Focus
Court clears new housing near Expo Line in Los Angeles
The Real Deal – December 30
Los Angeles may finally get the 6,000 new residential units it wanted around the Metro Expo Line light-rail route. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in the city’s favor in December, allowing plans that call for the development of up to 6,000 new apartments and condos around five of the Expo Line stations, according to City News Service. The plan has been in the works since the city passed the proposal in 2018, but was stalled after a Westside group sued the city the same year.
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News
Court halts Northern California housing development over wildfire concerns
San Francisco Chronicle – January 2
A proposed luxury housing development in rural Lake County that has drawn widespread criticism for its location in the heart of wildfire country was put on hold this week largely because of concerns about fire safety. A Lake County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the environmental review of the 1,400-home Guenoc Valley Project was inadequate, in part because county planners failed to evaluate what a large-scale fire evacuation of the area would look like. The project is among a handful of development proposals challenged by the state Attorney General’s Office in a new legal front aimed at reducing California’s wildfire danger.
AIDS nonprofit seeks to block Los Angeles housing plan
Los Angeles Times – December 22
The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a new strategy seeking to add nearly half a million new homes over the next eight years. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit group, is now fighting the council’s action, alleging in a lawsuit filed last month that the plan would allow officials to “upzone” much of the city — allowing developers to construct taller, denser buildings — without also requiring “a corresponding obligation to provide affordable housing.”
Conservancy announces completion of 72,000-acre preserve in Sierra Nevada
Bakersfield Californian – December 28
A 13-year effort to piece together a wildlife corridor connecting the southern Sierra Nevada with a conservation easement at Tejon Ranch concluded last Tuesday with the acquisition of a final property in one of the largest private nature preserves in California. The 72,000-acre Frank and Joan Randall Preserve, combines nine Kern County ranches, some of which will continue to operate with the promise their land will never be developed.
New housing or a community garden? Daly City roils over the choice
The Mercury News – January 4
The Jefferson Union High School District has a bold plan to boost school revenues and teacher retention: a massive development that includes apartment towers, shops and offices, and subsidized housing for educators built on surplus school property. But one major obstacle threatens the Serramonte Del Rey plan in Daly City, and it’s not the size, density, or future traffic snarls. It’s a fruit and vegetable garden. About 3,600 people have signed an online petition to curb the project and save a community garden the district has hosted for about two decades.
Many Stinson Beach homes could be flooded amid rising seas within a decade. Would building dunes save them?
San Francisco Chronicle – January 2
A 2016 assessment of Marin county’s shoreline towns found that without intervention, flooding linked to rising seas could damage or destroy 200 to 400 of Stinson Beach’s 775 homes by 2030. Some communities are preparing to move infrastructure, homes, and any new development away from coastal lowlands. Others are building seawalls and different types of structural armor. Marin County officials are considering a temporary, more ecologically oriented solution: constructing dunes to absorb some of the pressure from king tides and big storms heightened by rising seas.
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