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.
Charter Cities SB-9 Lawsuit
Mike Griffiths
California Cities for Local Control
Today (Tues 9/5) was a big day! Today was the first hearing of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Charter Cities to overturn SB9 due to conflicts with the way the bill tries to exempt the legislation from the State Constitution’s protections for Charter Cities’ ability to manage their own land use and zoning.
ABAG’s Bay Area population projections are way too high
By Gaetan Lion
ABAG’s projections use 2015 as the most recent year of actuals.
ABAG’s projections to 2022 (most recent actual data) show how much ABAG dramatically overshot the Bay Area’s population growth. While ABAG projected that during this period, the Bay Area population would increase from 7.6 million to over 8.1 million, it actually decreased to under 7.6 million. ABAG overestimated the Bay Area population by 7.6%. This is a huge error this early in this forecast.
Sunset tower not out of scale — S.F.’s housing crisis is
By Joe DiMento
Much ink has been spilled in San Francisco about a proposed development at 2700 Sloat Blvd. that would create a 50-story condo in the Outer Sunset, a neighborhood with no buildings over six stories tall. The development likely received its death blow when the Board of Appeals voted down the appeal of the Planning Commission’s rejection of the project.
A nonprofit in one of California’s wealthiest cities is trying to block a new housing development
By J.K. Dineen
Aug. 10, 2023
More than two years after a developer submitted a “fast track” application to build 40 units in the exclusive Marin community of Belvedere, the town has still not scheduled a public hearing to review the project, which has provoked the formation of a well-funded nonprofit dedicated to killing the rental housing.
Elias: California’s rebellion against housing density mandates has begun
By THOMAS ELIAS | Columnist
PUBLISHED: August 8, 2023
On the same July day that California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a stern warning to cities and counties around the state about alleged misuse of local “urgency” zoning rules the rebellion against those very laws formally began. This happened when Bonta’s own office received a new initiative designed to make local governments — not the state — supreme in setting housing policies and patterns.
Lots of housing laws. Not much housing
By Zelda Bronstein
48 Hills
Since the 1970s, apostles of growth have decried local control of land use as the evil that has to be stamped out if housing is ever to become abundant and broadly affordable.
Most importantly, as documented by a February report from Terner and the Urban Institute, that doctrine has been read into state land use law across the country, with California leading the way.
So are the new laws working?
Yes and No
Sacramento generates a realistic population forecast after all.
Posted by: Gaetan Lion – July 26, 2023 – 5:39pm
Within my previous essay, I developed a California population forecast given that Sacramento’s population forecast released in July 2021 seemed way too high.
To my surprise, the DRU did revise their forecast just a few days ago. And, now their forecast appears a lot more realistic.
This is a really positive development that hopefully will lead Sacramento to revise its housing mandates downward.
Court issues major builder’s remedy ruling on La Cañada Flintridge
By Trevor Bach
The Real Deal
In a ruling that’s likely to reverberate around California, a Los Angeles County judge ruled this week that La Cañada Flintridge — a wealthy L.A. County city that’s been embroiled for months in an escalating dispute over the development provision known as builder’s remedy — did in fact miss a critical deadline for reaching state compliance on its housing element, implying the city is eligible for builder’s remedy projects.
Generating a realistic California population projection
By Gaetan Lion
A couple of weeks ago I posted an essay on generating a realistic Marin County population projection. I uncovered that Sacramento’s population projections for Marin County were way too high because of their overly aggressive migration assumptions. I wanted to check if this was the case for California as a whole.
My data sources for historical and projected population growth are the same as I used in my earlier essay: