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We are happy to announce CP&DR’s website has been successfully moved to a new host! If you are a current subscriber we have set up your profile on this new website, and have credited you with full access to all our published material. You will have received an email notification from our new site when this was completed Tuesday January 27th.  PLEASE NOTE:  If you have blocked or labeled "spam" the email address we sent out Tuesday January 27th - You will not be able to receive the "reset password" email until you unblock it. The sender address is:   no-reply@wixsiteautomations.com please be sure this address is not blocked or labeled spam. As this is a brand new website, You will need to set up a new password. (you may want to copy these instructions before you begin) Please click "Log In" at the top right of this page. This will take you to our new host’s sign up page. Take the first link under “Sign Up” where you see “Already a member? Log In” Click “Log In” We have set up your new CP&DR account using the email you have on file with us. Click:  “Log in with Email” Here you will put in the email address already in the system for your CP&DR login, And use the “Forgot password” to set a new password for the new site. If you do not receive the password reset link email please contact admin@cp-dr.com And Thank You for subscribing!

In the latest twist in a long-running battle to build more on-campus student housing at UC Santa Cruz, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled in favor of the university in an unpublished ruling.

Fix The City, a limited-growth group active in Los Angeles, has lost an attempt to retroactively challenge the city’s Transit Oriented Communities guidelines. However, an appellate court did say in an unpublished ruling that Los Angeles must re-do its seismic analysis on a proposed apartment building in West Los Angeles.

California Forever Postpones Ballot Measure, Will Conduct Two Years of Analysis and Outreach California Forever, the parent company behind the East Solano Plan to build a new city of up to 400,000 residents on the northeastern edge of the Bay Area, reached an agreement with Solano County on a new process for advancing the plan. The company will not seek a zoning change via a previously scheduled November ballot initiative. Instead, the company will submit an application for a general plan and zoning amendment and will work with the county to complete an environmental impact report and development agreement, and then bring the full completed package forward for voters to consider. The process is expected to take about two years. The hasty ballot measure "politicized the entire project, made it difficult for us and our staff to work with them, and forced everyone in our community to take sides," wrote Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn in a statement . "Delaying the vote gives everyone a chance to pause and work together, which is what is needed - not a fight between friends throughout the County on both sides of the issue." "This creates opportunities to incorporate additional community input, and then provide everyone with access to objective analysis," wrote Calfornia Forever CEO Jan Sramek. "We believe... we can build a shared vision that passes with a decisive majority and creates broad consensus." According to a poll commissioned by California Forever, 54% of county voters felt the plan was moving too quickly. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Berkeley May Implement Citywide Upzoning for Small Multifamily Developments This evening, the Berkeley City Council is scheduled to consider a motion that, if adopted, would permit one of the most dramatic upzonings in state history. The motion, introduced by former Councilmember Lori Droste in 2019, would permit the development of small multifamily buildings across large swaths of the city. Buildings could be as many as three stories high and include as many as 12 units. Opponents are concerned that new market-rate developments could alter the character of single-family neighborhoods and/or concentrate in low-income areas where historically disadvantaged residents might be displaced. (See related CP&DR coverage .) State Updates Maps of Surplus Properties, with Eye Toward Housing Development The Department of Housing and Community Development and Department of General Services released an updated map called the State Excess Sites - Affordable Housing Opportunities Map, aimed at assisting developers in locating state-owned land suitable for affordable housing projects. This update follows Executive Order N-06-19's mandate for HCD and DGS to prioritize surplus state properties for affordable housing to alleviate California's housing shortage. Using criteria established under AB 2233 and SB 561, over 44,000 state-owned parcels underwent rigorous evaluation based on feasibility and financing competitiveness, employing GIS technology and visual assessments by DGS and HCD staff during 2023-2024. The map provides a comprehensive view of potentially suitable sites declared surplus by state departments, offering developers tools to explore available lands and overlay datasets such as HCD/TCAC Opportunity Map and transit areas to facilitate funding applications and streamline development processes. Interested developers are encouraged to subscribe to HCD's Housing Planning and Policy email list for updates on submitting proposals, although no sites are currently open for allocation. Terner Center: Construction Defect Law Suppresses Condo Development UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation released a report on California's construction defect liability laws and their substantial disincentive on developers and contractors interested in building new condominiums. An estimated 3 percent of all multifamily homes built in California between 2011 and 2021 were for sale rather than rental. In 2022, homeowners occupied less than 10 percent of units in existing structures with more than 5 units. The also report found the number of new homes smaller than 1,400 square feet built in 2020 were less than 10% of all homes built statewide. The state's construction defect liability law extends the liability period extends for ten years after construction completion for condominiums, whereas it is only four years for rental housing, creating a longer and potentially more costly liability exposure for developers of condominiums, contributing to their reluctance to invest in such projects compared to rental housing developments. The Terner Center concludes that a thorough review of California's current approach to managing construction defect liability, aimed at reducing litigation, cutting costs and fostering consumer confidence, is essential for expanding homeownership opportunities across the state. San Diego Seeks to Boost Fortunes of Business Districts The San Diego City Council unanimously adopted a comprehensive set of 99 new policies aimed at enhancing business districts, promoting ambitious housing projects, and clarifying zoning regulations. These changes include easing rules for converting shopping malls into housing, simplifying the approval process for sidewalk cafes and facilitating the opening of substance use and mental health clinics for homeless populations. Additionally, the package seeks to streamline the establishment of urgent care clinics across neighborhoods and mandates improved accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit users near new arenas and stadiums. These updates, pending Coastal Commission approval, are poised to have significant impacts citywide, particularly downtown, where incentives for development on underutilized sites and improvements to public spaces are among the proposed changes. 