Bay Area Land News - September 10, 2019
US / California / Bay Area News
Deal strengthens bill to cap California rent hikes
The Daily Journal
A deal refining a bill designed to prevent rent gouging drew cheers from the local author as well as advocacy organizations, while other critics stand firmly opposed to the proposal. Lawmakers amended Assembly Bill 1482 to include annual 5% rent caps plus inflation with a 10% maximum increase, lowering a previous 7% threshold, according to a deal announced by state lawmakers.
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California rent cap measure could have limited impact
East Bay Times
A newly-minted rent cap deal would have brought relief last year to relatively few renters in the state, although Bay Area tenants would have benefited more than most, according to a Zillow analysis. The proposed cap — allowing landlords to annually raise rent no more than 5 percent plus the rate of inflation — would have saved money last year for about 12 percent of Bay Area tenants. About 30 percent of renters in two popular destinations for Silicon Valley refugees, Vallejo and Sacramento, would have received a break. Overall, about 7 percent of California renters would have benefited from the measure, according to the estimate released recently.
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Our view: State is about to raise the bar for Bay Area housing
San Francisco Business Journal
It appears now that Gov. Gavin Newsom is serious about adding 3.5 million homes in California over the next seven years.
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Bill to boost California homebuilding headed to Newsom’s desk
The Mercury News
The “Housing Crisis Act of 2019” is heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, seeking to boost homebuilding in “urbanized” zones throughout the state, according to the bill’s author, state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. The bill won final passage Friday, Sept. 6, with business backing but over the objections of the League of California Cities and 56 cities and counties. Newsom has indicated he would sign the measure.
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Bay Area home market, getting looser, is still tight
The Mercury News
Despite falling prices and sluggish sales, Bay Area homebuyers can’t expect to sniff out too many bargains. Name almost any city in the nine-county region — say, San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco or Concord — and it’s where buyers are most likely in the country to pay over list price, waive contingencies, buy quickly and generate a windfall for long-time homeowners, according to a new study from Redfin.
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California’s likely voters: They’re older, richer and whiter
SF Chronicle
California’s voter registration numbers are soaring, but the people most likely to cast ballots remain older, richer, more educated and whiter than the state as a whole. “Despite the gains in registering new voters, we have a long way to go before the likely voters look like California,” said Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, which analyzed the state’s voter demographics in a newly released report.
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San Francisco News
San Francisco planning director retiring after 12 years on the job
San Francisco Business Journal
John Rahaim took the helm of San Francisco's Planning Department as development took a nose dive during the recession but came roaring back during the past decade.
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SF may continue building waterfront homeless shelter, unless opponents prove ‘irreparable harm’
San Francisco Chronicle
Opponents to a 200-bed Navigation Center on the Embarcadero must prove the temporary shelter will cause nearby residents “irreparable harm” if they want the city to halt the construction, a San Francisco Superior Court judge said Monday. Judge Ethan Schulman denied a request by Safe Embarcadero For All — a coalition of residents opposed to the waterfront homeless shelter — to halt the construction. In July, residents filed a lawsuit to fight the shelter. Monday’s hearing was over a restraining order to halt the development from progressing until the lawsuit is resolved.
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SF reverses ruling on illegally demolished house
East Bay Times
San Francisco officials have reversed an order that would have forced a man who illegally demolished a San Francisco house designed by modernist architect Richard Neutra to rebuild the house exactly as it was. The city Planning Commission in December ordered Ross Johnston to rebuild the home and add a sidewalk plaque describing the home’s origins, demolition and replication.
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South Bay News
Big housing development planned near downtown San Jose
The Mercury News
A big housing complex that could include affordable homes is being eyed on an increasingly busy street that links downtown San Jose with the city’s mega-malls to the west, the project’s developer said Thursday. The development, planned for West San Carlos Street in San Jose, would create 230 residential units as well as add ground-floor retail and gathering areas for the neighborhood. Potentially 15 percent of the units would be set aside as affordable homes.
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Why did Cupertino cut office space in its Vallco back-up plan?
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Mayor Steve Scharf denies planning commission chair's reasoning that the city needs leverage in negotiations with Vallco's property owner if the current mixed-use project is blocked in court.
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Cupertino City Council Paves Way for New Mixed-Use, Up to 1,500-Unit Multifamily Development at Vallco Site
The Registry
The Cupertino City Council has paved the way for a new mixed-use, multifamily development at the Vallco Shopping District Special Area if the SB 35 project does not move forward. On September 3, the majority of the City Council enacted two ordinances establishing standards for residential and commercial development for the approximately 50-acre Vallco site.
