According to a new State Population Report from the Department of Finance, California grew by 0.85 percent or 335,000 people in 2016. While most counties and cities saw growth, the largest numerical increases occurred in Los Angeles, with more than 42,000 residents, San Diego added over 15,000 people, San Jose almost 10,000 more residents, and San Francisco over 9,000. The City of Sacramento had the largest percentage gain in population with 1.4 percent or 6,900 people. The fastest growing counties in the state are all in Sacramento area: Amador, Placer, and Yolo counties. The fastest growing county was Amador County with 1.9 percent due to prison expansion. Generally, smaller, suburban localities are growing more quickly than their large urban counterparts, with large cities growing around 1 percent and the most booming small cities around 5 percent. Even so, multi-family units represented 57 percent of unit growth last year. The report also found the state’s housing supply increased by 88,562 units, meaning one new home for every 3.78 residents. Developers are adding homes at a higher pace than recent years, but still far below what experts believe would be enough to keep up with California’s growing population.
Study: Development in Los Angeles Comes at Expense of Trees
Researchers at USC have found that trees and other greenery in single-family neighborhoods in Los Angeles are declining significantly with the increase in housing construction. In some cases the trees are disappearing because of mansionization, where smaller homes are replaced with disproportionately large properties. Using aerial imagery the study found the amount of trees and greenery fell between 14 and 55 percent in the period from 2000 to 2009 in LA County. For instance, for each home expansion about one-third of the existing green cover is lost. Trees produce many benefits such as carbon sequestration, shade, decrease chance of erosion and landslides, and other public health benefits such as filtering dust particles. In Baldwin Park, green cover dropped from 70 percent in 2000 to 31 percent in 2009. Compton lost 41 percent, Downey, San Pedro, Sylmar and Pomona experienced 20 percent losses. The City of Los Angeles has a tree-planting program now, and last year more than 18,000 trees were planted.
SPUR Chastises Tech Companies for Location Choices
San Francisco Planning & Urban Research released a report “Rethinking the Corporate Campus” that accuses the innovative Silicon Valley companies of being backward in their choice of office locations and typologies. According to the report, many are located in suburban one-story campuses with sprawling parking lots, far from public streets. These choices come at high environmental and social costs as commutes get longer and housing prices more expensive. The report tackles two questions: How do we encourage employers to choose efficient, sustainable, high-performance locations? How do we create new locations that are more efficient, sustainable, and high-performing? While there are a few examples of companies moving next to mass transit: Twitter, LinkedIn, Samsung, Salesforce, the majority have stuck to their suburban sprawling offices.
Judge Thwarts Sierra Club Wish for Development Moratorium in San Diego County
San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor denied the Sierra Club’s attempt to block new large-scale developments on previously undeveloped, unincorporated land before the county adopts a revised plan for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Taylor however did say the court was very concerned that county officials have not been acting more quickly and that the environmental group can renew its request if the county has not made significant progress within two months. County officials earlier this year said the climate plan would be released this summer. The climate action plan was first found inadequate in 2012 and was directed to be redrafted to set clearer standards on what emissions levels are acceptable.
San Francisco Inclusionary Housing Policy Advances
The San Francisco Planning Commission approved an ordinance that would require market rate developers to make 18 percent of rental units affordable to low- and moderate-income households. The commission was decided between two versions: the more aggressive of which would have required that 24 percent of rental units be affordable. While both sides wanted to maximize the number of affordable units, the disagreement was on how many affordable untis could be squeezed out before a project became economically infeasible. This housing ordinance would only represent about 10 percent of the affordable units the city produces, 75 percent are funded with federal tax credits and are only available to households that earn less than 55 percent AMI, or $63,400 for a family of four. The County Board of Supervisors must approve the housing law.
Two California Projects Vie for ULI Housing Award
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced the finalists for this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award, which honors exemplary developments that ensure housing affordability for people with a range of incomes. Two of the seven nominees are in California: The 2017 Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award finalists are: 1) Perris Station Senior Apartment Homes (Perris, Riverside County) replaced a blighted property, fulfilling the city's goal of adding high-quality, sustainable housing that is affordable to low-income seniors, and providing space for retail/office uses. The development is a model for offering amenity-rich living for active seniors as well as resource-efficient and “green” design features. 2) The apartment complex Veo (Carson, Los Angels County) serves as a mixed-income, mixed-use walkable community of for-sale townhomes sized specifically for families. Street-level retail has rejuvenated the area by enhancing the streetscape with outdoor dining and other improvements. The winner will be announced during the Terwilliger Center’s Housing Opportunity Conference, set for September 10-11 in New Orleans.
