Bay Area Land News - June 13, 2019
US / California / Bay Area News
The retail crisis is now a landlord crisis
Medium
Mark Pilkington lives on a busy shopping street in London. Each day, as he walks home past this prime urban real estate, he counts about seven or eight ground-floor vacancies. This experience is all too common in growing cities around the world; as we’ve written and talked about before, retail is in crisis.
Why no one has approved a second Bay bridge for 70 years
SF Gate
San Francisco structural engineer Roumen V. Mladjov noted last year in a Chronicle opinion piece that there are 700,000 people per bridge in the Bay Area compared to only 171,000 for New York City.
Lawmaker behind SB 50 makes case for zoning reforms to address state housing crisis
The Almanac
State Sen. Scott Wiener, whose housing legislation Senate Bill 50 has energized housing advocates and galvanized intense opposition from Peninsula's elected leaders, came to Palo Alto on Friday to face some of his critics, push back against the common narrative that the bill represents an attack on local control and assure residents that despite a recent setback, the bill remains on track for passage.
Editorial: Slow the train on $100 billion Bay Area transportation tax
East Bay Times
Two key business groups leading a push for a $100 billion Bay Area transportation tax plan should slow the train before they get too far down the track.
San Francisco News
It’s official: Six challengers aim to unseat SF Mayor London Breed in November
San Francisco Chronicle
Six long-shot candidates in the San Francisco mayor’s race qualified for the November ballot by Tuesday’s deadline and will challenge London Breed, all but assuring she’ll easily win her bid for a full term in office.
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Plan unveiled for San Francisco’s waterfront — includes Ferry Building ‘piazza’
San Francisco Chronicle
Twenty-two years have passed since the Port of San Francisco released its last land use plan, a period that saw large portions of the waterfront revived. But stubborn challenges remain.
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Development on SF’s Yerba Buena Island an early step in Treasure Island project
San Francisco Chronicle
Yerba Buena Island, the rocky outcropping that rises from the bay next to Treasure Island, is home to a Coast Guard station, a marina, 145 species of plants and 21 types of birds.
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Exclusive: Google grabs some of S.F.'s most expensive office space
San Francisco Business times
The potential deal is the latest in Google's rapid expansion near the San Francisco waterfront.
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Starcity Secures Approvals for Two Co-living Communities Totaling 1,073 Units in San Francisco
The Registry
These two “vertical neighborhoods” will be the company’s largest projects to date and represent...
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South Bay News
Here’s one reason it’s good to be a San Jose renter, according to new study
The Mercury News
Want a free month’s rent included in your new lease, or maybe free streaming of your favorite TV shows? Move-in perks like these are becoming a little more common in the San Jose area — a trend that could be a good sign for renters.
New downtown San Jose tower to begin construction this fall
The Mercury News
A new downtown San Jose office tower is expected to begin construction in autumn, marking the beginning of a mega-campus envisioned by developer Jay Paul Co. for the urban core of the Bay Area’s largest city.
800-unit 'co-living' tower blocks from San Pedro Square, future Google campus moves ahead
Silicon Valley Business Journal
When complete, the 18-story "co-living" project in downtown San Jose will be the largest of its kind in the world, according to the developer.
Community groups call on Google to help build 17,000 homes in San Jose
East Bay Times
As Google prepares to build a massive campus in downtown San Jose, community organizations are calling on the tech giant to help build more than 17,000 new homes to offset major rent hikes in the nation’s 10th largest city.
Google's San Jose expansion will drive huge rent increases, advocacy group says
Silicon Valley Business Journal
A report says a $900 million housing investment by Google would be necessary to keep rents on their current trajectory.
Supervisors pony up $5 million to kickstart Santa Clara County farmland preservation effort
The Mercury News
A new initiative to preserve farmland in Santa Clara County will get a modest start, after county supervisors approved spending nearly $5 million to prevent some of it from being sold for development.
Peninsula News
Hundreds of Mountain View Whisman students must change schools this fall
Mountain View Voice
With a new school opening in the Mountain View Whisman District, and a host of changes to school attendance boundaries rolling out, hundreds of students will be saying goodbye to their old campuses and going somewhere new in the upcoming school year.
Opinion: Housing is key to health of community
The Daily Post
Open this newspaper on any day and the human toll of our housing crisis practically jumps from the pages. I recently attended U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier’s May 25 town hall focusing on affordable housing development (mentioned by Jon Mays in his May 17 column). In opening the discussion, Rep. Speier, D-San Mateo, remarked that the housing crisis has become a moral issue for all of us.
Stanford tells Santa Clara County to get real about its housing demands
The Mercury News
In response to Santa Clara County’s conditions on its proposed expansion, Stanford sent a letter Tuesday saying the university is being singled out to provide more housing than other projects while the county itself hasn’t done enough to encourage housing development.
Proposal for RV-parking zones gains momentum in Palo Alto
Palo Alto Online
After failing five years ago, Palo Alto is once again exploring the idea of establishing overnight parking zones for recreational vehicles.
Stanford fires back at county over new housing requirements
Palo Alto Online
Stanford University pushed back this week against Santa Clara County's proposed housing requirements as part of the university's ambitious campus-expansion application by arguing that the university deserves credit for graduate housing already under construction.
Guest opinion: Let's tackle the moral crisis of our time: affordable housing
The Almanac
In 1994, my husband and I put a bid on a house in Ladera. The deal never went through, but one of the shocks of my life came when I read the deed to that house and found an exclusionary racial covenant from the 1950s. The realtor's cover letter said that racially based covenants were no longer legal, but there it sits, a blight on our history, fully searchable by anyone who wants to visit the San Mateo County Records.
Menlo Park: Santa Cruz Avenue shut down Wednesday for downtown block party
The Almanac
Menlo Park's 13th annual downtown block party will be held on Wednesday, June 12, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Santa Cruz Avenue.
Menlo Park council: No moratorium
The Almanac
The Menlo Park City Council on Tuesday backed away from a proposal to enact a citywide moratorium on nonresidential development and a Bayside ban on large housing developments.
The Students Pushing Stanford to Build More Housing
Next City
At the center of the dispute over Stanford’s General Use Permit is a question of how much housing to build. As part of its growth plan, Stanford says it will build 3,150 new housing units, including 500 faculty apartments, by 2035, and contribute $93 million to affordable housing projects in neighboring communities during the same period.
Despite residents ‘dumping ground’ concerns, Menlo Park rejects development moratorium
East Bay Times
Despite pleas from residents to stop rampant development that they say has led to serious safety, health and traffic concerns, Menlo Park City Council has refused to put a halt to future housing and business construction, leaving the way open for a massive Facebook expansion.
Millbrae officials approve BART project design
The Daily Journal
Culminating years of effort, Millbrae officials essentially put their final stamp of approval on the proposed designs of a sweeping mixed-use development set for construction at the train station on BART land.
Caltrain yard sparks outcry
The Daily Journal
Caltrain officials promised to explore alternative locations for a maintenance yard they’re planning to construct in San Mateo’s Hayward Park neighborhood in response to outcry over its proximity to homes.
East Bay News
Oakland council backs state legislation to streamline approvals for A’s waterfront ballpark
San Francisco Chronicle
The Oakland City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to support two state bills essential to the A’s plans to build a new stadium at Howard Terminal at the Port of Oakland.
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