SB 50 is Hiding Inside 9 bad bills: Stop SB 1120, SB 902, SB 1085, SB 995 AND AB 725, AB 1279, AB 2345, AB 3040, AB 3107! We all helped to kill SEVEN Bad Bills! The Legislature Approved Just Two Bad Bills, Both Now Heading to Gov. Newsom!
Shortly after midnight on Sept. 1, we all helped kill the noxious SB 1120. It was NOT ABOUT MODEST DUPLEXES, but about dense high-end luxury homes wiping out communities.
We are thankful that SB 1120 is good and dead. Read more Read more Read more hereherehere
Act: Please donate to Livable California HERE. We’re grassroots against big money. And they are piling it on.
Act: Get on FB and Twitter and thank members of the Assembly who voted NO on SB 112o, earning the ire of Senate boss Toni Atkins and powerful developers. It’s not a game. THANK them BY NAME on FB / Twitter NOW!: Assembly members Bauer-Kahan, Bigelow, Bloom, Boerner-Horvath, Brough, Daly, Friedman, Kamlager, Lackey, Levine, Maienschein, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O’Donnell, Obernolte, Petrie-Norris, Smith, Waldron.
Act: Some Assembly members, in voting on SB 1120, were “NVR” — meaning no vote recorded. This is equivalent to a No vote in passing or killing a bill. They didn’t stick their necks out like the NO voters, but things are ugly in the Capitol. So thank them on FB/Twitter: Assembly members Burke, Calderon, Chau, Choi, Chu, Diep, Eggman, Frazier, Gabriel, Holden, Irwin, Limón, Mathis, Mayes, Patterson, Santiago, Voepel.
Sacramento tried hard this year to revive state Sen. Scott Wiener’s hated SB 50, via Nine Bad Bills. You helped kill seven of them: SB 902, SB 995, AB 1279, AB 3107 and AB 3040.
The divisive gentrification bill SB 50, by Bay Area state Sen. Scott Wiener, would have banned single-family zoning, and allowed tall apartments on low-density streets. The mostly dead 9 Bad Bills of 2020 aimed to do this by piecemealing. Take an aspirin, and read on:
SB 1120 (by Scott Wiener and Toni Atkins) THIS WORST OF ALL BILLS IS NOW DEAD!
Crushes single-family zoning, a threat to 8 million homeowners at all income levels. State Sen. Scott Wiener has called yards and single-family homes “immoral.” SB 1120 allows 4 market-rate homes where a one home now stands and 8 units, if cities have local city “granny flat” laws. Requires NO affordable units, PERIOD! SB 1120 opens residential streets to speculation frenzy by rental giants including Irvine Company who control tens of thousands of unaffordable rental homes once owned by families. Opponents include California Alliance of Local Electeds (CALE), Association of Contract Cities, South Los Angeles Alliance for Locally Planned Growth, L.A. City Councilmembers David Ryu, Paul Koretz and Herb Wesson, and hundreds of neighborhood groups statewide. South L.A. will be decimated by Atkins/Wiener push for dense luxury housing everywhere. Incredibly poor media coverage bought into Sacramento’s false spin that SB 1120 merely allowed modest “duplexes.” READ HERE ABOUT REALITY
SB 902 (by Scott Wiener): THIS BILL IS NOW DEAD!
Allows a majority on any city council to overturn voter-approved ballot measures that protect open space, shorelines and other lands — killing a 108-year-old California voter right. AND Allows any city council to rezone “any parcel” to 10-unit luxury apartments, overriding all other zoning, inviting upheaval in older, diverse, multi-family areas. Requires NO affordability! Opens California to speculation frenzy.
SB 995 (by Wiener and Atkins): THIS BILL IS NOW DEAD!
This phony housing bill actually rewards huge $15M commercial projects with a bit of housing stuck on the side! While enriching commercial developers, it requires only 15% of its housing units to be affordable. SB 995 badly weakens CEQA, our environmental law, for NO reason and guarantees ZERO affordable housing units amidst the COVID-19 economic collapse.
SB 1085 (by Nancy Skinner): THIS BILL IS NOW DEAD!
This bill was substantially amended July 29 in the Assembly Housing Committee after Livable California and many groups criticized it for CUTTING IN HALF the legislature’s commitment to affordable housing units required in “Density Bonus” projects. Skinner made insufficient changes to help the poor. Her amendments deserved to fail.
AB 725: (by Buffy Wicks and Scott Wiener)
A severe threat to 400+ cities who have not attracted enough housing to hit state-ordered growth targets known as “RHNA.” AB 725 bring density and upheaval to low-density areas. “RHNA” was once a helpful growth-forecasting tool. Now it’s used (especially by Scott Wiener) as a weapon to force demolition and density on communities. This bill forces cities to rezone single-family areas and built-out apartment neighborhoods to higher density — to make way for alleged near-future growth that the US Census clearly shows IS NOT ACTUALLY COMING.
AB 725, which will bring upheaval to potentially thousands of stable working-class and middle-class communities, was unfortunately approved by the legislature and is being sent to Gov. Newsom.
AB 1279 (by Richard Bloom): THIS BILL IS NOW DEAD!
A year AFTER this radical bill becomes law, a “committee” would identify streets as “Opportunity Areas” where 50-unit to 120-unit apartments could be built, ignoring zoning as long as affordable units are included. OR developers can pay a woefully insufficient “in lieu” fee to AVOID building affordable housing, and then built 10-unit luxury apartments on single-family and low-density streets in these unsuspecting “Areas.” All without a single hearing. This is wrong.
AB 2345 (by Lorena Gonzalez and David Chiu)
Allows developers to add 50% in “Density Bonus” size to a project if developers agree to provide more affordable housing units than required under “Density Bonus” law. To create these huge buildings, developers can ignore city controls on size, parking, setbacks, side yards, trees, design and other local standards. AB 2345 is fatally flawed by requiring only a HANDFUL of additional affordable units in oversized market-rate apartment projects, allowing market-rate developers to make a killing.
This bill badly shortchanges the poor but was approved by the legislature and is heading to Gov. Newsom.
AB 3040 (by David Chiu): THIS BILL IS NOW DEAD!
It’s a “Sophie’s Choice”: Cities comply with AB 3040 by sacrificing single-family homes older than 15 years — think South L.A., East L.A., and diverse older suburbs — to satisfy state growth dictates known as “RHNA.” OR cities can refuse to comply and try to meet these growth dictates by relying on the state Density Bonus program. Stay with us here, folks: Unfortunately, the Density Bonus program is a FAIL, preventing cities from approving even close to the number of affordable units required by “RHNA.” Over 400 out of 482 cities won’t make the “RHNA” targets. When cities fail, a divisive and punitive law by Scott Wiener, called SB 35, will let developers ignore many local rules to build as they wish. Yes, “Sophie’s Choice.”
AB 3107 (by Richard Bloom and Phil Ting): THIS BILL IS NOW DEAD!
Wreaks havoc by allowing apartment towers where cafés, shops or businesses now stand, even if adjacent to homes. The new towers would contain 20% affordable units. Each city faces a different fate — the bill arbitrarily allow heights that match the tallest height allowed in any commercial or residential area up to ½ mile away. In L.A. it means 9-story apartments citywide. In Inglewood, 75 feet would be allowed. In Manhattan Beach, it wipes out a residential 30-foot height limit to allow 99 feet. We predict chaos.