2023 Housing Progress Report Details Sixth Consecutive Year of Growth The state's 2023 Housing Element Annual Progress Report Update reports that in 2023, completed residential units increased by 13.1% to 112,076, marking the sixth consecutive year of growth since 2018. Multifamily housing remained robust with 308,577 units in the housing pipeline, surpassing the previous five-year average. ADU production reached record highs with 27,919 permits issued in 2023 as the share of affordable housing for lower-income Californians expanded significantly, comprising 19% of permitted units and 16% of completed units in 2023, up from 9% and 7% respectively in 2018. Further, development timelines also shortened across all phases, attributed to legislative initiatives like SB 423 and SB 330, underscoring ongoing efforts to accelerate affordable housing production and streamlined development. CP&DR Coverage: Housing Incentives Create Strange Bedfellows Everything about housing development is antithetical to Costco's business model. Costco is in the business of building the same big-box store - with the same gigantic parking lot - pretty much anywhere. Urban infill housing is costly, complicated, and customized. But some people will do anything for an entitlement. That's why Costco's proposal to develop a roughly 800-unit apartment complex in South Los Angeles is a Trojan Horse that will also not-so-secretly facilitate the development of the chain's 17th Los Angeles County store. It will be built on the site of a shuttered medical center a few miles west of the USC campus, near a stop on L.A. Metro's Expo Line. Rather than wade through the tedious, costly, and uncertain process that would it need to gain approval for a traditional standalone store, Costco and its development partner Thrive Living taking advantage of AB 2011, which exempts multifamily housing projects on commercially zoned property from CEQA review, plus density bonuses provided by Los Angeles's Transit Oriented Communities program. Quick Hits & Updates Advocates in San Francisco are proposing a ballot initiative aimed at imposing a new gross receipts tax on ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft. On Friday, they delivered 17,000 signatures, surpassing the required 10,000 signatures with a significant margin. This measure, known as the ComMUNIty Transit Act, aims to generate $20-30 million annually to support the financially struggling San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), potentially mitigating upcoming service cuts amid a projected $130 million deficit for fiscal year 2025. The initiative, likely to appear on November's ballot, seeks to stabilize Muni service levels and fund programs for low-income and youth riders. (See related CP&DR coverage .) A new Assembly Select Committee on Permitting Reform been formed to consider how to overhaul the state's complex land use permitting processes, aiming to expedite approvals for housing and climate projects. The committee plans to continue hearings throughout 2024 and intends to publish a white paper early in 2025, outlining findings and proposing legislative reforms to address these challenges. The Visalia City Council approved an 80-acre annexation in the Visalia Industrial Park to facilitate nearly 1 million square feet of construction by YS Industries despite potential litigation from a labor union. The project, located at Shirk Street and Riggin Avenue, moves forward with support from the city, which is preparing to defend its decision in upcoming legal proceedings initiated by the Laborers International Union of North America, Local Union 294. Cupertino's mixed-use development at the former Vallco shopping mall site, known as The Rise, is moving forward following the city's resolution of a fee dispute with Vallco Property Owner LLC. Approved in 2018, the project includes 2,699 housing units, with 890 designated as affordable, along with retail space and office facilities totaling nearly 1.9 million square feet. The dispute, centered on impact fees and parkland dedication fees, was settled with an agreement requiring The Rise project to pay approximately $10.3 million in transportation impact fees and $32 million in other payments to the city over the project's lifespan. (See related CP&DR coverage .) A Southern California environmental group, Save Our Forest Assn., has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for permitting BlueTriton Brands to extract water from the San Bernardino National Forest, claiming violations of federal laws. The group alleges that the water extraction has significantly harmed Strawberry Creek and demands the removal of infrastructure and cessation of operations, citing environmental damage and unlawful occupancy of public lands by the company. The California Energy Commission has approved a comprehensive plan to develop a vast floating offshore wind industry off Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay, aiming to generate 25 gigawatts of electricity by 2045. The initiative, unprecedented in its scale and complexity, requires substantial public and private investment to address environmental concerns, upgrade infrastructure and create a specialized workforce. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has introduced stricter tenant protections and other guardrails to Executive Directive 1, her administration's affordable housing program, aiming to protect low-income residents and historic resources. ED 1 streamlines approvals for affordable housing, and the city is developing a version for market-rate housing. With the new rules, projects in historic districts and on sites that currently have rent-controlled buildings will no longer be streamlined. Critics view these changes as significantly scaling back a program that has spurred much-needed housing development, potentially hindering efforts to address the city's escalating housing crisis. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Lynda and Stewart Resnick, California's wealthiest farmers and owners of The Wonderful Company, plan to expand their distribution center in Shafter into a major international trading hub, converting 1,800 acres of almond groves into warehouse space. Their project will include a new highway and a $120 million rail terminal with promises of up to 50,000 jobs, yet there is much concern about the environmental impact of increased truck traffic and construction. UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla is seeking approval from UC Regents to spend $2 billion on a new village that could house up to 6,000 students, addressing a severe housing shortage driven by rapid enrollment growth. The project aims to alleviate the ongoing housing crisis and could begin construction in 2026, with the first 2,000 beds available by 2029. San Diego County reinstated the use of CEQA Guidelines Section 15183 to streamline reviews of general plan-consistent projects, allowing them to bypass vehicle miles traveled (VMT) analysis and mitigation requirements despite changes in CEQA transportation analysis standards.

