By 2040, California will have an "integrated statewide" rail network, according to a new public draft of the California State Rail Plan plan released by Caltrans. The plan outlines a series of investments to connect most communities in California to each other at least every hour throughout the day, with many regions being connected with half-hourly service. It also highlights the critical role for the rail system to be expanded in its ability to move a growing volume of freight cleanly and efficiently. Caltrans intends for these investments to lead to an easy-to-use rail system that provides faster and more frequent service, customer-friendly timed multimodal connections, integrated ticketing and trip planning, and increased reliability of travel in congested corridors. Caltrans is seeking public input between October 11 until December 11. Caltrans will hold public workshops across the state in San Luis Obispo Oct. 14, Fresno the Oct. 30, Oakland Nov. 1, Sacramento Nov. 7, San Diego Nov. 13, San Bernardino Nov. 14, Los Angeles Nov. 15th, and an online webinar Dec. 6.
S.F. Releases Strategy to Reduce Homelessness
San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing will releasei ts “Five-Year Strategic Framework” to reduce homelessness this week. The plan’s goals are to cut the number of hard-core street people in half, ending family homelessness, and clearing away all large tent encampments. One of the key aims is to bundle the city’s homeless services tighter to make a Homelessness Response System that ties together the 15 existing independent databases now being used to track homeless people through housing, medical and other services. The new system should be fully up and running by December 2018. Other plans in the framework are to expand the Moving On Initiative to help 300 people leave supportive housing for independent living, open at least one new Navigation Center, ramp up family and youth aid programs and construct 1,367 new supportive housing units in five years.
Fresno Takes Steps to Spend TCC Funds
The Community Steering Committee of the Fresno Transformative Climate Communities Collaborative voted on a package of projects that will be presented to the Fresno City Council and then Sacramento for final approval. The proposals include a West Fresno campus for Fresno City College, an electric car-sharing service, a mixed-use development in Chinatown, and a community activity center. In total 25 proposals were submitted for a piece of $70 million in cap-and-trade funding. Fresno was tapped for a large share of TCC funds for its combination of environmental challenges and poverty rate. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)
State Legislation to Change Governance of SANDAG
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would establish an independent auditor for the San Diego Association of Governments and shift the balance of power on its 21-member board of elected officials in favor of the larger cities. For the past few months, SANDAG has faced allegations of mismanagement and negligence, such as overselling how much public money a tax proposal would raise for promised transportation projects. San Diego Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez authored the bill. Those opposed call it a “shameful power grab by Sacramento Democrats, leaving the majority of cities in our county at the mercy of the two largest.” However, many groups are in favor of the changes. To approve major decisions, SANDAG’s board of directors get a straight vote by each official and a weighted vote based on city’s population. The legislation alters how the weighted vote is calculated and allows the weighted vote to supersede the tally vote as long as four separate jurisdictions vote in the majority.
Firm Floats L.A. River Revitalization Concept
AECOM released its LA River Gateway revitalization proposal for the hundreds of acres of land alongside the downtown section of the Los Angeles River. The multinational construction firm did the research at no charge and with no formal client because it wants to show what the vision could be for the future. AECOM officials propose that public agency landowners form a joint powers authority and leverage their ownership of more than one-third of the land within the plan area to form a taxing agency that could fund new streets, housing, and other development. The framework for the proposal is guided by the city of Los Angeles’s sustainability goals.
Economic Forecast Calls for Rising Rents in S. California
USC released its 2017 Casden Economics Forecast and found that rising employment combined with low homeownership will continue to drive rent up over the next two years throughout the region. The forecast finds by 2019 rents are expected to increase over $136 from 2017 levels in Los Angeles County, $149 in Orange County, $124 in Inland Empire, $121 in San Diego County, and $98 in Ventura County. The report stresses the challenges employers have in attempting to recruit out-of-state talent.
L.A. Metro Looks to Accelerate Key Projects with Private Funds
Los Angeles Metro announced three transit projects may be built sooner rather than later because of private investors. The three projects include designing and building a train through the Sepulveda Pass, building a light-rail line from downtown LA to southeast LA County cities, and creating an additional pay lanes on crowded freeways. By adding private capital up front, the agency can start designing next year instead of waiting for the tax revenues to accrue. The Sepulveda Transit Corridor includes an 11-mile train portion that is scheduled to be completed in 2033. The light-rail project will connect Artesia to downtown Los Angeles and is expected to break ground in 2022. The final project is ExpressLanes on the 10 Freeway from El Monte to Los Angeles and the 110 Freeway from South Los Angeles to the 105 Freeway in Norwalk.
