Bay Area Land News - August 27, 2019
US / California / Bay Area News
How a 2020 initiative to split Prop. 13 would increase commercial property taxes
East Bay Times
A proposition on the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot could dramatically increase property taxes for commercial properties. Some say Prop. 13 creates an unfair advantage for certain businesses and a shortfall for state coffers. Under the California Schools and Local Community Funding Act of 2018, commercial properties would be taxed differently than real estate zoned for residential and agricultural uses. Under the plan, certain commercial properties would be re-assessed every three years and taxed at their current market value. The change is projected to generate $6 billion to $10 billion annually, 40% of which is earmarked for schools.
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Caltrans seeks to steamroll bill to include bike lanes, crosswalks in road projects
San Francisco Chronicle
To state Sen. Scott Wiener, the idea seemed simple. The streets aren’t just for cars anymore, so bike lanes and crosswalks should be a fundamental part of their design — as basic as the asphalt on the roadway. But his “Complete Streets” bill, which would require Caltrans to consider these safety elements whenever it starts a road project, has hit resistance from the state transportation agency. In a recent financial analysis, Caltrans estimated that SB127 would cost more than $1 billion a year, or $4.5 million for each mile of blacktop. Caltrans officials said the state may lose its federal highway funds if the bill passes.
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A growing number of groups are flipping the Bay Area’s insane housing market on its head
The Mercury News
In less than a year, a nascent Oakland organization grew from a small staff with some bright ideas and a website into group that is stewarding two properties for permanently affordable housing, with plans to soon acquire a third. How did they do it? By relying on a lot of people, a new model for investment and some innovative partnerships. But in turning a novel concept for developing affordable properties into a reality, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative joined a growing number of organizations in the Bay Area challenging the status quo of the region’s skyrocketing housing costs.
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San Francisco News
Park-topped Transbay transit center pays architectural dividends, past troubles aside
San Francisco Chronicle
Yes, the Transbay transit center opened last August with a $2.16 billion price tag — and then was closed 10 months because of two cracked girders. No, there’s no telling when or whether we’ll see the train extension that’s central to the building’s mission. Neither detail changes the fact that as a work of civic architecture, the three-block-long structure is a spirit-lifting success with its white metal veil and green rooftop park. It’s a visual treat that functions well, the low-slung centerpiece of San Francisco’s new high-rise zone.
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Mission Bay comes of age
San Francisco Chronicle
The opening of the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center next week will mark the flamboyant and unexpected finale of a 40-year exercise in city-building, San Francisco style. The scene is Mission Bay, a 60-block area that begins 1 mile south of Market Street and for a century consisted of rail yards and industrial sheds. The debate about how to revive it at one point included a proposal for lagoons and a canal. Even now, despite the presence of more than 10,000 residents and a UCSF campus, many Bay Area residents know it only — if at all — as the blur of stocky buildings between the Giants’ ballpark and Interstate 280.
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‘Everybody came from somewhere else’
San Francisco Chronicle
As the Warriors’ Chase Center opens in Mission Bay, San Francisco’s newest neighborhood is buzzing with energy. But gaps remain, and traffic is a big concern. Bruce Agid remembers precisely the moment when Mission Bay began to feel like a real San Francisco neighborhood. It was a warm, late-summer evening and the Sunset District native, who moved into a Mission Bay condo in 2009, stopped by the Spark Social food truck park after a meeting.
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HubHaus eviction underscores issues with corporate co-living
San Francisco Chronicle
The seven housemates found out they were all being evicted when someone slipped envelopes under their bedroom doors with 30-day notices inside. They were renting rooms in a big house in San Francisco’s tony Monterey Heights through HubHaus, a venture-backed San Francisco company that facilitates “co-living communities.” It’s among a new breed of startups that run shared-living situations, sometimes dubbed “dorms for grownups.” HubHaus and companies such as Bungalow, Common, Starcity and WeLive say they ease the hassles of living with roommates. Essentially, they seek to corporatize the longtime tradition of bunking with others.
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‘We cannot make a living’: SF cabdrivers’ debts mount amid Uber, Lyft battle
San Francisco Chronicle
Driving a taxi continues to be a rough ride in the age of Uber and Lyft. Many San Francisco cabdrivers say they are mired in debt paying off their $250,000 medallions — permits allowing them to run their own cabs. Almost half of the city’s 1,476 medallion holders want to sell, including about 300 who paid for their medallions and 391 who earned free medallions after years on a waiting list and now are older than 60 or disabled.
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Report: More than 7,000 Condo Units Poised to Break Ground in San Francisco
The Registry
San Francisco condominium product has become increasingly more valuable over the past few years.
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East Bay News
West Oakland apartment project with 1,000 units receives planning permit
San Francisco Chronicle
One of the biggest development projects proposed for West Oakland, a massive transit village, received a planning permit from the city Wednesday. The development of 500 Kirkham St., an empty Caltrans lot, is one step closer to being built. It will include more than 1,000 apartments and 59 parking spaces, as well as space for retail, parks and offices. The development will also include the building of two streets and a 33-story tower.
