State Emissions Goals May Prove Too Ambitious
California will likely miss its emissions reductions goals for the next decade, in part due to unprecedented carbon dioxide emissions from the 2018 wildfire seasons. According to the recently-released California Green iNnovation Index, transportation is the main culprit: the state would have to reduce emissions from cars and factories by an average of 4.5 percent every year to meet the SB32 goal to reduce emission to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Thus far, California has been reducing emissions by an average of about 1.15 percent per year. If nothing changes, the report notes, California won’t meet its 2030 goals until 2061 and won’t meet its 2050 target for at least 100 years. Wildfires aren’t helping these numbers: according to a report prepared by Beacon Economics and the Next 10 think tank, the 2018 wildfires produced more than nine times more emissions than were reduced in 2017. And 2018 wildfire “emissions” outranked the state’s commercial, residential, or agricultural emissions – though they still fell behind transportation, industry, or electricity. Additionally, these blazes threaten California forests as carbon “sinks” that absorb human emissions.
Newsom Names First State Land Housing Site
In his first designation under the Excess Land for Affordable Housing executive order, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed an affordable housing on state-owned land in Stockton. Since Newsom’s January order, the Department of General Services and the Department of Housing and Community Development have been working with local jurisdictions to identify potentially suitable state-owned sites for housing. The state selected two sites in Stockton, both within the city’s Miner Avenue Complete Street Project, a rehabilitation and beautification project. The development will provide over 100 units with a 50 percent affordable minimum. Preference will be given to deeper affordability and additional affordable units. Under the program, developers will receive a long-term ground lease from the state and will build, own, and manage the housing they develop. RFPs will be due in November, and developers will be selected in January 2020. Newsom also announced that he is working with the city of Sacramento on a housing development, and will issue a Request for Proposal soon. “We have to use every tool in our toolbox to deliver more affordable housing for low-income and middle class Californians,” said Governor Newsom in a statement. “Sacramento and Stockton’s leadership will set the example for other local governments to follow.”
Caltrain Considers Ways to Triple Ridership
In a bid to ease congestion on Peninsula freeways, the Caltrain Board adopted a plan to offer more frequent trips to the Peninsula. The plan calls for for as many as eight trips per hour io each direction between San Jose and San Francisco, as well as express short-ride trains every fifteen minutes., and more frequent service further south to Gilroy. Caltrain expects the increased frequency would nearly triple its daily ridership from, 65,000 passengers to 180,000 by 2040. However, it’s still not clear how the massive service transformation will be funded. Caltrain estimates that the operating costs would increase from $135 million in 2018 to $370 million in 2040. Caltrain says that much of this would be covered from increased fare revenue, but that it would still fall $66 million short each year. Additionally,y it would need to upgrade infrastructure to support the changes. One option for funding may come from the Faster Bay Area mega-mesaure, a one-cent sales tax that would raise $100 million over four decades. Voters will consider this measure in November 2020.
Housing Costs, Politics Prompt Half of Californians to Consider Relocating
Over half of Californians have recently considered leaving the state, according to a U.C. Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll. The poll found that 52 percent of the 4,527 registered California voters surveyed had given either serious (24 percent) or some (28 percent) thought to leaving. Those surveyed cited the high cost of housing (71 percent), high taxes (58 percent), and the state’s political culture (46 percent) as the top reasons to leave. The poll found only modest differences in responses between regions and most demographics – except across a political divide. Conservatives and Republicans are three times as likely as Democrats and liberals to be giving “serious consideration” to leaving the state. Conservatives and republicans are also far more likely to list the state’s political culture as a reason to leave than Democrats or liberals, and twice as likely to mention high taxes. Additionally, the trend of voter opinions of California as a place to live has steadily grown less positive since the poll began in 1967 – with only a small positive uptick in perception of California in the past three years. Here, again, partisanship shaped those responses: Democrats were nearly three times as likely as Republicans and conservatives to describe California as one of the best places to live.
SANDAG Reaches Agreement on Rail, Highway Funding
Striking a compromise that included some highway funding, the board of the San Diego Association of Governments approved a nearly $600 million transportation spending blueprint. The bill will add new lanes to state Routes 67 and 78, and make improvements to Route 52. But it will also include resources for SANDAG's primary vision: to start design a high-speed rail system. Finding new funding pathways to achieve this vision has become more urgent since SANDAG released data showing that the agency’s current Transnet sale tax – passed in 2004 to fund highway projects – will bring in about $10 billion less than 2050 than originally anticipated. But SANDAG’s bid to introduce a new sales tax to fund rail systems without making good on highway promises has faced strong opposition. Still, SANDAG Executive Director Hasan Ikhrata warns that the region won’t meet its state-mandated emissions reduction targets without scrapping major highway projects, and prioritizing transit. “I think this will put the agency in legal jeopardy,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I will guarantee you that if we build these projects…this will increase vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gasses."
