For once, we at CP&DR kind of know how CNN feels. We have our slow news weeks at CP&DR. But, ever since Donald Trump got back into office, we have rarely lacked for material to put into our weekly news briefs. CP&DR doesn't generally cover federal politics. We do, though, when the federal government takes action directly involving California. In the 18 months since Trump took office, we have run over 30 items in our weekly news briefs referring to the Trump administration specifically (as opposed to more routine federal actions). That's an average of close to one per week. Needless to say, Trump does not hesitate to tell the world what he likes and dislikes. Likes: beautiful women; tariffs. Dislikes: vegetables; the post-World War II global order. But few things under or beyond Trump's jurisdiction raise his ire as like California does. It's a "disaster." It's "out of control." And it contains and promotes so many other things he hates: renewable energy, greenhouse gas reductions, electric vehicles, public transit, fire suppression, high-speed rail. And of course, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, California's federal legislators, and other public officials are protesting, suing, proposing legislation, and otherwise trying to protect the state's sovereignty and interests. The fruits of their efforts remain to be seen. Here are just a few of the ways in which the Trump administration has attacked California's environment, land uses, and related policies: Most Brazen: Restraining the Coastal Commission Currently the administration is exploring ways to pre-empt the Coastal Commission's authority over water- and land-side development along California's coast. We're talking about oil drilling, desalination plants, rocket bases, and other facilities in which the federal government has an interest. For more than half a century, the commission's authority and the state's right to regulate its coast (under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act as well as state law) has been unquestioned--for better or worse--and has preserved what is arguably the state's greatest asset (as well as a headache for some developers). In essence, the coast may be federalized. Most Expansive: Killing the EPA Waiver & Fossil Fuels The administration's efforts to reduce the use of clean energy and promote fossil fuels are nationwide but have hit California especially hard. Actions include attempts to nullify California's EPA waiver -- one of the most successful anti-pollution efforts in history -- and restrict the use of the state's cap-and-invest funds. For good measure, the feds are investing $75 million into a controversial coal terminal at the Port of Oakland. Most Nonsensical: Stopping Wind Farms The administration is nullifying around $2 billion worth of agreements for private companies -- capitalist enterprises! -- to develop large-scale wind farms off the coast. These are agreements that the state, which is nothing if not circumspect, had approved. California has lost investments, jobs, and clean energy all at once. Most Predictable: Selling or Leasing Open Spaces Here is a surely incomplete list of the public lands and other open spaces that the administration has tried to sell, denude, or otherwise alter: 18 national forests (for a goal of 25% increase in timber production); roughly 300 endangered species habitats, which will lose many protections under a new, narrow definition of "harm"; 3.3 million acres across 11 western states, including parcels near California National Parks and throughout the Sierra Nevada range; several federal office buildings in San Francisco, including one named after Trump's favorite person: the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building. Most Petty (tie): The Presidio and Eel River Dam Un-removal If Trump hates California, it's no wonder that he hates the most Californ-iest city: San Francisco. If there was a crisis at the Presidio--the former military facility in the northwest corner of the San Francisco Peninsula--San Franciscans didn't know about it. And yet, the Trump administration replaced the entire governing board and is threatening changes to what is currently a civic treasure and one of the country's best examples of civic-federal partnership. Further afield, it's a wonder that the Trump administration has even heard of the Eel River. But, somehow, the modest waterway in Humboldt and Mendocino counties has two decrepit, obsolete dams that the administration considers of the utmost importance. The dams have been scheduled for decommissioning and removal, per a longstanding, intricately negotiated agreement between Pacific Gas & Electric and tribal, state, and county entities. The administration is convinced that the dams, and the mountains of silt behind them, can be resurrected. Or, maybe, it just can't stand the idea of replacing industrial blight with a natural landscape. Most Chilling: Gilroy Detention Facility The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has planned a detention facility near Gilroy where, if reports from other California ICE facilities are to be believed, unspeakable horrors may await detainees. ICE is claiming to be exempt from (or is simply ignoring) local land use regulation. The state and County of Santa Clara are suing. The Exception: High Speed Rail So far, the federal government has put around $3 billion into High Speed Rail …and gotten little but delays, cost overruns, and empty viaducts in return. The feds canceled $4 billion in funding for the program. The action may have been biased, but perhaps they did not want to throw good money after bad. California can count at least one blessing that the good people of Palm Beach, Fla., cannot: so far, Donald Trump has not renamed an airport after himself.

