There must have been something in the water affecting women in the early 1960s, and it wasn't just DDT. This year, planners have celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of a great book, but it is not just one book or one author who deserves celebration. While eggshells collapsed, killing new life in the nest, three women--speaking for the countless other women (and men) who had grown weary of the false promises of the 1950s--issued crucial, intertwined dissents through equal parts activism and prose. That the planner is the most obscure among the three is unfortunate, but, ultimately, her impact may be no less profound than the other members of her sorority. Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan, and Jane Jacobs tore at the social fabric of America at the very moment when the country's own global dominance was more assured than ever. They each published their pathbreaking works, in such rapid succession that the sequence hardly matters: Jacobs published Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961, having begun writing it in 1958; Silent Spring followed in September 1962; and The Feminine Mystique completed the cycle--from city to forest to bedroom--five months later. Though Jacobs' ink was dry by the time The Feminine Mystique went to press, it's entirely likely that each was loosing her fury upon her Smith-Corona at exactly the same time, bound by common ribbons of outrage and lucidity. I am not old enough to know whether anybody at the time marveled at this coincidence. But through the distance of 50 years, it seems that they arose at a remarkable moment. So close were their publication dates, and so original was each book, that surely none can be considered an influence on the others: they were, all together, products of both their time and extraordinary contemplation. E.O. Wilson wrote that Carson "delivered a galvanic jolt to public consciousness;" that Friedan did the same is indisputable. Whether many people beyond lower Manhattan knew of Jacobs is less clear. A casual reading of The Feminine Mystique, Silent Spring, and Death and Life... suggests that each relied on what can only be described as an abiding faith in perceptiveness, observation, and simple common sense -- the type of common sense that social science often attempts to discredit. Each too spun literature out of dreary subjects: murderous chemicals, urban blight, ennui. All three relied focused not of the esoteric, learned, and complicated but instead of the achingly familiar: baked goods, birdsongs, stoops. They mix analysis with storytelling. Jacobs describes ideal streetcorners just as Carson invokes a pastoral ideal before burying it in invisible toxins. Friedan reveals the shocking complexity of the kitchen table upon which she herself served those fatal meals. They reaffirmed the beauty -- unquantifiable, nearly indescribable, but eminently palpable -- that had been forgotten in the aesthetic cataclysm of the 1950s, and then they painstakingly explained what had happened and what could be done. They exposed the ego of the builder, the thoughtlessness of the industrialist, and the despair of the so-called housewife -- things that turn into nonsense if you try to enter them into a spreadsheet. That's why each of their nonfiction tomes qualifies as literature: not because they aren't based on fact (which they are) but rather because they, like any other great work of art, attempt to drive at truth. Though they chose different images, they all wrote about the same thing. Carson's concern for nature echoes Jacobs' concern for the built environment. The lifestyle that Friedan describes is the almost-inevitable result of the urban form that Jacobs laments. Both Jacobs and Carson (not to mention Friedan herself) are shining examples of the types of women that Friedan believed all women could and should be. They are to Friedan what the poet Whitman was to essayist Emerson: the embodiment, in a country that so much enjoys speaking of its greatness, of unspeakably great hopes. How these particular truths all erupted in the span of two years is as delicious a question as history ever will provoke. As a historical coincidence, the ascendency of Friedan, Carson, and Jacobs ranks up there -- in all seriousness -- with the question of how Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target all came into being in the same year, thus exacerbating to this very day the problems that all three women railed against. (That year happened to be 1962.) The great postwar sigh of relief that blew over the country in the late 1940s brought with it the toxins that would become the problems of the 1960s. The Baby Boom, Levittown, and even the chemical industry all seemed benign in their inception. Prior to 1919, women's most immediate goal had a name--suffrage--and therefore was easier to combat. But not until the end of the 1950s did women's problems, and so many others that arose in the years following World War II, reach critical mass. What burst forth in the early 1960s was building up throughout the 1950s. It's no wonder that the regimented "Organization Man" ethos of 1950s business culture found foils in independent, iconoclastic, literary women perhaps oppressed yet unbound by the hierarchy. Moreover, the task of exposing the defects of 1950s America may have fallen to women if only because many men were invested in the status quo, what with their black suits, skinny ties, and slide rules. They were not inclined to incite revolution -- they were, in many ways, the ones against whom the revolution was incited. While corporations hummed along, Friedan, Jacobs, and Carson were simply the first to look around them, realize how deeply the problems had sunk in, and then air their realizations publicly. They were quite unlike, for instance, Martin Luther King, whose own protests of the early 1960s trace their lineage literally to the Old Testament; the injustices that he fought against and died for were manifest equally to all who suffered them and all who did not. Betty Friedan launched feminism. Rachel Carson launched environmentalism. They tower over their fields like few other leaders -- male or female -- do. But, if you ask plenty of people involved with urban planning, Jacobs' name belongs atop