Bay Area Land News - December 17, 2019
Just Sayin'
A Note from Tim Tosta
This issue of the Digest will be the last for 2019. We will return to the twice-weekly schedule, beginning in January. We appreciate all the positive feedback we have received from you over the years (I think we are at about year 20 and counting), and hope that you will continue to find benefit from our effort to keep you informed of news and trends concerning Bay Area land use, development, and the environment.
Briefly reporting on a couple of other changes for 2020, our steadfast compiler of the Digest, Joshua Lee, is headed East to attend graduate school in public policy (Yeah!). Elyssa Evans, one of our esteemed paralegals, has taken over Digest duties.
In 2020, I also am stepping back from the full-time practice of law. Although I will continue to develop entitlement strategies for existing and anticipated new clients and advocate for needed public policies to meaningfully respond to our ever changing times, my Job#1 is finding a way to disassemble our San Mateo home of 30 years for a move to Denver in late Summer 2020. The Digest’s new “editor-in-chief,†is my colleague and friend, Frank Petrilli as of January.
This, by no means, is me signing off. But, I am interested in seeing what “Tim 2.0†has to offer!
Our best to you this Holiday Season. See you in 2020!
US / California / Bay Area News
How Wiener’s push to break up PG&E could endanger major California housing bill
San Francisco Chronicle
SACRAMENTO — Tension over the future of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is fracturing support among construction unions for proposed legislation to spur denser housing around public transit and in residential neighborhoods, potentially complicating state Sen. Scott Wiener’s efforts to revive the measure.
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Opinion: How Congress can help solve California’s housing crisis
East Bay Times
Californians are increasingly faced with housing insecurity as 47 percent of our state’s voters say they cannot find an affordable place to live, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll. Clearly, the lack of an affordable housing supply is one of the root causes of high housing costs in California. Congress can alleviate this crisis by providing more federal tax credits for more affordable housing. California is acutely affected by high housing costs. For every 100 very low-income households making 50 percent of area median income or less, only 31 homes are affordable and available. Nearly a third of renters in my congressional district on the Central Coast, approximately 31,000 households, spend more than half of their income on housing and utilities. Teachers, farmworkers, childcare workers, and emergency responders working a 40-hour week are unable to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Salinas. Those supporting our communities struggle to afford living in them.
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California regulators clear way for natural gas bans to take effect
San Francisco Chronicle
The California Energy Commission cleared the way Wednesday for six local governments to limit the use of natural gas in many new buildings. The policies, which encourage the installation of all-electric appliances, are scheduled to take effect in January.
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Walters: Prop. 13 change may make ballot, but not other tax measure
The Mercury News
Proposition 13, California’s iconic property tax limit, was overwhelmingly approved by California voters 41 years ago and for at least 40 of those years, efforts have been mounted to repeal or change it. Initially, it was attacked in the courts, but survived. Thereafter, pro-spending interest groups — public employee unions, particularly — floated various proposals in the Legislature and via ballot measure, to loosen its restrictions.
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California needs more housing, but 97% of cities and counties are failing to issue enough RHNA permits
The Mercury News
Neighborhood leaders gathered in Long Beach in the spring of 2017 to discuss a City Hall plan to address the city’s housing shortage. What they learned sparked a revolt. To increase the housing supply and stem skyrocketing residential costs, planners proposed multi-story apartment buildings line major streets and boulevards throughout the city, including its affluent, mainly suburban east side.
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Expect Continued Economic Growth, Slower Real Estate Price Gains and Small Chance for Recession in 2020, According to Group of Top Economists
MarketWatch
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of top economists arrived at a consensus 2020 economic and real estate forecast today at the National Association of Realtors [?] ' first-ever Real Estate Forecast Summit. The economists who gathered at NAR's Washington, D.C. headquarters expect the U.S. economy to continue expanding next year while projecting real estate prices will rise and reiterating that a recession remains unlikely. These economists predicted a 29% probability of a recession in 2020 with forecasted Gross Domestic Product growth of 2.0% in 2020 and 1.9% in 2021. The group expects an annual unemployment rate of 3.7% next year with a small rise to 3.9% in 2021.
Bloomberg Brings California a Housing Plan in First Visit
Bloomberg
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday used his first presidential campaign visit to the make-or-break state of California to offer his plan to address the problems of poverty and housing affordability plaguing the Golden State. Bloomberg is skipping the four initial nominating contests in February and focusing on California, Texas, North Carolina and the other delegate-rich states voting March 3 on Super Tuesday and beyond. California alone offers 495 delegates to the nominating convention next summer, a little over 10% of the total.
