SB 5 Vetoed for All the Wrong Reasons
Over the weekend, Governor Newsom finished signing and vetoing the final batch of bills that made it to his desk this year. Among the bills he acted upon was SB 5 (Beall), legislation to reestablish redevelopment authority in California. He vetoed it. That’s the good news. The bad news is why he did. The bill […]
Climate Change Advocates Target New Homes
If you thought the rancor surrounding climate change was all about the weather, think again. Housing development has always been in the gun sites of campaign enthusiasts and it continues to be. Disguised as climate-change activists, radical environmentalists are spewing the same rhetoric and advocating the same “enlightened” land-use concepts they’ve been spewing for decades. […]
Trump to Blame for California Housing Crisis?
It was a headline sure to be a winner in California: “Trump’s Tariffs Make California Housing Crisis Worse.” Partisans – quick to agree – cheered another bomb thrown the President’s way. Hell, he’s has been blamed for everything else. Why not the state’s housing supply and affordability debacle? The underlying story asserted that Trump’s get-tough […]
Wrong-headed Re-make of Redevelopment Law
For years, housing advocates have been lamenting the demise of redevelopment authority that occurred earlier this decade. To be sure, redevelopment was a lot of things to a lot of people. To local governments, it was the freedom to independently finance a host of community improvements and spur economic development. To housing advocates, it was […]
Housing California Doesn’t Have to be So Hard
When the first new home in the Centennial housing development goes on sale in 2021 it will have been 27 years since the project was submitted for local approval. That’s over a quarter century, well more than two decades. It’s a full generation, or six college graduations. And, for many, it’s nearly half a lifetime. […]
The Possibilities of Zoning
Webster defines zoning as “dividing into zones, tracts or areas according to existing characteristics or as distinguished for some purpose.” In today’s urban environments, it’s the last five words in the definition of zoning that really matter – for housing, at least. Indeed, it’s those five words – as distinguished for some purpose – that […]
Soaring Building Costs Are Slowing Housing Recovery
By all accounts, California is in the depths of a crisis. Affordable housing can’t be found in the state’s growing job centers – enjoying an economic renaissance of sorts but with no place to house a burgeoning workforce. To preserve that welcome growth, now, more than ever, there is a need to build additional housing, […]
Rent Control Initiative Likely on 2020 Ballot
Housing activists are at it again. After seeing last year’s ballot measure – Proposition 10 – go down in flames, they’re taking another run at establishing statewide rent control. Recently, last year’s losing side submitted a market-constraining draft initiative for the 2020 ballot to the state attorney general (AG) for “title and summary”. The […]
Remembering Reagan, and the Heroes of D-Day
Today, as I write this column I’m reminded of a weekend some time ago when – then a lobbyist for homebuilders – I set out to write a regular commentary but was distracted by the news of Ronald Reagan’s death. Fifteen years have ensued since I heard of the great man’s passing but I remember […]
Anti-NIMBY Legislation Dead for Year
SB 50, the controversial bill to mandate high-density housing near transit hubs, recently failed to pass the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Though the bill is likely dead for the year, its author – Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) – vowed to bring it back before the legislative session ends in September. That could be a […]