Tag: zoning changes

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Sewage Flooding: Neighbors Fear Wastewater From Ingleside’s New Housing Will Overwhelm Strained Sewer

by CASEY MICHIE : inglesidelight – excerpt

In the span of minutes the sewage and stormwater flooded Ashton Avenue. (from Inglesidelight)

“We experienced firsthand the adage shit goes downhill, and I have the toilet paper in my backyard to prove it.”

L. Richard Billups woke up Christmas morning to find his 2000 Chevrolet Corvette ruined.

An overnight storm caused a flood of brown stormwater and sewage out front Billups’ home on Ashton Avenue, where he has lived for about 50 years in San Francisco’s Ingleside Terraces. The flood destroyed his car’s electrical systems, monitors, carpet and seats.

“The insurance company said the cost would be more than the car is worth as far as market value is concerned,” he said. “That’s the price to them. It meant a lot more to me.”

Video footage provided to The Ingleside Light by a neighbor shows the brown water rushing from Ocean Avenue onto Ashton Avenue around 2:43 a.m. on Dec. 25, overrunning gutters and pooling on sidewalks and yards…

The incident was the latest in a series of combined stormwater-sewage floods that residents say the city has repeatedly failed to address. With the 1,100-unit Balboa Reservoir project underway and a seven-story mixed-use developmentproposed nearby, neighbors are demanding upgrades to an undersized sewer under Ocean Avenue before increased wastewater from additional residents adds further strain to a sewage system they say has been inadequate for years… (more)

Where are the YIMBY comments on damage when infrastructure is not taken care of prior to constructing new developments? Must neighbors wait till the damage is done to sue for relief? How are the insurance companies going to handle these cases?

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Notice Ordinance Passed

via email from Neighborhoods United SF

This week, the Board of Supervisors approved long-overdue legislation requiring direct notice to residents and businesses when their property, or one within 300 feet, is proposed for upzoning, specifically increases in height and/or density.

The measure passed with an 8–3 supermajority!

We are especially grateful to Supervisor Chan (D1) for championing this effort, and to the Supervisors who stood with her for transparency and the public’s right to know: Sherrill (D2), Sauter (D3), Engardio (D4), Mandelman (D8), Fielder (D9), Walton (D10), and Chen (D11).

Unfortunately, Supervisors Mahmood (D5), Dorsey (D6), and Melgar (D7) opposed the measure, citing concerns that transparency could “scare residents.” This is deeply troubling—especially given that more than 400,000 homes and businesses could be impacted by sweeping zoning changes. A simple notification should not be controversial.

We urge every Supervisors to host public town halls and explain this permanent shift in land use policy to their constituents. We remain hopeful Supervisors will respond to the growing demand for common sense, fairness, and community involvement as these changes move forward.

If you have time write a letter of thanks to the supervisors who support notice and transparency.

 

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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.