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.
Here’s one clear way Trump’s deportation agenda could worsen California’s housing crisis
By Jessica Flores, Reporter
Feb 12, 2025
As day laborers go into hiding, labor experts say the workforce withdrawal could exacerbate the labor shortage and worsen the housing crisis. Shirley Pablo and Annia Lopez walked down East 12th Street in Oakland on a cold Wednesday morning, each pulling a foldable wagon filled with oranges, water bottles, granola bars, disposable face masks and “red cards” listing a person’s constitutional rights. The outreach workers approached four men chatting on the sidewalk near the intersection.
Marin Voice: California growth mandates in fire hazard zones must stop
By JOHN MCCAULEY
February 7, 2025
Given recent tragic wildfires in Los Angeles and Maui, fire danger is naturally on everyone’s mind. Evacuation readiness planning was a top priority during the nine years I served on the Mill Valley City Council.
In its zeal to promote more housing, the California Legislature passed numerous laws taking away local control of housing-development decisions irrespective of fire danger. Local jurisdictions like Mill Valley must comply with new state building mandates that appear to ignore fire risk.
These Bay Area ZIP codes have the highest percentage of all-cash home purchases
By Christian Leonard,
Feb 2, 2025
In the Bay Area, where the typical home costs seven figures, affording a monthly mortgage payment is increasingly out of reach for many. But in a few of the region’s wealthiest ZIP codes, most buyers are avoiding those costs entirely — by buying their home in cash. That was the case for nearly two-thirds of home sales in Atherton, which has some of the most expensive homes in the country, in 2024. The percentage was up from 2019, when roughly 59% of sales in the city were made in cash, according to data from real estate company Redfin.
Big Real Estate Raised $171.6 Million to Kill Prop 33 and Pass Prop 34
Housing Is A Human Right
January 31, 2025
For the 2024 election, Big Real Estate raised a whopping total of $171.6 million to kill Proposition 33 and pass Proposition 34 in California. Several of the top contributors are the country’s largest corporate landlords. Through its multi-million-dollar misinformation campaigns, the real estate industry was able to keep statewide rent control restrictions intact and push through an initiative to damage AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s housing advocacy work in California.
Pacific Palisades Fire Incompetence
Dario L.
January 30, 2025
For anybody that doesn’t think incompetence and misplaced priorities had a role in how bad the Palisades fire got… listen to the comments of this ex- Palisades resident at the DWP board meeting And nobody is saying that nothing would have happened if there was more water… but it surely would have made a difference in the severity.
Marin Voice: Large Fairfax housing proposal part of concerning trend
By DOUG KELLY
January 30, 2025
If you’re a typical homeowner, your most important asset is your home; it’s your wealth. If you live in Marin, however, I am concerned that you are about to lose much of your wealth – unless voters take action. In Fairfax, there is a plan for a six-story building in the middle of town that will change the town for the worse. I think it will lower home values. In San Rafael, one plan is for a 16-story complex. If plans like these move forward, it will be the beginning of the end for our suburb. We will become something much worse than what we are today.
MTC Commission and ABAG Executive Board Approve Plan Bay Area 2050+ Final Blueprint for Further Study
Leading up to this month’s Final Blueprint approval, MTC and ABAG also released the final update to the Equity Priority Communities (EPCs) geographies in December 2024. In addition to informing long-range planning efforts, EPCs are also used to identify funding and public engagement priorities, among other areas. The final Plan Bay Area 2050+ Equity Priority Communities Map ensures that no EPC tracts previously identified as part of Plan Bay Area 2050 will lose EPC status in Plan Bay Area 2050+.
Sacramento’s attack on our suburbs
By Cherie Zaslawsky
January 23, 2025
Though we’re told we’re facing a “housing crisis,” when you come right down to it, we’re experiencing more of a “legislation crisis” since Sacramento has robbed our cities of local control over zoning, insisting we squeeze hundreds of “affordable housing” units into our mostly built-out downtowns. These monolithic apartment complexes tower over a number of our suburban cities of mostly one- and two-story buildings. Such high-density high-rises have sprouted up all along El Camino Real as if overnight.
Menlo Park finds development application at 80 Willow inconsistent with standards
by Eleanor Raab
January 17, 2025
Menlo Park has determined that the application for the controversial “Willow Park” development at 80 Willow Road, the site of the former Sunset Magazine headquarters, is not consistent with city development standards. As the project was submitted under the ‘builder’s remedy’ provision of state housing law, this determination does not amount to a denial of the project. Consistency review is a required step under state housing law, even if it does not necessarily change the outcome of the project.