deregulated housing bills, Housing

Big San Jose apartment complex may convert to all-affordable units

By George Avalos : mercurynews – excerpt (audio track)

City officials prep decision to clear path for conversion

SAN JOSE — A big apartment complex in downtown San Jose could be converted into an affordable homes property, a shift that would terminate its status as market-rate housing.

Modera The Alameda, a 168-unit apartment building on The Alameda near the SAP Center and Diridon train station, is currently slated to be transformed into an affordable housing complex.

The San Jose City Council is scheduled to meet Nov. 14 to consider a conversion proposal for Modera. This decision also includes a financing package to enable the transformation to affordable housing.

A $100 million package of tax-exempt bonds to finance the purchase of Modera The Alameda is the funding centerpiece of the affordable housing conversion, according to documents on file with San Jose officials…

The proposal though, would remove Modera from the property tax rolls — which means the complex would no longer generate property tax revenue once the new owner takes over…(more)

Here is a relatively new program that seems to rely on government funds to convert market rate to “affordable” housing. What does this do to the tax basis? And is this a reasonable approach to generate affordable housing?

Housing

State’s housing suit put on hold. Judge wants federal case over charter city question to be decided

Huntington Beach – Top state officials took a legal blow in their ongoing lawsuit that accuses Huntington Beach of violating state housing laws, when a Superior Court judge halted their suit until a related federal case is decided.

A state Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the lawsuit filed by the state Attorney General’s Office and California Department of Housing and Community Development must wait. The ruling is a win for city officials who hope to fight off state housing mandates to keep the “suburban character of the city.”

The state earlier this year sued Huntington Beach for refusing to adopt a housing element in compliance with state law. The city fired back by filing a lawsuit in federal court that argued because it is a charter city it’s not subject to state housing laws.

City Attorney Michael Gates called the judge’s decision “a huge loss” for the state and said the decision can’t be appealed.

“The state is stuck and can’t take any further action against the city for failure to adopt a housing element,” Gates said.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said, “We are disappointed by the court’s ruling and considering all options to obtain the swift relief that state law requires.”

For decades, on a regular cycle, the state has required local communities plan for allocated amounts of housing at a variety of price points, including some amount of affordable homes, to meet needs of the future. More recently the legislature has given the process more teeth.

The state wants Huntington Beach to adopt zoning that would allow developers to build 13,368 new housing units over the next eight years. Huntington Beach officials have argued the city’s allocation is a disproportionate burden compared to other jurisdictions, such as Marin County.

The state filed a motion on June 22 to dismiss the city’s federal lawsuit, but a judge hasn’t ruled on it yet.

“I don’t see how the court is summarily going to be able to dismiss it,” Gates said. “We await the ruling, but I think the motion to dismiss is not going to be granted, at least not in whole.”

The state filed a motion on Oct. 30 asking the court to make a decision on whether the lawsuit would be dismissed or not. The state argued the court had 120 days to rule on the motion to dismiss.

Huntington Beach refused to join in on the request with the state for the judge to make a decision. State officials and attorneys for Huntington Beach differed in opinion on when the 120-day clock started for the judge to make a decision.

Deputy Attorney General Matthew Struhar said both sides needed to make the joint request, and state officials ended up filing without getting signatures from Huntington Beach attorneys.

The state also took issue with the city’s request to depose Gov. Gavin Newsom and other top state officials at City Hall.

Uncategorized

Groups team up to combat fast-rising PG&E electric and gas bills

By George Avalos : mercurynews – excerpt (audio track)

Coalition emerges even as state regulators prep OK for higher PG&E PG&E transmission towers in Solano County, near Rio Vista, 2019.

OAKLAND — Consumer groups, politicians, labor unions and advocacy organizations have teamed up to try to combat fast-rising increases in PG&E monthly bills and demand more accountability from the utility behemoth.

FAIR California, as the diverse coalition is called, has banded together just ahead of a vote by state regulators Thursday that’s expected to bestow on PG&E the power to shove monthly power bills higher — once again — starting in January.

“We have to create a sufficiently substantial counterweight to the massive political power of PG&E, its investors and its political allies,” Sam Liccardo, San Jose’s former mayor, and one of the principal leaders of FAIR California, said in an interview with this news organization.

For decades, The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, has waged a fight nearly single-handedly to oppose rising utility bills delivered by California’s three major utilities, PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Now, yet another vote looms at the state Public Utilities Commission that is poised to hand over authorization to PG&E to impose a fresh round of higher monthly bills.