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. Federal Officials Conduct Review Questioning Coastal Commission’s Authority The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is conducting an out-of-cycle federal review of the California Coastal Commission, threatening the authority the state has held for more than 50 years under the Coastal Zone Management Act. The review may allow the agency and administration to influence decisions about offshore drilling, rocket launches, pipelines and other federally regulated coastal projects. This comes on the heels of recent buyouts of offshore wind energy companies in California and accusations from the Trump administration that the Coastal Commission’s activities are a threat to economic prosperity and technological advancement, pointing specifically to past opposition to expanded SpaceX rocket launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base. According to state records the Coastal Commission opposed just 4% of the over 3,700 federal projects presented since 1978. NOAA held its first public hearings in Santa Monica, and the agency is accepting public comment through Aug. 22. San Francisco Faces Lawsuit for Exempting Parcels from SB 79 YIMBY Law, the California Housing Defense Fund and Californians for Homeownership are suing San Francisco and the state over the city's decision to exempt nearly 1,900 parcels of land from SB79. Development approved the carve-out last month, allowing the city to designate roughly 250-acres as primarily industrial "employment lands.” The decision exempted parcels in parts of SoMa, Bayview and Bayshore from the bill, which incentivizes taller and denser housing around transit stops. San Francisco defends the objective of its state-permitted alternative plan, which protects industrial employment hubs and low resource areas. SB 79 covers more than 65% of the city and overlaps with a separate rezoning effort, the Family Zoning Plan, but YIMBY lawyers argue that exempting certain areas violates state law. The lawsuit also names the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which gave San Francisco's plan conditional approval, and separately alleges the city's ordinance improperly blocks developers from using the state Density Bonus program. Wind Energy Company Exits California Under Agreement with Feds German energy company RWE will shut down its offshore wind leases in California, as well as New York and Louisiana, becoming the fifth and largest clean energy buyout by the Trump administration this year. The company had a major project planned for the coast off Humboldt County. The $1.22-billion deal is part of $2.7 billion paid to companies to abandon offshore wind for fossil fuel investment, leaving California with just two intact offshore wind leases and further threatening the state's goal to produce 25 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2045. Local leaders in Humboldt, meanwhile, say they intend to press ahead with wind infrastructure plans regardless of the federal reversal. San Francisco Loosens Inclusionary Housing Requirements San Francisco will slash the city's inclusionary housing requirement, cutting the share of affordable units developers must include in market-rate projects from 15% to 5%, based on a recent 9-2 vote of the Board of Supervisors. The board also exempted developments with fewer than 24 units from the requirement entirely, a significant expansion from the previous threshold of 10 units. The ordinance, co-sponsored by Supervisors Myrna Melgar, Dorsey, Sherrill, and Sauter along with Mayor Daniel Lurie, stems from a deal with Melgar, who introduced a fund for directing a share of future property tax revenue growth into building and renovating affordable housing in place of the requirement. The amendment also passed and will go before voters in November. Court Rules Against Homeowners in S.F.’s Hunters Point Tetra Tech EC, the contractor accused of falsifying radiological cleanup data at the former San Francisco Shipyard, will pay nothing to more than 300 Hunters Point homeowners after a judge found their claims are barred by the Price-Anderson Act. U.S. District Judge James Donato granted summary judgment, ruling that the 1957 federal law usually associated with major nuclear accidents preempts the more expansive damage claims over Parcel A of the shipyard. The case against Tetra Tech focused on the company's cleanup work itself, when the EPA determined in 2018 that much of its remediation data was unreliable after two former company supervisors were sentenced to federal prison for swapping contaminated soil samples with clean ones. The ruling closes out homeowners' last remaining claims following a $6.3 million settlement four years ago with the project's developers, Five Point Holdings and Lennar Corp., who exited the case over allegations they failed to disclose the extent of contamination before selling more than 300 homes. CP&DR Coverage: HCD Revokes Brisbane’s Housing Element over Redevelopment Delay Brisbane’s housing element certification has been revoked by the Department of Housing and Community Development because the city did not complete rezoning to accommodate more housing within three years of approving the housing element. HCD’s action has the effect of opening up Brisbane to builder’s remedy applications, including a possible application for the pending redevelopment of a major railyard, which accounts for more than 80% of Brisbane’s housing under the city’s housing targets via the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. The Baylands redevelopment – which includes the 660-acre racetrack and could result in close to 2,000 new housing units – is getting caught up in the housing element fight because the city is processing a specific plan for the site, which would include rezoning. But the city has not yet approved the specific plan, meaning it did not meet the three-year deadline for rezoning contained in the housing element law. CP&DR Coverage: SB 79 Landscape Takes Shape Regarded by pro-housing advocates as a potentially transformational law, SB 79 went into effect on July 1, essentially forcing midrise zoning for housing projects near major transit stations. The law has been extremely controversial, with many local officials – including the board of L.A. Metro – opposing it for fear that it will discourage host communities from wanting transit service. But YIMBYs appear to regard it as their holy grail – the law they have been shooting for since the mid-teens and the one they think will reshape California’s housing landscape. CP&DR has a roundup of locations where SB 79 is in effect and of alternative plans that cities are considering. Quick Hits & Updates Newport Beach city council voted 5-0 to approve a decrease in low-income housing requirements for for-sale homes near John Wayne Airport, dropping the requirement from 15% to 6% of units in a development to be designated as low-income. An additional 8% will now be designated for moderate-income households, a change city officials argued was necessary because Newport Beach's home values run nearly three times the Orange County median. This marks the second time the city has scaled back affordable housing requirements in the area, following a 2023 reduction from an original 30%. Developer Wellpointe has unveiled plans for Viva, a $2-billion senior housing high-rise complex in Warner Center that would become the largest affordable housing development in Los Angeles. The 2.2-million-square-foot project would comprise four towers ranging from 34 to 42 stories, creating 3,192 income-restricted senior units. The proposal leverages the Warner Center 2035 specific plan, joining the LA Rams’ separate $10-billion headquarters and practice facility as one of two major high-rises now proposed for the area. New York-based Yellowstone Real Estate Investments has taken over four parcels at San Francisco's Parkmerced