Sacramento Inching Toward Deal to Bring MLS to Railyards Stadium
Following months of negotiations, Sacramento representatives and Major League Soccer may be finalizing a deal to bring a team to the city in 2022, according to reporting from the Sacramento Bee. For months, Sacramento has been competing with St. Louis to land an MLS franchise. Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle, partner Matt Alvarez, and a local businessman Kevin Nagle head the group that hopes to replace the city’s current lower-tier Republic FC team with the MLS franchise team – also to be called Republic FC. The city agreed to $33 million of assistance on permit fees, infrastructure construction and signage rights value, and approved a contingency purchase deal for MLS to build a $250 million stadium on 31 acres within the city’s Railyards mega-development, adjacent to downtown. But negotiations reportedly hit roadblocks, and St. Louis was awarded a franchise deal three weeks ago. If the current deal is finalized, Sacramento will be the 29th team to join the league. Mayor Darrell Steinberg recently tweeted, “While the deal is not finalized, we are working hard and I’ve never been more confident that we will bring [MLS to Sacramento].”
Quick Hits & Updates
In the latest escalation in the dispute between Oakland and Alameda County over the potential sale of the Oakland Coliseum to the Oakland A’s for redevelopment, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred warned that the A’s would move to Las Vegas if Oakland didn’t drop its suit. Alameda County and the city of Oakland currently co-own the Coliseum property. Recently, Alameda County began the process of selling its share to the baseball team. Oakland sued, citing the Surplus Land Act, which requires 90 days of “good faith” negotiation to affordable developers before selling land. A judge issued a temporary restraining order against the county, halting the sale.
Sonoma County officials are consolidating approval of about four dozen higher density housing projects under a single review process. By rezoning certain parcels and merging environmental reviews into a single study, the county hopes save a year of review and add at least 500 separate dwellings to private land just outside the city. The county’s website reported that the total housing possible from these developments could be as many as 3,000 dwellings, which would get the city significantly closer to its current demand of 16,000 affordable rental homes. This move may also help push for rezoning for greater density in the county’s forthcoming general plan updates.
The City of Anaheim declined to release its appraisal of the Angels' stadium until negotiations are complete, despite calls from the public and some councilmemebers to release it. The most recent appraisal of the site was in 2014, valuing the stadium land between $225 and $325 million. Critics say that keeping the appraisal secret forces councilmembers and the public to accept terms of a negotiation without full information.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development awarded more than $4.9 million in SB 2 planning grants to 16 California cities and counties. SB 2, the Building Homes and Jobs Act passed in 2017, gives grants for projects such as updating local planning documents, updating zoning ordinances, conducting environmental analyses, or for local improvements to expedite planning and permitting. Awardees include the city of Livermore, Los Angeles County, Merced, Santa Monica, and others.
San Francisco International Airport announced a $587 million plan to install 10 miles of sea wall around the 4,171 acre airport site. This comes amid research showing at least one foot of sea level rise in the coming 30 years and at least three feet by 2100, raising concerns of flooded runways and buildings. A 2011 report from the San Francisco Bay Conservation Development Commission showed that 72 percent of SFO would suffer if sea level increased by as little as 16 inches. The seawall will project the terminals until at least the year 2085 for a sea level rise of up to 36 inches.
The Coastal Commission says that a new homeless encampment in San Clemente may need a coastal development permit to move forward. The San Clemente City Council built a campsite at a city-owned maintenance yard via an emergency ordinance in May. The ordinance required all of the city’s homeless to move to the site. Now, commission representatives are expressing concerns about rainstorm runoff from the site’s port-a-potties to bodies of water, including the San Clemente pier. The commission will investigate for violations of the state’s Coastal Act.
The U.S. Department of the Interior will transfer over 500 acres of San Diego county federal lands to the army to erect 70 miles of border wall. The land is currently part of the 18,500 protected acres of the Otay Mountain Wilderness. The agreement between the Army and the Trump Administrations gives the Army three years to build in this area. If completed, it will be the first newly built section of border wall in San Diego County in this administration.
After nearly a decade of negotiations, the Save the Redwoods League struck a deal to buy Alder Creek Grove from the world’s largest private forest holders. The Rouch family owned the giant sequoia-studded land for seven generations, and largely protected the trees. The 583-acre grove has 483 giant sequoias with diameters of at least 6 feet, including the world’s fifth-biggest 3,000-year-old Stagg tree. However, the league has been recently shifting its focus from coast redwoods to giant sequoias along the central Sierra – and this purchase represents nearly half of all privately-owned giant sequoia sites.
As part of a countywide incentives program to increase affordable housing, San Diego County is offering free pre-approved housing plans for accessory dwelling units for housing owners. On its website, the county posted two permit-ready floor plans sized at 600 and 1,200 square feet, and said it would post more in the coming weeks. Earlier this year, the county also waived $15,000 in permit and development fees for so-called granny flats. According to the county, there’s space for roughly 172,000 homes on existing lots in the area to house low-income, older, and veteran populations.
