By Cal Matters : smtp – excerpt

Since Gavin Newsom began his governorship more than four years ago, the state has spent upwards of $20 billion on efforts to solve – or at least reduce – California’s worst-in-the-nation homelessness crisis.

The spending continues, but the number of people living on the streets, in squalid camps or in ramshackle motorhomes and trailers continues to climb.

That sad fact was underscored recently by a new census of homelessness in Los Angeles County, which has a quarter of the state’s population but nearly half of its homeless people. The study found a 9% rise in the number of homeless people in the county to 75,518, with more than half (46,260) in the city of Los Angeles…

California’s failure, at least so far, to get a handle on its homelessness crisis has made it a target of scornful national and international media attention and a model of what to avoid for other states…

The most obvious of those squabbles has been the running feud between Newsom and local government officials. He accuses the locals of being insufficiently vigorous in implementing programs while they say they need permanent sources of financing rather than the year-to-year appropriations Newsom has offered…(more)

By Katie Dowd : sfexaminer – excerpt

Amid a flurry of rumors about a mysterious buyer who has purchased 52,000 acres in Solano County, local residents have received a survey gauging support for a “new city with tens of thousands of new homes.”

Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy confirmed to SFGATE on Tuesday that Solano County residents have been receiving the push poll, and former Fairfield councilmember Marilyn Farley told SFGATE that she received the survey via text message.

The survey is extensive, and it may be the first window into what Flannery Associates plans to do with its newly acquired Bay Area empire.

The group, which incorporated in Delaware, where it is not required to name the people behind the business, has been the subject of speculation and even a possible government probe. Starting in 2018, Flannery began purchasing parcels of land from Fairfield to Rio Vista. (One of its first purchases was near Flannery Road in Rio Vista, possibly giving the group its name.) By its own admission, Flannery paid over the market rate to acquire that land, but in the years since, nothing has been developed on it. The group is now the largest landowner in the county.

The clandestine nature of the purchases — and the fact that Flannery’s properties now flank three sides of Travis Air Force Base — led to concerns about national security. Rep. Mike Thompson, whose district includes parts of Solano County, told SFGATE last week he has been “pushing” the Treasury Department, the Department of Defense and the FBI to investigate the acquisitions…(more)

Where are Wikileaks and Julian Assange when you need them. They should experts to figure these things out.

By James Brasuell : Planeten – excerpt

The density-enabling mechanisms of the California law Senate Bill 10 are too much for San Diego’s citizen planners.

The San Diego Planning Commission—the citizen advisory group on planning in one of the YIMBYest cities in California—won’t go so far as to eliminate single-family zoningthroughout the city.

“San Diego’s Planning Commission unanimously voted against a key part of Mayor Todd Gloria’s housing plan Thursday that would have eliminated single-family zoning in much of the city,” reports Phillip Molnar.

That key part was the Senate Bill 10, a voluntary statewide bill that “[allows] a single-family home to be torn down and replaced with a new structure of up to three stories with up to 10 units in much of the city,” according to Molnar…(more)

By Alec Regimbal : sfgate – excerpt

Assembly Bill 37 would allow Calif. lawmakers to start using unlimited campaign funds to hire bodyguards or install security systems.

On April 21 of last year, a convoy of roughly 20 truckers gathered outside the Oakland home of state Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, with the express purpose of intimidating the Democratic lawmaker. They crowded the streets in front of her house, honking and demanding through bullhorns that Wicks, who was home at the time, come outside. After police arrived, the convoy departed…

Those events and others like them are the inspiration behind an unusual bill that’s currently working its way through the California Legislature: Assembly Bill 37, which would remove the cap on how much campaign funds state and local lawmakers — as well as those who are running for such offices — can put towards security, and would for the first time allow candidates to use political donations to hire bodyguards…

One might ask why these public servants need protection from their constituents. What are they doing to anger the public they are supposed to support?

Community Vision CA – from LinkedIn

Did you catch our partner Oakland Community Land Trust in The New York Times? We are thrilled to see them featured in this story about the history, power and significance of Community Land Trusts (CLTs).

CLTs are critical vehicles for advancing #CommunityOwnership of community assets. Over the years, we’ve continued to deepen our partnership with CLTs, including through initiatives like our California Community-Owned Real Estate (CalCORE) program.