complex through foreclosure. The previous developer Maximus Real Estate defaulted on a construction loan that had grown to over $199 million, surrendering the 152-acre property containing more than 3,200 homes next to San Francisco State University. Maximus had planned and been entitled to a multibillion-dollar redevelopment for over a decade, which would have tripled Parkmerced's capacity to more than 5,600 units. The project never broke ground amid the pandemic and the company's repeated financial troubles. Oakland's City Council has advanced a November ballot measure that would extend the city's real estate transfer tax to foreclosure-related transactions, which are currently exempt. Council Member Charlene Wang, who sponsored the proposal, said the measure could generate $4 million to $13 million annually as downtown office vacancy sits at 30% and landlords default on loans. The measure would preserve exemptions for small community bank foreclosures, single-family homes, small residential buildings, and properties that are converted into homeless shelters within three years of foreclosure. A study from UC Berkeley and UCLA found that building more homes can eliminate up to 1 percent of miles driven statewide, a small step toward the state's goal of a 25% reduction by 2030. The study recommends the state prioritize housing goals to help local governments better align new construction with locations that naturally reduce car dependency, as while regional housing agencies are effectively directing growth toward car-light areas with good transit access, individual cities aren't strategically placing new housing to maximize driving reductions. Research suggests that closing this gap could push per-capita vehicle miles traveled down by as much as 6%. The California Building Industry Association has filed a petition to remove protections under the California's Endangered Species Act for Swainson's hawk, which nests in Solano County and the Central Valley March through September. The petition argues that maintaining protections that are "no longer scientifically justified" and that the listing inhibits housing development amid the state's affordability crisis, having rebounded to about 18,810 breeding pairs. The Swainson’s hawk nests on land eyed for the proposed California Forever development, and has recently complicated permitting for projects like a Napa County winery. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Tomiquia Moss, previous Secretary of the Business, to the newly formed Housing and Homelessness Agency which is tasked with coordinating the state's housing production and homelessness response. The agency will absorb functions from several existing departments, including Housing and Community Development, the California Housing Finance Agency, and the Civil Rights Department, in what officials describe as an "all-of-government" approach to the crisis. The state has seen an 8,391-person, 6.8% drop in unsheltered homelessness last year. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 to approve an ordinance requiring the city to prioritize drug-free permanent supportive housing when it fully funds future supportive housing projects. Under the new policy, residents who use illicit drugs in supportive housing could face eviction or relocation to another housing or shelter option. Gov. Newsom signed an executive order directing California's transportation agencies to accelerate delivery of locally led transit and passenger rail projects, aiming to make public transit faster, cheaper and easier to access statewide. The order directs the California State Transportation Agency and Caltrans to consolidate priority transit projects into a statewide list, streamline permitting and design standards for transit infrastructure, expand Bus Rapid Transit and bus-only lanes, modernize transit data and payment systems through the Cal-ITP program, and create public dashboards tracking transit funding.

California land use policy is overwhelmingly focused on infill housing and infill development. Except nobody’s quite sure what that means.

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. Pasadena, Malibu Agree to Repeal Bans on Lot Splits in Burn Areas Malibu and Pasadena have settled a lawsuit brought by YIMBY Law, agreeing to repeal their pause on lot splits, per Senate Bill 9, and allowing homeowners to build up to four units on single-family parcels in the Eaton and Palisades fire areas. The settlements come one year after Governor Newsom signed an executive orders allowing recently burned jurisdictions to at least temporarily opt out ( Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did the same for burned Los Angeles neighborhoods). Pasadena's city council voted unanimously in July to accept all pending and future duplex applications, while Malibu has until Sept. 29 to repeal their local ordinances and accept all pending and future applications filed under SB9. Many fire survivors object to denser building due to concerns about neighborhood character, housing density in high-risk burn areas, and increased traffic, while YIMBY Law and other pro-development groups present SB9 as an option for homeowners to recuperate losses amid rising labor and materials costs in the wake of the fire. Los Angeles County, the city of Los Angeles, Newsom and Bass are still fighting the suit though most of the destroyed structures were in the city and in unincorporated Altadena. Separately, state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez of Altadena has introduced legislation to temporarily exempt the town from SB 9. (See related CP&DR coverage.) Newsom Signs Bill Limiting Impact Fees In one of the first major housing bills to come out of this year’s session, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 179 limiting local development impact fees in an effort to encourage affordable housing construction. Newsom argued the state's housing shortage was the result of deliberate policy choice, and that impact fees in certain areas have grown so steep they can make building affordable housing impossible. Originally intended to help local governments offset the costs of new development, impact fees have increasingly been criticized by developers as a revenue source funding unrelated city priorities like parks and street maintenance. Critics have raised concerns about the resulting loss of fee revenue for local governments. Officials acknowledged the law alone won't trigger a construction boom given other market headwinds, but framed it as a necessary first step toward reversing the state's housing deficit. Lawsuit Threatens 464-Acre Project in Folsom A lawsuit filed last week in Sacramento County Superior Court is challenging the City of Folsom's approval of the Toll Brothers at Alder Creek development, a 1,424-home master-planned community. The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 185 argues the city relied on an outdated 2011 environmental impact report. The suit argues the project should use "no added formaldehyde resins" building materials for the project as recommended by the California Air Resources Board, as the outdated review never analyzed indoor air quality risks from formaldehyde-emitting engineered wood products. The approximately 464-acre project is planned for western Folsom between Alder Creek and Mangini parkways, including 18 residential villages along with a school site, fire station, parks and open space. City staff fielded objections from LiUNA's attorneys before the vote covering indoor air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and biological resources, but concluded the existing environmental analysis was still adequate and recommended approval. The lawsuit asks the court to rescind the city's approval and require a new environmental review before construction can proceed. San Francisco Devises Strategy to Compel Developers to Complete Office ProjectsSan Francisco's