Focus

Warehouse “buffer bill” advances in California legislature

The Real Deal – June 2

A bill that proposes a 1,000-foot buffer zone between large warehouse developments and residential areas has advanced through one chamber of the California legislature. The measure known as Assembly Bill 2840 has now moved to the State Senate. The bill’s sponsor, Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes, represents a district in the Inland Empire, a two-county area of Southern California, which has become an epicenter of logistics developments thanks to an extensive freeway grid, rail links, and its relative proximity to airports and seaports.

News

Commercial real estate industry’s outsized role in decarbonizing cities

Commercial Property Executive – June 1

A new report from JLL argues that mandatory regulations to mitigate climate change will ramp up during the second half of the decade. More than 60 percent of carbon emissions come from buildings. So as cities around the globe set ambitious carbon reduction goals, there is increasing pressure on the real estate industry to help meet those goals, writes Guy Grainger, global head of Sustainability Services and ESG for JLL. “Decarbonizing Cities and Real Estate” examines the carbon reduction commitments, regulations, and incentives being implemented in 32 global cities.

L.A. City Council votes to buy back Chinatown apartment building amid rent dispute

CBS News – May 27

The Los Angeles City Council voted last Friday to try and acquire the Hillside Villa housing development in Chinatown via eminent domain amid rent increases that tenants say they cannot afford. The building is one of thousands in Los Angeles constructed with decades old loans from the city. The agreement was that if developers took money from the city, they had to allow for affordable housing units. However, many of these agreements are now running out, and landlords are raising their rents.

To boost affordable housing, Berkeley looks to buy, not just build

Berkeleyside – June 5

Berkeley has ramped up its investment in the affordable housing strategy known as acquisition and rehabilitation. The city has provided $16.1 million to help fund purchases and renovations of four buildings, securing a combined 73 affordable apartments. Compared to building new apartments from the ground up, “acquisition and rehabilitation” projects can offer a faster and less expensive way to create affordable housing, proponents say.

Plans for 3,700 new homes solidified in San Bruno

The San Mateo Daily Journal – May 31

A comprehensive document that outlines where and how 3,700 new housing units could be built in San Bruno over the next eight years was released last week, with many of the new homes planned for transit corridors. The state-mandated “housing element” is the first step in the city’s process of meeting targets to build 3,165 new homes between 2023 and 2031 to comply with the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, a state requirement that assigns residential growth in eight-year cycles.

710 Freeway expansion won’t happen as L.A. Metro opts for alternatives

Los Angeles Daily News – May 26

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) last Thursday rejected the proposed widening of a 19-mile stretch of the 710 Freeway from East Los Angeles to Long Beach, putting an end to a contentious project that had been in the works since 2005. The move was a major shift from a plan approved by Metro’s board in 2018 to add general freeway lanes and truck-only lanes that would have required the destruction of hundreds of freeway-adjacent homes and businesses.

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