood neighborhood for a reality check. In Hollywood the rampant construction of new, high-rent, high-rise apartment buildings has totally discredited these planning policies. They have increased housing costs and traffic congestion, forced residents into homelessness, demolished low-priced housing, reduced population and transit ridership, and taxed old infrastructure. Quite a list of trickle-down accomplishments!

The panacea of zoning deregulation, in Hollywood’s case parcel-level entitlements that City Hall reflexively grants to developers, has led to flipping and the construction of expensive apartment towers with high vacancy rates. The imagined benefits of trickle-down planning policies, advanced by ambitious academics, LA Times editorialists and guest columnists, and major city planning departments, has been disproven in Hollywood… (more)

By Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

Two of the Bay Area’s most powerful construction worker unions are at bitter odds amid a push to extend state housing mandates. One side is branded as sell-outs; the other is accused of pulling up the ladder.

Mirroring disagreements at the state level, the local labor fight centers around a new housing bill and spilled out into the open this week as labor leaders took swings on Twitter over language in the bill related to work requirements….

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher on twitter:

@LorenaSGonzalez Please tell me the last time a bill that red-lined labor standards out of existing law was passed in California? Well, Scott Weiner & Buffy Wicks apparently think it’s time to try. Why? Because they want developers to be more incentivized to build market rate housing. #SB423…

More profits for developers, less benefits for workers. That makes zero sense from folks who claim to be pro-labor….

Last week, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 423, legislation that would make SB 35, which required an expedited process for housing projects in counties that failed to meet production quotas, permanent. It’s supported by the Housing Action Coalition and other pro-housing supply groups.

The bill is also backed by the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, a regional body representing 22 individual unions and over 36,000 members—many of whom surrounded Wiener at a Feb. 13 presser announcing the bill.

But among those who offered a Bronx Cheer for the bill was Wiener’s former colleague and fellow Democrat, Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher.

The former San Diego assemblymember, now a leader at the California Labor Federation, threw shade on Wiener and co-sponsor Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) accusing them of “red-lining” labor standards out of the bill…(more)

Some people supporting unions object to building more market rate housing. Whatever stops the continuing push for density. The appetite for Wiener bills is dwindling as the demand for market rate housing and values plummet.

By Marisa Kendall : mercurynews – excerpt

SUNNYVALE — A home developer is taking an unusual and dramatic stand after the city halted work on his construction project. He’s on a hunger strike — and he says he won’t eat until his crews can get back to work.

Navneet Aron, founder and CEO of Aron Developers, says he hasn’t eaten since last Friday morning. He has spent every weekday since then camped out in City Hall with a sign proclaiming, “On hunger strike until death!”

He’s protesting the city’s decision to stop construction of 18 townhomes on North Fair Oaks Avenue after his team forgot to obtain an approval from Santa Clara County’s Department of Environmental Health. Aron worries that fixing the issue could take months, which could mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in delayed construction costs.

Now he’s pleading with city officials to let him keep building while he obtains a green light from the county…(more)

Because everyone needs a laugh. We guess they want him to add more units or an ADU before they will let him go ahead with construction.