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Peninsula News
Environmental review starts for Facebook's Willow Village plan
The Almanac
An estimated $1.8 million in staff and consultant work to evaluate the environmental impacts of Facebook's proposed Willow Village can now begin, after the Menlo Park City Council approved a series of contracts on August 20. Facebook will pay for this work as it pushes forward with its proposal to build millions of square feet of commercial and residential space in the Bayside area of the city.
After 45 years, it's finally time to seize the opportunity to build housing on the soon-to-be former Fry's site
Palo Alto Online
The long, zigzagging history of why housing doesn't already exist on the Fry's Electronics site is a portrait of one of the city's saddest planning failures of the last half-century. For more than 45 years, one City Council after another embraced the need and benefits of rezoning the 12-acre site to housing, only to have future councils back away out of fear of losing valuable sales-tax revenue.
Atherton city attorney to retire in December
The Almanac
Bill Conners, Atherton's city attorney, submitted his resignation in early August, effective Dec. 31, according to a town staff report. The City Council will discuss filling his position at a council meeting Wednesday, Sept. 4. Conners, who was appointed to his position in 2011, submitted a letter of resignation to the City Council on Aug. 6, according to the report.
Feds inject $4.4 million for much-needed Bay Road face-lift, ending 15-year quest for funds
Palo Alto Online
East Palo Alto's 15-year quest to build critical infrastructure along Bay Road reached a milestone on Wednesday, when the city received a $4.4 million federal grant it hopes will bring large developments to the Ravenswood Redevelopment Area. The grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration completes the $15.2 million in funding needed to upgrade an important access route between University Avenue and Cooley Landing.
College campus car camping bill halted
The Daily Journal
The local lawmaker seeking to allow community college students to sleep on campus in their cars put his bill to rest following a round of amendments he felt significantly weakened his original bill. Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, suspended Assembly Bill 302 for the rest of the year following changes made in the Senate Appropriations Committee, where bills expected to cost more than $150,000 can be altered without the author’s consent.
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Redwood City developing design guidelines
The Daily Journal
After adopting new rules aimed at limiting home size, Redwood City is embarking on the final phase of its strategy for preserving neighborhood character: the development of residential design guidelines. The process is expected to span about a year and is a response to widespread concerns over an increasing number of home projects many feel are oversized and incompatible with the neighborhood.
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Foster City Council split on censure
The Daily Journal
The Foster City Council is divided as to how to respond to a Brown Act violation committed by one of its members. The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office in August concluded that Councilman Sanjay Gehani violated the Brown Act by discussing plans to redevelop a vacant site in the city with a majority of councilmembers outside of a noticed public meeting. The state law aims to promote transparency in government by preventing councilmembers from establishing consensus on an issue behind closed doors.
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Caltrain ridership levels off after 15-year boom and commuters could feel the effects
San Francisco Examiner
Since 2004, Caltrain’s ridership has taken off like a runaway train. Now, fifteen years later, the agency’s booming growth has finally leveled off — and that could be bad news for Peninsula commuters. In a way, the agency is a victim of its own success. The trains are full. They’ve reached peak capacity.
East Bay News
Developer confident major East Bay apartment project will be built
East Bay Times
At 77, Dennis O’Brien remains a sunny optimist about seeing a 315-unit apartment complex being built in this city. “I know it will get approved and we’ll get it built, and it’s housing that’s sorely needed for Lafayette, for the Bay Area,” said O’Brien, who began his association with the contentious Terraces of Lafayette project when he was in his 60s — and may not see it built until he’s in his 80s. “I’ve spent my whole life building houses, and I want to see this built,” he said.
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Oakland neighbors push back against proposed 37-story Uptown tower
East Bay Times
A developer’s plans for a 37-story tower that could end up being the tallest building in Oakland are in limbo, despite having the planning commission’s blessing, as neighbors and labor groups push back. The project at 1750 Broadway, steps away from the 19th Street BART Station in Uptown, would include 307 market-rate apartments plus at 423 feet, it would be the tallest building in Oakland, topping the 404-foot Ordway Building and the 400-foot residential tower being built on the site of the old Merchants Parking Garage at 1314 Franklin St.
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UC Berkeley moves ahead with People’s Park development
East Bay Times
Though years away from breaking ground, UC Berkeley is moving ahead with plans to develop People’s Park — a landmark of anti-war and political activism of the late 1960s and the 1970s — into a dorm complex that includes a building designated for housing homeless people. The university plans to break ground on the complex — which will include housing for 1,000 students and a building with 75 to 125 apartments for homeless people — in two years, and move people in by 2023.
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