Bay Area Land News - December 5, 2019
US / California / Bay Area News
Residents increasingly unhappy with Bay Area life, new poll finds
The Mercury News
A growing percentage of Bay Area residents are worried about the future of the region, citing housing and traffic woes among their main concerns. In a five-county poll released Wednesday, 67% of respondents said they are “unhappy or worried about changes happening in the Bay Area,” up 10% from 2016. And 53% said they felt things in the region “have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track,” up from 45% three years ago. The poll, funded by the San Francisco Foundation, highlights the downsides of living in one of the country’s most beautiful and sought-after locales and the threat the festering issues of housing affordability, homelessness and traffic congestion pose to the region’s future.
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Why the Bay Area retains the title of nation's top office market
Silicon Valley Business Times
The Bay Area’s core office market retained its spot as the nation’s strongest office market with the lowest vacancy and highest rents. A third quarter report from Colliers International comparing 10 office markets around the country found that the Bay Area’s vacancy rate of 5.4% and average asking rent of $86.22 put it ahead of its closest rivals: Manhattan at 5.5% vacancy and $80.27 per square foot average asking rent and Seattle at 6.3% and $42.87. The Bay Area has had the lowest vacancy on Colliers' list for more than three years now.
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Amidst Explosion of Homelessness, Rental Affordability Headed for 2020 Ballot
BusinessWire
On Thursday, December 5, 2019, a coalition of California renters advocates, elected officials, and social justice organizations will host a trio of press conferences and rallies across the state, at various times and locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, to announce and celebrate the submission of nearly one million signatures—far more than enough needed—to qualify the Rental Affordability Act for placement on statewide ballots for November 2020. The initiative will allow for the expansion of rent control in California. Signatures of 623,212 California voters are needed to qualify the measure.
Trump administration holding up California homeless efforts, Newsom charges
San Francisco Chronicle
Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the Trump administration Wednesday of intentionally withholding key data on California’s homeless population, preventing the state from addressing a surging crisis. Newsom said his administration would begin accepting applications for nearly $500 million in state funding set aside for local programs to fight homelessness, even though the federal government has yet to release the final point-in-time homeless counts that are typically used to determine how that money is distributed.
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Federal court says California OK in forcing shifts to district elections
San Francisco Chronicle
A federal appeals court rejected a conservative organization’s challenge Wednesday to the California Voting Rights Act, a law that seeks to further minority representation by requiring a substantial number of local governments and public agencies to switch from at-large to district elections. The 2002 law requires local governments, school boards and other agencies that hold at-large elections, drawing candidates from their entire area, to change to districts if a local minority group can show that the system is racially polarized. That requires proof that a majority group has historically voted as a bloc to elect its own candidates or pass race-based ballot measures opposed by minorities.
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Parking lots, once asphalt wasteland, become golden opportunities
Silicon Valley Business Journal
As the lure of urban living pulls more residents from the suburbs, developers are scooping up prime real estate in downtowns across the United States. Soaring property values have created opportunities for owners of an overlooked, underdeveloped asset: the surface parking lot. Sales of such lots have risen nationwide over the past five years, surging to more than 200 transactions in 2016, according to data from CoStar, a commercial real estate agency. That number is more than double the amount in 2006 through 2014, when fewer than 100 surface lots a year were sold. Analysts say the trend is fueled by lot owners looking to cash in on a booming real estate market and developers seeking to build on what are often the choicest sites in town.
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“Gentle” density can save our neighborhoods
Brookings
As communities across the U.S. grapple with worsening housing affordability, there is growing interest in how zoning rules could be relaxed to allow smaller, less expensive homes, as in Minneapolis. Often, the choice is posed as a trade-off between detached homes with big yards or skyscraping apartment towers. In reality, the housing stock in most communities is much more diverse than these two extremes. While high-rise apartments in strategic locations should be part of the solution, many single-family neighborhoods could easily yield more housing—and more affordable housing—if land use rules allowed “gentle” increases in density, such as townhomes, two- to four-family homes, and small-scale apartment or condominium buildings.
Real Estate Thought It Was Invincible in New York. It Wasn’t.
New York Times
This was the year that New York bit back against big real estate. First, a slate of Democratic candidates declared that they would not take money from real estate developers. They swept into state office last fall, displacing incumbents who were friendly to the industry. Then in February, Queens officials, bucking the mayor and governor, scuttled Amazon’s plan to open a huge headquarters there, snubbing the promise of 25,000 jobs. In June, the new Democratic majority in Albany passed historic protections for renters, reversing decades of a Republican-controlled Senate chipping away at these laws. Real estate had for so long seemed invincible. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t.