Quick Hits & Updates
Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order to open protected coastal waters to offshore drilling. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alaska, claims Trump has no legal authority to undo protections adopted by President Obama in 2015 and 2016. California officials condemned the executive order and vowed to fight any new oil development off the state’s shores.
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) announced winners of its annual Charter Awards for excellence in architectural, landscape, urban, and regional design. CNU recognized 16 projects across the US, Mexico, Spain and South Africa. The two California projects were Plaza La Reina in Los Angeles as a “timeless and artful building” and St. Joseph’s Redevelopment in Oakland as “harmony of old and new is gift to city."
The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission voted unanimously to provide $13.3 million in funding to extend the forthcoming SMART rail line from downtown San Rafael to Larkspur Landing by 2.1 miles. The city will also receive a new transit center to better accommodate buses and trains, but funding has not been identified and it could take at least five years.
Planning firm Nelson/Nygaard along with business leaders, nonprofits and advocates released a report titled “The Silicon Valley Bike Vision Report.” The document includes designs and maps that analyze existing bikeway conditions in Silicon Valley, mode share metrics, a collision analysis, an inventory of existing bikeways, and origin0destination pairs for significant locations.
Sober Network Properties, which owns seven sober living facilities in San Clemente, has filed a lawsuit against the city’s zoning of such facilities. The lawsuit alleges residents of one home were verbally abused and harassed by groups of people opposed to sober living homes. San Clemente finalized ordinances in 2016, with an 18-month lifespan, allowing sober living homes to certain areas of the city.
Los Angeles Metro has begun soliciting bids from companies interested in conducting a feasibility study of potential modes of transit and possible routes for the traffic-clogged Sepulveda Pass. The combination of Measure R transportation sales tax in 2008 and Measure M tax, give nearly $8 billion for this project. Metro’s current schedule call for a transit system to be built through Sepulveda Pass by 2033.
A new UCLA environmental report gave Los Angeles County a “C” in energy use and persistent air pollution. The 2017 Sustainable LA Environmental Report Card for Energy and Air Quality gave the grade based on a failure to reduce fuel use, increasing commute times, and some of the worst smog in the nation. However, the county had reduced its GHG emissions by 20 percent in 2013 from 1990 levels, and are on track to meeting its 45 percent reduction goal by 2025.
Developer FivePoint Communities has sent the Irvine City Council a proposal for switching land for the Orange County veterans cemetery. Instead of putting the cemetery in the Great Park, it would be swapped for land near the 5 and 405 freeways. The change would not cost any money for the city or its taxpayers, and there are no substantial zoning, traffic or environmental issues affecting the freeway cemetery land. However, some City Council members are accusing the developer of trying to improperly get additional homes built in the Great Park.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Joan Hartmann is urging Congressman Doug LaMalfa to stop the legislation that would immediately annex the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indian’s 1,400-acre Camp 4 in Santa Ynez Valley. The fight began in 2010 when the tribe purchases the land and announced it planned to build housing. Neighbors of the site worried they would overdevelop the property.
Airbnb and HomeAway settled a lawsuit with San Francisco agreeing to help ensure all local hosts are registered. The websites will now only include legal listings and the city “has tools for quick, effective enforcement,” according to City Attorney Dennis Herrera. In 2015, a San Francisco law required all vacation-rental hosts to register with the city but only about 2,100 out of 8,000 hosts had done so.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard L. Fruin Jr. concluded that the City Council’s approval of a Hollywood Target shopping center violated planning rules. The project has been defeated in courts twice in three years. Target first filed an application to build in 2008, and the partially built, three-story structure has been empty since 2014.
Redfin's “migration report” ranks the San Francisco metropolitan area, including San Jose and Oakland, as the first market where house hunters are most likely to leave. The analysis showed 1 in 5 home seekers living in the Bay Area is looking outside the region. Last month, the Bay Area Council found 40 percent of Bay Area residents want to leave in the next few years. The number jumps to 46 percent among millennials.