the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, and the Space Needle all stacked atop each other. In fact, within planning circles, she is more powerful than ever, as her ideas have made that generational trek from radicalism to budding orthodoxy. In 2009 the urban planning web portal Planetizen.com (whose parent company hosts CP&DR's website) conducted a poll, albeit an unscientific one, of history's 100 "greatest urban thinkers." Jacobs won with 6,000 votes out of 14,000 cast. Contemporary architect and planner Andres Duany came in runner-up and yet received only one-fifth as many votes. And, even so, a piece of each of his votes belongs to Jacobs, since Duany's New Urbanist movement is derived directly and unapologetically from Jacobs' ideas. Today, nearly every urban plan that makes headlines can trace its lineage back to Jacobs' promotion of pedestrianism, mixed land uses, community cohesion, and local economies. Yet Jacobs herself has no -ism. Jacobs' relative obscurity owes itself to several reasons, not the least of which is the obscurity of her field. Nearly four billion humans live in cities entirely unaware of the forces that create those cities. Being the most local of political pursuits, planning is, for the most part, a leaderless profession. It relies on the principle that what is good for San Juan Capistrano is not necessarily good for San Juan Bautista. There is also the problem of words. Protest though she might, even her impassioned literature cannot in and of itself effect change when the built environment is at stake. A reader can read the Feminine Mystique, or even just the first chapter, and join Friedan's movement instantly. Likewise, environmentalism lends itself to individual, and sometimes instant, behavioral changes. In Carson's case, it required the abandonment of DDT: a politically challenging but logistically simple gesture that culminated in its outright ban in the United States in 1972, only ten years after Carson brought its evils to light. But what do you do when the enemy is set -- literally -- in stone? Like many other revolutionaries, Jacobs wrote sometimes in militaristic terms. With an eye as much towards the cannon ball as the wrecking ball, Jacobs abandons diplomacy by the fifth word of Death and Life: "This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding." Although Jacobs' real-life conflict with New York's dictatorial "master builder" Robert Moses was a mighty contest and a great story, Jacobs' real enemy was not a person, and anger would have gotten her so far. She hews to the the inspirational in the very next sentence: "It is also, and mostly, an attempt to introduce new principles of city planning and rebuilding, different and even opposite from those now taught in everything from schools of architecture and planning to the Sunday supplements and women's magazines." Jacobs spoke for a genuinely marginalized group: people who wanted to live in dense, diverse, stimulating vibrant cities. But because the urban instinct is not an immutable characteristic of either individuals or groups, these people do not define a protected class, and they have no human antagonist or oppressor. Instead, they have a system, so dispersed and purposeful that it seems almost to have no agency or leadership of its own, even as "whole communities are torn apart and sown to the winds with a reaping of cynicism, resentment, and despair that must be seen and heard to be believed." What Jacobs fought against, in the 1950s and even today, was progress itself: progress as defined by an elite few. Few concepts yield so many definitions as Modernism does, but for the purpose of Jacobs' activism it entailed the use of engineering, technology, and large-scale industry to alter and expand cities to accommodate the automobile; aesthetically it favors formal efficiency, "honest" use of industrial materials, and lack of ornamentation. Ideologically, Modernism is bound up in the curious fixation with "progress" that prevailed in the middle of the 20th century. At the time, progress achieved an untenably narrow definition that loosely correlated with the notion that the human condition could always be improved upon, typically through science, technology, and rationality. Jacobs' objection to Modernism was no esoteric academic exercise, of the sort that plays out at conferences, swaddled in obtuse theory and excess syllables. She despised Modernism with perfect clarity--the sort of clarity to which Modernist design often lays claim. "Human progress," as Dr. King points out in his letter from a Birmingham jail, "never rolls in on wheels of inevitability." Indeed, if you ask Jacobs, it does not roll in on wheels at all. Just as Carson heard the silence, Jacobs needed little more than the halo of a streetlamp in order to view the failure that was so prevalent in New York City and just about everywhere else. She saw that "all the art and science of city planning is helpless to stem decay--and the spiritlessness that precedes decay--in ever more massive swatches of cities." Jacobs was, perhaps, the first leader in history ever to lead a movement against progress without being branded an anarchist or nihilist. She ascribed, however, to a heretical notion: the old was better than the new. By the time Moses proposed the evisceration of lower Manhattan, "progress" had long overshot its mark (or missed its exit, if you will). The rest of the story is history doubling back on itself. Starting in 1968 with the Jacobs-led defeat of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, countless similar instances of would-be urbanicide were also halted. Since then, some highways have been disassembled and many ghastly public housing projects have been demolished. Formalized in the late 1990s, a wholesale movement to promote historically inspired neighborhoods has arisen in the form of New Urbanism and other ideologies, almost all of which openly proclaim their allegiance to Jacobs, who moved to Toronto in 1969 and, until her death in 2006, engaged in virtually no more rabble-rousing as she instead wrote several more excellent books. For the purpose of today's progressive urbanism, Life and Death did all the leading, and it did so anachronistically, drawing planners and architects back in time to a moment when cities