By Dan Walters
December 17, 2023
For years, California’s state government has been playing whac-a-mole to persuade – or compel – local officials to become more receptive to housing development needed to close an immense gap between supply and demand that drives up living costs and contributes to the state’s very high poverty and homelessness rates.
By Thomas Elias
December 11, 2023
California’s top officials and the bureaucrats who back them up persist in telling us there’s a massive housing shortage in this state, amounting to something between 1.8 million and 3 million units (over five years, they’ve used varying figures within that range).
Even in the midst of the building boom, not enough units are going up to satisfy the shortage, while prices and rents remain too high for most of those who would like to move to new quarters, even for many so-called affordable units.
This week the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to finally advance Mayor London Breed’s legislation to streamline the city’s notoriously lengthy housing approval process. The board is set to take a final vote on the legislation next week to meet a last-chance Dec. 28 deadline imposed by the state Housing and Community Development Department, which has taken increasingly aggressive steps to force San Francisco to implement the policies necessary to accommodate 82,000 new
homes over the next eight years.
By Kate Talerico
December 3, 2023
For years, neighborhoods like Baywood — took their lower-density character for granted. That has changed in recent years as state lawmakers passed measures like Senate Bill 9. These state housing laws, though, carve out one notable exception: historic properties. Last month, the San Mateo Heritage Alliance applied to the State Historic Preservation Office to designate Baywood as a historic district, raising the eyebrows of housing advocates.
by Gennady Sheyner / Palo Alto Weekly
Uploaded: Thu, Nov 30, 2023
Depending on whom you ask, the proposed high-rise development near the California Avenue Caltrain station pitched last week is either an exemplar of smart urban planning or an affront to democracy.
Whatever one’s position, the project that Redco Development has proposed, which includes a 17-story tower, has the potential to transform Palo Alto’s low-key “second downtown.”
BY BEN MAX
NOVEMBER 29, 2023 03:24 PM ET
Gov. Kathy Hochul will not continue to pursue legislation to require housing growth across New York when she releases her 2024 agenda, according to several sources familiar with the governor’s deliberations. Attempting to take on the state’s housing supply and affordability crisis, Hochul made housing a top priority last session after winning her first election to the governor’s office