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South Bay News
Google unveils its vision for downtown San Jose transit village
The Mercury News
Years after it began fueling speculation by buying up huge swaths of property near Diridon Station, Google has provided the first peek at what the search giant hopes will be a vibrant mixed-use community woven into the fabric of the city’s urban heart. At a widely anticipated community meeting Thursday evening, the tech giant unveiled a design for a mile-long stretch of formerly industrial land west of Highway 87 that includes thousands of new homes, offices, public plazas, art, cultural space and at least one hotel. The proposal promises to transform a run-down section of the city and comes as a marked shift from the walled-off corporate tech campuses that have dominated the South Bay for decades.
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City of San Jose Works to Amend Diridon Station Area Plan as Google Submits Plans for 60-Acres of Redevelopment
The Registry
The Diridon Station Area includes more than 240 acres of land adjacent to downtown San Jose.
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Editorial: Keep Google’s downtown San Jose project moving forward
The Mercury News
San Jose residents got their first look Thursday at Google’s plans to transform what has been a run-down area into a vibrant downtown worthy of the 10th largest city in the nation and the capital of Silicon Valley. It’s arguably the most exciting project in San Jose’s 241-year history — a tremendous opportunity to infuse good jobs and needed tax revenues into a city that has the worst jobs-housing ratio of any major U.S. city. But it also comes in the midst of an unprecedented housing and transportation crisis that will force Google and city leaders to navigate some challenging political issues.
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Sam Zell firm grabs big San Jose apartment complex
The Mercury News
The real estate company headed by famed property mogul Sam Zell has bought a big apartment complex in south San Jose in a deal that points to ongoing strength in the Silicon Valley job market and demand for housing in the area. Chicago-based Equity Residential, acting through an affiliate, has bought The Lex apartments, located at 5560 Lexington Ave. and in an increasingly bustling area of south San Jose.
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Milpitas Council approves 40 condos, grants exception for no affordable units
East Bay Times
A new 40-unit condominium complex will be built near the city’s future BART station, but none of the units will be affordable. In approving the project this week, the Milpitas City Council granted a special exemption that allows the developer to skip building any affordable units in the project, as the city code normally requires. The vote was 4-0 in favor, with Mayor Rich Tran absent.
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Peninsula News
High-speed rail officials outline Peninsula visions
The Daily Journal
The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s vision for the corridor between San Jose and San Francisco appears to have the support of Bay Area residents. In June, high-speed rail staff officially announced its preference for what’s known as Alternative A, one of two options for the corridor that does not include passing tracks and places a 100-acre maintenance facility in Brisbane on the east side of the tracks. Ensuing outreach efforts suggest residents along the corridor are largely on board with that plan.
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Seeking to fill ‘missing middle’
The Daily Journal
Redwood City officials want more so-called missing middle housing in the city and are exploring potential zoning amendments to facilitate the development of it. Missing middle housing refers to house-scale buildings with multiple units, including duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, in walkable areas.
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Redwood City tries to stop developers building ‘monster homes’ for maximum profit
The Mercury News
After watching as an increasing number of developers raze starter homes in order to build “monster homes” for maximum profit, Redwood City is trying to protect the city’s landscape and its diverse population. Redwood City Council on Monday night voted unanimously to add an additional step to the city’s permit approval process by requiring that new homes that cover 45 percent of a lot or are a minimum of 3,000 square feet go before the planning commission for review.
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Seeking middle ground on rent control, Mountain View officials find a chasm
Mountain View Voice
Mountain View city leaders could be hurting for allies as they venture down the thorny path of reforming the city's rent control law. In a rare sign of agreement, landlord and tenant advocates each signaled wariness if not outright hostility to the idea of patching up rent control rules, even if it made the law more sustainable in the long term. At its Monday night meeting, a City Council subcommittee winnowed down a list of proposed changes to Mountain View's rental regulations that could eventually go before voters as a ballot measure sometime in 2020.
Stanford is snapping up homes in College Terrace
Palo Alto Online
While residents of Palo Alto's College Terrace neighborhood have for years fretted over Stanford University's purchase of homes on their blocks, new research by a group of media organizations has found that the university's housing portfolio may be larger than even residents have imagined. Stanford University owns at least $1 billion in single-family residences countywide — or 700 homes, according to research by the San Jose Mercury News, NBC Bay Area, KQED, Telemundo, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.
Menlo Park may join Berkeley at front of movement to snuff natural gas out of buildings
East Bay Times
One month after Berkeley became the first city in America to ban natural gas in new buildings, a second Bay Area city is poised to take a similarly ambitious plunge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring cleaner, electric alternatives. Menlo Park on Tuesday will consider phasing out natural gas through a multi-pronged attack: mandating that heating systems in all new homes and buildings must run on electricity, and that all new commercial, office and industrial buildings, as well as high-rise residences, must rely entirely on electricity.
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State mandates loom, but where will housing be built?
The Almanac
Portola Valley has been struggling to increase the number of affordable housing units within the town limits. In an effort to increase the affordable housing stock, the Town Council passed an accessory dwelling unit ordinance in March that allows homeowners to add on to or remodel their homes to permit more residents on their properties.