As Phil Frank's "Farley" cartoon said years ago, "If in-laws are outlawed, only outlaws will have in-laws!" Phil Frank didn't live to see it, but the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has finally created a process for homeowners to legalize "in-law" units built within single-family homes. In-law unit owners will be allowed to submit information to the city for a pre-screening process in which owners will suffer no penalty if they decide not to go through with improvements that the city's reviewers prescribe for legalization -- unless the city notes an "imminent and substantial hazard". Legalization will be closed to units that have been the subject of no-fault evictions in the past ten years. The SF Chron story is at http://bit.ly/1kEbJx3. Draft minutes from the April 1 approval meeting, including notes of amendments, are at http://bit.ly/1hmBwMa. The Council's tracking page on the legislation, including ordinance draft texts and staff reports, is at http://bit.ly/1imIUlQ.
Eminent domain upheld for new Sacramento Kings arena
Sacramento has won its eminent domain action to take over a former Macy's store at 600 K Street for a Kings basketball arena. The Sacramento Bee reports that when the Third District Court of appeal refused to block a Superior Court order allowing the action, it gave the city "full control" of the whole site for the planned arena.
The land on the site is owned by the California Public Employees Retirement System. Securities investors represented by a U.S. Bank trustee are owners of the building and the trustee contested the eminent domain on their behalf. CalPers reportedly did not contest the city's action.
The city now turns to finalizing terms of the eminent domain purchase deal and completing public design review. A City Council approval vote on the deal is set for May 13. See news reports at http://bit.ly/1jIg0AI and http://bit.ly/NVXxVE. The city Planning and Design Commission will take up details of the arena plan at its April 10 meeting; the agenda, which links to detailed planning and EIR documents on the project, is at http://bit.ly/1jW5I0b.
The 7-page Sacramento Superior Court decision of March 20, available at http://bit.ly/1iqn4zj, cites briefly to last fall's SB 743. As CP&DR reported last fall at http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3404, some of the less far-reaching provisions of SB 743 were enacted to smooth the way for a new NBA venue to replace the existing Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. Among several provisions to advance the project, SB 743 created an addition to the Public Resources Code that provides specifically, "The city may prosecute an eminent domain action for 545 and 600 K Street, Sacramento, California..." SB 743's preamble and text are at http://bit.ly/1lM4qY8. The Third District appellate decision is not posted online but the register of actions for the appeal is at http://bit.ly/1stxQeW.
AB 1970 would create anti-emission grants for local governments
AB 1970, a bill to use cap-and-trade revenues for local greenhouse gas reduction projects, passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on April 7, as the League of California Cities was happy to report at http://bit.ly/1kkYfKQ. The bill would make the Strategic Growth Council the administrator of a "Community Investment and Innovation Program" that would provide grants and financial assistance to local governments. The state bill tracking page, with legislative counsel and committee analyses, is at http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_1970&sess=CUR&house=B.
Higher meter prices teach SF drivers which parking hopes are realistic
UCLA Prof. Donald Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free Parking, has a study out that says San Francisco's SFPark approach to meters has reduced circling ("cruising") in search of parking by half. NextCity has details at http://bit.ly/1eaAgeM. SFPark varies parking meter prices by time of day in some busy areas of San Francisco according to measured levels of demand. The system makes a smartphone app available for finding open parking spaces, but the main point of the study is that any driver, smartphone user or not, will learn from this congestion-charging approach to look for parking in lower-demand areas where prices are set lower, and hence won't take up space with unrequited searching for available places on high-demand blocks of downtown. A direct link to the study is at http://bit.ly/1g1XezG.
Monterey water ballot measure can't claim "Local Ownership and Cost Savings"
The Measure O referendum for the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District may no longer be called the "Monterey Peninsula Water System Local Ownership and Cost Savings Initiative" per an April 3 court order by Judge Thomas Wills. The Monterey Herald said Wills ruled in three parallel cases that neither local ownership nor cost savings is definitely promised by the measure, so those words must be removed from the title. Wills allowed such words to remain in proponents' ballot arguments as statements of opinion, but found some of proponents' other statements excessive "and worked with attorneys on editing them from the bench." For details see http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_25488380/water-war-judge-orders-revision-measure-o-ballot.
The Herald said the decision was issued in three parallel lawsuits listing Richards J. Heuer III, a local businessman, as plaintiff, but the paper described the cases as a challenge by California-American Water Company to Measure O. If passed, the measure would establish a policy in favor of public ownership of the district's water systems. It would require the district to consider acquiring Cal Am's water system as public property, and, if appropriate, to go forward with seeking to purchase it, possibly by eminent domain. An earlier news report has more background at http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_25428620/cal-am-backed-suit-challenges-measure-o-ballot.