Planning Department will withhold developers’ Proposition M development allocations if they haven't shown good-faith progress toward construction of stalled commercial office projects. Prop. M is a 1986 ballot measure that caps and regulates the amount of commercial development the city can approve. Director Sarah Dennis Phillips said projects with no demonstrated momentum could have their Prop. M allocation stripped immediately, while those that have delivered on community benefits but haven't pulled permits would get an 18-month grace period. The move targets developers who abandoned office megaprojects in favor of housing but kept their valuable Prop. M allocations in reserve. Prop. M has capped new office space in San Francisco since 1986, but the pool of available allocations has shrunk dramatically since 2020's Proposition E tied replenishment to the city's affordable housing goals, which it is failing to meet. CP&DR Coverage: Supreme Court Closes Case on Sheetz; Huntington Beach Approves Housing Element The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear a followup to the Sheetz ruling – essentially choosing not to weigh in on one of the most important issues the justices left hanging as a result of their 2024 decision: whether a broad, mathematical calculation, rather than a project-specific calculation, can be used in determining impact fees. The decision not to take the case essentially leaves in place a ruling by the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento that “individualized determinations” of a project’s impact are not required. However, the California Supreme Court depublished that ruling, meaning it cannot be used as precedent. Facing the possibility of more fines and more losses in court, the Huntington Beach City Council finally approved its 2021-2029 Housing Element. The City Council voted to approve the Housing Element 5-2 after it had been revised to meet changes sought by the Department of Housing and Community Development, especially regarding the city’s proposed overlay zones for housing. The use of overlay zones to meet a city’s housing targets under the Regional Housing Needs Assessment has been under attack in court lately, most recently in an appellate court case from Redondo Beach last fall. Quick Hits & Updates Redwood City Council voted 6-0-1 to formally oppose a November ballot measure that would cap annual rent increases at 5% for pre-1995 multifamily properties and add eviction protections, claiming the measure would hurt city income and potentially undermine ongoing existing tenant protections and affordable housing efforts. The Department of Housing and Community Development decided Grover Beach's Measure F-26, a citizen initiative capping building heights, will be unenforceable because it violates the state's Housing Crisis Act. The initiative would cap mixed-use buildings at 40 feet and industrial buildings at 33 feet, reducing allowed building height from five stories to three and potentially eliminating hundreds of housing units downtown. Los Angeles County rents fell 3.4% from last year and 9.6% below the mid-2022 peak, hovering around $2,603 per month, according to a report from Realtor.com. Analysts found that affording a typical rental within city limits still requires an annual household income of $109,680, more than 23% above the city's median household income of $88,730. East Palo Alto City Council approved the Temporary Housing Development Incentive Program, an ordinance allowing developers to skip the city's inclusionary housing requirements for projects with 20 units or fewer. The policy suspends the city's 1994 inclusionary housing ordinance, which normally requires developers to set aside 20% of rental units or pay an in-lieu fee for residents earning 35%, 50% and 60% of area median income, about $114,000. A new analysis from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that declining immigration is undermining U.S. population growth, making communities increasingly dependent on domestic migration and natural change to sustain growth. Large metro urban counties are most vulnerable due to steep domestic migration losses. Harris County, Texas lost about 8,000 people in 2025 as net domestic outflow of 43,000 exceeded natural growth of 35,000. While rural counties face risk from natural population decline, non-metro areas are seeing a natural loss of 95,000 barely offset by a domestic inflow of 119,000. SMART, the North Bay's commuter rail system, is exploring a new station in Geyserville after roughly 1,800 residents successfully lobbied state lawmakers to allow the stop. Local business owners say the station would boost tourism to the area's 100 wineries, outdoor recreation and historical sites including the River Rock Casino, which is being converted into the 100-room Caesars Republic Sonoma County. (See related CP&DR coverage.)

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. In the 30-plus years since the adoption of the Charter of the New Urbanism, California has been a hotbed of New Urbanist thought. New Urbanist development, on the other hand, has been scarce--aside from frequently cited TOD projects such as Oakland’s Fruitvale Village and Pasadena’s Del Mar Station. In spite of the growing popularity of form-based code and other New Urbanist-ish regulations, California has no Seaside (Florida) or Culdesac (Arizona). That may be changing, at least in Sonoma County. The community of Esmeralda has been working its way through the planning process in Cloverdale, a city of around 8,600 residents just barely within the commute shed of the Bay Area. It is envisioned as a holistic community full of walkable streets, dense mixed-use structures, and an abiding sense of community that is both a world unto itself and also well integrated into Cloverdale’s existing urban fabric. "One of the great tragedies of California is the hyper-regulation of land use. Everyone is micromanaging everyone else, and it has to stop," said Michael Yarne, a veteran Bay Area developer who serves as Director of Development of Esmeralda Land Co. “What matters is what it feels like being on the street: is it safe to cross the street, can you ride a bike, is the architecture interesting, are there places to sit and pause." Esmeralda is the brainchild not of Andres Duany or Peter Calthorpe but, rather, of 32-year-old entrepreneur Devon Zuegel. In spite of, or perhaps because of, her relative inexperience in California, Zuegel devised the vision for Esmeralda -- based in part on childhood experiences in Chautauqua, NY -- and has pursued it enthusiastically, attempting to establish the state’s first large-scale New Urbanist development. The proposal has been called "utopian." Zuegel says it's common sense. "As I got older I started wondering why that isn't normal…. it's not rocket science: human-scale streets, more emphasis on public spaces," Zuegel said. "That led me to look for recently built neighborhoods, villages, and towns built on those principles. It's a short list in the United States, but I made a point of visiting as many as I could.” The development will occupy about one-third of the 266-acre site adjacent to downtown Cloverdale. It envisions roughly 600 housing units, a hotel, retail, and public amenities including parks and a central piazza. Because Cloverdale has already met its state-mandated affordable housing targets, Esmeralda will not include deed-restricted affordable housing but rather aims to include “affordable-by-design” units. "Part of why we wanted to build at the scale of a whole village rather than a single building or block is that a small pocket of walkability isn't worth the added risk — you get more risk without the benefit of real walkability," Zuegel said. "At a larger scale, the whole neighborhood becomes walkable — you can walk to a coffee shop, a restaurant, the park." The property, on which the company has an option, used to house a