CalCORE works to address the capital and capacity barriers that many community-based developers face. By bringing together cohorts of small and emergent developers, with a focus on Black, Indigenous and people of color-led CLTs and CDCs, CalCORE provides community-based real estate entities with opportunities for network building, cohort training, one-on-one advising and project support, as well as access to pre-development and project capital.

We are honored to have partnered with Oakland Community Land Trust in a variety of ways over the past several years, including as a participant in our first CalCORE cohort.

Read the full NYT story: https://lnkd.in/gbNAsnsJ

By Wendell Cox : newgeography – excerpt

Driven, at least in part, by the huge increase in the potential for remote work, US residents moved in large numbers to states with lower urban densities in the two years and three months (27 months) between the 2020 Census (April 1) and the 2022 Census Bureau population estimates. The date of the Census was also nearly the same as the start of the Covid pandemic, during which working from home increased substantially.

During these 27 months, an annualized average of 1,111,000 residents moved across state lines in the United States. This is an increase of 64% relative to the annual average net domestic migration of 679,000 between states during the previous decade. 2010s. The average urban density in the United States was 2,544 per square mile in 2020, according to the Census.

Moving to States with Lower Urban Population Densities…(more)

Kalima for Our Neighborhood Voices

Link to KCBS

Kalimah KCBS 740 Bay Area Aug 2 2023.m4a

By Adam Brinklow : thefrisc – excerpt

The city’s pro-housing officials call BS on the building, which doesn’t meet basic requirements. So why are YIMBYs gung-ho for it?

If the thought of a 50-story tower looming over the San Francisco Zoo and Ocean Beach like a fairy-tale giant stresses you out, the Planning Department has good news: It says the high-rise at 2700 Sloat Blvd., as proposed, is not going to happen, and was probably never something to take seriously in the first place.

When news of the proposed tower — more than 500 feet high, more than 700 units within — broke a few months ago, reactions on social media and in public hearings were as zealous as they were predictable…

“This project is a distraction. It defies logic,” the department’s director Rich Hillis tells The Frisc…

[Update 7/27/23: The Board of Appeals Wednesday night rejected Hickey’s bid. At the hearing, planners argued the law is written to avoid big, bulky development in zoning like this, and that smaller separate buildings are better urban design policy. The height wasn’t a factor for planners, although many commenters were preoccupied with it. Hickey did not say if he plans to continue his quest through other channels.]…(more)

By Jennifer L. Hernandez, Marne S. Sussmab, Norman Carlin, Brian C. Buinger : hklaw – excerpt

State Legislature Weakens Many of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Original Proposals

• Holland & Knight recently wrote a practical guide describing the proposed reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other content in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “May Revise” budget trailer bills.
• Gov. Newsom’s Proposed package included 11 bills. As finally enacted, the content was consolidated into five bills: Senate Bill (SB) 145, SB 146, SB 147, SB 149 and SB 150, including some provisions that have been watered down from the original versions.
• This Holland & Knight alert summarizes practical changes to CEQA and infrastructure permitting in the final content of the bills as enacted.

As stated in Holland & Knight’s recent alert detailing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s package of 11 bills to amend the venerable California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), meaningful reforms to CEQA have eluded all past governors in the state. (See “A Practical Guide to Gov. Newsom’s May 2023 Budget-Revised CEQA Trailer Bills,” May 23, 2023.)

For the past five decades, CEQA has been finely tuned to protect the status quo even in the face of California’s urgent housing and infrastructure needs. CEQA lawsuits (and lawsuit threats) are the go-to tool for “NIMBYs” (not in my backyard organizations) and anyone with the resources to file a lawsuit who wants to leverage a project approved by elected and appointed officials to further their own special interests. For example, as reported in Part 3 of the “In the Name of the Environment” series authored by Holland & Knight attorneys, examining all CEQA lawsuits filed from 2019 to 2021,1 local and regional land use plans to allow more than 1 million new homes were targeted by CEQA lawsuits…(more)

RELATED:

Opinion: The California Environmental Quality Act is not the problem it’s made out to be

SB 149, Caballero. California Environmental Quality Act: administrative and judicial procedures: record of proceedings: judicial streamlining.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect…(more)