Anaheim, Angels Reach Deal for Stadium Redevelopment 
The City of Anaheim and Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno have agreed on a cash and community benefits package of $150 million in cash, 466 affordable housing units, and a 7-acre park at a combined cost of $170 million for a 150-acre stadium property. The site was originally priced at $325 million, but the price and size of the parcel shrunk slightly by about $5 million and roughly 3 acres after the city decided to reserve land for city services. SRB Management, Moreno's business partnership, agreed to make 15 percent of housing units affordable at no extra cost to the city, adding 311 units, mostly for moderate-income families in an area expected to eventually be home to 30,000 residents. The plan also calls for 5,175 units of market-rate housing, 2.7 million square feet of office space, two hotels with 943 rooms combined, 1.1 million square feet of retail space, and parking structures.

Los Altos Reluctantly Approves SB 35 Project
After deciding not to appeal a judge's adverse ruling, the Los Altos City Council reluctantly approved a five-story mixed-use project in its small-scale downtown last week. “If you’ve been to our downtown you know it just doesn’t fit there,” said Mayor Jan Pepper. “It’s unfortunate that SB 35 doesn’t allow cities to do the review of a project like this to make sure they conform with our requirements.” But a Superior Court judge had ruled the city's denial of the project was not based on any specific objective standard. 

SGC Annual Report Highlights $1.6 Billion in Sustainability Grants 
The 2020 Annual Report for the California Strategic Growth Council is now available. Highlights from 2019 and 2020 include the fifth and largest round of Affordable Housing and Sustainable communities (AHSC) projects, bringing the total invested through the program to over $1.6 billion. Three of SGC's Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) awardees secured federal grants to expand work in their TCC project areas. Two notable grants were the $35 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative award in Watts and U.S. EPA Brownfields awards in Fresno and Sacramento. SGC established the Health and Equity program within the council, which builds on the public-private Health in All Policies partnership. The council began laying the groundwork for Regional Climate Collaboratives by building a community leadership development training program that will serve under-resources communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, SGC reports having adapted grant timelines and activities to applicants and grant recipients to adjust to uncertain conditions. SGC staff are also partnering with other state agencies to contribute to response and recovery activities.

SANDAG Executive Director Under Fire in Disputed Report 
The public version of a report accusing the San Diego Association of Governments' executive director of improper payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars was "incomplete and manipulated," according to the report's author. In an open letter to SANDAG, Mary Khoshmashrab railed against "redacted dollar amounts, position titles, dates and percentages that are not confidential in nature." Hasan Ikhrata, the SANDAG executive director, awarded bonuses, severance and other payments to current and former workers without alerting the full board of directors, according to the audit. SANDAG and Ikhrata have both pushed back on the audit's findings: Ikhrata produced a 38-page response disputing the report's claims and SANDAG released a lengthy memorandum from a hired law firm concluding that the severance payments were permitted. The report is the first out of the Office of Independent Performance Auditor, an agency created after SANDAG was found to have inflated the number of projects it could develop under a proposed tax measure.

Quick Hits & Updates 

Three possible routes will be considered by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the Crenshaw Northern Extension Project, as well as a $50.3-million contract for environmental analysis and conceptual engineering of the project. Early ridership estimates for all the routes were promising, showing about 90,000 boardings being taken on the line on weekdays, says L.A. Metro.

The Los Angeles City Planning Department released plans for an incentive-based zoning system for downtown projects to include more affordable housing. The new system would replace the existing program for the Transfer of Floor Area Rights (TFAR). Under the draft proposal, the new Downtown Community Plan update would rezone every parcel within its boundaries, more than doubling the land area currently eligible for housing.

UC Merced's 2020 Project, which broke ground in 2016, is complete after a $1.3 billion investment over four years that doubled the size of the campus. California's youngest university added 13 structures with new classrooms, student wellness and counseling facilities, student housing, recreational areas, and more research space. The additional room will help the university get to its 2030 goal of 15,000 students, up from the 8,800 currently enrolled. (See prior CP&DR coverage.)

In a surprise decision, the California Fish and Game Commission chose to delay an up-or-down vote that would have granted the western Joshua tree legal protection under the California Endangered Species Act. The tree will be up again for listing under the act in late September. Commission members indicated they believe the petition to protect Joshua Trees had already passed muster.

A long-planned cleanup of a contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory site is in jeopardy after the State Historical Resources Commission backed a NASA proposal to designate the entire site as a Native American cultural district. Cleanup activists note that an agreement to clean up up the site contains exemptions for land containing Native American artifacts, and fear those exemptions might be applied sitewide if the designation moves forward.

The XpressWest high-speed rail line--expected to begin construction later this year--will connect Las Vegas with Southern California, but not before the project's backers and Los Angeles County officials grapple with how to connect the rail line with Metrolink and California's high-speed rail system. To date, Metro and others have committed $5 million to a development plan that will include an analysis of potential stations, ridership potential, and travel demand.

Ventura CountyPlanning Commission approved recommendations for the county's General Plan and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that will now to go the Board of Supervisors. Public comments have either called for strong climate action or a delay in the process to allow for a proper review of the economic impacts of proposed restrictions on oil and gas operations. The General Plan was originally slated to be the county's Climate Action Plan, but the EIR demonstrated that the proposed plans fail to meet emission reductions.

A plan to build a light-rail line that would have connected downtown Sacramento with West Sacramento was rejected last-minute by a divided Sacramento Regional Transit Board. The board's refusal likely marks the end of a decade-long effort, despite backers having banked $50 million in federal funding for the project. City officials could not guarantee full funding to build the new project, nor funding to cover an estimated $1.5 million annual operating cost. Moreover, a feasibility study was never conducted.

After decades of fierce opposition from resident groups, Lafayette City Council voted to approve a 315-unit apartment development on a 22-acre parcel. Under the Housing Accountability Act, the city had little choice but to allow the apartments: the project has set aside aside 20 percent of its units for affordable housing. The developer vowed to file a lawsuit if the city rejected the project, a fight the city was likely to lose. If that happened, Lafayette could have been on the hook for more than $15 million in fines and legal fees.