The Bay Area’s 10 most important buildings of the past decade
Curbed
Ten years is a fair length of time to witness a landscape evolve, and here in the Bay Area, land of innovation and limited space, that transformation comes with no small amount of friction. Growing pains, citified. With tech really coming into its own over the last decade, we’ve seen the industry forge a new Dickensian existence for the region: The decade has been the best and worst of times. A company’s horizon-defining skyscraper ascend into the stratosphere over San Francisco, and residential high-rises sprout up to solve the need for more (luxury) housing amid maxed-out urban density. We’ve observed artists fleeing the city limits unable to afford the lavish cost of living, at the same time the arts have been strongly advocated for with edgy new structures. Down in the Silicon Valley, tech campuses have become more extravagant in direct proportion to their steady slip from Bay Area reality, the heaviest constant of which is the homeless epidemic. Good thing there’s been a game-changing solution for that, too, NIMBYs be damned.
Getting a granny flat loan in California is easy peasy
The Mercury News
From Freddie Mac’s weekly survey: The 30-year fixed-rate averaged 3.73%, up 5 basis points from last week. The 15-year fixed-rate averaged 3.19%, also up 5 basis points. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 3.8% increase in loan application volume from the previous week.
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The last decade in real estate, and a peek into the next one
TechCrunch
As we barrel towards the start of a new decade, it’s amazing to think about the ongoing transformation within real estate. In the U.S., housing’s contribution to our GDP is ~15-18% spread across residential transactions, construction and housing services (i.e. rent, utilities, insurance, etc.) For the average homeowner, their primary residence is the biggest component of their net worth. And for employers, affordable housing programs can increase employee retention, productivity and success on the job. Apple, Google and Facebook have all launched different programs focused on addressing the high cost of living, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Boise Set Out to Become the Next Austin or Seattle. Instead, It's On Track to Become the Next Silicon Valley
Inc.
Idaho's capital city has long been a hip and attractive place, given its rich music scene and proximity to nature. But it has routinely been ignored in favor of its cooler, and bigger, regional siblings, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Today, though, Boise is luring talent from those northwestern giants and other costly coastal competitors, attracting entrepreneurs with a newly thriving business scene and a good quality of life. "Now there's a group of [business leaders] who are doing cool things and cele-brating one another," says Nick Crabbs, co-chair of Boise Startup Week and partner at Boise-based software and digital product development firm Vynyl. "That's the seed of change." Boise is making its debut on Inc.'s list of Surge Cities, a ranking of the best American hubs to start a business, at No. 5--a notch above San Francisco. Call it one of those overnight successes that was years in the making.
Washington state Supreme Court's decision to strip landlords of right to choose tenants highlights safety concerns
Fox Business
The Washington state Supreme Court in recent years has effectively blocked Seattle's landlords from choosing their tenants as part of the city's Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda. Most recently, the Supreme Court passed the city's "First-in-Time" (FIT) ordinance in November, which requires landlords to approve the first qualified tenant who applies for a property. FOX News correspondent Dan Springer said tenant groups say the FIT law will "level the playing field and wipe out property owners bias in the rental market" while landlords say the law "violates their century-old right to lease to the tenant of their choice."
Local land use policies should increase affordable housing options for seniors
The Hill
In the next decade one in five Americans will be over the age of 65, ushering in what some call the silver tsunami, the largest population of seniors in U.S. history. This rise in our elderly population will bring with it a host of new challenges and opportunities. However, a recent report by the Milken Institute titled Age Forward Cities for 2030 says that although cities are “ground zero†for this demographic shift — as eight in 10 seniors live in cities — they are ill prepared for these changes. The report underscores the need to make our cities more age friendly with a greater sense of urgency, especially as it relates to housing.
Seattle City Council committee moves regional homelessness authority deal forward, but demands later changes
The Seattle Times
Seattle City Council members moved forward a controversial regional homelessness authority deal Thursday, but also demanded changes of their own. A full vote of the council on the deal is expected Monday. Work on the regional homelessness authority began more than a year ago after consultants faulted the city and county’s fragmented homeless-services system for failing to reduce homelessness. But when the deal reached the Regional Policy Committee, a group of elected officials from across King County, lawmakers amended the structure of the authority to give more power to suburban cities and more control to politicians over budgets and policies. Critics worried that these changes would stifle the authority’s ability to carry out policies without meddling from the center-right side of the political spectrum. As a result, it looked like the regional homelessness authority might not make it through the Seattle City Council this year after all.
Opinion: Hunger is a hidden consequence of housing crisis
The Mercury News
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is opening another salvo in his administration's efforts to address the city's housing affordability crisis by proposing the so-called "Complete Communities Housing Solutions Initiative," a scheme that looks beyond simply building new housing to embrace holistic urban development. The proposal was endorsed unanimously by the San Diego City Council's Land Use and Housing Committee last week, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The proposal presents an effort to refocus certain key elements of the city's zoning code to incentivize the development of smaller units, including one-bedroom and studio homes, and by allowing housing developers to offer community amenities that are decoupled from auto-oriented uses.
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Solar power required for all new California homes starting Jan. 1
The Mercury News
California already generates more electricity from solar power than any other state. But now a dramatic expansion is about to begin as new building codes take effect Jan. 1 requiring all newly constructed homes statewide to be powered by the sun.