Quick Hits & Updates
Quick Hits & Updates
Donald Shoup, a research professor of urban planning at UCLA best known for his work on parking, is the 2017 recipient of the Distinguished Educator Award-the highest honor given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). The award is conferred every two years to honor significant contributions to the field of planning.
The Planning and Land Use Management Committee of the Los Angeles City Council approved a measure that would charge developers in the city a fee to help pay for low-income housing. The fee is expected to generate more than $100 million a year and produce or preserve hundreds of subsidized units. Those opposed to the fee say it will further stifle housing production. The fee would be around $15 per square foot and would be phased in over an 18-month period. The measure now goes to the full council.
The City of Santa Rosa is looking to dramatically increase housing densities throughout the city, especially downtown and near its two train stations. A new plan calls for density bonuses for developers that could allow up to 100 percent more housing units than traditional zoning would allow for the site. Developers who build affordable units in the city would be granted the right to build more units than normal. Under the Housing Action plan the city is also considering inclusionary housing and making easier and cheaper to build granny units. (Editor’s Note: This plan was drafted prior to last week’s fires.)
A California State Audit found Gov. Brown’s $17 billion proposal for twin water tunnels under the Sacramento Bay-Delta was suffering from “significant cost increases and delays”. State auditor Elaine Howle also said the Department of Water Resources had not completed an economic or financial analysis to demonstrate the financial viability of the project.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which sponsored and promoted the failed Los Angeles’s Measure S ballot measure in March, is forming a new division called the Healthy Housing Foundation to provide affordable housing. AHF has already purchased a Skid Row building for $8 million in an effort to provide apartments for hundreds of low-income tenants and is in the process of purchasing a Hollywood motel.
Populous, the same architectural firm that designed Petco Park, has been hired by San Diego State University to begin initial planning on a multi-purpose stadium in Mission Valley. The plan is to build a 35,000-seat, expandable structure for around $150 million. SDSU would use land for a campus expansion and set aside space for a stadium for soccer games and other events. There are several other proposals pending for the property.
UCLA released an Affordable Housing Policy Brief from Paul Habibi “Housing Pays: Capturing the Economic and Fiscal Benefits of Increased Housing Production in L.A.” In LA County about 6 in 10 renters are cost-burdened, meaning paying at least 30 percent of income on housing each month, and one-third of county renters spend half their income on housing. The report shows that expediting and streamlining housing development to maintain high levels of housing production would produce $583 million over eight years.
Billionaire landowner Vinod Khosla has finally let people visita beach accessible through his property between 9am and 4:30pm, but not every day. The California Coastal Commission say this does not sufficiently addresses his violations of state law guaranteeing public access to the coast. Khosla’s lawyers are arguing that the state interference with his “fundamental right to exclude the public from private property” would be a type of “taking” that requires compensation under U.S. Supreme Court property-rights rulings.
Los Angeles County supervisors fired Sean Rogan, executive director of the Housing Authority and Community Development Commission. No public explanation has been given.
According to an annual financial report, the San Diego Housing Commission funded fewer than 20 percent of the affordable rental housing units it hoped to finance, despite nearly 85 percent increase in revenue due to developer fees to support such projects. Officials were aiming to construction 310 units but by June 30 only had 51 rental units backed by the commission. The report cited delays in project timelines and funding approvals among the reasons for the low production totals. It says 800 low-income housing units are expected to be completed by July 2018.
The State Lands Commission informed Cadiz Inc. that its proposed water pipeline crosses a strip of state-owned land and therefore requires a state lease. The Trump administration cleared a major obstacle that was erected by the Obama administration but this recent letter is the latest hurdle in a long history of the politically connected company’s attempts to pump groundwater 200 miles east of Los Angeles.
University of San Diego economist Alan Gin says the city needs to put restrictions on short-term rentals or else the existing supply of local housing will become even scarcer than it already is. Gin says the region is 68,000 units short of what it needs. San Diego County’s average rent hit a record of $1,875 a month. San Diego City Council is expected to take up the issue of STRs soon.
