Biden Infrastructure Plan to Include California Investments, Address Housing Inequity
President Biden’s recently released $2 trillion infrastructure plan addresses, among many other needs, exclusionary zoning laws – like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing – have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities. California cities have already begun to reassess this type of zoning; a national movement could hasten California’s efforts. Biden is calling on Congress to enact an innovative, new competitive grant program that awards flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing. The grant program is just one of the many elements of Biden’s Infrastructure plan that could impact California in substantive ways. In addition to California’s share of repairs and upgrades to existing infrastructure, the plan could include improvements for the 351-mile rail corridor between San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, and San Diego. A map released by Amtrak includes a plan for a new passenger rail service along existing tracks connecting Los Angeles with Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson. Federal funds might also be used for local projects such as extension of BART to San Jose or a network of carpool lanes in the Bay Area.
Santa Monica Considers Sweeping Pro-Housing Policies
The Santa Monica City Council adopted an an aggressive set of principles to increase housing, and housing equity, in the city, which, despite demand, has scarcely grown in the past two decades. Among other principles, the city will explore upzoning along boulevards, an “affordable housing overlay zone” throughout most of the city, incentives for accessory dwelling units, and the possibility of allowing multiple units on lots currently zoned for single-family housing. The policies include an interim zoning ordinance (IZO) banning non-residential developments in Santa Monica and single-family dwellings in commercial districts for 45 days as staff identifies potential housing sites, as part of the Housing Element Update. For the 2021-2029 planning period, Santa Monica has been mandated to build 8,873 housing units, 70 percent of which are affordable units. With only 3% of the city’s total land area currently available as the highest potential for housing, the turnover of even a handful of sites to non-residential development instead of housing projects would greatly impact the city’s ability to have sufficient sites for the SSI and would very likely hamper future Housing Element updates, said city officials. (See related CP&DR coverage.)
HCD launches Efforts to Update California Statewide Housing Plan
A few years ago, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) announced it will rebrand the California Statewide Housing Assessment, which lays out the state’s housing challenges and opportunities, and produce a Housing Action Plan with strategies and long-term goals. Citing longstanding policies that create barriers to housing and the catastrophic impacts of COVID-19 on housing and homelessness, HCD is rebranding the assessment as the Statewide Housing Plan for all Californians. The new Statewide Housing Plan will include housing goals, policies, and objectives; Data and analysis of 10 years of housing need for all residents, including vulnerable populations; details about current housing conditions; recommended actions for government and private sector to achieve housing goals; Housing assistance goals, including for people experiencing homelessness; identification of constraints and recommendations to remove barriers; evaluation of data priorities and needs to support housing goals; and strategies to coordinate housing assistance and activities.
CP&DR Coverage: State Updates CalEnviroScreen Amid Calls for Environmental Justice
In March, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) released the draft of its fourth iteration of CalEnviroScreen (CES). First released in 2013, CES is a database of environmental hazards that forms the basis of myriad state and local efforts to limit human exposure and strive for environmental justice. One of its most significant impacts on urban planning is that of identifying disadvantaged communities for the purpose of drafting environmental justice elements for cities’ and counties’ general plans, as required by 2016’s Senate Bill 1000. The most dramatic change to CES is the addition of a new indicator — risk of lead poisoning — bringing the tool's total number of indicators to 21. The other 20 indicators have been updated with recent data. Several indicators, including those relating to water quality, pesticide use, and chrome plating facilities, have been tweaked. OEHHA is currently taking comments on the draft. The deadline is April 30.
Quick Hits & Updates
According to a Los Angeles Times review of environmental cases brought by state attorneys who have jurisdiction of Los Angeles, prosecutors have made more nonprosecution agreements with companies that flout environmental regulations than any other U.S. Attorney’s Office in the nation. In some cases, companies declare bankruptcy and dissolve after making the deal, effectively leaving no responsible party to prosecute.
Once a paved roadway, a block on the east side of downtown San Diego has been converted to a pedestrian promenade. Officially called the “14th Street Greenway,” the project is the first of six interconnected greenways planned for surrounding city blocks, as envisioned by the Downtown San Diego Mobility Plan.
Following up on an earlier council action, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to start removing single-family zoning from the city and update the city’s general plan. Along with the zoning changes, council members approved prioritizing projects in Priority Development Areas and transit and commercial corridors. The new rules allow up to four units on lots currently zoned for just one unit. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)
Amid concerns about displacement and gentrification, the developers behind Aggie Square, a proposed $1.1 billion satellite campus for UC Davis in Sacramento, are offering new guarantees to fund affordable housing, workforce development and opportunities for nearby businesses. The new agreement, would create legally enforceable mandates for affordable housing construction and local hiring. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)
A new study from researchers at UCLA and Santa Clara University that examines the opportunity cost of parking requirements found that 13 percent of Silicon Valley is devoted to parking, and that more than half of the average commercial parcel is parking space. The team ran a simulation in which parking requirements from the year 2000 forward were reduced and showed that under conservative assumptions the region could have added space for nearly 13,000 jobs, equivalent to a 37 percent increase over the actual job growth that occurred during that time.
San Diego County is teaming up with the U.S. Navy to purchase 2,151 acres in Campo that will expand San Diego’s conservation land. Acquiring the property will help officials link nearby reserves and wildlife corridors and may provide connections to nearby regional trails, such as the Pacific Crest Trail, county staff said.
The Clovis City Council unanimously voted to study the feasibility of annexing 1,050 acres that includes roughly 825 acres of new housing the council approved in October. The city’s contribution to funding the environmental review is less than a quarter of the nearly half a million in contributions from developer groups.