This article is provided to you for free by the paying subscribers to  California Planning & Development Report .  To learn how you too can subscribe to  CP&DR and support our work, just click here . A few weeks ago, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo ran an unusually whiny guest essay in the New York Times. He complained about inflation, interest rates, and increases in housing prices. Most of all, he complained about land use. The federal government controls 80% of the land in Nevada, mostly through the Bureau of Land Management. Lombardo cited estimates that, at the current pace of development, the Las Vegas metro area will run out of developable land as early as 2032. "The reality of this ownership surrounding the urban areas of the state is a limiting factor on the development of new housing options," he wrote . (I'm sure water supply is another factor, though he didn't mention it.) He has a point: the Las Vegas Review-Journal has declared a "housing crisis," with home prices up to an average around $450,000 and a shortage of 78,000 affordable rental units. Otherwise, this is nothing new in Nevada politics. Until the Golden Knights arrived, complaining about the Bureau of Land Management had long been the state's most popular sport. Lombardo's request was, though, more specific than the general libertarian griping that Nevadans are used to. He called for the Biden administration to open 50,000 acres of desert to development so Nevada can add as many as 335,000 homes for anyone who enjoys their American Dream cooked medium rare. It's worthwhile for us Californians to keep tabs on our neighbors to the east. We have an alpine lake to care for, interstate highway traffic to manage, supertrains to develop, tortoises and Joshua trees to protect, and athletic teams to plunder. And, a concerning, but understandable, percentage of mostly middle-income Californians have considered decamping for Nevada . Those folks are exactly who Gov. Lombardo would like to settle on whatever land he can wrest away from the feds. (His essay doesn’t mention it, but it alludes to a bill introduced by Utah Rep. John Curtis to facilitate the sale of federal land nationwide.) A few decades ago, the idea that Las Vegas might run out of land would have been laughable. In 1980, the metro area's population was 438,000 (about the size of Reno's today); now, it's almost 3 million. The situation Las Vegas faces today is a version of the one that most of California's major urban areas faced decades ago: constraints to growth. San Francisco has been hemmed in since the Victorian Era, and Oakland has always been squished between mountains and bay. In Los Angeles, "sprawl hit the wall" in the 1980s. Even the Inland Empire cannot gallop as it once did. In each case, mountains, coastlines, other cities, and, yes, protected open spaces have forced cities to grow through density rather than expansion. Las Vegas metro doesn't have a coastline, but it does have the feds. The problem in California to accommodate more people has not generally equated with an embrace of density. The densification of California has been built on awkward constructions like the dingbat, the strip mall, and, more recently, five-over-one apartment buildings. Much of our dense development has taken place on commercial corridors, which, though nominally efficient, are inherently ugly. The most pleasant neighborhoods, where skilled architects could likely work wonders on attractive, appropriate designs, are often those that are most reluctant to grow. We have, so far, failed to create graciously dense places, and instead settle for too many self-defeating jumbles that give density a bad name. At 5,046 residents per square mile, the City of Las Vegas is not exactly Hoboken, but it’s denser than you'd imagine (compare with Phoenix, at 3,100). It has plenty of small houses on small lots (making it relatively inexpensive on a per-unit basis), and it has its share of small apartment buildings. Many residents commute to one of the greatest concentrations of employment (especially blue-collar employment) in the country: the Las Vegas Strip. So, there are gravitational forces keeping residents in the city. And yet, it's a fraction of the density of some of the cities celebrated by its hotel-casinos. More importantly, it wears its density awkwardly -- far more so than most major California cities. The City of Las Vegas has a Walkscore of 42 (meaning "car-dependent," which seems generous). Walkability plummets to 33 in North Las Vegas, and 30 in Henderson. By contrast, the City of Los Angeles scores 69. Lombardo’s proposal would accomplish two things: 1) promote low-density sprawl; and 2) undermine the city’s incentives for (denser) redevelopment. To its credit, Las Vegas wants to grow. It wants none of the slow-growth paralysis that has hobbled too many parts of California. Unfortunately, Lombardo's plea indicates that he wants Las Vegas to continue to sprawl, presumably by continuing to build inexpensive single-family homes, parking-heavy apartment complexes, and whatever inconsequential commercial developments are needed to keep suburbanites fed, fit, and fueled up. We all know how that is going to end. Even the Nevada desert is not infinite. In the meantime, even Las Vegans don't want hourlong commutes. Even a place accustomed to extreme heat probably doesn't want climate change to get worse. "Nevadans know what hard work looks like," Lombardo writes. If that's the case, he and his constituents should be all about density. Density is hard work. Urban design is hard work. Sustainability is hard work. Walkability is hard work. Favoring greenfield development is taking the easy way out. Behold the vibrancy of downtown Las Vegas. Lombardo has said that provision of housing "begins with eliminating governmental barriers to development." Sure, but it doesn't have to be the federal government that does the eliminating. He could instead do what his California counterparts Govs. Brown and Newsom (along with legislators) have been doing for the past decade. He could instead focus on local governments and their development policies. He could collaborate with planners and developers. They, and other stakeholders, could reach a consensus about what a denser Las Vegas could be like. They could encourage innovative design rather than the same old expedient stucco boxes that is advertised as "resort living" that populate inland California communities from Victorville to Hemet to Santa Clarita. They could build genuine urban neighborhoods, worthy of Las Vegas's global reputation, rather than what is essentially a forgettable back-of-house to serve the Strip. Back in 1972, architects Robert Venturi , Denise Scott Brown, and Steve Izenour famously celebrated Las Vegas’s design sensibilities. They reveled in the superficiality of signage and simulacra. Now, Las Vegas--not the Strip, but the actual city--faces the opportunity to get real. It could be more dense. It could be more efficient. It could be both inexpensive and attractive. It could take a cue from all the ersatz historicism that it's famous for, accept the gift of artificial constraints, and consider a new approach to urbanism. Granted, Las Vegas is probably never going to be Paris, Venice, or New York. It could, though, be cosmopolitan. Or it could be Riverside. In short, with a little imagination--real imagination, not just spectacle--southern Nevada could learn from the lessons that California so vividly teaches. Don't get me wrong. Water supply notwithstanding, I don't want Las Vegas to not grow. If done right, a denser Las Vegas will accommodate California exiles and anyone else who wants to live there -- it'll just do it better than it currently does. And California needs a little competition. Let's compete for residents and let the best state -- not the luckiest one, or the whiniest one--win. Map courtesy of Bureau of Land Management . Image courtesy of Andrew via  Flickr .