were built at a human scale and with human pleasures in mind. Jacobs led first and foremost by reminding readers that rationality -- and its co-conspirator, paternalism -- cannot constantly arrive at better and better answers. A world insane enough to, say, deny black people their basic human rights surely cannot be neatly tamed by freeways, subdivisions, and glass towers. Though Jacobs' her civic activism was based on the ideas that she articulated in Death and Life, the book was not a template for how to get what she wanted. Rather, it rather a vision of what she wanted. So, while Jacobs' two personas -- author and activist -- lend credibility to each other, they easily could have existed in each other's absence. New York is probably glad that they did not. Though Jacobs probably is not a household name even today, she touched the lives of millions of people whose cities have been planned with her ideas in mind, and those numbers are growing. By now her eminence within the field is more than complete, but her veneration followed a slow process--possibly for the better, given the limits of veneration. To this day her goals are realized through countless dispersed, time-consuming, excruciating battles that take place over and over again and are fought by intimates, not by larger-than-life demagogues that sometimes pass for leaders. Indeed, the revolution that Jacobs incited is condemned to take place at a nearly glacial pace. Building things takes long enough. How long it takes to not build things sounds like a calculation that only a Zen master could perform. Try putting that in your general plan update. Then again, it's still easier to un-build a city than to resurrect an extinct species. Though the American population is rooted in cities, the vast bulk of American literature that speaks of landscape does so of the natural landscape. Cities hardly existed when the early American novelists and short-story writers -- Irving, Hawthorne, Cooper -- were writing. The primacy of nature in American culture and consciousness was cemented by Thoreau and Emerson. Since their time, everyone from Mark Twain to John Steinbeck to Cormac McCarthy has reveled in the non-urban landscape, thus leading America through road trips, Frontier idylls, suburban disaffection rather than inquiries into back alleys and bursting subway cars. But for everyone who lives in cities and believes in what they offer -- including a way for Americans to achieve Carson's goal of leaving nature alone and a venue in which to achieve Friedan's goal of self-actualization -- Jane Jacobs, even 50 years later, remains the leader who, more so than any other American, gave voice to their desires and a nest for their dreams.

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. Indio and Imperial County Impose Moratoriums on Data Centers The Imperial County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a new 45-day interim moratorium on approving data center facilities in unincorporated areas. This comes after controversy surrounding the Imperial Data Center project, for which an environmental impact report was required and proved evidence of potentially significant effects involving water quality, air quality, hazardous materials, fire safety, emergency response, services, land use, and pressure on agricultural resources. In the nearby Coachella Valley, The Indio City Council approved an extension on their moratorium on data centers and other similar high-intensity computing warehouses. Initially approved in June for 45 days, it will now be in effect through October 16, 2027. After the June ban, city council directed staff to include options to extend the moratorium and review alternatives for a permanent ban. The city then identified issues with water consumption, electrical demand, greenhouse gas emissions, noise and air quality as reasons for their continued ban. (See related CP&DR coverage.) Feds Renege on Funding to Protect Endangered Joshua Trees The U.S. Department of the Interior has blocked more than $25 million in funding for over 130 agreements that were already formed with outside partners, including 10 agreements worth nearly $1.2 million in Joshua Tree National Park. According to the Center for Western Priorities, Joshua Tree funding would have supported the hiring of at least 16 people to protect the area, including $41,000 for a fire preparedness vegetation specialist, over $339,000 for collection and planting of native seeds, $108,000 for a youth conservation crew, and over $83,000 for youth biological technicians to ensure efficacy of road and construction projects. The Interior Department has claimed that it blocked the agreements because the partner groups work against administration priorities. The Center for Western Priorities also tracked about 1,500 projects, many previously approved, that the park service moved to a new “low priority” list this year. Four were at Joshua Tree, including fire pit and picnic table purchases and exhibit replacements. The funding withdrawal particularly threatens the Joshua tree, already burdened by development, wildfire, and climate change. (See related CP&DR coverage.) Los Angeles Experiments with Program to Fill Downtown Storefronts The City of Los Angeles has launched the Vacant to Vibrant program, which aims to turn empty storefronts into small businesses as part of a larger downtown revitalization plan. The $500,000 in funding directed toward this initiative comes from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and coupled with AB 1679 and AB 2418 aim to create a pathway to more easily fill vacant spaces with new businesses. Artist Charlie Alston is among new tenants in the Historic Core neighborhood, opening his studio in a building that was previously vacant for ten years. The Central City Association’s non-profit, Downtown Works, will direct funds to connect property owners with small businesses to fill vacancies in downtown, which currently generates 30% of L.A. 