lumber yard and several other industrial uses. Shortly after the Louisiana Pacific mill closed in the early 1990s, the city changed the zoning to residential. So, while Esmeralda will propose an extensive development agreement, including provisions for the company to build out infrastructure and amenities, it is not asking for anything like a zoning change or annexation. "We're proposing a 25-year development agreement, an entirely new specific plan, specific plan zoning, objective design standards (ODS), and a master tentative map — those are the core elements, plus some ancillary agreements," Yarne said. City staff were not permitted to speak for this article. Members of the Cloverdale City Council did not respond to requests for comment. Jes Slavik, who is the master planner for the project, indicated that the topography of the site, which consists largely of rolling hills and shallow ravines, makes for an aesthetically compelling design. Over half the site will be preserved as open space, administered by Esmeralda. "The site itself is spectacular — beautiful views, and topography is one of its primary features," said Slavik. Esmeralda would include 600 housing units, plus a hotel, commercial zones, and community amenities. Less beautiful is the presence of potentially hazardous chemicals left over from the property’s lumber-mill days. Remediation of the site was completed gradually over 25 years following the lumber mill’s closure, in part through Superfund designation. Some Cloverdale residents are demanding that the project produce a full environmental impact report, rather than just an addendum to a previously published EIR, and have requested that the Regional Water Quality Control Board resume a program to monitor and test the property. Yarne considers the hazards manageable and the concerns overblown. "We'll continue to test and clean up any residual contamination — that's the whole point of brownfield development: to go in and fix it," Yarne said. More importantly, the site’s existing zoning is what may enable Esmeralda to be the exception that proves the rule regarding New Urbanist development. In the late 1990s, a city task force considered a range of potential new uses for the property. It arrived at a development centered on a golf course, including homes and commercial uses. The prospect of such a conventional, sprawling project, which could be developed by-right, may make Esmeralda’s design relatively more appealing to stakeholders. “Those who don't want change don't want it, period,” said Hanchett. “But it's private property — a developer could come in and build subsidized housing… and the city would have no say. I don't think people understand it's privately owned, and the owners can sell it if they choose.” Similarly challenging is the financial landscape. Zuegel said that conventional funders shy away from New Urbanism in large part because of its novelty. Her solution was to find novel funders. She solicited capital largely from her personal network, which is centered in San Francisco -- a city familiar with density and walkability. "In the Bay Area there are people who take a longer view and are willing to back bolder, boundary-pushing projects," said Zuegel. "Our investors were primarily Bay Area families who wanted to see this kind of development happen, some of whom had never invested in real estate before — a different path than traditional institutional investors.” Ultimately, the Esmeralda team will prepare the site, create the master plan, and build infrastructure and some communal facilities. Other developers will complete the build-out. The plan does not attempt to micro-manage the design. "Cloverdale is open to an approach where we set large parameters on quality of urban spaces, circulation, and landscape, but the draft specific plan does not micromanage housing," Yarne said, adding that design elements like setbacks, articulation, and rooflines will be up to individual developers. "It gives extraordinary latitude to the future buildout." "That's the value of a new urbanism plan — allowing different components to come together, and figuring out the interface between them, knowing they'll likely be built by different groups," Slavik said. What matters equally to Slavik is the activity and connections that Esmeralda’s design is intended to foster. "(We are) creating a network — for pedestrians, bikes, and cars — because connectivity drives engagement," said Slavik. "The other part is giving people places to engage. We're creating a community core, our 'piazza,' which brings together amenities and tenants." The project would occupy about one-third of a 266-acre parcel just east of Highway 101. One factor that has not impeded the project so far is the Cloverdale planning department and other city departments. Zuegel said she expected skepticism from the fire department, but the team praised the city’s collaboration. "There's an inherent conservatism, especially in California, about narrow streets — we catastrophize and assume the worst. Anyone attempting this has to work hard to bring engineers and fire officials on board. California is obsessed with safetyism,” said Yarne. Slavik hopes to satisfy their concerns for egress by, for instance, creating loops rather than dead-ends. "Many of them had heard of the places that inspired us and thought it would be cool to have something similar in Cloverdale," Zuegel said, of local planners' reaction to the project. “They've been creative and open to trying new things.” Something else for the city to appreciate is the potential to gain tax revenues and economic activity at minimal cost. "Because we're not in the middle of downtown, if we sink or swim on our own, the city isn't responsible for a dollar of what we're doing," said Yarne. "We're getting creative with property tax, property assessments, and transient occupancy tax. One hundred percent of zero is zero — all the revenue we're harvesting is value we're generating with our investment." The project’s opponents have gone so far as to refer to Zuegel and her team as a “weirdo cult,” presumably because of their connection to Chautauqua and claims that the project is “utopian.” Yarne rejects even that characterization, saying instead, "I'd call it innovative. I'd avoid the word 'utopian,' because the connotations are pretty negative.” For Hanchett, a successful version of Esmeralda means something much more basic: survival of the city. Sonoma County is an enviable place to live, but our kids can't afford to stay here without family help,” said Hanchett, who emphasized that neither she nor the chamber have formally endorsed the project. "Left alone, the town risks turning to dust — not just aging people, but aging infrastructure, plus state mandates that cost money to meet: streets, water, sewer.” Arguably, Esmeralda is in a race with a much higher-profile, vastly larger development also backed by people from the technology industry and also inspired by new urbanism: California Forever, in nearby Solano County. "More and more data shows people are desperate for urbanism: places that are walkable, compact, with mixed amenities,” said Yarne. "I love the audacity and the vision…. A new town or new city is appropriate, because California has an extraordinary housing shortage." Esmeralda will likely win the permitting race. The team expects to present its proposal to the city this month, with approvals hoped for by November. Contacts and Resources Esmeralda Land Company Esmeralda Project Information, Cloverdale Petition to Regional Water Quality Control Board Neena Hanchett, Director, Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce, neena@cloverdalechamber.com Jes Slavik, Slavik Design LLC, jes@slavikdesign.com Michael Yarne, Partner and Development Director, Esmeralda Land Company, michael@esmeralda.org Devon Zuegel Founder, Esmeralda Land Company devon@esmeralda.org Images courtesy of Esmeralda Land Co.