This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to California Planning & Development Report . You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here . You can sign up for CP&DR 's free weekly newsletter here . Norwalk's Refusal to Zone for Homeless Shelters Causes State to Impose Builder's Remedy Governor Gavin Newsom called out the south Los Angeles County city of Norwalk's recent decision to extend its ban on new homeless shelters, stating that it is inhumane to prohibit such facilities while people live on the streets. In response to the city's actions, state officials have invoked the "builder's remedy," which effectively prevents Norwalk's from restricting large apartment developments in areas typically governed by local zoning laws, due to the city's non-compliance with the Housing Accountability Act. The Norwalk City Council had initially voted to halt permits for shelters, citing public health concerns, but ignored warnings from state housing officials that the ban was illegal. Mayor Margarita Rios defended the ban, arguing for the need for better collaboration with the state, while local officials expressed frustration at being sidelined in the decision-making process. As Norwalk faces a requirement to plan for over 5,000 new homes by 2029, the state's intervention may lead to an influx of larger housing projects, challenging the city's existing zoning restrictions. Los Angeles Metro Approves Region's Largest-Ever Transit Oriented Development The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has approved a joint development agreement with NOHO Development Associates, LLC for a significant 11.8-acre project at the Metro North Hollywood Station. This development, named District NoHo, will be Metro's largest housing initiative, featuring a mix of affordable housing, retail, office space and public open areas. The initial phase includes approximately 570 mixed-income apartments, with a portion set aside for low-income residents earning less than 60% of the median income for the region. When fully completed, the project is expected to offer over 1,400 apartments along with more than two acres of publicly accessible space. This initiative aligns with Metro's Vision 2028 Strategic Plan, which aims to create more affordable housing near transit to enhance accessibility and promote community development. State Planning Think Tank OPR Gets Rebranded as Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation The Office of Planning and Research has become the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI). Per a letter from LCI Director Sam Assefa, the office will continue to focus on equity, climate resilience, responsible land use, the California Environmental Quality Act, and grant funding for communities that have been historically underserved. LCI includes the State Planning and Policy Development, the California Strategic Growth Council, the California Racial Equity Commission, and the Governor's Military Council. The name change also entails moving several programs and offices to new and existing state entities that better align with their individual missions and service areas. The California Jobs First program and the Zero-Emission Transit Roadmap have relocated to the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, and the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine will be integrated into the Health and Human Services Agency. In addition, California Volunteers, the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, and the Youth Empowerment Commission are now all part of the Governor's Office of Community Engagement and Volunteerism. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Major Sutter County Development Akin to "a New City" Gets Key Approval Sutter County Supervisors approved tract maps for parts of Sutter Pointe, a proposed development described as a "new city" that could accommodate approximately 17,500 homes in the southern part of the county, near Sacramento. Recent approvals allow developers to begin infrastructure work for housing designated for older adults, with plans for family homes anticipated to follow by 2028. The project woudl put housing on about 2,900 acres and commercial uses on 3,600 acres, with 1,000 acres left as open space. Many unresolved issues remain, especially concerning the impact on local schools due to an expected increase in student population. The development is strategically important as nearly 70% of Sutter County is in FEMA-designated floodplains, limiting other growth opportunities. While progress has been made, the project's future hinges on resolving negotiations with school districts to ensure adequate accommodations for new students. CP&DR Coverage: November Local and Statewide Ballot Measures Perhaps the most significant thing about state and local ballots in California this fall is what's not on them. With the state bearing down on local governments over housing, for the first time in memory only one slow-growth measure is headed to the November ballot. It's a significant change from past years, when an array of local measures limiting growth - and, in some cases, accommodating it - have appeared on the ballot. Also not on the ballot: A $20 billion Bay Area housing bond and a ballot measure in Solano County to permit the gigantic California Forever new town to move forward. Otherwise, there are big state ballot measures, including Prop 5, which would lower the voter threshold for local jurisdictions to float bons, and Prop 33, which is yet another attempt to strengthen rent control laws. There are a variety of local measures, led, as always, by San Francisco. Quick Hits & Updates The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has voted to prioritize new housing development in areas already designated for apartments, while largely preserving the existing single-family zones that make up about 72% of the city's residential land. This decision is part of a larger rezoning effort mandated by state law to accommodate over 450,000 new homes in the next five years and it has sparked debate between homeowner groups and housing advocates regarding the city's affordability challenges and the need for denser housing options. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released its 2024-2025 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) calendar, offering over $4.8 billion for housing and homelessness resources in the coming ten months. This includes funding from Proposition 1, the Behavioral Health Infrastructure Bond Act and programs for homeless assistance, as well as planned allocations for Tribal Entities totaling more than $190 million. A new study out of UCLA looks at housing vacancy in Los Angeles, particularly focusing on the perceived issue of high vacancy rates in newly constructed market-rate and mixed-income housing, finding that the city's vacancy rates are among the lowest in the nation and have decreased over the past 15 years, with types of vacancies mirroring those in other areas. The research suggests that while measures like vacancy taxes could lead to slight reductions in vacancy rates, they would not effectively address challenges faced by overcrowded households, super-commuters, or future housing needs. Brightline West, the high-speed train project connecting Las Vegas to Southern California, has secured the Federal Railroad Administration's approval of $3 billion in funding, paving the way for construction to begin in early 2025. Expected to cost around $12 billion and capable of reaching speeds over 200 mph, the train aims to alleviate traffic on Interstate 15, reduce emissions and create over 35,000 jobs, with daily operations projected to support about 1,000 jobs once operational by 2028. (See related CP&DR coverage .) Santa Ana has approved the transformation of the Metro Town Square mall into a mixed-use development featuring thousands of homes, senior housing, retail spaces and open areas, a project expected to significantly boost the local economy. The Santa Ana City Council recently approved the initiative, which aims to create nearly 6,000 construction jobs and generate close to $11 million in new tax revenue, while also addressing state housing mandates. A San Francisco DMV building will be redeveloped into a multi-use complex featuring 372 homes, including units for low-income families. This initiative is part of a broader effort to convert underutilized state-owned properties into affordable housing, addressing California's housing crisis while enhancing public services in a centrally located area near transit and amenities. The Los Angeles City Council unanimously adopted a motion to reassess its rent control policies, which could lead to changes that favor tenants over landlords in determining annual rent increases. An independent report commissioned by the city found that current regulations often benefit landlords, suggesting potential reforms that could limit rent hikes and address the region's affordable housing crisis. The Alameda Food Bank is facing a lawsuit from two community members aiming to halt construction of its new facility, raising concerns about the impact on its services for the community. Executive Director Teale Harden emphasized the potential risks of prolonged litigation, which could disrupt food distribution for over 1,200 families that the organization serves weekly. The Federal Transit Administration has awarded an $893.3 million grant to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for a new light rail line in the East San Fernando Valley, which will span 6.7 miles and include 11 stations serving communities like Van Nuys and Pacoima. Expected to open in 2031, this project aims to restore train service to the area for the first time in 70 years, with a focus on community engagement and local hiring, while promoting sustainability through a solar power system to meet maintenance facility energy needs. The Berkeley City Council approved an agreement with BART to develop hundreds of apartments, including over a third designated as affordable, at the Ashby BART station. The deal allows BART to utilize the west parking lot for construction while Berkeley will lease a smaller lot for development, although concerns were raised about the limited affordable housing and the potential displacement of Black residents in South Berkeley.

