Hollister Runs Afoul of State Housing Regulations
The city of Hollister is in hot water with the California Department of Housing and Development (HCD), which denied the city's attempt to sidestep its order to "void or suspend its growth management program (GMP) immediately," because development plans, per SB 330, "cannot reduce intensity, impose moratoriums, enforce subjective design standards or implement any provision that limits approvals or caps." Hollister Mayor Ignacio Velazquez has insisted that the law should not apply to the city because the county is exempt. While the county is indeed exempt, cities within exempt counties can be on a list of "affected cities" prohibited from taking actions like downzoning, imposing development moratoriums, and imposing subjective design review standards. Hollister is on the "affected cities" list.
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San Diego Considers Proposals for Sports Arena Site
A development team consisting of Brookfield Properties and ASM Global has been chosen to redevelop the site of the San Diego Sports Arena. Following a call for development proposals, San Diego narrowed the list of contenders to two competing visions for the future of the 48-acre San Diego Sports Arena property. The Toll Brothers, one of the largest developers of luxury homes in the nation, have submitted a proposal that is focused more on outdoor recreation and includes a long list of public amenities, including a 12-acre public park, a 12,000-seat modular soccer stadium, a 3,500-seat music venue, and renovation of the 54-year-old sports arena. It would also includes 1,400 housing units, 185,000 square feet of office buildings and 106,000 square feet of retail space. The winning proposal from Brookfield and ASM includes 5 acres of public parks, 2,100 housing units and 590,000 square feet of retail space. It is expected to cost $1 billion. The plan does not include a significant renovation of the arena but includes the possibility of a major renovation or replacement. Passage of Measure D, on the November ballot, will be necessary for for the proposal to move forward. It would lift the city's coastal 30-foot height limit for the sports arena site and 850 adjacent acres.
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State Planning Council Commits to Furthering Equity
Spurred by national protests against police brutality and racism inequity, California's Strategic Growth Council (SGC) adopted a "Racial Equity Resolution" that commits the Council and each member agency "to identifying and implementing concrete and measurable actions to achieve racial equity." SGC, which comprises six secretaries representing transportation, health, agriculture, housing, natural resources, and environment, became the first cabinet-level body in the nation to adopt a racial equity plan. Goals within the Racial Equity Plan include identifying budgets for racial bias training, instituting a "blind" application process that excludes personally identifying information, outreach to people of color owned media outlets, diversified hiring panels, and new strategies for meaningful community outreach and engagement. The resolution's vision statement reads: "all people in California live in healthy, thriving, and resilient communities regardless of race.” Action items recommended in a staff report include: "integrating racial equity into Council leadership, operations, programs, policies, and practices;" "identifying and implementing concrete and measurable actions to achieve racial equity;" working with State Boards, Departments, and Offices to align and advance the Council’s commitment to racial equity;" and "using public Council meetings as a forum to share racial equity actions, milestones, and best practices, and to actively engage communities and stakeholders."
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CP&DR Coverage: Environmental Justice
Long-awaited guidelines for Senate Bill 1000, requiring jurisdictions to account for equity in their general plans, have been released by the Office of Planning & Research. Initially, cities will have to assess whether the EJ element applies to them at all, depending on whether they identify disadvantaged populations within their respective jurisdictions. The guidelines recommend several methods, starting with a review of environmental hazards via the state’s CalEnviroScreen database. One recommended threshold is to include communities that score in the lowest 25 percent on the aggregate of CalEnviroScreen’s 20 criteria—communities defined as disadvantaged under 2018’s SB 535.
Quick Hits & Updates
In San Ramon, the city Planning Commission approved a plan known as the CityWalk master plan that will guide development for the next 25 to 27 years on 130-acres of Bishop Ranch properties. The plan includes 4,500 housing units, including about 675 affordable units, a 169-room hotel, 166,000 square feet of commercial space, three parking structures, a park, and public spaces.
Gov. Gavin Newsom reappointed Tia Boatman Patterson executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), a role she has served in since 2014. During her six-year tenure at CalHFA, the agency has assisted nearly 60,000 renters and homebuyers move into new homes.
Homekey, a $100 million program that converts Bay Area hotels and motels into permanent homeless housing, is expected to attract plenty of applicants as COVID-19 closures stretch on and owners become more open to the idea of selling rather than hanging on to see how long they can survive plummeting tourism. San Francisco policy leaders have said they are hoping to buy two or more hotels for conversion, and 20 have already applied in the program's first three weeks.
New data shows how and where California renters are likely to be hit hardest since Congress allowed key CARES Act provisions like expanded unemployment insurance and a limited eviction moratorium to expire. The Terner Center's analysis found that nearly three-quarters of renter households estimated to have experienced a COVID-related job loss include at least one person of color; the same proportion of vulnerable renter households live in just 10 California counties. By far the largest number live in Los Angeles County.
City permits and approvals awarded during former Los Angeles Councilman Jose Huizar's tenure may be nullified under an ordinance proposed by City Atty. Mike Feuer. In a letter to council members, Feuer said the city needs an effective tool to address development decisions "tainted by corruption and fraud" and to help restore public faith in City Hall. Huizar has been accused by federal prosecutors of accepting bribes from developers, among other charges.
The Esselen tribe is getting nearly two square miles of its ancestral lands in the heart of Big Sur back with the closing of a complicated real estate deal that has been in the works for more than a year. Ownership of a 1,199-acre undeveloped private property long known as the Adler Ranch will be transferred to the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County.
A new study on expanding passenger train lines into the east San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire says the two services will have a synergistic effect, bumping up daily ridership on both the Metro L Line (formerly known as the Gold Line) and the pricier Metrolink. The task force found the Metrolink service would go from about 400 boardings to more than 1,200 boardings in 2028 with the addition of the L Line at the Montclair TransCenter.
A major revamp of downtown Sunnyvale is pushing forward with final city approval of the last pieces of the CityLine development. The project has already yielded nearly 200 apartment units and a large retail component. The next phase of the project will redevelop four sites as new homes, ground-floor retail, and offices. The anchors of the retail project, Whole Foods and AMC Theaters, are slated to open by late 2020.
Santa Monica's bikeshare program, Breeze, will shut down later this year. Ridership, and the corresponding revenue, began to decline with the growth of scooter rentals from Bird, Lime, Lyft and Jump. The aging bike fleet would have required additional grants (the initial investment was $2 million), but in the current economy, grants are drying up--especially because state state resources will not prioritize services that can be provided by the private sector.
While the majority of Californians agree that environmental hazards--from air pollution to climate change-- are serious threats, a new poll from the Public Policy Inst. of California shows people of color are more likely than whites to be concerned about environmental threats. Communities of color more often face environmental hazards such as water and air pollution, storms, and heatwaves, an imbalance now amplified by the pandemic.
