Tag: California legislation

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Four Anti-California Coastal Commission Bills Hit Sacramento.

These four bills — all by Democrats — take different tacks:
Actions may take if you oppose them

•   SB951 By San  Francisco Senator Scott Wiener
Puts further restrictions on what kinds of projects can be appealed directly to the Commission. In it’s current version. https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb951?slug=CA_202320240SB951
An earlier version of that bill would have cut a chunk of San Francisco out of the Coastal Zone entire, but that proposal was amended. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/coast-housing-wiener-18624806.php Together they show that many pro-housing legislators have taken heart from last year’s battle for the coast.

•   AB2560 by San Diego Assemblymember David Alvarez.
Exempts from the Coastal Act apartment projects that make use of density bonus law – a policy that lets developers build taller, higher and with fewer restrictions if they set aside units for lower income residents. https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab2560?slug=CA_202320240AB2560

•   SB1077 Encinitas Senator Catherine Blakespear
Makes the same exception for accessory dwelling units ( ADUs) https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1077?slug=CA_202320240SB1077,

•   SB1092 by Encinitas Senator Catherine Blakespear
Forces the Commission to process appeals of locally-approved apartment buildings faster.  https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1092?slug=CA_202320240SB1092

RELATED:
Fresh batch of YIMBY housing bills clash with coastal protections (again)

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California Cities Rethink the Single-Family Neighborhood

By Erin Baldassari :kqed – excerpt

More than a century ago, Berkeley pioneered rules prohibiting affordable, multifamily housing from certain areas, and with it, created a new class of neighborhoods reserved exclusively for single-family homes.

Now it’s one of a handful of cities in the country, and the latest in California, to challenge those rules as it seeks to tackle its housing affordability crisis and address decades of racial segregation in housing.

But housing researchers and advocates for low-income residents warn that just allowing more housing in single-family neighborhoods is no panacea. To achieve truly inclusive communities, they say zoning changes have to be coupled with strong renter protections and increased funding for affordable housing.

Berkeley Vice Mayor Lori Droste introduced the legislation earlier this month to change the city’s zoning rules, and make it easier to build fourplexes throughout the city.

The Sacramento City Council last month unanimously approved a draft plan to allow fourplexes throughout the city, becoming the first city in the state to begin the process of removing barriers to small, multifamily housing in all of its residential neighborhoods. Officials in San Francisco and San Jose are considering their own proposals…

But it could soon be a policy that touches the entire state. Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, introduced a bill last year to allow up to two duplexes in most single-family neighborhoods. It passed both houses of the Legislature, but literally ran out of time before getting the final vote it needed to head to the governor’s desk. It’s back this year as Senate Bill 9…(more)

Rumor has it that the State Senate, lead by Atkins and Wiener, have suspended the constitution to get their draconian housing bills passed after failing last year. They cut the time the public has to respond to the bills, not that they listen the pubic anyway.

Taking advantage of the pandemic to declare an emergency and suspend the constitutional rights of citizens to weigh in on the future of housing in the state may not sit well with citizens live in single family homes. This action will almost certainly be challenged in the courts.

The racial argument will fall on deaf ears for the many people of color who have built equity in their homes for generations.  They ability to pass their home on to their children was cut, and now the Democratic state legislature threatens to take their path of building security by building equity away from them.