News Briefs

ParkScore, a project of the Trust for Public Land, ranked the 100 largest U.S. cities on their needs for parks >>read more

In a possible blow to High Speed Rail and climate-change programs like the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities grant program, the most recent cap-and-trade auction fell short of expectations. >>read more

Marking a major expansion of Los Angeles’ rail network, Phase II of the Exposition Light Rail Line, from Culver City to Santa Monica, officially opened Friday, May 20. >>read more

Gov. Jerry Brown's "May revise" (pdf) of the $122 billion 2017 state budget includes significant provisions meant to address homelessness and promote the production of housing. It calls for a $2 billion bond, supported by Prop 63, to proving up to 14,000 units of housing for mentally ill homeless people, plus support for the CalWORKS jobs program. >>read more

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) has approved a new two-year business plan. It includes an agreement to add more than $1 billion in costs to connect the City of Merced to the initial operating segment and to invest $2 billion to improve existing rail services in Southern California. >>read more

The San Jose city council voted, 6-5, to reduce annual rent hikes in a third of apartments, which is a move to stabilize rent in one of the nation's most expensive cities. The city has 44,000 rent-controlled units that can raise rents only 5 percent per year instead of 8. The city's housing department suggested tying annual rent to inflation like other CA cities while Councilman Peralez pushed for only 4 percent increase annually. The council approved another housing item: an anti-retaliation ordinance that would protect renters against requesting repairs and being evicted. The Council also approved, 7-4, to eliminate a program that allowed landlords to pass debt off to renters unless they were "major improvement costs." >>read more

With a controversial measure that would force the City of Los Angeles to update its 35 community plans headed for the March ballot, Mayor Eric Garcetti is calling for the update of all of the city's community plans. He intends to include funding in his upcoming budget to support this effort. And in a motion introduced by several councilmembers  the City Council instructed the Planning Department to report on overhauling the Community Plan program. They also called for recommendations on ways to increase oversight of the environmental review process, and upgrade outdated technology. >>read more

The California High Speed Rail Authority won a court victory last week when Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny ruled farmers and other plaintiffs in Kings County had not presented enough evidence to support their claim that the state's high speed rail project had violated the terms of 2008's Proposition 1A. Kenny wrote, "there are still too many unknown variables" and therefore does not constitute sufficient grounds for the suit. The ruling implies that plaintiffs may reopen the case in the future if the project does not comply with requirements of the bond measure. The rail authority still must comply with the bond measure's requirements, including target travel times, ridership, headways, and financial self-sufficiency. >>read more

The San Francisco Planning Commission voted to allow developers to build taller buildings in exchange for including extra affordable housing only on 215 identified "soft sites" or on properties with less than five percent of parcel covered such as gas stations and parking lots. The density bonus plan, proposed by Mayor Ed Lee, would allow an extra two stories or 25 feet in exchange for 30 percent of the building being below-market-rate housing. Buildings that are 100 percent affordable can build an additional three floors. This will hopefully add an additional 16,000 housing units in the next twenty years. Supervisor Katy Tang told SF Gate, "This is a much better piece of legislation" than earlier drafts or the state bonus law, she said. "This represents San Francisco values." >>read more