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Seattle’s Real Estate Market Is Booming, but That Growth Poses Major Challenges for the City
Seattle Business
Seattle’s real estate market is experience unprecedented growth driven by an explosive tech sector, but the city also is facing significant challenges due to the fallout from that growth ― including labor shortages, income disparity and housing-affordability issues ― that must be addressed with vision if the benefits of economic expansion are to be shared equitably.
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The world's first 3D-printed neighborhood is being built in Mexico for families living on $3 a day
Gwinnett Daily Post
A giant 3D printer built two houses in an impoverished, rural part of Mexico last week, breaking ground on what will be the first 3D-printed neighborhood in the world. The houses aren't just a prototype. Developers hope to build 50 new houses by the end of 2020, replacing the structures that residents built themselves out of wood, metal and whatever materials they could afford. The families live in a seismic zone that's prone to flooding in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. Building something that will withstand an earthquake and keep them dry during heavy rains was a key consideration when it came to the design.
U.S. Supreme Court ruling protects right of homeless to sleep outside
San Francisco Chronicle
Homeless advocates won a major victory Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to leave in place a landmark ruling preventing cities from rousting people from street camps unless they offer them shelter or housing. But they’d really already won more than a year ago. Cities and counties throughout the West had been following the dictate limiting street sweeps since September 2018, when the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a decade-old lawsuit filed by homeless people in Boise, Idaho, against anti-camping ordinances there. The Supreme Court’s refusal to take up an appeal of that case now simply confirms it as the law in the nine Western states, including California, that the Ninth Circuit covers.
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California desperately needs more affordable housing. Is more coming in 2020?
HousingWire
Affordable housing is definitely a buzzword in California these days. Throughout the course of this year, Apple, Google, Facebook and even Airbnb invested in affordable housing in California, to name a few. It’s also been a strong topic of discussion in the presidential race. Beyond that, in October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that caps annual rent increases to 5% plus inflation, effective in January 2020. But will these steps have the desired effect of increasing affordable housing options in California? To find an answer, HousingWire sat down with Kristina Lawson, a partner at California law firm Hanson Bridgett, who specializes in complex entitlement, land use, and environmental and municipal matters.
Where are the thousands of empty homes returning to rental market like B.C. politicians promised?
Vancouver Courier
Following the tragic burning of Notre Dame Cathedral, my column looked at the broader topic of heritage restoration. After federal rebates were announced for electric vehicles, my column explored the benefits and challenges of owning one. Another column reported on Ozzie Jurock’s unique brand of real estate advice and life philosophy. In the year’s first column, I wrote that I did not expect any significant increase in house prices, especially for single-family properties. Nor was I expecting a major crash in prices. I predicted that while the so-called speculation, empty home and new school taxes would cost some homeowners more, housing affordability would remain a serious problem for Vancouver buyers and renters. Sadly, I was right.
San Francisco News
SF to open first site for homeless living out of vehicles. Is it enough?
San Francisco Chronicle
More than 1,700 people like Santos live out of their vehicles in San Francisco, and that population spiked 45% over the last two years. In response, city officials cleared a parking lot near the Balboa Park BART Station where they will allow up to 30 vehicles to park for 90 days beginning this week or early next. The lot is being dubbed a “Vehicle Triage Center,†where people will have daily access to case managers, portable toilets and a portable shower three times a week. While city officials hail it as a productive first step toward addressing vehicular homelessness, others see it as an inadequate response to the crisis and a veiled attempt to clear RVs from residential neighborhoods.
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SF loses Oracle’s huge OpenWorld tech conference to Las Vegas
San Francisco Chronicle
Oracle is relocating its major OpenWorld conference, one of San Francisco’s biggest annual tech events, to Las Vegas next year. The move has prompted concern over whether the city, facing soaring hotel costs and homelessness, open drug use and incidents of violence on the streets that alarm visitors, can hold onto the big-business events that have long been a mainstay of its tourism and travel industries.
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Brookfield crafts largest mass timber office building on the West Coast in S.F.
San Francisco Business Times
San Francisco could soon be home to the biggest office building made of wood on the West Coast. Brookfield Properties plans to use mass timber to construct a 310,000-square-foot, six-story building at the corner of 20th and Maryland streets in Pier 70, a $3.5 billion mega project along the city's southern waterfront. Mass timber is a type of fortified wood that is used to build taller buildings than conventional wood. Some developers have started using mass timber instead of concrete or steel for high-rises, but use of the material is still rare.
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SF revives fight over controversial state bill that pushes housing near transit
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco officials are poised to oppose for the second time this year a contentious state bill that would allow for denser housing near public transit and job centers. The city’s Government Audit and Oversight Committee voted unanimously Thursday on a largely ceremonial resolution reiterating San Francisco’s objection to SB50, a bill authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. The resolution called for amendments to preserve community input in the planning process and require developers to pay larger concessions.