“We need to stop the sky being the limit for PG&E requests for rate increases, and the sky being the limit to how much the CPUC can approve,” said Mark Toney, TURN’s executive director.

The opposition to PG&E’s rising electric and gas costs has emerged at a time when PG&E monthly bills have soared skyward at a far faster pace even than the brutally high inflation rate in the Bay Area.

“What we need is legislation that caps annual rate increases to no more than the cost of living allowance received each year by people on Social Security,” Toney said. “Make PG&E live within a budget like its customers have to.”..(more)

Uncategorized

These are California’s mega-landowners and maps of what they control

By Christian Leonard and Emma Stiefel : sfchronicle – excerpt

Who are California’s biggest landowners?

According to a Chronicle analysis relying on 13.2 million property records obtained from property data company Regrid, the state’s seven largest owners of private land share something in common: All are in the forestry or agriculture industries, ranging from long-standing logging companies to a nut tycoon.

Regrid’s property numbers, which the company calculates based on county parcel data, are from 2022, meaning they don’t reflect recent acquisitions or sales some of the businesses below have made. They’re also conservative estimates, and while the Chronicle attempted to group companies with their affiliates and subsidiaries where possible, parcels of less than 1,000 acres were not included in that grouping.

Below are descriptions of each of these mega-landowners and maps of what they control. You can learn more about who owns any property in California by exploring our map of all 13.2 million properties here…(more)

Anybody who is concerned about the landowning lumber and agricultural interests in California shlould read this article.

Uncategorized

How’s San Jose’s mayor performing? New data shows figures on public safety, homelessness

By Gabreil Greschler : mercurynews – excerpt (includes audio track)

City is doing well on keeping homeless off the street — but continues to face challenges with backlog of blight cases

As San Jose nears one year into Mayor Matt Mahan’s tenure — are his major campaign promises going anywhere?

A new trove of data focused specifically on public safety, blight, homelessness and economic development shows improvements in some areas and setbacks in others as Mahan prepares to run for re-election in 2024 with no opposition thus far.

The figures show the city making incremental progress on keeping homeless residents off the streets, the speed of housing permit reviews and the city’s downtown activity rate according to cell phone data. But the city is also facing problems with its enormous backlog of code enforcement cases and housing production.

“I would like us to at least once a quarter have a very focused and structured conversation that is rooted in performance data,” said Mahan to reporters on Tuesday. “Where we are actually objectively looking at how the things we’ve funded are doing. Right now we do that every 12 months. But it is overwhelming, it is in the context of a budget.”

Here are some key takeaways from the data…(more)

Uncategorized

S.F. struggles are causing ‘weak demand’ and rent concessions, apartment landlords say

By Roland Li : sfchronicle – excerpt

Some of San Francisco’s largest apartment owners are in agreement: The city is still struggling from a pandemic hangover that is dampening pricing, and free rent concessions are widespread.

AvalonBay, which owns 12,133 Bay Area apartments, saw demand soften in the past month, in part because of continued remote work.

“San Francisco — just to pick on it since everyone seems to like to lately — there’s a number of different headwinds there as I think we’re all well aware of,” said Sean Breslin, AvalonBay’s chief operating officer, on an earnings call last week. “Probably not the best time of the year to be seeing some elevated demand there — it’s just not the case. And there’s not really a great reason for people to be coming back to the office at this point still…(more)

You may concllude that the demand is down, but, I can think of over a dozen reasons why people are not moving. Rents are only one of those reasons. People are picky about where and how they live. Just because the Sacramento politiicans want to force cities to build tiny units in towers, without parking, opening windows, sun or view, does not mean that people will live in them. When there are over 40K (we have heard as high as 60K) unoccupied units in the city that no one is clamoring to move into, it hardly makes since to build more of those unpopular units, but, our state representatives think they are smarer than we are, so they will continue to build their idea of the city we should live in until we vote for new leaders to correct their mistakes. Perhaps the landlords should stop labeling communities as a “class A or B”. It sounds a bit like a caste system and no one wants that in America do they?

CEQA, Housing, Politics

Mission ‘group housing’ moves forward, likely to cut some affordable homes

By ANNIKA HOM : missionlocal – excerpt

It could be one of the first projects to utilize a
dial-back of inclusionary units

The long game may just be starting to pan out for the developer brothers Chris and Brian Elsey.

After four years, a 149-unit group housing project at 401 South Van Ness Ave. near 15th Street moved one step closer to development on Thursday, when the Planning Commission unanimously approved a special permit the project needed.