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San Francisco News
New skyscraper that would be fourth tallest in S.F. up for approval
San Francisco Business Times
Plans for a massive new downtown tower are heading back to the San Francisco Planning Commission this week. Known as the Parcel F tower, the 800-foot, 61-story mixed-use skyscraper is planned on an undeveloped lot at 542-550 Howard St. and has undergone a number of revisions in recent years, including a reduction in the proposed number of units and changes to the exterior design. Developers Hines and Urban Pacific Development are now seeking approvals for additional amendments at the Planning Commission on Thursday. These include zoning changes as well as a conditional use authorization to establish a hotel at the site.
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Plans in works to build 1,700 supportive housing units for formerly homeless
San Francisco Examiner
The Mayor’s Office of Housing has a plan to fund the construction of nearly 1,700 permanent supportive housing units for the formerly homeless, with most of them set to be finished by July 2024. The schedule for the projects, some of which have been completed and some of which have projected completion dates through July 2024 and beyond, was presented Monday to the Local Homeless Coordinating Board.
Transbay transit center needs sexier name to finish Phase 2, experts say
San Francisco Chronicle
The spiffy new Transbay transit center will have to add Caltrain and high-speed-rail service to become more than a $2.2 billion bus terminal, but transportation officials believe new leadership is needed — along with a sexy new name and image — to win funding and complete construction of the San Francisco transit hub’s second phase. A collection of agencies is scrambling to put together an agreement that will help reboot what’s now referred to as the Caltrain downtown extension, or DTX for short. They’re hoping to complete the process and start the rebranding process early next year, if not sooner.
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Homeless swept from Polk Street alley despite lack of shelter beds
San Francisco Examiner
On one of the first rainy days of the fall season, San Francisco police and officials on Wednesday cleared out a homeless encampment of more than two dozen people living off Polk Street. And despite the bad weather, advocates and homeless residents said The City failed to offer enough shelter beds for those being displaced from the alley between Polk Street and Van Ness Avenue.
South Bay News
Google Buys Three San Jose Office Buildings from Cisco for $123MM
The Registry
Google’s investment in the South Bay city of San Jose continues to surge, with the tech giant seeming to snap up any available property for its rapidly growing workforce. In a transaction that closed yesterday, Google has agreed to buy three office buildings along W. Tasman Drive from San Jose-based Cisco Systems, The Mercury News has reported. Google acquired the three buildings for $123 million, and according to public documents, Google’s plans to buy a fourth building from Cisco are already in the works.
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Here's the point City Council debated when it put property transfer tax on the ballot
Silicon Valley Business Times
San Jose voters will decide in March whether to impose a property transfer tax on deals worth $2 million or more. The City Council approved putting the measure on the March 3, 2020 presidential primary ballot as a way to fund more affordable housing, although the measure won’t restrict use of the money, estimated to be between $22 million and $73 million a year.
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Could LA-Las Vegas market delay Silicon Valley's connection to high-speed rail?
Silicon Valley Business Times
Movement among some Southern California legislators to redirect the state’s high-speed rail construction funds away from the Central Valley line now under construction to Los Angeles-area rail projects has found support from at least one member of the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s board. If successful, such a redirection could reverse plans in place since 2016 to make a Central Valley-Silicon Valley connection the project’s first link to a major metropolitan region and significantly delay its arrival into San Jose’s Diridon Station. But funding opportunities for a Los Angeles link to the Central Valley may emerge first.
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San Jose OK’s 20-story downtown Museum Place office tower, Tech expansion
East Bay Times
A 20-story office tower designed to hold up 4,600 tech workers, accommodate a substantial expansion of the Tech Interactive and help transform San Jose’s downtown landscape has passed a major hurdle. The San Jose City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved plans submitted by the Museum Place Owner — a group led by realty entrepreneur Gary Dillabough — to build a 20-story office high-rise “designed to attract a tech tenant” on one of San Jose’s most sought-after downtown properties, according to a city staff report.
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Old complexities of how trains should reach new Diridon stymie City Council
Silicon Valley Business Times
The major passenger railroads that serve San Jose’s Diridon Station — or plan to — have talked individually about the complexity of getting to and through the Diridon of the future, envisioned as the West Coast’s greatest transportation hub surrounded by a downtown reimagined by Google. Now they have the concurrence of a European design partnership with considerable experience in planning this kind of station, which is routine on that continent. And rather than accept all its preliminary recommendations so far, the City Council decided Tuesday to further study how tracks from the north and south get to Diridon at a public study session in January before deciding.
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San Jose OK’s 20-story downtown Museum Place office tower, Tech expansion
East Bay Times
A 20-story office tower designed to hold up 4,600 tech workers, accommodate a substantial expansion of the Tech Interactive and help transform San Jose’s downtown landscape has passed a major hurdle. The San Jose City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved plans submitted by the Museum Place Owner — a group led by realty entrepreneur Gary Dillabough — to build a 20-story office high-rise “designed to attract a tech tenant” on one of San Jose’s most sought-after downtown properties, according to a city staff report.