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Home SF was meant to boost housing along transit. But can it fulfill its promise?
San Francisco Chronicle
Two and a half years ago, San Francisco adopted an aggressive plan to add more housing, including affordable homes, along transit corridors. Under the Home SF program, officials hoped to see 16,000 units completed by 2037. The program lets developers exceed height and density limits in exchange for including more affordable housing in their projects, and the idea was to push more projects in historically development-wary neighborhoods. But the program has been slow to gear up. Not one Home SF project is under construction and just three have been approved.
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Estimated $64M loss as SF's 'poor street conditions,' high costs drive out Oracle's OpenWorld
SF Gate
Oracle's OpenWorld conference, which annually hosts 60,000 guests, will be leaving San Francisco after two decades, reportedly citing "poor street conditions" and high costs as the driving factors in the decision. The news was first reported by CNBC, which acquired an email the San Francisco Travel Association sent to its members on Monday. "Oracle stated that their attendee feedback was that San Francisco hotel rates are too high," read part of the email. "Poor street conditions was another reason why they made this difficult decision." The SFTA said it anticipated OpenWorld would result in 62,000 hotel room nightly bookings in Oct. 2020, Oct. 2021 and Sept. 2022.
Bayview sees loss and change
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco’s oldest black-owned bar, named for the boxing champion who later ran for mayor, had survived for more than six decades in the Bayview. It was a favorite watering hole for blue-collar workers coming off their shifts. Now it’s just one more shuttered business on Third Street, the historic African American neighborhood’s commercial core. Vacant shops and restaurants dot the city, but they are particularly severe along Third, where 1 in 5 storefronts sits empty.
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Giant Ferris wheel to spin in Golden Gate Park to celebrate 150th anniversary
San Francisco Chronicle
A 150-foot-high Ferris wheel — a smaller version of the behemoths in London and Las Vegas — will be spinning round and round in Golden Gate Park, starting next year. The giant wheel will hoist riders aloft in six-passenger cabins for a 12-minute ride that will cost $18 a head, the mayor’s office announced on Thursday. Seniors and kids under 13 pay $12. The ride, being called an “observation wheel,†is among the attractions planned for the park’s 150th anniversary. Plans call for the wheel to be installed at the east end of the Music Concourse and to spin for 11 months, beginning April 4.
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Viewpoint: Why the business community should support change to Prop. M
San Francisco Business Times
In the 33 years since the voters approved Proposition M’s 950,000-square-foot annual limit on city office development approvals, it proved a surprisingly prescient projection of the actual demand for new office space. But technology-driven decentralization and cycles of corporate restructuring have resulted in most of the city’s 20th century corporate economy leaving town or scaling back. Bank of America, Chevron, Bechtel, McKesson and others are now gone. Yet one would hardly notice, because they have been replaced by the Bay Area’s extraordinary new 21st century global tech economy, symbolized dramatically by the Salesforce Tower.
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The San Francisco neighborhoods with the most feces removal requests in 2019
SF Gate
When it comes to spotting feces around San Francisco, certain neighborhoods take a greater hit than others. Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 9, 2019, a total of 28,950 service requests were made to San Francisco 311, the city’s official information site, for human or animal waste removal. A breakdown of that number, which was gathered by DataSF, revealed that the SoMa and Mission neighborhoods had the highest volume of these 311 requests during the 12-month period.
Future SF tower leased by Salesforce spurs fight over shadows
San Francisco Chronicle
The last major planned tower in San Francisco’s Transbay district is caught in a fight over shadows, threatening a major new Salesforce office and funding for affordable housing. The 806-foot proposed skyscraper at 546 Howard St. would be the city’s fourth tallest. Chinatown activists oppose the project, also known as Parcel F, because of shadows it would cast at Willie “Woo Woo†Wong Playground nearly a mile away — despite a city study that found the shadows fell within legal limits. The tower would cast a shadow from around 8 to 8:20 a.m. from November to late January, a study found.
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All eyes on SF’s Embarcadero as Navigation Center opens in hostile territory
San Francisco Chronicle
The curtain rises on the Embarcadero Navigation Center this week. And standing at center stage is Mayor London Breed, who’s staking a lot of her credibility on what is likely to be the most watched homeless center on the West Coast.
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Ronen wants to strengthen tenant protections in buyout law
San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco has seen a drop in Ellis Act and other “no-fault†evictions as rental protections have been fortified locally and at the state level, but tenant advocates say loopholes remain, particularly when landlords offer cash to buy out rent-controlled tenants. On Tuesday, District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen is expected to introduce legislation to close some of those loopholes with changes in the laws governing tenant buyouts, the agreements under which landlords pay renters to vacate their rent-controlled units.