This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers to California Planning & Development Report . You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here . You can sign up for CP&DR ’s free weekly newsletter here . A colloquium on population trends hosted by a metropolitan planning organization is not necessarily the place you’d expect to hear a new metaphor. But, this is Los Angeles, and we’re pretty creative. And we’ve had quite a while to come up with ways to discuss our twin trends of rising population and stagnant housing production. It was USC demographer Dowell Myers who noted, in keeping with our region’s coastal orientation, that “you need enough shells for the hermit crabs to crawl into.” In Myers’s world, the shells are homes: rental apartments, condos, single-unit homes, whatever. The hermit crabs: well, they’re us. It’s just easier to be sympathetic if we think about cute sea creatures rather than sinful, wasteful, aesthetically objectionable human beings. Myers is the region’s foremost demographer. So, he, of all people, knows how many shells we’ll need, and why we need them. The number, as all planners know, is daunting; the reasons are more interesting than you might think. The Southern California Association of Governments convenes its annual Demographics Summit to help its member jurisdictions understand the trends they are facing. This year’s summit had an overwhelming, and overwhelmingly compelling, thesis: the state’s population is stagnating. For the first time pretty much since 1848. The reasons center partly on out-migration, of largely middle-income folks who seek lower costs of living in places like Nevada and Texas; that trend is complemented by lack of in-migration, caused largely by California’s prohibitive housing costs. Arguably, the stronger force lies in a trend commonly ascribed to developed countries but that is, in fact, sweeping the majority of the globe: plummeting birth rates. In Southern California, as in many countries, the fertility rate has dropped well below replacement level of 2.1 births per woman. At the generational scale, these numbers will result in population decline. Now, you don’t need a half-day conference to decide that the population will decline, starting around 2042. There’s much more to it than that. In fact, a whole lot is going to happen in Southern California, and, likely, statewide until widespread population loss really takes hold. Spoiler alert: housing-constrained regions cannot simply wait for demographic destiny to kick in. Myers described two major drivers of demand for new housing. The first is the fact that the SCAG region, like others statewide, has a shortage of housing relative to the population it already has and to the preferences of the people who live there. A disproportionate number of SCAG constituents are cohabitating, with parents or flatmates, against their preferences. They would like to form their own households, and they are willing and able to pay reasonably, but they cannot. They are trapped by low housing production and, consequently, high housing prices. Myers noted that, whereas most places in the United States are permitting new homes at greater than pre-recession rates, California is doing so at half its pre-recession rates. Myers refers to these as “invisible households,” or, if you prefer, shell-less hermit crabs. He explained that doubling up is not an ethnic preference or a “California thing.” It is a reluctant response to economic and geographic realities, caused by California jurisdictions’ overwhelming hesitancy to welcome new housing. As University of Newcastle (UK) demographer Rachel Franklin said at the SCAG workshop: “It’s a policy failure of people want to move or migrate but don’t feel like they can.” (She said the same for having kids: many forces contribute to those falling birthrates, but scarcity of housing is a big one.) The second factor is the converse of the first. Whereas many young people who are living in their childhood bedrooms want nothing more than a front door and an address all their own, the people of their parents’ generation want square feet — lots of them. Empty nesters either age in place, living in homes that might previously have included kids, or they simply crave (and can afford) a lot more space than the average 20-something is willing to tolerate. So, said Myers, “As population gets older, you need more housing to accommodate the same number of people.” (Notably, this also means that single-family neighborhoods with lots of empty nesters are less dense than they used to be and, therefore, ideal for  ADUs and duplexes .)   Put those two factors together and that’s why the region needs to build more housing even if the total population is destined to go nowhere for the foreseeable future. So, we need more housing. That’s not exactly news. But, there’s more to it than that. Franklin attended the conference without any particular interest or investment in California but plenty of experience in a place that is already shrinking: Europe. Her observations of European depopulation have given her a head-start to think about what to do. Her general response: don’t panic! Her main point is that cities and even regions have no control over macro-scale demographic trends. What they can control are their own built environments. “If we focus on quality and well-being,” she said, “the other stuff will work itself out.” What that means is that the people who already live in a given jurisdiction deserve high-quality housing options. And, if those options exist in surplus, then places that are depopulating might actually attract new residents. In other words, Franklin envisions a race to the top rather than our current race to the bottom. Franklin's point is that we should stop arguing about growth. Stop arguing about whether we want more neighbors or not more neighbors and instead make our cities better. Let's get past the petty arguments and work towards quality of life. Franklin grounds her policy arguments in an ethical principle: no one should be stuck someplace they don’t want to be, and everyone should be able to move to a place where they want to be. In other words, mobility equals morality. If cities build enough housing and create places that are nice enough, the ability to move around and the number of places that people want to live will expand. At that point, precise numbers like fertility rates become subordinate to the everyday reality of streetscapes, doors, and bedrooms. (On that count, Franklin might disagree with California’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation process and the painstaking, if thankless, work that metropolitan planning organizations like SCAG do to make sure that nearly all of its jurisdictions are at least mildly annoyed at their allocations.) How do we make this hopeful vision happen? If we believe Myers, then we have to recognize that the demand for new housing, especially dense housing for young adults, and better places already exists. If we focus on Franklin, the economics are murkier. Creating better cities and better housing absent high demand from wealthy people seems impossible. But, this is California we’re talking about. The policy barriers to housing production are so high and so entrenched, we can still change the economic calculations in many places with the stroke a pen. For instance, just as Los Angeles’s Measure U helped reduce the city’s zoned capacity by 6 million people—made famous in Dr. Greg Morrow’s graph—new policies could reinstate a significant amount of that capacity instantly. Small fixes like single-stair reform and loosening of other fire codes could help too. And developers are still figuring out all the ways they can use recently passed housing laws. But, what if that just invites development of “ luxury housing ”? Franklin would say, so what? If we make the city nicer by adding new housing and we don’t subtract existing housing, then it’s a win-win — for humans and hermit crabs alike.