Sonoma County’s groundwater regulations are not exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. Because there’s no guarantee that they will not have a significant impact on the environment.

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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. Bay Area Voters to Decide Fate of Regionwide Transit Funding The Connect Bay Area transit funding measure will officially appear on the November 2026 ballot after election the campaign collected 305,000 signatures, nearly doubling the required 186,000. The tax measure would provide long-term funding for major transit agencies including BART, SFMTA Muni, Caltrain and AC Transit, while helping VTA expand service and giving counties direct funding for transit. A combination of grassroots transit organizing efforts, 80 elected officials and more than 90 labor, business and advocacy groups helped raise over $5.5 million to qualify the five-county sales tax measure. Without more sustainable transit funding, the Bay area could face severe cutbacks including up to 15 BART station closures, elimination of two lines and service cuts of up to 70% on BART alone. Meanwhile, a separate but related measure, Stronger Muni For All, has qualified San Francisco's November 3 ballot, aiming to help close Muni's projected $300 million-plus budget deficit through a parcel tax. If approved, the tax would charge single-family property owners $129 annually, multifamily owners $249, and commercial landlords $799, generating roughly $150 million yearly toward the deficit and $10 million for service improvements over 15 years. It is tied to a separate regional sales tax initiative, the Connect Bay Area Act, which would raise about $1 billion annually for Muni, BART, Caltrain, and other Bay Area transit agencies. Cadiz Receives Approvals to Pump Mojave Desert Water, Faces Lawsuits After over a decade of negotiation, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan by Cadiz Inc. to repurpose 162 miles of a former oil and gas pipeline to transport groundwater pumped from the Mojave Desert. The agency determined the pipeline conversion "will not significantly affect" the environment and would comply with regulations, while stating that the broader environmental impacts of the groundwater extraction itself fall "outside the scope of analysis" for this authorization. Nonetheless, two environmental groups and two Native American tribes filed separate lawsuits in over the Bureau of Land Management's approval of the use of a decommissioned oil and gas pipeline for transporting the water project. Both suits target BLM’s decision earlier this month approving Cadiz Inc.'s "Northern Pipeline," which the company acquired in 2011. Plaintiffs claim that the project’s aquifer drawdown near Joshua Tree National Park has never faced meaningful review despite extracting far more groundwater than is naturally replenished, roughly 16.3 billion gallons per year for 50 years. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club filed in Los Angeles, while the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Native American Land Conservancy and National Parks Conservation Association filed in Riverside. Sacramento Investigates EIFD to Redevelop Former Kings Arena Sacramento City Council has advanced plans to redevelop the former Kings arena site in North Natomas. The proposed 171-acre Innovation Park project would include housing, commercial development, regional open space, a future school site, and a California Northstate University medical campus anchored by a hospital. Major construction has yet to begin, and to help pay for public infrastructure the city is turning to an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District to capture a share of new property tax revenue generated as the site develops, with about 80% earmarked for infrastructure and 20% for affordable housing. Under the plan, tax revenue wouldn't flow until a hospital or similar "catalytic" project promising high-paying jobs is actually completed, a safeguard officials say protects the city's general fund and doesn't raise taxes. San Francisco to Impose Penalties on Stalled Office Projects San Francisco's Planning Department will withhold developers’ Proposition M development allocations if they haven't shown good-faith progress toward construction of stalled commercial office projects. Prop. M is a 1986 ballot measure that caps and regulates the amount of commercial development the city can approve. Director Sarah Dennis Phillips said projects with no demonstrated momentum could have their Prop. M allocation stripped immediately, while those that have delivered on community benefits but haven't pulled permits would get an 18-month grace period. The move targets developers who abandoned office megaprojects in favor of housing but kept their valuable Prop. M allocations in reserve. Prop. M has capped new office space in San Francisco since 1986, but the pool of available allocations has shrunk dramatically since 2020's Proposition E tied replenishment to the city's affordable housing goals, which it is failing to meet. CP&DR Coverage: Evaluating the Surplus Land Act Passed in 2021, and administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development under guidelines adopted in 2024, the Surplus Land Act requires local agencies to prioritize housing on agency-owned land that is being sold or leased. To date, nearly 42,000 homes either have been put on formerly public land or are in the pipeline. David Zisser, deputy director of HCD, calls the number a success. Homes created by the SLA are, arguably, among the easiest to track compared to those created by the many other pro-housing laws adopted in recent years. Development agreements are, by necessity, subject to scrutiny and well documented, by notices of availability, exemptions, and other approvals by HCD. While the state may argue that the 42,000 homes justify the process, many cities consider it burdensome--and not necessarily effective. Quick Hits & Updates San Francisco voters will decide for a third time in four years whether to reopen the Great Highway to weekday car traffic. The highway has been the site of Sunset Dunes Park since 2024 when voters approved permanently closing it to cars. The new measure, backed by over 15,900 petition signatures, would reopen the road to cars on weekdays while keeping it closed Friday evenings through Monday mornings. Opponents say the closure has worsened traffic, while park supporters argue the space has been a success, drawing 1.7 million visits since opening and boosting nearby businesses, and warn that reopening it would cost the city about $10.75 million to remove. A California earthquake expert estimates that The Big One would likely cause around $500 billion and up to $1 trillion in damage. Ahmed Elbanna, the director of the Statewide California Earthquake Center, told the state’s Seismic Safety Commission that a 7.8-magnitude earthquake could become the costliest disaster in U.S. history dwarfing the roughly $200 billion in damage (adjusted for inflation) from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. San Diego's Community Planners Committee voted to oppose Senate Bill 958, which