In land use and planning this week:

  • The San Francisco Chronicle reported a Mello-Roos tax district deal among Transbay Transit Center landlords and San Francisco officials failed and was "likely to become the subject of protracted litigation". The paper reports the deal would have helped finance the downtown Transbay Tower and Caltrain extension. See http://bit.ly/XYT3C8 for details.
  • The Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) has scheduled a webinar for September 25 at 1 p.m. to discuss OPR's SB 743 proposed transportation metric draft. Invitation information has been posted online by at least two sources: the League of California Cities at http://bit.ly/1prQWNJ and the Santa Cruz Sierra Club Chapter at https://ventana2.sierraclub.org/santacruz/articles/node-183.
  • KPCC reported the Metropolitan Water District has used two-thirds of its reserves: http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/09/22/46902/metropolitan-water-district-two-thirds-of-reserves/
  • Planetizen picked up an article in UrbDeZine by architect Jim Chappell, former head of the SPUR civic and development organization, on major changes coming to Fort Mason Center on San Francisco's northern waterfront at http://www.planetizen.com/articles/node-71234.
  • Citizens for a Sustainable Treasure Island has asked the Califronia Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the First District appellate ruling that approved Treasure Island's massive EIR in July. For the online docket see http://bit.ly/1umclzJ.
  • Abbott & Kindermann's Katherine J. Hart has a careful look at the Coalition for Adequate Review v. City and County of San Francisco case on CEQA record preparation fees at http://bit.ly/1uYA2wI. CP&DR's initial, less detailed writeup, with relevant case and Planning links, is at http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3577.
  • The League of California Cities noted a Napa Valley Register report that a housing civil rights suit against the city of St. Helena has been dismissed pending settlement. See http://bit.ly/1rumPux.
  • The Porterville City Council moved toward clarifying its Urban Development Boundary as a first step toward annexing East Porterville areas with dry wells that need municipal services. For details see the Porterville Recorder at http://bit.ly/1Cg40hT. For a compelling LA Times news report on the East Porterville drinking water shortage see http://lat.ms/1ohA3Gb.
  • Governor Jerry Brown keeps signing bills. Anyway, some bills. (not, to date, the quasi-Redevelopment AB 2280 bill, despite urging from senior planning figures like this: http://bit.ly/1mTiiC1.) This week in bill signings:
    • The top current item on the Governor's press site, http://gov.ca.gov/home.php, is his signing of AB 1839, the film production incentive bill.
    • On September 21 he signed six bills on electric vehicles and "high-occupancy toll" (HOT) lanes as announced at http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18720, including AB 2090: "Repeals the level of service requirements on HOT lanes for the San Diego Association of Governments and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and directs them to work with the California Department of Transportation to develop appropriate performance measures."
    • SB 936, with special water bond provisions for a desalination plant and other Cal American Water projects in Monterey. See Monterey Weekly coverage at http://bit.ly/1um1XaU, State Sen. Bill Monning's press release at http://bit.ly/1B66o8K and the bill itself (now law) at http://bit.ly/1ruleoO.
    • SB 1183 and AB 1193, benefiting bike lanes and bike paths. For LA Times coverage see http://lat.ms/1Dxc8Mw. SB 1183 allows local agencies to place bonds on ballots to support bicycle infrastructure. AB 1193 makes standards more flexible to ease construction of bicycle lanes or separated "tracks".
    • As discussed in the same LA Times article as the bike lanes, Brown signed SB 1300 on public disclosures by refineries (see http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18719) but issued a signing message at http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_1300_Signing_Message.pdf calling for cleanup language "to clarify the public disclosure process" to stop refineries from collecting attorneys' fees from records requesters.
    • Brown signed Assemblymember Tom Ammiano's Treasure Island Transportation Management Act, AB 141, Ammiano's AB 523 allowing interest reductions on public loans to rental housing developments, See http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18715.
    • In the same September 19 signing group as the Ammiano bills, Brown signed AB 2067 by Assemblymember Shirley Weber and SB 1036 by Sen. Fran Pavley on urban water management plans (UWMPs). AB 2067 pushes back deadlines to finalize the next round of UWMPs from 2015 until 2017 and reduces the number of separate reporting requirements on water demand management measures. SB 1036 allows but does not require water agencies to add energy usage figures to their UWMP reporting. Brown also signed SB 1420, requiring UWMPs to include reports of water lost to leaks -- see http://bit.ly/1sXnRf0.
    • Meanwhile Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters called Brown's signing decision on SB 968, the Martins Beach coastal access bill, a "symbol of the Bay Area's burgeoning class conflict over the impact of the techno-wealthy." See http://bit.ly/1uYyNxo.
  • A few more General Plan updates have been in the works as follows:
    • Cotati -- comments due October 24, 2014: http://bit.ly/1yqCpMB
    • Cupertino -- Study sessions have begun on the EIR, next one October 7. See http://bit.ly/1Cg080C for Mercury News coverage and http://www.cupertinogpa.org/ for the General Plan site itself.
    • Menlo Park -- The "ConnectMenlo" General Plan update is in a long sequence of public discussion events with the next "focus group" meeting September 29. See http://www.menlopark.org/739/ConnectMenlo-General-Plan-Update and, for Mercury News coverage, http://bit.ly/1sXqc9K.
    • City of Tulare -- the City Council was headed toward approval of a 2035 General Plan revision with plans for "transit-oriented development" and "climate action." The Tulare Voice reported at http://bit.ly/1yqCPmb and http://bit.ly/ZcV9jc that the plan won praise from environmental activist Don Manro, who had challenged the 2008 plan successfully in court.
    • City of Fresno: comments on the proposed General Plan are due October 9, with the next community workshops set for September 30 and October 1. See the city site at http://bit.ly/1rW40SY.
    • Calaveras Enterprise columnist Muriel Zeller was thrilled to hear a General Plan draft for Calaveras County will be released for public review "after eight years and consultant fees exceeding $1 million". See http://bit.ly/Y1lGOW.
  • September 19 was the tenth annual Park(ing) Day, an event founded by the Rebar design firm in San Francisco, when persons who question the prominence of automobiles in cities turn parking spaces into temporary parks. See Rebar's own account of the event at http://parkingday.org/about-parking-day/, Streetsblog for a photo roundup at http://bit.ly/1ym2AnI and the #parkingday hastag at https://twitter.com/hashtag/parkingday?src=hash for much more.