Latest News
NOTE: The opinions expressed in the news items cited here do not necessarily represent the opinion of Catalysts for Local Control. We try to present a balanced picture of the news on the subject of housing and legislation.
S.F. prioritized building homes for the ‘missing middle.’ 80% of units sit empty
By J.K. Dineen
April 21, 2024
For years, San Francisco politicians and housing advocates have fought for the creation of “missing middle” housing for workers with incomes high enough to be middle class in most markets, but who are often priced out of the famously expensive city.
But developers who have recently built apartments aimed at moderate-income families in San Francisco have discovered a harsh reality: The missing middle seems to have gone missing.
It’s not just skyscrapers and high-density — ‘builder’s remedy’ is also bringing more urban sprawl
By Kate Talerico
April 21, 2024
In southern Santa Clara County, an orchard could be razed for 320 single-family homes. On a pasture on the northern edge of Benicia, cows could give way to 1,080 houses. On a road cutting through Sonoma County wine country, there could soon be traffic from 514 homes. Homebuilders are proposing these houses — and thousands more — on farmland and grassy hills on the outskirts of the Bay Area. And because of state housing law, local governments may be powerless to stop them
One of S.F.’s biggest apartment complexes at risk of defaulting on $1.8 billion mortgage
By Roland Li
April 16, 2024
Parkmerced, one of San Francisco’s biggest apartment complexes, is at risk of defaulting on its nearly $1.8 billion mortgage.
Owner Maximus Real Estate Partners has requested the transfer of the mortgage to special servicing, a move that can lead to foreclosure, according to a report by Morningstar, a financial services firm.
Live in a single-family home? This Bay Area company wants to give you $100,000 for the yard space you’re not using
By KATE TALERICO
April 5, 2024
In recent years, California lawmakers have approved a flurry of legislation aimed at increasing the housing supply and addressing the state’s decades-in-the-making housing crisis. Senate Bill 9, passed in 2021, is one such change: it allows single-family homeowners around the state to split their lots in two, and build two homes on each lot. An analysis by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley estimated that the new law could result in 700,000 new homes.
A wealthy Peninsula town is dragging its feet on building housing, state says. Now, it faces consequences.
By KATE TALERICO
April 2, 2024
The town is the first to have its housing element decertified by the state, which means it loses out on key state infrastructure funds. Wealthy Portola Valley earlier this year became one of the first towns in San Mateo County to receive state approval for its plan to build more housing.
Department says that plan isn’t worth anything if the city isn’t following through on it — and, as it turns out, Portola Valley isn’t.
California’s most controversial housing law could get a makeover
by CalMatters
April 2, 2024 11:00 am
For the last two years the “builder’s remedy” has been the unruly teenager of California housing laws.
Now, some of California’s most powerful Democratic lawmakers are pushing legislation that would clear up, but also rein in, the state’s most controversial housing statute. Nearly a year and a half since a developer first used the law to propose a zoning-code-blowing project, 2024 may be the year that the builder’s remedy grows up.
Californians’ home insurance is being dropped due to ‘density.’ What does that mean?
By Megan Fan Munce
March 30, 2024
Last October, Marc Snyder’s insurance company informed him it wouldn’t be renewing his homeowners insurance this year for a reason he had never heard before: density.
The letter from Liberty Mutual said Snyder’s home was “located in a region where the dwellings are considered to be too densely concentrated for us to continue to provide coverage.”
YIMBYs on their heels as race for mayor heats up
By Gabe Greschler
March 27, 2024
After a March primary election that was dominated by public safety, the upcoming mayoral contest appears to be quickly pivoting to another issue San Franciscans often disagree on. You guessed it: Housing. And, for now, the people clamoring to build more of it are on the back foot.
On Tuesday, seven supervisors stood behind Board President Aaron Peskin and his legislation that seeks to preserve a handful of blocks in Telegraph Hill, an area home to some buildings dating back to the Gold Rush era.
Are California Housing Mandates Ending Community Involvement And Character Of Cities? | Amy Kalish | Lydia Kou
Siyamak Khorrami
March 24, 2024
“The goal is to densify every town in the state. To densify it so that’d be walking around, not driving. In some places, it doesn’t work. But this whole policy has been applied as “one size fits all” with no complaining.”
Siyamak sits down with Amy Kalish, with https://citizenmarin.org/. She’s been studying what the Housing Mandates are for different cities in California. Amy’s going to tell us what’s happening with California communities.