would exempt the Midway Rising development from the area’s 30-foot height limit by preventing building height from being treated as a significant environmental impact under CEQA. SMART, the North Bay's commuter rail system, is exploring a new station in Geyserville after roughly 1,800 residents successfully lobbied state lawmakers to allow the stop. Local business owners say the station would boost tourism to the area's 100 wineries, outdoor recreation and historical sites including the River Rock Casino, which is being converted into the 100-room Caesars Republic Sonoma County. (See related CP&DR coverage.) A new analysis from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that declining immigration is undermining U.S. population growth, making communities increasingly dependent on domestic migration and natural change to sustain growth. Large metro urban counties, including those in California, are most vulnerable due to steep domestic migration losses. East Palo Alto City Council voted 3-2 to approve the Temporary Housing Development Incentive Program, an ordinance allowing developers to skip the city's inclusionary housing requirements for projects with 20 units or fewer. The policy suspends the city's 1994 inclusionary housing ordinance, which normally requires developers to set aside 20% of rental units or pay an in-lieu fee for residents earning 35%, 50% and 60% of area median income, about $114,000. Developer Align Real Estate submitted revised plans to redevelop the Marina district's waterfront Safeway, reducing the project's two towers from 25 and 22 stories to 22 and 18 stories (roughly 258 and 219 feet) while increasing the total unit count from 790 to 848 apartments, a change the developer attributed to improved building efficiency and optimized floor plans. The revision comes after months of criticism from city leaders, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, who officially opposed the original 25-story tower last year. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 to approve an ordinance requiring the city to prioritize drug-free permanent supportive housing when it fully funds future supportive housing projects. Under the new policy, residents who use illicit drugs in supportive housing could face eviction or relocation to another housing or shelter option.

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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. Sacramento County Approves Controversial Development of Up to 9,400 Homes; Draws Lawsuit from Environmental Groups, City of Sacramento The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the Upper Westside development, clearing the way for a roughly 2,000-acre community near Natomas and Garden Highway that could eventually include nearly 9,400 homes and house about 25,000 people. In a surprising move, the City of Sacramento – which has facilitated a lot of development in the Natomas area over the last two decades – has sued Sacramento County over the approval. Those opposed to the project have claimed that it violates a 2002 agreement between the city and the county about how the Natomas area would grow. The Environmental Council of Sacramento has also sued Sacramento County over the project, which would encompass property in between the Sacramento River and I-80, just north of West Sacramento. Both lawsuits claim that the project’s environmental impact report did not disclose the potential impact on the Natomas Habitat Conservation Plan. The ECOS lawsuit was filed in collaboration with the Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk. Banning Voters will Decide on Approval of 5 Million Square Feet of Warehouses Voters in Banning will decide whether to overturn the City Council's approval of the Sunset Crossroads Specific Plan, which could add nearly 5 million square feet of warehouses and industrial buildings to a 533-acre site south of the 10 Freeway. The council voted unanimously to put the measure on the ballot after grassroots opposition group San Gorgonio Pass Alliance gathered enough signatures to force either a repeal or a public vote. The council opted against rescinding its own approval in favor of letting voters decide whether NorthPoint Development can proceed with the project, anchored by a Sam's Club with office and commercial space, a hotel, gas station, and 65 acres of open space, alongside a $16 million fire station. Critics argue the plan locks Banning into decades of industrial development regardless of future councils' priorities and could generate 1,700 daily truck trips. The project's environmental study acknowledged "significant and unavoidable" air quality impacts. Supporters point to nearly $1 billion in investment, 3,700 projected jobs, and revenue for a city that declared a fiscal emergency in June. El Segundo Resident Revolt Against Proposed Data Center Real estate firm Eight Form withdrew its proposal for a nearly 240,000-square-foot data center in the Los Angeles County city of El Segundo after facing overwhelming community opposition at a Planning Commission meeting. The project would have replaced the Hyatt Place hotel with a 169-foot five-story facility with a high-voltage substation and 16 diesel backup generators. Nearly 60 residents signed up to speak against the plan, citing concerns over power consumption, noise, pollution, and outdated environmental review. Critics argued that a 24-year-old environmental impact report from the site's original 2002 development plan was inadequate to assess a modern data center. City staff and consultants argued the center would actually use less water and have a smaller grid impact than the existing hotel, citing a closed-loop cooling system that would consume around 8,900 fewer gallons of water daily. Residents remained skeptical, questioning water recycling safety, energy prioritization during heatwaves, and the project's proximity to a school district and youth athletic fields. It was unclear what client would be leasing the center, since no operator had committed to the $600 million building. (See related CP&DR coverage.) HCD Publishes Online Dashboards Cataloging Jurisdictions’ Housing Status The Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has launched two new online tools: the Streamlined Ministerial Approval Process (SMAP) Dashboard and the Housing Element Implementation Dashboard. The dashboards allow users to track which cities and counties qualify for streamlined housing approvals under state law and monitor whether local governments are implementing the housing programs they committed to in their state-approved Housing Elements. HCD warned that jurisdictions failing to carry out required housing programs could face enforcement actions, including loss of Housing Element compliance, exposure to the Builder's Remedy, ineligibility for certain state funding, and potential penalties. As of June 30, 2026, 507 of California's 539 jurisdictions qualify for SMAP, with 329 jurisdictions eligible for streamlined approvals on projects containing at least 10% affordable housing. CP&DR Coverage: Legislative Update: Several Major Housing and CEQA Bills Advance Among the important bills that have made it out of the house of origin into the