In November of 1986, I showed up at the California Chapter, American Planning Association, conference ; maybe the second one I had ever attended ; with the pilot issue of four-page newsletter that no one had ever heard of or seen before called California Planning & Development Report. I thought it filled a need but I wasn’t at all sure it would last. At the time I was a fledging land use journalist ; an occupation that most people thought was a hilariously unlikely proposition ; freelancing for a wide variety of publications, including APA’s own Planning magazine, as well as California Business (now out of business) and California Lawyer. Industry newsletters ; printed and mailed ; were all the rage in those days, and I figured that if I compiled all the interesting stuff that crossed my desk each month, at least my friends would pay to read a newsletter. Which is pretty much what happened first. Our first regular issue in December of 1986 was launched with 15 subscribers. Although I had only lived in California for five years, I was fortunate enough to have several advantages in undertaking this work. I had worked my way through UCLA planning school by working at the L.A. Daily Journal, a newspaper for lawyers ; and I still use the skills I learned there in writing up court cases for CP&DR. I also attended a huge number of continuing education programs dealing with land use then offered by UCLA Extension, which proved to be my true education in the California land use system. I also had two incredible pieces of luck. Vicki Torf, my wife at the time, happened to be a graphic designer. In those pre-desktop publishing, pre-internet days there is no way I could have launched CP&DR without her. And I happened to live in West Hollywood, which had just incorporated amid national publicity. At a time when most of my planning school classmates were interning somewhere, I wound up as chair of the West Hollywood Planning Commission. That gave me even more of a real-time education in how land-use decision-making actually worked. Preparing CP&DR before the internet was a tough job. To gather material, I subscribed to so many newspapers that we had to get a much larger rural mailbox at our home in Ventura. I spent endless hours reading and clipping articles from around the state, often enlisting others to help, including Steve Svete, later one of the founders of Rincon Consultants. (As a toddler, my daughter often imitated this work, sitting on the floor of our living room and furiously throwing random papers around into different piles.) Shortly after I started CP&DR, I got a call from Warren Jones, who had founded Solano Press Books. He told me he had always wanted to write guide to planning in California but realized he would never get around to it and asked me if I wanted to do it. I turned him down flat. But after a couple of years of writing CP&DR ; and lecturing in planning at Cal Poly Pomona ; I realized I had the material and I told him yes. Since then, CP&DR and Guide to California Planning, now in its seventh edition, have really been one project, not two, with CP&DR providing the week-by-week update and GTCP the comprehensive overview. But CP&DR has never been a one-person effort. Along the way, I’ve worked with some great journalist. In the ‘90s and early ‘00s, Morris Newman ; trained as an urban designer but a real estate journalist at heart ; wrote an endless number of wry columns and hard-hitting analyses of public real estate deals. From 1999 to 2009, Paul Shigley ; an extraordinary journalist ; served as editor of CP&DR, bringing insight, diligence, and great reporting to the publication; he also co-wrote three editions of GTCP. For many years, Larry Sokoloff ; a Bay Area journalist that I originally worked with at the Daily Journal ; covered a wide range of land use stories from around the state. And since 2010, Josh Stephens has brought both solid reporting and a clever eye to California land use issues. I’m grateful to all of them for their commitment. Of course, the role of CP&DR has changed since the pre-internet era. At the beginning, when my rural mailbox was stuffed with newspapers, CP&DR simply brought news to planners, developers, and land use lawyers that they couldn’t otherwise access. Today, our role has changed. Everything is out there on the internet ; even videos of Planning Commission and City Council meetings. There are plenty of free sources of information that we compete with, including the many fine summaries of legal rulings published by prominent law firms. And of course AI allows people to do their own research. But CP&DR still plays an important and, I hope, essential role. We still scour the internet to find land use news that nobody else brings to a statewide audience. And we try to bring perspective, context, and analysis that California land use practitioners can’t find anywhere else. Today we have hundreds of paying subscribers and thousands of folks who read our weekly e-newsletter. I’m grateful to every one of you for sticking with us and seeing value in what we do. We’re charging full steam ahead and we hope to keep at this for a long time to come.

Hollister 2040, we hardly knew ye. In what may be the shortest-lived adoption of a general plan in state history, the Hollister City Council approved a general plan update, along with its environmental impact report (and Climate Action Plan), in late December. A mere three months later, the city council rescinded the plan and committed $431,000 to draft a new one. It’s rare for a city to rescind a general plan – especially a recently adopted one. In doing so, the city may have exposed itself to sanctions, or lawsuits, from the Department of Housing and Community Development and lawsuits from housing advocacy organizations like Californians for Homeownership. The plan was designed in part to comply with the city’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation requirements, calling for 4,163 units (including 2,350 affordable units) to be added to the city of 44,500 by 2031. At issue was the question of whether the city should add 3,300 acres to its sphere of influence, with the prospect of annexing the acreage and zoning it for relatively low-density housing. The expanded sphere of influence would have formed a rough ring around the existing city limits, representing almost a doubling of the city’s geographical size. Located in mostly rural San Benito County, Hollister is either on the far southern extent of the Bay Area commute shed — or a rural redoubt, defiantly removed from urban commotion. “We felt that expanding the sphere of influence was not the kind of smart growth the city should be engaging in,” said Jessica Wohlander, policy and advocacy associate manager with environmental group Green Foothills.