SF voters to consider new limits to office growth as Breed drops counterproposal
San Francisco Chronicle
Mayor London Breed has withdrawn a ballot measure that would have made it easier to build office space in San Francisco. Breed’s move means that a very different measure, to reduce future office development if affordable housing goals aren’t met, will not face the mayor’s counter-proposal on the March ballot.
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‘The city needs to be pushed’: SF supe wants law to open more homeless shelters
San Francisco Chronicle
As San Francisco prepares to open 200 Navigation Center beds on the Embarcadero, Supervisor Matt Haney is trying — again — to force the city to open shelters in every part of the city, even those without large numbers of homeless people. Haney wants to encourage the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to open a Navigation Center within 30 months in every supervisorial district that doesn’t have one. The point of his legislation is to spread homeless services beyond neighborhoods where they are now concentrated — SoMa, the Mission and the Bayview.
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South Bay News
Related Companies founder Stephen Ross goes in search of Silicon Valley’s center
Silicon Valley Business Journal
This isn’t the first time Stephen Ross has eyed Silicon Valley as a potential spot for a grand project. Two decades ago, Ross and the real estate development he founded in 1972 — the Related Companies — were ready to make a big commitment to downtown San Jose. Ross was ready to spend $1 billion to build or redevelop 3.7 million square feet of retail, commercial and residential space involving as many as 12 blocks in downtown. But those plans fell apart and by 2002, Related was out of the Valley. The company said at the time that the post-dot-com-bust economy was a factor. But another was the politics of trying to work with multiple recalcitrant property owners, not to mention the drive by developers to build the mega-project that is Santana Row.
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Santa Clara officials push forward plan to reimagine north side neighborhood
San Jose Spotlight
Santa Clara officials Tuesday night pushed forward a new land use and zoning plan that will help transform an industrial neighborhood of the city into a dense, mixed-use hotspot. The Patrick Henry Drive Specific Plan, which will be studied for its environmental impacts through 2020, encompasses the city’s northernmost neighborhood on the border of Sunnyvale, tucked between Great America Parkway and Mission College Boulevard. City-hired planning consultant MIG Inc. has been studying the area and drawing up a land-use vision since being hired in August 2018. Councilmembers unanimously voted to begin studying the environmental impacts of the proposed specific plan, which would include two options to make way for future projects by private developers.
Affordable homes could sprout after developer’s Bay Area shopping spree
The Mercury News
SUNNYVALE — In an unexpected shopping spree, a big development company has gobbled up a slew of infill sites in California, including several in the Bay Area, that could become affordable housing, apartments, or self-storage projects. Overton Moore Properties has bought 13 California properties, including several in the Bay Area, from AT&T or its predecessor telecommunications companies such as Pacific Bell, according to the developer and county property records. The great majority of the properties are in an array of infill sites. The locations include Oakland, Sunnyvale, San Bruno, South San Francisco, the Los Angeles area, and San Diego, according to Overton Moore, which acted through an affiliate called Infill Land Partners.
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Senior Living Planned for $250M Mixed-Use, Opportunity Zone Development in San Jose
Senior Housing News
A West Coast developer is making senior housing a fundamental component of its $250 million opportunity zone fund, focusing on assisted living and memory care. San Jose, California-based Urban Catalyst submitted plans last month for Delmas @ Downtown West, a $45 million facility in downtown San Jose including 52 assisted living units and 32 memory care units, Urban Catalyst Partner and COO Josh Burroughs told Senior Housing News. Delmas @ Downtown West will be the first community of its kind built in downtown San Jose in 35 years, and will be part of a master planned development centered around the city’s central transit hub, Diridon Station.
Huge new Google tech hubs can create thousands of San Jose jobs
The Mercury News
SAN JOSE — The birth of four Google tech hubs in San Jose could translate into 30,000 new jobs — and perhaps many more, depending on the tech titan’s use of newly bought sites. The most high profile enterprise by Google is the company’s game-changing Downtown West transit village. Google plans a transit-oriented neighborhood of office buildings, shops, restaurants, hotel facilities, entertainment hubs, cultural amenities, homes, and open spaces near the Diridon train station.
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In Santa Clara, a City within a City
Silicon Valley Business Journal
When Gary Gillmor became the first elected mayor in Santa Clara in 1969, he envisioned the city one day becoming a major destination to live and do business. Now, 50 years later, Silicon Valley’s largest-ever private development nears groundbreaking as it aims to fulfill Gillmor’s grand vision of Santa Clara. “That's why I'm really excited about this project: it’s come full circle,†said Lisa Gillmor, Gary Gillmor’s daughter, a fourth-generation Santa Claran and the current mayor of Silicon Valley’s fourth largest city.
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Peninsula News
Creative Burlingame development critiqued by officials
The Daily Journal
Critical Burlingame officials questioned whether a development proposal designed to offer tenants space to live and work accomplished its intended goal. The Burlingame Planning Commission criticized a proposal to redevelop the former Valero gas station property at the corner of California Drive and Floribunda Avenue into a live/work project, according to video of the meeting Monday, Dec. 9. While admiring the intent of the development proposed to spread 26 units across five stories, commissioners encouraged designers to more clearly emphasize the project’s commercial usefulness. No decision was made at the meeting, as the proposal will return before officials for further examination at a later date.
