Wildfire Threat Dooms Lilac Hills Ranch Proposal in San Diego County
Citing wildfire concerns, San Diego County supervisors voted to reject the 1,700-home Lilac Hills Ranch development. The development would have required a change to the county's general plan, a fact that drew ire from supervisor. The county has approved other projects despite similar wildfire concerns, but fire officials and county staff said this project posed special dangers because of the narrow two-lane roads that could trap residents during an evacuation. Further complicating the matter, the developer was unable to secure legal agreements for easements that would allow firefighters to hold a fire, giving residents time to evacuate. A Supervisor also noted that to meet greenhouse emissions standards, the project relied on a county offset program that was recently struck down by the Court of Appeals. The lone supervisor that voted yes was in support of the badly needed housing the project would bring, but a decade of failed negotiations left the board with little incentive to fight for the project. The development had been the subject of two ballot measures, most recently in March, in which voters refused to approve zoning changes that would have accommodated the project.
Sober Living Homes Must Abide by Local Zoning Regulations, Court Rules
Costa Mesa won the latest round of legal battles over sober living homes, which have proliferated in coastal communities in recent years. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed to uphold a lower court's ruling that the American With Disabilities and Fair Housing acts do not exempt the rehab industry from city zoning regulations. Costa Mesa was the first California city to impose limitations on sober living homes, which have proliferated in residential neighborhoods based on, it seems, a faulty legal presumption. The district court wrote its decision that there are "significant countervailing interests... in preserving the benefits the city ordinance conferred." On balance, the judges said, the hardships did not strongly favor the sober living home operators. The ruling is just one of more than a half-dozen lawsuits, which have cost the city more than $7 million to defend, but the ninth circuit's opinion will set the tone for lower courts as other suits make their way through the courts. The decision is also significant in that the court could have made a narrow decision that applied to the specific case, but instead the court delved deeper, speaking to the broader set of public interest versus city ordinances that will permeate these cases. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)
Overcrowded Housing Spreads Coronavirus in California
A clear pattern has emerged as the coronavirus spares some California neighborhoods and strikes others: The virus takes a heavier toll in neighborhoods where people pack into overcrowded homes (defined as households where there are more people than rooms of all types, besides bathrooms), according to a Calmatters analysis of neighborhood-level data from 10 counties. Neighborhoods with large numbers of people per household have about 3.7 times the rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases per 1,000 residents as neighborhoods where few residents live in tight quarters. Calmatters collected case data from 10 California counties with large numbers of infected people in late May, totaling nearly 69,783 confirmed cases in 659 neighborhoods, or about 69 percent of all the state's cases at the time. The pattern was startlingly consistent across the counties, whether urban or rural, coastal or inland, northern or southern. Only in Sacramento was there no link between household crowding and COVID-19. Lee Riley, a UC Berkeley epidemiology professor, said the strong link between overcrowded housing and infections could point to one reason that California's shelter-in-place order didn't bend the curve right away: People continued to spread the virus to the people with whom they live.
Coastal Commission Allows San Diego to Reduce Parking Requirements
San Diego's new policy eliminating parking requirements for new housing projects built near mass transit cleared a key hurdle when the California Coastal Commission approved allowing the change in the city's beach areas. Commission members rejected recommendations from their staff, who said the new policy shouldn't apply to a large swatch of Pacific Beach because it could worsen the area's already chronic parking shortages. The new policy eliminates rules requiring developers to create at least one parking spot per unit for most projects and more parking for larger apartments. It also requires developers, who are free to build parking spots if market studies show there is strong demand for it, to "unbundle" the cost of a parking spot from monthly rent. The only neighborhoods eligible for the new policy are those near transit hubs, which are defined as being located within half a mile of a trolley line, a bus rapid transit station or two high-frequency bus routes.