This article is brought to you courtesy of the paying subscribers toCalifornia Planning & Development Report. You can subscribe to CP&DR by clicking here. You can sign up for CP&DR's free weekly newsletter here. California Forever Envisions "Solano Foundry" Industrial ParkCalifornia Forever has reprioritized its plans for a new city in Solano County with an expanded vision that includes a 2,100-acre advanced manufacturing site known as the “Solano Foundry.” Unveiled at the Reindustrialize Summit, the Foundry is positioned as a response to the decline in domestic manufacturing capacity and is projected to generate approximately 40,000 jobs across sectors such as aerospace, robotics, logistics and energy, an increase from their original promise of 15,000 jobs. While company representatives emphasize the economic and strategic benefits of such a facility, critics contend that similar industrial uses could be accommodated within existing cities, questioning whether the initiative serves more as a promotional effort for their larger proposal. Local officials remain divided: some express support for the potential economic diversification and reduction in out-commuting, while others cite concerns about insufficient engagement with communities and the capacity of local governments to manage such large-scale development. The proposal arrives as the county considers broader planning updates, with annexation discussions paused and regulatory streamlining for manufacturing gaining traction at the state level. (See related CP&DR coverage.) Protests Put IEFD at Sacramento Railyards on HoldA planned expansion of Sacramento's Railyards Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) has been halted after local stakeholders formally protested the proposal, triggering a one-year delay under a state law that calls for for a pause if more than 50% of local residents protest. The expansion, which was intended to fund infrastructure for a new soccer stadium and mixed-use development, drew criticism for offering only 6% affordable housing despite public subsidy involvement. The expanded EIFD would have raised up to $90 million for the project, which is led by the Wilton Rancheria Tribe. Unite Here Local 49, representing hospitality workers, filed a lawsuit alleging the city failed to count protest letters and argued the deal prioritized private developers over community needs. City officials, including Mayor Kevin McCarty, reaffirmed support for the project and said alternative funding mechanisms are being pursued that would not rely on the General Fund. Sacramento Republic FC and developers maintain they will move forward with the planned 12,000-seat stadium, while opponents continue to call for greater affordability, displacement protections, and community benefits. Feds Cancel High Speed Rail Funding, State SuesThe Trump administration officially cancelled $4 billion in federal funding for Californias high-speed rail project, after a federal assessment that found "no viable path" for the project to meet the grant's 2033 deadline for limited passenger operations, and accused the High Speed Rail Authority of mismanaging the project. Long a target of public attacks by President Trump, the HSR network was originally scheduled for completion in 2020 and is around $100 billion over budget from its original cost of $33 billion. Construction is currently confined to the Central Valley, with the initial 119-mile stretch around 59% complete. The High Speed Rail Authority has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, arguing that the federal assessment was based on outdated information and the decision to revoke funds reflects "personal animus" against the project. Gov. Newsom vowed to use every avenue possible to fight the federal government's decision, citing the importance of continued progress for America's only under-construction high-speed rail system. Program Seeks to Increase Shade Coverage in Los AngelesThe USC Dornsife Public Exchange, in collaboration with the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, is launching the ShadeLA initiative. The effort aims to increase tree canopy and shade infrastructure to mitigate the dangers of climate change-driven extreme heat, while making LA safer for upcoming world sports events including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl, and the 2028 Olympics. LA County currently sees 1,500 excess emergency room visits per extreme heat day, and the number of extreme heat days is projected to increase by 31% by 2050. Shade is one of the best ways to reduce heat risk, and urban shaded areas can feel up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than in direct sun. The ShadeLA initiative aims to add new shade through trees and built structures, and preserve existing shade with science-informed decisions. CP&DR Coverage: Newport Beach Case Reaffirms Preeminence of State Law over Local Ballot InitiativesAn Orange County judge has reiterated this principle that state laws override local land-use ballot measures yet again in a ruling involving a case from Newport Beach. In 2000, voters approved the so-called “Greenlight” initiative, which requires voter approval for general plan amemdnet that would “significantly increase” the density or intensity of land uses in the city. Stop Polluting Our Newport, a longtime citizen activist group, then sued, claiming that the city had violated the Greenlight initiative by not taking the housing and land use element updates to a vote. the First District Court of Appeal laid out a two-part test to determine whether an ordinance of a charter city like Newport Beach is pre-empted by state law. SPON and NBSA argued that the city could have held a vote in advance of the state's deadline for implementation of the housing element, and that such a measure might well have passed. But, Judge McCormick wrote, “The point is not the date by which the City was required to comply with section 65583.4, or that voters might approve the amendments; it is that the City was required to comply with the statute.” Quick Hits & Updates Governor Newsom and the California Department of Housing and Development arereleasing $101 million for the rapid rebuilding of multifamily rental housing following the January 2025 fires. The funding is intended to meet the immediate housing needs of communities impacted by the fires, and will prioritize projects that are ready for construction, close to burn areas, and with a resident preference for displaced households. The money will be available through HDC's Multifamily Finance Super NOFA (Notice of Funding Availability), allowing afforable housing developers to apply for a range of funding awards through a single application. The NOFA requires all projects to be affordable for 55 years. The Port of San Diego approved a negotiating agreement with the McGary Group, a developer planning a sports and entertainment complex for the 124-acre Otay District of Chula Vista. The proposal includes three hotels with up to 700 rooms, a multi-use stadium, a 300,000 square foot retail area, two golf courses, and more. A report from Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research finds that California's homelessness crisis remains one of the worst in the country, citing insufficient shelter capacity, a shortage of housing, and weak incentives for drug treatment as key drivers of the state's high rate of homelessness, particularly unsheltered homelessness. The report emphasized that data collection and transparency has not kept up with massive new government investments, and need to be overhauled to understand the effectiveness of policies and investments. In June LA Metro ridership fell to its lowest level of the year following large-scale immigration raids throughout LA County. Overall ridership fell 13.7% from May. Following the detention without warrants of three Pasadena residents by masked immigration agents at a Metro bus stop, as well as reports of federal agents questioning riders at a Metro station, Mayor Bass and other city officials have raised concerns about federal policy making people fearful of taking public transit. The San Diego Foundation and the San Diego Association of Governments announced $14 million in funding for 10 affordable housing projects across San Diego County, which will bring 966 affordable housing units to market between December 2026 and 2030. Since 2020 home prices in San Diego County have risen by 42%, and over a third of residents spend over 30% of their income on housing. A judge has upheld Newport Beach's housing plan, rejecting