The four-year process, however, also means the project can incidentally abandon its previous 25 percent affordability requirement and slash it to just over 15 percent, thanks to city legislation that took effect approximately two weeks ago…(more)

People are looking for proof that the state developer bills are decreasing affordable housing in the state and this is one of the first projects to take advantage of those bills. This is also proof that there is no incentive to build on these lots since the longer they wait, the better the deal gets for the owners. They started with a 20% affordable, now they are down to ten. If they wait another year, the incentives to build any will diminish along with the fees to pay for the infrastructure. Those are shifting from developers to the taxpayers. Say goodbye to your city or wait to be screwed by the state.

CEQA, Politics

Once it was hailed as a drought fix — but now California’s moving to restrict synthetic turf over health concerns

By Shreya  Agrawal  : Calmatters – excerpt (includes audio track)

IN SUMMARY: California cities can ban synthetic turf under a law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed. He rejected a bill to ban PFAS in fake lawns.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last week passed on a chance to limit the use of the so-called “forever chemicals” in legions of plastic products when he vetoed a bill that would have banned them in synthetic lawns.

His veto of an environmental bill that overwhelmingly passed the Legislature underscores California’s convoluted guidance on the plastic turf that some homeowners, schools and businesses use in place of grass in a state accustomed to drought.

Less than a decade ago then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law prohibiting cities and counties from banning synthetic grass. At the time, the state was in the middle of a crippling drought and fake lawns were thought to be helpful in saving water…(more)

Housing

How Long It Really Takes to Get a Building Permit in San Francisco — and Why

By Adam Brinklow : thefrisc – excerpt

Whether you’re swapping windows or putting up new homes, SF’s red tape is notorious. Those in charge say relief is finally coming.

It’s a simple project,” says John McDowell, a permit expediter who helps would-be builders untangle San Francisco’s legendary red tape. His current clients, who own an early 20th-century, mixed-use building on Market Street, want to replace wood windows with more durable materials that he swears will look “exactly the same.”

McDowell says SF’s planning commissioners, who must approve the swap, won’t be able to tell the difference, let alone someone walking by on the street. The windows “are on the second floor, even,” he adds. He wouldn’t disclose the specific address…

Plenty of people with experience developing in San Francisco — be they architects, engineers, developers, permitting experts, and property owners large and small — have a horror story to share, perhaps more than one…

Mayor London Breed, some supervisors, and the Planning Commission are pushing for reform — and surprise, so are the very city bodies whose practices are under the microscope. In interviews and recent public meetings, staffers at both the Planning Department and Department of Building Inspection say they’re eager to speed up the way things work…(more)

Housing, Politics

San Jose Says Its ‘Tiny Homes’ Are Reducing Homelessness. More Are on the Way

By Calmatters :sfstandard – excerpt

It was the bathrooms that convinced Darlene Pizarro to accept an offer of shelter at a lot of “tiny homes” in San Jose last month…

“Tiny home” describes a specific type of housing more permanent than a tent or disaster shelter, but less than a single-family home, townhouse, apartment or something else thought of as permanent housing. The structures—smaller than 400 square feet, often lacking either a kitchen or private bathroom—have become increasingly common in California’s response to homelessness over the past five years, though opinions are split on how much to rely on them in years to come.

Pizarro’s unit boasts all the fixings of what homeless advocates say are best practices for temporary housing: Individualized case management allowing residents to stay as long as they need to get permanent housing

  • Laundry and kitchen facilities
  • The privacy of individual rooms that lock, with personal bathrooms
  • Other elements that emphasize residents’ dignity, like dog runs and weekly community events

Tiny homes are sometimes called modular homes or, in the case of San Jose, “emergency interim housing.” The city is all in, operating more than 600 such beds across six sites and building more. Mayor Matt Mahan credits them with a recent 10% decline in the city’s unsheltered population and notes that of the 1,500 people the city has sheltered in its tiny home sites, 48% moved to permanent housing. That’s compared to an average rate of 34% across Santa Clara County’s shelters over the past three years…

RELATED: Building Tiny Homes a Gigantic Task in Broken San Francisco…

A sense of privacy

Also making the sites attractive are a host of modular housing companies springing up to offer tiny homes that are more livable.

Compared to flimsier and less fireproof prior models that evoked disaster zones, many tiny homes now include double-pane windows that can open, individual thermostats and doorbells. In San Jose, one site where the city broke ground this year will include some tiny homes that have private kitchenettes.

Though not all cities use them, many companies build modular units with en suite bathrooms, which residents say provide significantly more privacy and dignity…(more)