The San Diego Unified Port District approved the joint venture of 1HWY1 as the developer for the $1.2 billion Seaport San Diego project. Seaport San Diego will replace the existing 1980s-era Seaport Village with a waterfront development with 1,077-room hotel, office space for port-related businesses, a charter school, a park, and aquarium and amusement park rides. The port will take in an estimated $22 million in rent each year by the time the 10-year project is complete – nearly ten times as much as the current Seaport Village generates. The project must still get California Coastal Commission approval. Meanwhile, one of the key players in 1HYW1, Bartell Hotels, has recently been accused of making potentially improper donations to defeat Measure D, a hotel-tax proposal. Bartell Hotels donated $43,350 to the San Diego County Taxpayers Association’s anti-Measure D campaign; five days later, the taxpayer association paid $46,000 to a newly formed Manolatos Nelson Murphy Advertising, which is associated with Port Commissioner Bob Nelson. Nelson insists that there is no conflict of interest.

Los Angeles Dominates Report on Dangerous Intersections
A new report from law firm Estey & Bomberger catalogs the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians in California. Over 435,000 collision records in 2015 were analyzed to figure out which intersections were the most dangerous for pedestrians and vehicles. Two of the three most dangerous intersections are located in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles. Devonshire Street and Reseda Boulevard was the most dangerous intersection with 41 injuries and Balboa Avenue and Nordhoff Street was third. Southern California dominated the study with only 10.5 percent of intersections (47) occurring outside this area. Additionally 221 out of 444 intersections were in Los Angeles. The report comes out ata time when many California cities, including Los Angeles, are implementing “Vision Zero” goals to reduce traffic fatalities (see prior CP&DR coverage).

League of Cities Sets 2017 Goals
Leaders of the League of California Cities met in Newport Beach early November to develop the League’s 2017 strategic goals. The meetings included leaders from various divisions, departments, policy committees, diversity groups, board of directors, as well as various city officials. These goals include increasing funding for critical transportation and water infrastructure; developing realistic responses to the homeless crisis; improving the affordability of workforce housing; securing additional funds for housing; and addressing public safety impacts of reduced sentencing laws. Most of the solutions involve increasing state and federal financial support and reducing regulatory barriers.

Reports Detail Exodus of Homeowners from California
Data analysis firm CoreLogic has found over the past 15 years for every two homebuyers who moved to California, five others moved out. Most of the homebuyers leaving the state fled to Arizona and Texas. This exodus was primarily driven by the search for more affordable housing from the low and middle-income workers. Between 2005 and 2015, only 21.5 housing unit permits were filed for every 100 new residents – this puts California second to last with only Alaska with fewer (16.2). In that time frame, 625,000 more U.S. residents moved out of California than into it. Another study by rental site Apartment List found that Los Angeles millennial population decreased by 7.4 percent over the last 10 years. The county has seen overall population growth, just not urban millennial dwellers. A reasoning for this is the stagnant incomes with increasing rents.

Airbnb, San Francisco Reach Detente
After years of acrimony and battles over regulation of short-term rentals, Airbnb has announced it is prepared to work with San Francisco’s regulations in order to remain in the city. The company will provide all local hosts’ names, addresses, and guest stays as part of the mandatory registration system the city has requested. This comes after Board of Supervisors passed, 6-2, a regulation that would shorten private home, room, or apartment rentals to no more than 60 days a year. The city also has held Airbnb accountable for when unregistered rooms are booked, which the company sued the city for and will most likely lose. Airbnb announced starting November 1st it would not allow San Francisco residents to list multiple properties on the home-sharing website.

HUD, VA to Provide Funds for Homeless
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Veterans Administration announced that $18.5 million will be distributed to 39 local public housing agencies across the country to provide housing for an estimated 2,100 homeless veterans. City of Los Angeles Housing Authority received more than $1.4 million and the County just over $1 million which should house an estimated 269 veterans. Orange County Housing Authority received $697,032, Riverside County $628,320, and San Bernardino County $483,564.

Quick Hits & Updates

The Placer County Board of Supervisors approved, 4-1, a development proposal for Squaw Valley ski resort that includes an 850-room new hotel, condominiums and residential units as well as an entertainment complex. The project has put Lake Tahoe environmentalists, ski resort officials, and developers against one another. The 25-year plan would cost close to $1 billion and include a 96-foot tall tower. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)

Beverly Hills Unified School District has filed a new lawsuit against Los Angeles Metro to block plans to run the Purple Line subway underneath Beverly Hills High School. The challenge says the tunnel “will cause permanent and irreparable harm” to historic buildings and jeopardize a $340 million expansion of the school. In August 2016 a judge declined to halt the construction but ruled that an environmental review of the extension did not comply with NEPA. (See prior CP&DR coverage.) 

Planned affordable housing on San Francisco’s Treasure Island has a gap of nearly $380 million when construction costs increased from $600 million to $970 million. The 2,173 units that were supposed to be made affordable for those earning 120 percent of the area median income ($120,000 for family of four) may increase.

Nine months after Los Angeles City Council unanimously adopted a comprehensive plan to end homelessness, the first progress report reveals halting progress. Proposals for storage lockers and toilets for homeless people are stalled, new shelter capacity is being added slowly and city bureaucracy is causing things to move slower than expected.

The San Diego City Council approved a $79 million plan to remove cars and parking in the center of Balboa Park. The Plaza de Panama is expected to open by end of 2019 and include 797-space paid-parking garage south of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, a 405-foot “Centennial Bridge” off the Cabrillo Bridge, and redesigned plazas and roadways.

OCTA has awarded a $1.2 billion design-build contract to add one regular lane in each direction and an express lanes toll facility on the I-405. According to the EIR, travel time from SR 73 to I-605 will take 29 minutes during rush hour and 13 minutes on the Express Lanes by the year 2040, which now takes around two hours in carpool lanes.

San Francisco’s independent tax arbiter says AT&T Park is worth over $100 million more than the Giants claim. This is the latest ruling in a long-running fight over how much taxes the baseball team should pay on its waterfront stadium. For instance the Giants say the park was worth $232 million in 2014, and Assessor-Recorder set the value at $407 million.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee introduced legislation that would require a conditional use permit for indoor agriculture including marijuana cultivation in response to the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in California. These interim zoning controls for areas zoned light industrial uses are intended to give the city time to adopt more permanent measures.