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Facebook wants to build on what may be a former indigenous village
The Almanac
In November 2012, The Almanac published a short news item reporting that construction crews working in Menlo Park had unearthed two human skulls while ripping up concrete. The skulls were later determined to be Native American remains. Where those remains were found, at the former Pacific Biosciences campus at 1005 Hamilton Ave., is exactly where Facebook is proposing to build its Willow Village project. It turns out that those burials are just a small part of what may be an ancient Native American village long buried beneath the earth in the area where Facebook's planned new neighborhood and office campus would be – a project that would include 1.75 million square feet of office space, 1,735 housing units, retail space including a grocery store, and a hotel.
With clock ticking, urgency law to protect Palo Alto renters wins approval
Palo Alto Online
After faltering its prior two attempts, the Palo Alto City Council approved on Monday night an urgency ordinance prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants without just cause. The ordinance, which was proposed in November by council members Tom DuBois and Lydia Kou, was initially scheduled to be adopted on Nov. 18, though the council decided to defer the vote to Dec. 2 because members were under the impression that they would need six votes to pass an urgency ordinance and only five were participating in the discussion (they actually needed five votes as stated in city code).
Traffic woes likely to drive Palo Alto's 2020 priorities
Palo Alto Online
As the Palo Alto City Council sets its eyes on 2020, members are preparing for another year in which the city's transportation problems top their list of official priorities. That's the indication from a survey that council members took in preparation for their annual retreat early next year. And it should come as little surprise to council watchers. Even though the council's guidelines set a three-year limit on priorities, transportation has been a glaring exception. It has appeared on the list, in one form or another, since 2013.
Millbrae has peaceful mayoral rotation
The Daily Journal
With limited pageantry and none of the friction overshadowing previous rotation ceremonies, the Millbrae City Council unanimously selected Reuben Holober to serve as mayor and Ann Schneider as vice mayor.
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Dumbarton station locations being explored
The Daily Journal
As the planning process for a potential Dumbarton rail corridor linking the East Bay to the Peninsula moves forward, engineers are narrowing down possible station locations.
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Officials eye San Mateo housing, office plan
The Daily Journal
Additional housing units and open space as well as improvements on Jasmine Street are among the amenities San Mateo officials suggested the developer proposing a mixed-use development on a stretch of El Camino Real consider including in future plans. Originally submitted earlier this year, the plans to build a mixed-use development just north of San Mateo’s Borel Plaza previously included one five-story building expected to provide 44 apartments and ground-floor office space.
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Woodside council picks Fluet as new mayor
The Almanac
The Woodside Town Council chose council members Ned Fluet and Brian Dombkowski to serve as the new mayor and mayor pro tem, respectively, at its meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 10. Fluet served as mayor pro tem in 2019, his first year on the council, after winning the election for the District 7 seat in November 2018.
37,000 SQFT Downtown Mountain View Office Project Receives Unanimous Approval
The Registry
Mountain View, CA., November 18, 2019 – Today the CM-MV LLC joint venture, which is managed and majority-owned by Marwood, received unanimous approval from the Mountain View City Council to build a 37,000 GSF Class A office project with ground floor retail and three levels of underground parking at 701-727 W. Evelyn Avenue. The property is located in downtown Mountain View at Castro Street and directly across from the Mountain View Caltrain Station.
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As more RVs park on Redwood City streets, council sets aside one-time funds for safe parking
The Mercury News
REDWOOD CITY — As Redwood City residents continue to complain about a surge of RVs parking on city streets, city council members are set to begin discussions over the next month on short and long-term plans for mobile home dwellers. On Monday, council members Diana Reddy and Giselle Hale will present a preliminary budget for a safe parking pilot program, with the goal of bringing forward a more concrete proposal in spring.
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Mountain View: To study turning a downtown street into a pedestrian mall
The Mercury News
MOUNTAIN VIEW — With Caltrain expanding service, the Mountain View City Council voted unanimously this week to study turning a downtown street into a pedestrian mall. Council members selected Denmark-based Gehl Studio from a batch of six other proposals and will pay the firm about $290,000 to come up with concepts for the pedestrian mall on Castro Street.
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World's largest biotech company to move up to BioMed's big South City project
San Francisco Business Times
Amgen Inc. will move more than 600 employees into a nine-story, 240,000-square-foot building in the Gateway of Pacific project in South San Francisco in early 2022, becoming the second major biotech company to secure space in the under-construction BioMed Realty development.