's revenue. American Canyon Moves toward Controversial Annexation The Local Agency Formation Commission of Napa County (LAFCO) approved the addition of the 282-acre Hess/Laird lands to the spheres of influence of American Canyon and the American Canyon Fire Protection District, moving the city a step closer to someday annexing the property. The request came from the property owners, as the land is targeted for development and for a roughly three-mile section of a Highway 29 relief route. The plan still faces legal challenges from Watson Ranch developer Terrence McGrath, who sued through his companies American Canyon I LLC and Napa Valley Ruins & Gardens LLC, arguing the city is expanding its urban limits without required voter approval, environmental review or pre-zoning. Opponents of the development argue that a CEQA review should come first and that the city needs clear plans for water, wastewater, roads and financing. The county rezoned the land from agriculture to industry in 2024, and earlier this year the county and city approved an agreement supporting eventual annexation, including a property tax split and a shift of some state-mandated housing obligations to the city. CP&DR Coverage: Highlights of the 21st Century Road To Housing Act The 21st Century Road to Housing Act – hailed as a major bipartisan accomplishment – took effect on July 11 over President Trump’s objections but not his veto. Because of the federal government's limited role in housing production, it’s not likely to have a transformational effect; however, several provisions could be important to the planning and development community in California as the state and its cities continue to grapple with the state’s housing affordability crisis. Key provisions include: funding for jurisdictions that have increased their housing supply; guidelines and best practices for zoning reform; provisions designed to streamline project approval under the National Environmental Policy Act; and a 10% penalty in Community Development Block Grant funding if minimum housing production numbers are not met. Quick Hits & Updates Esmeralda, the proposed 605-home development on the site of a long-shuttered sawmill in Cloverdale, a Sonoma County city of about 9,000 people, will face further council vote in November. The city council was expected to vote on whether to advance the project on Oct. 7, but debate and stakeholder impact at that meeting became so overwhelming, lasting over five hours, that the council opted to defer the vote. (See relate CP&DR coverage.) The Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission unanimously voted to approve the Vista Lucia Reorganization, clearing the way for the City of Gonzales to annex the property. The development was anticipated in Gonzales’ 2010 General Plan and calls for up to 3,498 homes and apartments, three school sites, 79 acres of parks and pathways, and neighborhood commercial areas. Pleasanton City Council approved a pre-annexation and development agreement for a roughly 30-acre Arroyo Lago site in East Pleasanton, between Pleasanton and Livermore. The project would bring 189 single-family homes and 48 deed-restricted junior accessory dwelling units to land east of Valley Avenue and Busch Road. The city moved to annex it after Alameda County supervisors approved a larger county version in February. A new poll finds a plurality of Bay Area adults supports the November Regional Transit Measure, a sales tax increase meant to prevent deep service cuts at agencies including BART, Caltrain, AC Transit and Muni. The Embold Research survey of 1,801 adults across five counties found 48% in favor, 34% opposed and 18% undecided. Support was strongest among adults under 35 (69%) and renters (60%), while 47% of homeowners opposed it, as did 46% of those ages 50 to 64. An application for a mixed-use development proposal near Carlsbad Village was withdrawn after the city questioned whether former tenants of the eight-unit building slated for demolition had received the notices and relocation assistance required by the Housing Crisis Act. Rincon Homes planned to redevelop an either-unit residential building and realty office into 33 condominiums, including five affordable units, 3,419 square feet of commercial space, and 42 covered parking spaces in a four-story building. The company tried to fix the issue and said the state housing department (HCD) signaled it was satisfactory, but the city worried an approval might not survive a legal challenge. The head of the Local Agency Formation Commission of Napa County, which oversees jurisdictional boundaries for local governments, was removed from his position after being previously placed on administrative leave following a performance evaluation on Aug. 27. The agency has not provided a reason for the removal from a position which Freeman served in since 2015, after joining the agency in 2008 as an analyst. The move comes as LAFCO weighs two annexations of unincorporated land into American Canyon totaling nearly 400 acres. San Bernardino County supervisors approved the Bloomington Park Specific Plan, which would add 2.1 million square feet of warehouses to the rural community, over the objections of many residents. The project calls for three warehouses ranging from 383,000 square feet to 1 million square feet, plus a truck trailer lot. Supervisors originally approved it in 2022, but a judge ordered the environmental study set aside in 2024 after critics sued over issues such as air quality. According to a new report, the Trump-backed Oakland coal terminal could ship about 13.2 million tons of coal a year, roughly triple the volume in the project's original environmental review, and would store it in two open-air bunkers rather than the enclosed facility developers had promised. The report, commissioned by the Rural Utah Infrastructure Coalition, which comprises eight Utah counties considering investing about $43 million into the terminal to receive Utah coal, makes no mention of covered rail cars, and puts the cost at $430 million to $625 million versus the Energy Department's $231 million estimate, with a 53-month timeline that would push exports past 2028. Santa Monica's economic downturn has been steeper than in peer cities like Beverly Hills and Culver City, with big drops in retail sales and tourism. Visitors are still at only 58% of pre-pandemic levels and the city maintains persistent commercial vacancies. Citywide counts on crime and homelessness are relatively stable, but both are heavily concentrated downtown, where serious violence has roughly doubled since the early 2010s.