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Peninsula News
Menlo Park's office space growth exceeds that of similar small cities in state
The Almanac
Menlo Park ranks fifth among small California cities for the amount of office space constructed over the last five years, according to a new report by the commercial real estate website commercialcafe.com, which used data from Yardi Matrix, a commercial real estate research and data platform. But juxtapose that growth with the city's actual population and a stark picture emerges as to just how much developed space in the city is devoted to housing offices per capita.
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Senate president sounds off on San Mateo housing ruling
The Daily Journal
As an advocacy group prepares to challenge a judge’s ruling that the San Mateo City Council did not violate the Housing Accountability Act when it denied a proposal to build a 10-unit condominium building last year, the issue on Wednesday garnered the attention of the state Senate president pro tempore, who criticized the exemptions for charter cities from a critical component of the state’s housing laws. In a statement, state Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, described Judge George Miram’s Nov. 7 ruling as disappointing and underscored the state’s role in providing more than $1 billion to local governments in the past two years to streamline procedures, update planning documents and provide infrastructure financing to accompany new housing.
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Foster City picks new mayor and vice mayor
The Daily Journal
The Foster City Council Monday selected Catherine Mahanpour to be mayor and Sanjay Gehani to be vice mayor through 2020. Mahanpour was unanimously voted in while Gehani received a 3-2 vote for his new seat, with Councilman Herb Perez and Councilwoman Richa Awasthi in opposition. Perez initially nominated Awasthi to be vice mayor, but the proposal was voted down.
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Unique affordable housing deal perplexes Burlingame
The Daily Journal
Intrigued by a unique opportunity but wary to wade into uncharted waters, officials cautiously neared a creative offer framed as a chance to enhance Burlingame’s affordable housing stock. Members of the City Council showed interest in joining a joint powers authority attempting to purchase an unidentified Burlingame apartment building, which if acquired, would be reserved for workforce housing.
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Redwood City to address RVs
The Daily Journal
As the number of RVs being used as homes and concerns about them seem to be growing in Redwood City, officials will soon consider short- and long-term measures aimed at improving the challenging circumstances. Tensions between those living in vehicles and nearby property owners have intensified in recent months around stretches of Oddstad Drive and Stafford Street in particular. Businesses and homeowners in those areas say there are blocks with as many 10 to 15 parked RVs at a given time, often accompanied by piles of trash.
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Millbrae BART concerns overshadow celebration
The Daily Journal
While transportation administrators, housing advocates, developers and others gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony at the Millbrae BART station, city officials were not feeling very celebratory. Under gloomy skies and over rain-soaked soil, councilmembers poured water on the Wednesday, Dec. 4, event designed to build excitement for construction of a sweeping housing and commercial development at the train station.
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Council to decide tonight on 7-story building
Daily Post
On Dec. 3 the East Palo Alto City Council will decide whether to approve a seven-story building at Donohoe Street and University Avenue, replacing Drew Center Pharmacy. One of the questions facing council is whether to allow the developer, the Sobrato Organization, to build less than the required amount of retail space in the building. Normally, the city would require retail to cover 35% of the ground floor space, which would be about 7,300 square feet. However, Sobrato only wants to build 4,500 square feet of retail. However, the city would pick the tenants for the retail space, but the rent would still go to Sobrato or whomever owns the building in the future.
Menlo Park city attorney announces plans to retire early next year
The Almanac
After a career spanning 41 years with the city of Menlo Park, City Attorney Bill McClure has announced plans to retire sometime in the first quarter of 2020. He had planned to work just through the end of this year, he told The Almanac, but "as the year's gone on, I haven't had time to think or deal with it."
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Ravenswood leadership proposes closing Brentwood, Willow Oaks elementary schools
The Almanac
The Ravenswood City School District has announced which of its five elementary schools have been proposed for closure next fall: Brentwood Academy in East Palo Alto and Willow Oaks Elementary School in Menlo Park. Interim Superintendent Gina Sudaria is recommending that Brentwood students move to Costa?o School in East Palo Alto and Willow Oaks students to Belle Haven Elementary School in Menlo Park. (See a map of the recommended changes here.)
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East Bay News
How Oakland has become a renter's market
San Francisco Business Times
Amid a surge of new housing in Oakland, the city now boasts something that most other Bay Area cities cannot: a renter’s market. A growing number of Oakland landlords are offering one or two months of free rent with the signing of a 12-month or longer lease as they vie to attract tenants, who have their pick of new housing to choose from. Though some in the city have expressed concerns about how much of the new supply is market-rate rather than affordable housing, many observers say the influx is relieving pressure and stabilizing rents across the city’s market. It could ultimately help prevent further displacement of city residents who were being priced out when rents were rising dramatically.
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