lawsuits from two local groups that challenged the city's compliance with state housing mandates. The ruling supports the city's 2022 Housing Element update and its 2024 zoning and general plan amendments, which aim to accommodate 4,845 new housing units as required by the state. Mayor Joe Stapleton emphasized that the city acted within legal bounds and avoided severe penalties, including large fines and potential loss of local land-use control. Irvine City Council members are considering a plan to replace the Oak Creek Golf Club, a site protected as permanent open space by a 1988 voter-approved initiative, with 3,100 housing units, a school and parks, sparking debate over whether the preservation designation can be removed without another public vote. While the city attorney argues the council has legal authority to amend the designation without voter approval, several council members and former officials insist that changing the status should require a vote. A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California finds that while California lost 789 company headquarters between 2011 and 2021 (about 1.9% of its total) the overall impact on jobs and the state's economy is modest, as most companies retain other operations in the state and many new firms launch or close each year. Researchers suggest that the slight increase in headquarters relocating to states with lower tax and regulatory burdens points to the need for California policymakers to critically evaluate regulations for their costs and effectiveness to improve the business climate. Two UC Berkeley teams won first and second place in a national affordable housing competition with proposals to redesign a neglected housing complex in Florida, balancing cost, resilience and community needs. Team Blue's winning design, “Mango Commons,” proposed a climate-resilient, high-density development featuring green infrastructure, family-centered amenities and a path to homeownership. An engineering proposal was submitted for a plan to restore part of Tulare Lake, once the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi river. The plan calls for the purchase of 24,000 acres of land from multiple private owners and the state. The reservoir and wetlands created would help prevent floods, provide wildlife habitat, and be of cultural and spiritual significance to the Tachi Yokut Tribe, who lived around the lake before it was drained for agriculture. Via executive order, President Trump is creating the Make America Beautiful Again Commission with the goal of expanding access and promoting economic growth on public land. This is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to open protected land to activities including drilling, mining, and development. In June LA Metro ridership fell to its lowest level of the year following large-scale immigration raids throughout LA County. Overall ridership fell 13.7% from May. Following the detention without warrants of three Pasadena residents by masked immigration agents at a Metro bus stop, as well as reports of federal agents questioning riders at a Metro station, Mayor Bass and other city officials have raised concerns about federal policy making people fearful of taking public transit.

The builders remedy reform bill is moving forward in the Legislature ; though the YIMBY movement is divided over the bill and significant amendments have been made in the Senate that would decrease allowable densities and affordability requirements. Meanwhile, at least one city ; West Hollywood ; is seeking legislation that would exempt it from the builders remedy. AB 1893, carried by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, sailed through the Assembly. But at a Senate Housing Committee hearing on June 18, the bill ran into opposition from YIMBY Law and several amendments were made. The bill will now go to the Senate Local Government Committee. In the last two years the builders remedy ; which requires local governments to approve almost any project a developer proposes if they do not have a compliant housing element ; has emerged as perhaps the most controversial aspect of Californias effort to increase housing production. However, even though YIMBY law reports that 160 builders remedy projects have. Been proposed, none have so far moved through to construction, in part because cities are resisting implementation. Wicks, a strongly prohousing legislator, introduced AB 1893 earlier this year in order to put guardrails on the builders remedy and defuse some of the opposition. Among other things, the bill would decrease the percentage of affordable housing required in a builders remedy project and limit the amount of density a builders remedy project could include. (CP&DRs previous coverage of AB 1893 can be found here.) A wide range of housing and YIMBY groups have opposed the bill, while California YIMBY supports it. Even as housing and YIMBY groups oppose the bill, so do some local government advocacy groups. Although neither the League of California Cities and the California Chapter of American Planning Association have taken a position, the Calilfornia Contract Cities Association has come out against it, as did a few individual cities. The two most important changes accepted by the Senate Housing Committee were: A change in the affordability requirements. Currently, the builders remedy is allowed for projects that dedicate either 20% of the units for low-income housing or 100% for moderate-income housing. The original Wicks bill cut the 20% to 10%. The Senate version increases the 10% up to 13% -- there was considerable discussion at the committee over whether 10% or 13% was the right number ; but scales back to 10% for very low income units and 7% for extremely low income units. A change in the permitted density. Currently, the law allows any density. The original Wicks bill called for limiting density to double whats required to achieve housing element goals or triple what the local density calls for. The new bill limits the number to 50% of whats required for housing element goals (but still triple the local zoning). According to the Senate staff analysis, this equates to an increase of 15-23 units per acre in rural areas, 30 units acre in suburban areas, and 45 units per acre in metropolitan counties. The only "no” vote in the Senate Housing Committee came from Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, a Republican Realtor from the Inland Empire who asked that the bill be changed to include more consistent Housing Element review from the Department of Housing and Community Development. "I have a city who … has gone through so many different reviewers … and theyre not able to get further along because each one is so subject as to what they need to do or not do,” she said at the hearing. The law firm Allen Matkins published an excellent summary of the current state of the bill here. Meanwhile, West Hollywood plans to take an innovative approach to dealing with the builders remedy issue. Cities resistant to new housing ; ranging from La Cañada Flintridge to Beverly Hills to Redondo Beach ; have simply refused to process builders remedy applications and/or fought developers ferociously in court. Huntington Beach simply declared itself exempt from the builders remedy, thus drawing a lawsuit from the state. By contrast, West Hollywood ; which has been designated as a prohousing city by HCD ; will seek state legislation specifically exempting it from builders remedy. HCD declared West Hollywoods Housing Element in compliance with state law in 2023, but that did not stop developer Leo Pustilnikov ; who is in builders remedy battles with both Beverly Hills and Redondo Beach ; from filing builders remedy applications in WeHo as well. "I completely understand why the builders remedy exists and why the Legislature created it, but I dont understand why the builders remedy should have any applicability to the City of West Hollywood" longtime councilmember John Heilman said at a recent council meeting. With 35,000 residents in 1.9 square miles, West Hollywood is one of the densest cities in the western United States. According to the Department of Finance Demographics Research Unit, the city increased its housing stock by 6% between 2010 and 2024.

The passage of AB 130 and SB 131 – the budget trailer bills from last summer – has shifted the landscape for planning in California in new ways. And although the impetus for these shifts came from the state’s desire to encourage more housing, there are pros and cons for both local governments and housing developers from the deal.