A recent appellate case declaring that a lot-line adjustment was not ministerial has been published, meaning it can now be used as precedent in other cases.

An appellate court has upheld San Francisco’s decision to use streamlined environmental review for a proposed housing project that incorporates an historic library, essentially upholding the city’s use of tiering off of its housing element environmental impact report. The ruling is unpublished and therefore cannot be used as precedent in other cases.

The question posed in one panel at the California Chapter, American Planning Association, conference last week was whether the California Environmental Quality Act should live or die. Everybody had a paddle – not to swat each other, but to vote yes or no. And despite the fact that most of the people in the room make their living as CEQA practitioners, the vote was surprisingly close.

In a long and complicated ruling, an appellate court has ruled that UC Santa Cruz properly dealt with the question of student and faculty/staff housing in the environmental impact report for its 2021 Long-Range Development Plan.

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. There are still some parts of California where an “infill summit” would be on par with a meeting of the Communist Party or the Puppy-Hater Society. Downtown Los Angeles is not one of those places, and, thanks in part to a decade of housing legislation, now is a pretty good time to promote missing middle, adaptive reuse, ground-up high-density, and all sorts of redevelopment designed to enable more Californians to occupy less of California. The recent California Infill Summit, sponsored by the Council of Infill Builders, entailed elements of celebration, anxiety, and optimism: celebration for legislative victories and increasing public support; anxiety for the lethargic pace of development today; and optimism for the new version of urban California that could emerge if at least a few stars align. Which stars? We’ll get to that. Here, in no particular order, are some of the summit’s highlights: Party Time: The official drink of the summit was a whisky-forward concoction called the “Builder’s Remedy” -- appropriate because the cocktail hour was sponsored by law firm Rand Paster Nelson, which has developed a robust practice of informing cities when they may have violated the Housing Accountability Act. Conference organizer Mott Smith described the drink as “a little like a Manhattan.” No place in California is going to resemble Gotham any time soon. But, high rise projects are being foisted upon Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and other reluctant jurisdictions (that nonetheless did not manage to produce certified housing elements in time)--all of which house plenty of existing residents who probably love visiting New York City. Beyond the implicit jab at those tardy jurisdictions, the more important point is that infill builders are capable of levity. Density equals fun: restaurants, bars, busy sidewalks, civic events, thriving businesses, and all sorts of people dancing the proverbial sidewalk ballet. That’s more than you can say for the slow-growth scolds at homeowners associations and certain statewide advocacy groups that fulminate about the slightest attempt to violate the sanctity of single-family neighborhoods. Many of them have been at it for a half-century or more. Maybe it’s time to lighten up? Power to the People: I don’t know how developers in other jurisdictions feel, but, in Los Angeles, developers’ Public Enemy No. 1 is the Department of Water and Power, the storied, clunky, and often overpriced city-owned utility. Developers frequently report that, even after the last faucet has been installed and lightbulb screwed in, DWP takes its sweet time getting the power connected. They also impose onerous regulations, such as requiring unsightly transformers to be placed in accessible locations, taking up precious real estate, to enable crews to make repairs every few decades. Granted, DWP isn’t in the development business. But, you get the sense that the agency has zero civic pride and zero sense of urgency. That might be changing. The most astonishing presentation came from David Hanson. Merely showing up was brave enough. Folksy and self-effacing -- in a way that you enjoy but don’t necessarily trust -- with a ringmaster mustache and a Louisiana twang, Hanson gave a rousing promise that DWP was going to change its ways and no longer be the enemy of development. If he makes good on it, Los Angeles’s developers will nominate him for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Mayoral Race: The Los Angeles mayoral race is down to two candidates, with the third left to his psychic crystals, grievances, and hotel bills. Both were invited to the summit. One showed up. That candidate spoke enthusiastically about development housing and the general YIMBY agenda. That candidate is, according to at least one poll, up five points on her opponent. Coincidence….? (This candidate’s major sticking point with the real estate crowd is her support