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Menlo Park: Tough construction impacts to test public support of new Guild Theatre
The Almanac
When Menlo Park resident Drew Dunlevie brought forward the idea of a nonprofit live music venue to breathe new life into the old Guild Theatre in early 2018, the widespread excitement about the idea offered a rare example of how near-unanimous public support can expedite an often contentious and slow-moving process. However, it's likely that the abundant public goodwill the project generated will be put to the test over the next two years as demolition and construction work move forward.
Menlo Park: Concept to develop safe parking facility at USGS dropped
The Almanac
After preliminary conversations about creating a safe parking facility at the U.S. Geological Survey parking lot for people living in vehicles, Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller announced on Dec. 11 that he and San Mateo County Supervisor Warren Slocum have decided to drop the idea, determining that it is not feasible. The idea, as Mueller previously explained to The Almanac, was to bring in a nonprofit homeless services provider – like Menlo Park-based LifeMoves – to operate a temporary safe parking site on the vacant parking lots at the USGS headquarters at 345 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park before the property is sold to private developers. The site of the USGS headquarters is in the process of being vacated; the new headquarters will be at the NASA Ames Research Park in Mountain View.
School site will sprout after Mountain View property deal
The Mercury News
MOUNTAIN VIEW — A school district has struck a deal that clears the way for a new school in Mountain View amid huge expansions by Silicon Valley tech titans that are driving the need for more housing and education facilities. Los Altos School District has bought five parcels in Mountain View that total 11.7 acres from stalwart developer Federal Realty, as a prelude to the district’s construction of a new school to meet a widening need to educate children in the area.
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Menlo Park: Overcrowded schools, jobs-housing imbalance top concerns in Facebook’s Willow Village project
The Mercury News
MENLO PARK — With Facebook ready to break ground on its massive mixed-use Willow Village development in the early 2020s, Menlo Park residents and council members on Monday gave final notes on what the scope should be for the project’s environmental impact study. Along with calling for net-zero housing impact and a true study of how the project will impact area schools, council members on Monday also considered dozens of other concerns and proposals from area residents, housing advocates and school officials that were submitted to the city as they moved forward with drafting the state-required Environmental Impact Report.
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Los Altos School District, Federal Realty, Close on $155MM Deal for New School Site in Mountain View
The Registry
The Los Altos School District has officially ended a years-long effort to find a suitable site for a new school. In a transaction that recently closed, LASD has acquired 11.65 acres at the San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View for $155 million. The transaction was unanimously voted for by the LASD Board of Trustees in June of this year, permitting the district to purchase the property from Federal Realty in an effort to build new education facilities and address site sharing and overcrowding at its schools.
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School site will sprout after Mountain View property deal
East Bay Times
MOUNTAIN VIEW — A school district has struck a deal that clears the way for a new school in Mountain View amid huge expansions by Silicon Valley tech titans that are driving the need for more housing and education facilities. Los Altos School District has bought five parcels in Mountain View that total 11.7 acres from stalwart developer Federal Realty, as a prelude to the district’s construction of a new school to meet a widening need to educate children in the area.
East Bay News
Oakland councilwoman wants to put homeless on cruise ship, but port not on board
San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan wants to bring a cruise ship to the city’s port to house up to 1,000 homeless people, an idea officials at the Port of Oakland called “untenable.†At Tuesday’s council meeting, Kaplan told council members she has been contacted by cruise ship companies about providing a ship for emergency housing. Homelessness has spiked in Oakland in the past two years with an increase in the number of unsheltered people from 1,902 to 3,210. “Maybe we can have a way to create a thousand housing units overnight,†Kaplan said.
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New Oakland apartments push rents higher than other Bay Area cities
The Mercury News
Move over San Jose — with an influx of new high-rise apartments, Oakland is now a more expensive city for renters. Oakland one-bedroom rents rose 5.1 percent last year, edging past San Jose in November as the second most expensive Bay Area city behind San Francisco for apartment dwellers, according to real estate listing site Zumper. The median price for a one-bedroom in Oakland climbed to $2,470 a month, and a two-bedroom hit $2,990, topping San Jose metro apartment prices in both categories.
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Development at Berkeley BART stations could usher in 1,700 homes
San Francisco Business Times
City leaders in Berkeley approved a plan to begin planning transit villages around the North Berkeley and Ashby BART stations that could together accommodate up to 1,700 new homes. The move is in response to a recent law, AB 2923, aimed at speeding up and streamlining approval of new housing development on BART-owned land. The law gives BART authority to zone its land surrounding stations for high-density housing. “We are facing a global climate crisis and a housing affordability crisis,†said Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin. “These sites provide an incredible opportunity to create new homes in a transit-rich environment.â€
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‘Can’t touch this’: Fremont council rejects hillside homes proposal
The Mercury News
FREMONT — For the second time in about 30 years, a proposal to build more homes near the scenic Vineyard Hills neighborhood not too far from MC Hammer’s old abode has been shot down. The Fremont City Council on Tuesday rejected a plan by resident Sarbjit Hundal, a local eye doctor, to subdivide his nearly 8-acre parcel at 45089 Cougar Circle, east of Mission Boulevard, into lots where three new homes could be developed. Among those who attended the meeting to oppose the project was resident Ranjit Advani, who along with other neighbors had protested the first multi-house development proposed there three decades ago. He registered his opposition to the latest iteration by displaying one of the T-shirts he and others made back then that read “Can’t Touch This,†a reference to MC Hammer’s hit song, “U Can’t Touch This.â€
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Oakland hasn't built any new affordable housing in 3 years funded by 2016 fee
SFGate
In 2016, Oakland passed a fee on new residential developments that was supposed to raise $65 million over 10 years for affordable housing, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. However, three years later, just under $9 million in fees have been collected — and zero new affordable housing units funded by the fees have broken ground. Some officials estimate that the city should have collected close to $20 million into its impact fee fund by now. So where is all the money? The city recently hired an auditor to investigate.