Los Angeles to Consider Vacancy Tax Ballot Measure
The Los Angeles City Council has directed city lawyers to draft language for a ballot measure that would impose a 'vacancy tax' to encourage landlords to rent out units. A successful drafting process will be key to the measure going forward because ongoing squabbles about the finer points - how the tax would work and whether it would actually benefit Los Angelenos - have prevented the council from giving final approval. A city-commissioned analysis found that a vacancy tax could cover 19,000 residential units, 2,500 commercial units, and 2,900 parcels. A separate analysis found that L.A.'s vacancy rate is between 6 and 7 percent; of those, a disproportionate number are luxury units. Councilman Mike Bonin, who championed the proposed tax, suggested Los Angeles adopt a measure much like the recently passed vacancy tax in Oakland, but with a different structure for taxation rates: a flat tax of $5,000 a year for vacant residential properties, with charges ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 for vacant parcels. Recent adjustments to the proposal exclude commercial properties are not eligible for residential use and non-corporate owned single-family homes. Prior to those adjustments, an analysis estimated the tax could bring in $128 million in annual revenue. The council now faces a July 1 deadline to decide whether to put the proposed measure on the November ballot.
CP&DR Coverage: AIDS Healthcare Loses Again
In the most recent court case, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has waded into land use battles in recent years, accused the City of Los Angeles of pursuing gentrification policies that would adversely affect low-income people, Latinos, and others, especially with regard to four development projects in Hollywood: the Palladium project, the Sunset Gordon project, the Crossroads project (adjacent to Crossroads of the World), and the 6400 Sunset project. All of the projects are located along Sunset Boulevard less than a mile from the Foundation’s headquarters. The appellate court was unpersuaded, however, that this displacement would be the result of a specific policy by the City of Los Angeles actionable under the disparate impact doctrine. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)
Quick Hits & Updates
Bay Area lawmakers introduced a statewide measure for long-term eviction relief for renters struggling to pay rent during the coronavirus pandemic. The measure, AB 1437, would ban evictions for back rent and would give renters 15 months after emergency orders are lifted to pay back rent. If passed, landlords would still be allowed to pursue civil claims to recoup lost rent.
After eight years of construction and two years of delays, BART's 10-mile, $2.3 billion extension line to San Jose carried its first passengers in June. The new end-of-the-line Berryessa Station in northeast San Jose will eventually bring passengers to hundreds of under construction condominiums and apartments. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)
San Luis Obispo was named top U.S. city for bicycling by PeopleforBikes City Rankings. The ratings analyze five key indicators of bicycle programs - ridership, safety, network, connection to the community and how quickly the program is being improved - across more than 550 cities and communities. Another California city, Santa Barbara, made the top 3 cities for bikes.
After an intense 6-week community opposition campaign, CIM Group has backed away from an agreement to purchase and redevelop Crenshaw Mall into an office campus. The redevelopment was seen by opponents as an attempt to gentrify the majority-African American community. "This is a tremendous Black victory and a testament to the power of our community," said Damien Goodman, Executive Director of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition.
The Lompoc City Council adopted and finalized the city of Lompoc Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan, which will focus primarily on increasing safety along routes near schools and in high speed and high vehicular traffic areas. The pedestrian component of the master plan identifies and prioritizes future projects to create a sidewalk network that encourages walking.
Work has slowed but continued on San Francisco's Central Subway project, SFMTA officials say. Heavy construction on stations was scheduled to finish this summer, but now will continue into the fall and finish by the end of the year. Once operational, the Central Subway will provide key connections to some of the city's most densely populated and growing areas.
California transportation regulators ruled that rideshare drivers are employees, in line with newly-enacted state law AB5. For now, it is unclear what practical difference this ruling makes, but regulators issued a notice to Uber and Lyft that they must provide compensation for their employees by July 1, and the companies are currently being sued by California's largest cities and the state attorney general.
The U.S. Forest Service will use a loophole from the George W. Bush era to open up 755 acres of Ventura County backcountry to logging - without having to complete an environmental impact assessment or having to provide a full public comment period. Centuries old trees up to five feet in diameter dot the landscape of the popular destination for hikers and climbers.
Los Angeles Metro released the draft of its 2020 Long Range Transportation Plan, a $400-billion, 30-year transportation blueprint for the region. The 2020 LRTP details how Metro will add more than 100 miles over the next 30 years, the most aggressive transit expansion plan in the nation. Metro has set aggressive goals: according to a press release, the plan will result in an 81 percent increase in daily transit trips and a 19 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.
Elon Musk's vision for a high-speed rail tunnel linking Rancho Cucamonga with Ontario International Airport got the go-ahead from San Bernardino County's transportation agency. Staff have been directed to flesh out the proposal and postpone a $3 million study of other airport-rail connections. The proposal would build a 2.8-mile tunnel, 14 feet in diameter and about 35 feet underground