for aggressive renter protections.) The candidate may find inspiration in a sitting mayor, San Diego’s Todd Gloria, who received an award. Despite its traditional conservatism, San Diego is arguably the most pro-housing big city in the state, with new policies and upbeat rhetoric contributing to some 31,000 permits issued during his tenure. In this case, it’s the free-market, pro-business form of conservatism that seems to be winning over the “let’s go back to the 1950s” version. Missing in (In)action: The Infill Summit was in Los Angeles, but it was not of Los Angeles. Los Angeles, the largest city in its region. Los Angeles, considered, in more than one era, the most ambitious, dynamic city in the world. Los Angeles, the archetypal city of the 20th century. It barely registered. Not a single elected official, commissioner, or city staff member spoke. Not a single Los Angeles project was highlighted. The city’s in-progress “Missing Middle L.A.” program got nary a word. At best, Los Angeles was the void against which the stars shined: Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Culver City. The nation’s second-largest city thus fades into irrelevance, at least as far as housing development is concerned. Shoupiest Idea: Parking reformers and infill developers are kindred spirits. From the university and school that brought us the late Donald Shoup comes a new approach to parking: parking impact fees. Devised by UCLA Prof. Adam Millard-Bell, it encourages cities to stop messing around with imperfect and sometimes arbitrary parking minimums and maximums and instead simply make developers pay impact fees for each parking space. Millard-Bell suggests that the fee could be revenue- and-expense neutral if it replaces transportation impact fees. Developers would thereby be discouraged from providing excessive parking but still allowed to provide it as needed. Biggest Dud: Several of the biggest names in the YIMBY movement, including Brian Hanlon, declared Senate Bill 9, which facilitates lot splits and development of duplexes, to be essentially dead in the water. That’s a surprise, since legislators fought hard for it, and many supporters declared that the Age of the Duplex, and even the double-duplex, was upon us. But, it’s proving hard to use, and neighbors in single-family areas hate it. Brian Hanlon admitted, “we knew SB 9 wouldn’t do anything. We fought like hell (to pass it) so the NIMBYs wouldn’t win.” Housing is a blood sport. Hanlon basically said that homeowners should build ADUs and call it a day. The other big dud is SB 35, mainly because, speakers claimed, its union requirements do not pencil out for mid-rise buildings. But, the infill crowd is bullish on the Starter Home Revitalization Act of 2021 (updated in 2024 via AB 130 and SB 1123), which streamlines permitting for developments up to 10 units -- prime missing middle. Wish List: Having gotten much of what they wanted, the infill developers still have a wish list for the next governor. Needless to say, they want construction defect reform so that development of condos -- the quintessential form of infill housing -- can resume. They want to reduce transfer taxes and impact fees, especially on ADU’s. The theory goes: if you want more of something, you shouldn’t charge for it. My optimistic read on these wishes -- were Gov. Becerra or Gov. Hilton -- is that hope is not lost. Every developer understands that the state’s economic conditions, particularly the cost of labor and materials, will continue to be challenging. But, with some legislative relief, some of them may see enough daylight in their pro formas to break ground. Indeed, for many infill developers, building and, particularly, city-building, is a labor of love. They want to build, and breaking even might just be enough. Aesthetics: Were the infill revolution to really gain momentum, my biggest concern centers on something the summit did not discuss: aesthetics. Much of the infill housing that has been developed since at least the Great Recession has been, if not ugly, then, at least, not enlightened. They are designed for economy rather than beauty or placemaking. That usually translates to hulking six-story lumps that occupy half a city block. There are a million ways to achieve the same densities with more inventive design -- or, indeed, less inventive design. Developers can look to Europe and call it a day. My fear is that we’ll get an explosion of these buildings and squander the chance to create more pleasant, liveable streetscapes while, at the same time, giving opponents even more ammunition. (I’m optimistic about single-stair reform, which will give architects much more leeway, especially in smaller buildings.) Let’s face it: no place in California -- not even Santa Monica, which has a new pro-development city manager and a slew of proposed projects, or Beverly Hills, which can somehow support $10 billion ultraluxury projects but barely a unit of affordable housing -- is going to turn into Manhattan any time soon. At least we can comfort ourselves with some Builder’s Remedies in the meantime.