The sponsor of Measure O, Public Water Now, has posted the initiative text at https://www.publicwaternow.org/the-ballot-initiative/.
Costa Mesa trying again with a city charter
Costa Mesa's City Council is working on a second proposal to adopt a city charter. A prior charter proposal was rejected in a November 2012 referendum. See http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-606377-charter-costa.html. The City Council's agenda site at http://www.costamesaca.gov/index.aspx?page=1675 has video of the contentious March 18 Council discussion on the charter proposal and notes a special meeting of the Council is scheduled April 22 on the proposal.
Could this golf course make more money as a marsh?
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports on a proposal to turn a golf course near the San Luis Rey River into a wetlands, creating a "land bank" of environmental mitigation credits that would be sold to developers by the acre. For more on this "inverse real estate development" scheme, see http://m.utsandiego.com/news/2014/apr/06/bonsall-golf-land-bank-wetland/.
LA City Council rolls back Hollywood zoning code to 1988
CBS affiliate KNX1070 (item via CACities.org) is reporting the LA City Council has agreed to repeal the much-contested 2012 amendments to the Hollywood Community Plan pending negotiations over new zoning. It reported the 2012 provisions were recently defeated in litigation and that the old 1988 code will take effect while disputes are resolved over changes in the new code, especially height limits. See http://cbsloc.al/1hkmP6i. The Council's tracking page on the Hollywood Community Plan Update is at http://bit.ly/1hyplWV. According to a city staff report at http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2012/12-0303-S4_misc_d_03-18-14.pdf, the Los Angeles Superior court decision defeating the 2012 plan amendments was issued February 11 in Fix the City v. City of Los Angeles, Case No. BS138580.
Subway allowed into Beverly Hills
The Los Angeles subway dig may advance under Beverly Hills High School per a ruling by Judge John A. Torribio. See the Beverly Hills Courier at http://bit.ly/1ebh7cH and LA Times at http://lat.ms/1i4uXsI, both items also via CACities.org
Santa Monica persists in having other ideas for its airport
Disputes continue in Santa Monica over efforts to close its small and reputedly noisy local airport -- although, as Ben Rubin of the Nossaman firm explained at http://bit.ly/QZfep7, a federal court threw out the city's quiet title suit on the airport property in February.
On March 25 the Santa Monica City Council took up the subject again -- see Item 8a in the agenda, staff report and video at http://santamonica.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3248. The item began with an announcement that 101 people had asked to speak at public comment. Per the unofficial meeting "wrap up" at http://www.smgov.net/departments/council/wrapup.aspx, it ended with the Council agreeing, "with staff direction," to "continue to pursue City control of the use of its Airport land" and move toward a plan to close the airport after July 1, 2015.
More background, from an aviation source via CACities, is at http://bit.ly/1qfgJvx.
Housing more out of reach than ever
The National Low-Income Housing Coalition has its annual Out of Reach report out on housing costs, and it's more dismal than ever. See http://nlihc.org/oor/2014 for the latest granular data by state, county and MSA on just how many minimum-wage jobs it takes to afford a two-bedroom apartment on the increasingly quaint assumption that housing should cost 30 percent of total income. Per the report's California state data page, at http://nlihc.org/oor/2014/CA, the average California "housing wage" is $26.04 per hour, or $54,168 per year, which works out to 3.3 minimum wages per household at the California statewide minimum of $8 per hour.
Also in the news
- Gil Kelley, former director of planning for Portland, Oregon, and, previously, Berkeley, has been named Director of Citywide Planning in San Francisco. See the second item in the San Francisco Chronicle news report at http://bit.ly/1jWRiNh. The city's press release is at http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?recordid=244&page=3418.
- Sacramento's 336-unit McKinley Village infill project, whose proponents include former State Treasurer Phil Angelides and developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, is hung up on opposition to its proposed exit and entry points, which could affect existing residential areas. Critics are calling on the developers to build a railroad undercrossing tunnel at a less sensitive spot to serve the new development. The tunnel's importance and likely cost are disputed For more see the Sacramento Bee at http://bit.ly/1ennVOO.
- AB 2104, by Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, would allow HOA residents to plant drought-resistant landscaping even if the HOAs' landscaping requirements dictate otherwise . See the U-T at http://bit.ly/1dW7jCP. The measure passed the Assembly on April 3 and was referred to the Senate. The bill tracking site is at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB2104.
