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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.
Letters: YIMBY critics of S.F. Supervisor Dean Preston’s housing record are wrong. Here’s why
By Chronicle readers
Dec 24, 2023
Regarding “The battle over S.F. Supervisor Dean Preston’s housing record is heating up again” (San Francisco, SFChronicle.com, Dec. 20): This discourse has been manipulated by YIMBY groups to distort San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston’s genuine intentions and unjustly vilify his approach.
Recent reports dissecting Preston’s housing record have been selectively crafted to cast shadows on his efforts.
The year in housing policy: State forced SF into a no-win situation (and Breed went along)
By TIM REDMOND
DECEMBER 22, 2023
It was a crazy year for housing in San Francisco, with the state forcing to city to adopt new rules for “constraint reduction” to comply with a new construction mandate that nobody, even housing developers, thinks is remotely possible.
The battle over S.F. Supervisor Dean Preston’s housing record is heating up again
By Aldo Toledo
December 20, 2023
Entering an election year that could turn in part on his housing record, San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston is touting a new report by supporters finding that he has approved nearly 30,000 homes since he took office in 2020.
Preston and the report argue that critics of his housing record are misinformed about his approach to one of the city’s most intractable problems.
These New California Housing Laws Are Going Into Effect in 2024
Erin Baldassari
Jan 2, 2024
In 2017, California lawmakers broke through a longstanding logjam of anti-housing sentiment, unleashing 15 landmark bills that sought to boost new construction across the state. Six years later, the 2023 legislative session saw 56 housing bills signed into law, evidence the tide has yet to turn on efforts to increase home affordability in the state.
‘Builder’s remedy’ project on Sunset Magazine site could go even higher
by Neil Gonzales / Contributor
Wed, Dec 20, 2023
Menlo Park leaders and residents were already aghast over a proposal to build a towering, multi-building, mixed-use development on the former Sunset Magazine headquarters.
The latest revision to the proposal by the development company N17 has only deepened their anxiety and worry as it would go even denser and higher — up to 421 feet — compared to two previous iterations.
California plays whac-a-mole with cities resistant to building much-needed housing
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.
Inadequate Building Boom as ‘Housing Shortage’ Persists
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.
S.F. supervisors’ inaction forces housingburden on other cities
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.
Are nimbys weaponizing historic preservation?
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.