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.

Lucas Valley housing proposal asserts ‘builder’s remedy’ option

Lucas Valley housing proposal asserts ‘builder’s remedy’ option

By RICHARD HALSTEAD | rhalstead@marinij.com |
Marin Independent Journal

Marin County is facing its first “builder’s remedy” application, a plan to construct homes in upper Lucas Valley.
The developer has proposed 39 residences on the 61-acre parcel. On Friday, however, Bogdasarian said he is preparing a second SB 330 preliminary application that would vest his right to build as many as 150 homes at the site.

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YIMBYs love to hate her. Inside one Bay Area mayor’s anti-housing campaign

YIMBYs love to hate her. Inside one Bay Area mayor’s anti-housing campaign

By J.K. Dineen
SF Chronicle

Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou is the Silicon Valley politician the YIMBYs love to hate.
As the pro-housing “yes in my backyard” movement has spread across California, bringing with it an avalanche of state laws making it more and more difficult for neighbors to block residential development, Kou has doubled down on her role as the South Bay’s most pugnacious anti-YIMBY, an outspoken critic of what she feels is Sacramento’s overreach in forcing municipalities to build housing.

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Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles

Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles

By Christopher Flavelle and Jack Healy
New York Times

Arizona has determined that there is not enough groundwater for all of the housing construction that has already been approved in the Phoenix area, and will stop developers from building some new subdivisions, a sign of looming trouble in the West and other places where overuse, drought and climate change are straining water supplies.

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Consequences mount as Palo Alto’s housing element hangs in limbo

Consequences mount as Palo Alto’s housing element hangs in limbo

Alec Regimbal, SFGATE

The city of Palo Alto is waiting on state officials to approve the second version of a plan that maps out how the city will make way for more than 6,000 new housing units between now and 2031. Until the state approves that blueprint, however, the city has opened itself up to a string of consequences stemming from its failure to get a formal housing plan approved by state officials by the January deadline.

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How the game is played in Sacramento

How the game is played in Sacramento

By SUSAN SHELLEY | opinion@scng.com | Los Angeles Daily News

The California Legislature is a waste of money and space.
Every year, the Legislature goes through the motions of passing laws through its regular process, appearing to be a deliberative body. Actually, it’s a dead body. The real decisions are made in back rooms and regulatory agencies, where the public is excluded or ignored.

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Imagine a Renters’ Utopia.

Imagine a Renters’ Utopia.

By Francesca Mari
Photographs by Luca Locatelli

It Might Look Like Vienna.
When Eva Schachinger married at 22, she applied for public housing. Luckily, she lived in Vienna, which has some of the best public housing in the world. She grew up in a public-housing complex in the center of the city, where her grandmother lived in one of five buildings arranged around a courtyard. Eva played all day with friends from the complex.

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Is the housing shortage overblown? This California analyst thinks so

Is the housing shortage overblown? This California analyst thinks so

By JONATHAN LANSNER
Southern California News Group

John Burns’ real estate research shop has become one of the housing industry’s top analytical firms by taking a more holistic view of what drives homebuying.
For two-plus decades, his eponymous Orange County-based company has become a critical cog in homebuilding thinking because its research looks far beyond real estate basics to encompass broader economic and demographic changes

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