other house: SB 954, the bill boxing in the CEQA exemption for advanced manufacturing, made it out of the Senate and to the Assembly. Several bills focusing on shot clocks and postentitlement permits, which are gaining increasing attention in the Legislature this year. A bill aimed at a San Diego project that would declare that building heights are not a significant impact under CEQA. AB 1294, which would specify what information is required for a complete housing application and require HCD to come up with a standard application form. In addition, language for a budget trailer bill has been released that would forbid impact fees on affordable housing projects that a city is co-applicant for, and also incentivize elimination or deferral of fees. Budget trailer bills are adopted with the budget at the end of June and circumvent typical committee processes, as AB 130 and SB 131 did last year. Quick Hits & Updates San Diego County voters will decide in November whether to approve a half-cent sales tax increase projected to raise roughly $360 million annually for healthcare, child care, public safety, and Tijuana River sewage remediation efforts, after the coalition behind the San Diego County Health & Safety Act submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Up to 60 percent of revenue would go toward child care and health services, nearly 23 percent toward still-unspecified sewage crisis solutions, and about 18 percent toward public safety and wildfire prevention. The labor and advocacy coalition plans to campaign by highlighting federal funding cuts, arguing the tax would help protect local services from cuts in Washington. Imperial County will extend its temporary moratorium on new data center approvals in unincorporated areas for an additional 10 months and 15 days, keeping the ban on permits in place until June 2027. Officials said the extension allows the county to evaluate potential updates to land use, zoning, and development regulations, and confirmed that no pending or future data center projects can move forward during the moratorium. The board also approved the formation of a Data Center Advisory Committee, made up of representatives from government, community groups, business, labor, environmental organizations, healthcare, education, and the energy sector, to develop recommendations on future policies and suitable locations for data center development. San Francisco will become the first Bay Area city to allow cannabis cafés after the Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance permitting licensed cannabis retailers to serve food and nonalcoholic beverages alongside on-site cannabis consumption. The measure implements California's 2024 AB 1775 and is intended to help the struggling legal cannabis industry compete with the illicit market while establishing a new cannabis café license category with health, safety, and age requirements. Existing cannabis retailers will have exclusive access to café licenses during the first year before new applicants become eligible. (See related CP&DR coverage.) ​​​​The High-Speed Rail Authority has applied for roughly $500 million in new federal funding from the Federal Railroad Administration, even after the Trump administration pulled $4 billion from the project last August under Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The agency is seeking money from the FRA's Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program, which has set aside $532 million for rural projects, to help fund the 30-mile extension from Madera County to Merced. The segment is expected to begin construction late next year, with an estimated cost of $2.4 billion. A Menlo Park ballot initiative that opponents have dubbed the "anti-housing" measure would block the city's plan to build affordable housing above redeveloped downtown parking lots, require citywide votes for future changes to those lots, and restrict the city's ability to lease, sell or redevelop the publicly owned properties. Advocates warn the parking lots are the only viable site identified in the city's Housing Element for deeply affordable housing near Caltrain, jobs and high-performing schools after the city's Housing Element was rejected twice before being approved with a parking lot proposal included. Researchers developed a new approach to measuring urban walking by using large language models to analyze Twitter data from Los Angeles, classifying tweets that express walking behavior and building a neighborhood-level indicator of that activity. The study found that Walk Score, a widely used metric, only partially captures where walking actually happens, with natural amenities and socioeconomic conditions showing stronger and more consistent associations with walking expression than Walk Score itself. Oakland City Council voted to approve a $125 million sale of the city's 50% stake in the Oakland Coliseum complex to the Oakland Acquisition Company (OAC), an entity formed by Loop Capital and the African American Sports and Entertainment Group. Under the deal, OAC will pay $110 million plus 6% of future annual gross ticket sales from events at the site, along with an additional $15 million to be paid later as the company secures building permits for new construction. The city expects to receive $50 million from the arena parcel sale by early next year, with the stadium parcel sold for $60 million after crediting a $5 million deposit.(See related CP&DR coverage.) The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has sued the Trump administration over withheld funds the agency says will put more than 11,000 at risk of losing housing and other services. LAHSA is seeking a temporary restraining order in order to stop the Housing and Urban Development Department from suspending the funds. The lawsuit comes three weeks after HUD suspended LAHSA over allegations of financial mismanagement, fraud and inadequate conflict-of-interest safeguards, to which the agency argues HUD has produced no formal investigative findings. The Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation released a Notice of Funding Availability for Round 2 of California's Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program, offering $27.5 million total in competitive infrastructure grants. Funding for the program is provided by the Climate Bond and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to support projects that reduce the impacts of extreme heat and build community resilience. Funding is split into two tracks: Early Infrastructure Projects and Advanced Infrastructure Projects Eligible applicants include regional public entities, California Native American Tribes, community-based organizations, public higher academic institutions, and coalitions. In their latest request for bids, the Veterans Administration has scaled back its January pledge to build 800 tiny homes on its West Los Angeles campus, instead issuing a request for proposals for up to 260 larger and higher-quality units. The project represents the first concrete step toward President Trump's executive order establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence to house 6,000 veterans by January 2028, though it leaves unclear how that target will be met.