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. San Diego County, Bay Area Contemplate Transit Service Cuts if Funding Dries Up San Diego's Metropolitan Transit System released a draft proposal that would eliminate 33 of its 95 bus routes, ending service to SeaWorld, Cabrillo National Monument, Tierrasanta and parts of Mission Hills. Another 29 routes would see notable reductions, and all four trolley lines would run less frequently than the current 15-minute intervals. The plan is meant to close annual deficits of $100 million to $150 million starting in 2030, paired with fare hikes which took effect on October 1. About 36% of riders would face reduced frequency and 21% would lose service entirely, though officials say only about 3% would have no transit option within a quarter-mile. Rush-hour delays on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge could more than double if voters reject a Regional Transit Measure and San Francisco’s Proposition H, a separate parcel tax to fund Muni, a recent study found. Conducted by San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR), the study projects peak delays rising by 33 minutes westbound in the morning and 43 minutes eastbound in the evening. Eastbound afternoon delays at the Caldecott Tunnel would grow from 13 to 40 minutes, and analysis also projects worsening congestion along Interstate 580, Interstate 680 and U.S. 101. If Bay Area transit agencies cannot secure additional funding beyond 2027, contingency plans include BART closing up to 15 stations and ending service at 9 p.m., AC Transit potentially losing 200 workers and cutting hours, and Caltrain closing more than one-third of its stations. State Progresses Toward “30 x 30” Conservation Goals A new progress report shows California is on track to exceed its “30 x 30” goal of conserving 30% of its land by 2030. When the state began tracking conservation four years ago, conserved lands totaled about 23.8% and coastal waters 16.2%. In the past year over 1 million acres of land were added, however, the state has been slower to conserve coastal waters. As of the most recent report, the state conserves about 27.1% of lands but only 21.9% of coastal waters. The state has invested nearly $1.3 billion in nature-based solutions over four years, and the $10 billion Climate Bond approved by voters in 2024 has already directed $5.8 billion toward priorities including parks, coastal resilience and wildfire resilience. Still about 78% of conserved land is federal, while the state manages roughly 10%. The conservation efforts come at a time of federal assault on public lands including efforts to sell off public lands to developers, challenges to endangered species law and public lands management. Other recent victories include fast-tracking more than 500 projects, restoring 400,000 acres of habitat, improving 1,300 miles of streams and saving around $12 million in permitting costs. Los Angeles Disburses Funds from “Mansion Tax” The City of Los Angeles will spend $466.6 million in affordable housing funding largely sourced from Measure ULA, which imposes a 4% or 5.5% tax on L.A. property sales above $5.4 million. This funding is the largest single pool in the city housing department’s history, topping last year’s $387 million. Applications for the funds open in Oct to developers, nonprofits, land trusts and other organizations, and recipients will be announced in February. Last year $360.9 million went to 80 projects including 1,288 new affordable units and preservation of 3,713 units around downtown L.A., South L.A. and Koreatown. This year, $123 million will go toward multifamily affordable housing with 40+ units, and $115 million will be devoted toward low-income housing tax credits. The remainder of the money will be distributed toward other housing efforts, including $104 million for alternative models of new construction, $38 million toward stabilizing existing affordable housing, $32 million for purchase and restoration of affordable units, $27 million for preserving existing units and $25 million for preserving units facing financial challenges. (See related CP&DR coverage.) CP&DR Coverage: State Sues Five Cities Over Housing Elements, While Others Fall In Line Fifteen jurisdictions were issued warning letters back in March, most of which adopted housing elements and got them approved by the state Department of Housing and Community Development. However, the state has sued five jurisdictions for housing element violations, three of which received warning letters but failed to comply. Of these jurisdictions, two (Ridgecrest, Calexico) do not have approved housing elements, while the other three (Half Moon Bay, Costa Mesa, Turlock) have not finished the required rezoning. In all five lawsuits, the state is asking the courts to give the cities a 120-day timeframe to complete their housing element work and suspend their non-residential permitting authority. In addition, a judge could fine the cities for non-compliance. Some local officials were critical of the state’s action, saying it blindsided them as they are working through housing element issues with HCD. Quick Hits & Updates The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) of Monterey County has unanimously approved a 3,500-home development in Gonzales. The Vista Lucia project will add 771 acres to the city including 79 acres of parks, three news schools, and 3,498 homes over a 30-year period in four phases, doubling the number of homes in the city. Nonprofit housing developer CHISPA is named as the developer of 211 affordable housing units included in Vista Lucia’s first phase. The city of Eureka is asking property owners to volunteer sites for housing as part of its 2027-2035 Housing Element Update, since the city must show the state it can accommodate 1,740 new homes and has little undeveloped land to point to. Owners of any type of project, from an ADU to a lot split to a full development, can sign up for free with no obligation to build, and enrolled sites get CEQA review coverage under SB 131, GIS-based permitting streamlining, and a designated city liaison to ensure a smooth process. