August 6, 2021 Journalists and some lawmakers still believe that SB 9 and SB 10, opposed by thousands of Californians, won't be applied in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones that run from the Mexican border on the south to the Wine Country on the north, almost without pause. Let’s get this straight before
(SOAR Photo) Jan. 9, 2021 (updated July 8, 2021) SB 10 does two things: First, it lets city councils overturn voter-approved ballot measures that protect from overdevelopment local farmland, urban boundaries, shorelines, canyons — or that protect neighborhoods from overdevelopment by enacting height limits or other concepts. Second, SB 10 allows hundreds of cities
Map: El Camino Real runs 43 miles through Silicon Valley and can absorb 250,000 housing units instead of TEARING APART our neighborhoods. The Bay Area has 16,000 acres of underused commercial lots that could absorb 1.6M new units of housing. [May 24, 2021 Editor's Note: Famed Sustainable Communities author and urbanist Peter Calthorpe is a
April 16, 2021 Deeply respected California legislative expert Dan Carrigg of Renne Public Policy Group announces that SB 9 by Toni Atkins, amended by the author on April 5 after intense and broad criticism, still lets developers pave over single-family communities to erect 6-unit projects, and possibly 8 units, where 1 home stands today. Carrigg's
Feb. 7, 2021 Vancouver's high-profile professor, planner and author, Patrick Condon, told more than 160 California community leaders at the Livable California Teleconference on Feb. 6, 2021 that "upzoning" of neighborhoods drives up housing costs and cannot create affordable housing. Many participants asked us to make his powerful presentation and his new book, Sick
Few Californians — or legislators — realized Scott Wiener's SB 902 was as horrific as SB 1120. In hidden language, SB 902 allows city councils to override voter initiatives that protect shores, open space, urban boundaries — any cherished land. Luckily, our volunteer bill analysts spotted Wiener's attack on our 108-year-old right to
Judges keep siding with Los Angeles attorney Robert Silverstein as he fights to save low-income Hollywood from skyscrapers. So naturally, he is appalled by SB 1085, a bill that must have been written by developers.
Bullet Point Analysis — Reasons to Oppose SB 902 (Wiener), the “Attack on Democratic Voting Rights” Bill It sounds far-fetched, but SB 902 is "greased" for approval in California state Senate committees. Yet it contains a major anti-democracy clause that went unnoticed due to its original convoluted wording: It empowers cities and counties to UNDO
State Assemblyman Richard Bloom has morphed into Scott Wiener, even as Wiener loses support among Sacramento legislators due to his slyness and divisive war on homes, yards and neighborhoods. In his AB 1279, Bloom (Santa Monica) would jam ultra-dense housing in newly defined "Opportunity Areas" — thriving middle-class areas that Bloom's bill would seek to
AB 3173, authored by Scott Wiener follower and Assemblymember Richard Bloom of Santa Monica, would reward developers who build excessively small and highly lucrative 80-square-foot luxury micro-units, jamming them into every major city from Fresno to Long Beach to San Diego. We estimate this "housing" will rent for about $1,700 per space, yet will be