A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team:
San Francisco
S.F.’s Stonestown to become west side’s largest residential development in 50 years (SF Chronicle): The plan to convert the Stonestown Galleria from a suburban shopping center to an urban neighborhood with thousands of units of housing received its final approvals from the Board of Supervisors.
$20 billion affordable housing bond measure makes it on November ballot (Business Times): The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority estimated that the funding would roughly double the number of affordable homes built in the region over the next 15 years and push through affordable housing units that observers say are stuck in the pipeline.
South of Market megaprojects could pivot from office to residential under new proposal from Breed (Business Times): The legislation could open the door for thousands of new homes across swaths of the South of Market neighborhood.
New legislation would dramatically reduce S.F. transfer tax for certain projects (Business Times): The legislation would temporarily lower transfer taxes for apartment buildings backed by union pension investment.
Scott Wiener’s downtown CEQA exemption is dead, to Mayor Breed’s dismay (Business Times): The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to hold the bill in suspense, causing it to miss a critical midyear deadline.
One of S.F.’s most contentious land use battles ends with construction of new housing (SF Chronicle): The seven-story, 90-unit project will become a model — good or bad — for what it means to put dense affordable homes in a neighborhood that has been resisting density for decades.
Landmark bill creates unprecedented path to approval for housing in San Francisco (Business Times): SB 423 clears the way for some residential projects to evade the City’s lengthy approval processes.
California and Beyond
SB 423 promises to remake housing policy across the Bay Area (Business Times): The law’s streamlining provisions for new residential development also apply to other Bay Area jurisdictions.
Newsom Orders California Officials to Remove Homeless Encampments (NY Times): The directive is the nation’s most sweeping response to the Court’s decision that gave local leaders greater authority to remove homeless campers.
After High Court Ruling, L.A. County Supervisors to Reaffirm Policy Against Jailing Homeless People (LA Times): The board considered a motion reaffirming its existing policy that County jails “will not be used to hold people arrested due to enforcement of anti-camping ordinances.”
L.A. Officials Continue to Stall Homeless Housing Project in Venice, New Lawsuit Claims (LA Times): The lawsuit alleges that by not allowing the project to proceed, the city is preventing the construction of low-income homes in an affluent neighborhood and therefore violating fair housing and equal protection laws.
Reforming California’s landmark coastal law can restore balance between housing and environment (Cal Matters): A former attorney for the California Coastal Commission says the state Coastal Act has failed to deliver on what it envisioned.
Behind the evolution of rent control’s politics (The Real Deal): Pushes to overturn state bans on rent control have been mostly futile across the nation, but have gained traction recently in Illinois and California.