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will remain as LA’s chief authority on its homelessness response, with access to millions in federal dollars to disburse among service providers after the Ninth Circuit largely denied a Trump administration appeal. The preliminary injunction that blocks HUD's June suspension of federal funding will be kept in place. LAHSA has said it will stop serving as lead agency next year, with the city and county both seeking to take over its roles. A new report from the Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst's Office identified 147 of San Francisco's vacant lots, parking garages, and underused buildings that could potentially be redeveloped for housing. The publicly owned properties list is preliminary and has yet to screen zoning, environmental, or historic restrictions. Many of the sites are also still in active city use. A Land Use and Transportation Committee hearing has been called for early November to explore how departments can use their real estate to help close the gap with the state's 82,000-home by 2031 mandate. The state has purchased over 600 acres near Pionteertown in what climate projections describe as one of Southern California’s most promising future habitats for Joshua trees. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is currently working with the Native American Land Conservancy (NALC) and California Native American tribes to develop plans for the property’s long-term protection and conservancy. The purchase is the second funded by the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Fund, which aims to protect the tree as state research projects that much of the tree’s habitat will become unsuitable by the end of the 21st century due to changes in climate conditions. The agency’s total conserved habitat has now surpassed 900 acres, with another 2,500 acres under consideration. Nine community organizations in California's Central Valley have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the High-Speed Rail Authority opposing a plan to move the Merced station about four miles southeast of downtown to an undeveloped, unincorporated area near Highway 99. Supporters of the move say it would speed construction, potentially save at least $1 billion, and offer easier access to Yosemite. The letter's signers argue it would violate a state law requiring the station to be in Merced's population center, and suggest sprawl and harm to downtown businesses that invested based on the original plan. The head of the Local Agency Formation Commission of Napa County, which oversees jurisdictional boundaries for local governments, was removed from his position after being previously placed on administrative leave following a performance evaluation on Aug. 27. The agency has not provided a reason for the removal from a position which Freeman served in since 2015, after joining the agency in 2008 as an analyst. The move comes as LAFCO weighs two annexations of unincorporated land into American Canyon totaling nearly 400 acres. San Bernardino County supervisors approved the Bloomington Park Specific Plan, which would add 2.1 million square feet of warehouses to the rural community, over the objections of many residents. The project calls for three warehouses ranging from 383,000 square feet to 1 million square feet, plus a truck trailer lot. Supervisors originally approved it in 2022, but a judge ordered the environmental study set aside in 2024 after critics sued over issues such as air quality.

Gov. Gavin has signed almost all of the important planning and development bills the Legislature sent him a month ago – and vetoing the one that would have rolled back part of last year’s CEQA reform.

The battle over redevelopment of the Sunset Magazine headquarters in Menlo Pack has reached fever pitch, with the city refusing to back down in its resistance to the project and the developer filing a lawsuit asking that the city be hit with at least $6.6 million in fines.

The following awards were announced October 4 at the conference of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association, held in Los Angeles. "Excellence" is the higher award; both awards were not given in all categories. Academic Excellence Building the Planning Pipeline - Long Beach City College Urban Planning Associate of Science Degree, Long Beach City College & Long Beach Community Design Center Merit Lost Hours, Lost Opportunities: The Toll of Extreme Travel on Lower Income Communities in the San Fernando Valley, Alejandra Rios Gutierrez Advancing Diversity and Social Change in Honor of Paul Davidoff Excellence Advancing Agricultural Land Equity in California, Recommendations of the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force Merit Zone In: City Core, City of Long Beach and Team Communications Initiative and Outreach Excellence Ride, Walk, & Roll, Orange County, Latino Health Access Daniel Burnham Award for Comprehensive Plan Excellence Los Angeles New Zoning Code: A Dynamic, Digital-First Framework, City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning Merit City of Bellflower Parks and Recreation Master Plan, City of Bellflower, KTUA Planning and Landscape Architecture Grassroots Initiative Excellence Safe Travels in Nyeland Acres, Nyeland Promise Implementation Excellence Los Angeles Legacy Business Program, City of Los Angeles Community Investment Department Merit Bakersfield Community Land Trust Planning Excellence Excellence Family Zoning Plan, San Francisco Planning Department Merit MEA Guidelines for Archaeological and Tribal Cultural Resources, City of Santa Barbara Resilience and Sustainability Excellence Big Basin Redwoods State Park Facilities Management Plan, California State Parks Merit Los Angeles County Heat Action Plan, Los Angeles County Chief Sustainability Office, Environmental Science Associates, AECOM, Paradigm Transportation Planning Excellence Cudahy Together: A Strategic Plan for a Thriving Community, City of Cudahy and Team Merit Freeway Ramp Active Mobility Enhancement Study, Caltrans District 12 Urban Design Excellence Citywide Corridors Plan, City of Jurupa Valley Merit Olympus Park, City of Encinitas and RRM Design Group Planning Pioneer Award James Rojas Planner Emeritus (PEN) Honor Awards Southern Margaret Moore SohagiAl Zelinka, FAICP, CMSM John Keho, AICPAnna Pehoushek, FAICP Northern Charles S. Bryant, AICP Laurel Prevetti Distinguished Service Award Michael P. Cass, APA California Northern Distinguished Contribution Award Geoffrey Danker, AICP Section Activity Award Central Coast Section