As one East Bay church builds tiny homes for the homeless, others may follow
East Bay Times
It was a cold, rainy night when Pastor Jake Medcalf saw the desperate, middle-aged man at the door of his church. He was clearly in need of shelter, but all Medcalf could do was give him a blanket and send him on his way. “I remember looking around at the space, and going ‘We have this gym here and this parking lot here, and this is the best we can do?’ †said Medcalf, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Hayward. That was several years ago, but it stuck with Medcalf and sparked him to do more. Now the pastor is installing six tiny homes in the parking lot of his church’s 4-acre property in unincorporated Alameda County, with plans to move homeless residents in by early February.
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Developers dive into downtown Fremont housing boom
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Within a year of submitting a proposal to build 275 apartments in downtown Fremont, Fore Property kicked off construction — an almost unheard of timeline in the Bay Area. The fast turnaround to get the project underway proves that Fremont is serious about revamping its downtown into an urban oasis in suburbia, said Mark Pilarczyk, vice president of Northern California at Fore Property.
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Environmental groups sue Newark over housing near wetlands
The Mercury News
NEWARK — Calling a project to build 469-homes on the edge of Newark’s wetlands “destructive,†two environmentalist groups are suing the city, claiming it violated key state regulations when approving the development plan. The Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge and the Center for Biological Diversity filed the suit Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, asserting that Newark breached the California Environmental Quality Act by “failing to prepare a comprehensive study and mitigate for impacts†from the planned housing development.
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Big deal: Dreyer’s properties in choice Oakland area are scooped up by East Bay developer
The Mercury News
OAKLAND — The meltdown of the Nestle ice cream empire has intensified now that a veteran East Bay developer has scooped up Oakland properties that were owned by Nestle Dreyer’s. The parcels that have been purchased form an irregularly-shaped property that fronts on three busy streets in Oakland’s Rockridge District, a choice shopping and dining neighborhood. The just-bought parcels include the former location of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Parlor, a long-time Rockridge staple whose doors are now closed; several retail sites; two residences; and the Nestle Dreyer’s Cronk Center.
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North Bay News
San Rafael commission OKs 45 condos in Terra Linda
Marin Independent Journal
The San Rafael Planning Commission has approved a plan to build 45 condominiums on a property that borders Highway 101 in Terra Linda. The commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to recommend that the City Council approve the development at 350 Merrydale Road, which is south of the Northgate mall. The complex would include 41 three-story townhouses and four two-story condominiums on the 2.3-acre site. Each of the units would be offered for sale.
City planners endorse Napa Pipe housing, retail project; council to have final say
Napa Valley Register
After years of planning and debate, the blend of housing, stores, parks and waterfront that could become Napa Pipe may be two steps away from final approval and groundbreaking. The mixed-use community in south Napa on the dormant Kaiser Steel industrial property, envisioned to include up to 945 homes, won the city Planning Commission’s endorsement last week. The unanimous support by Napa’s land-use authority leaves its developer Catellus Development Corp. facing a vote by the county Airport Land Use Authority to ensure Napa Pipe’s compatibility with Napa County Airport to the south – followed by a final vote by the City Council that could come as soon as January and allow work to start next year on its first phase, which would include some 300 housing units and the county’s first Costco warehouse store.
Oxford University would anchor major Marin County development with hundreds of new homes
San Francisco Chronicle
The fight over the redevelopment of a former seminary campus on Strawberry Point in Marin County has focused on all the usual sticking points, including traffic and neighborhood character. But lately the dispute has taken on an unusually highbrow accent as word has spread that Oxford University, the prestigious institution that has educated British prime ministers and other world leaders for over 1,000 years, is in negotiations to open a center for advanced study on the property, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations.
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President, The Langford Group LLC
5 å¹´Good luck on Tim 2.0
Legal Assistant at Young, Minney & Corr, LLP
5 年Happy Holidays Tim to you and your Family! We did the big move last year after 25 years in San Ramon. It took about a year to find a place and disassemble our San Ramon home. Best thing we ever did! I’m excited for you in your new venture.