Sustainable Development Focus
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Aug 8 The city of Los Angeles is in the middle of a multi-year process to rewrite its zoning code. Among the neighborhoods that are in the process of having that code retooled: Boyle Heights. City planners have been staging meetings around the neighborhood to develop the plan, which is expected to go into effect in 2019. The plan will affect residential building and bring a new “Innovation District” to the neighborhood at a time when Boyle Heights has been contending with anti-gentrification protests. The Boyle Heights Community Plan calls for higher-density building along transit corridors and changing backyard setbacks to help legalize existing apartment units in an effort to alleviate the housing crunch. The zoning plan will also include strategies for preserving the neighborhood’s intimate commercial corridors — walkable stretches along East 1st Street and Cesar Chavez Avenue that are lined with mom-and-pop businesses.
PALO ALTO ONLINE - Aug 7 Commercial and residential developers seeking to build in East Palo Alto will have to pay a water-capacity fee for new projects, the City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night. The fee would help the city repay $5 million in loans the city received to purchase water allotments from the city of Mountain View in 2017 and to rebuild and upgrade the city's aging water-delivery infrastructure. The ordinance is effective immediately and applies to all new development projects requiring a water connection to the city's water system. Existing projects with active or valid building permits and projects with vested development rights (which are guaranteed and cannot be taken away) are exempt.
FAST COMPANY - Aug 6 San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, and Portland top the list of a new ranking of the 40 most sustainably powered cities in the U.S. The ranking, organized by the commercial real estate site Commercial Cafe, determines a city’s sustainability status by measuring how much of their energy comes from green sources and determining its total carbon emissions from activities like transportation, also considering how green building practices have advanced in the cities. San Francisco topped the list with 88.53 points out of a possible 100 points. Because its overall carbon emissions are relatively low, it racked up around 27 points for that metric alone, and also received close to the highest possible score for the presence of EV charging stations and the percentage of people who walk and bike.
ENR CALIFORNIA - Aug 7 Six new reports by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) find that because of the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 1 last year, California could see between $9.7 billion and $34.5 billion in economic activity throughout six of its major regions over the next decade. This activity will in turn help support thousands of new construction and non-construction related jobs, the report says. The report calculates direct and indirect economic impacts of the bill, as well as the safety benefits, lower operating costs, reduced congestion, modernized equipment, and increased mobility that ARTBA says will come from SB 1 investments. SB 1, also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, invests $5.4 billion annually over the next decade to fix California’s transportation system.
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Aug 7 Additional electric vehicle charging stations may be installed throughout Huntington Beach in the near future. Following a 7-0 City Council vote Monday, City Manager Fred Wilson will iron out the details of potentially increasing charging stations before requests for proposals are sought from vendors. The stations’ size and scope will be discussed at a future study session. Huntington Beach currently has charging stations in the downtown parking structure and at City Hall and the Pier Plaza parking area.
PACIFIC STANDARD - Aug 3 In Southern California, an effort to turn vacant lots into urban farms is struggling to take root. In 2014, the California legislature approved the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones (UAIZ) Act. Three years later, the policy was implemented in the city of Los Angeles and unincorporated cities in Los Angeles County. Supporters of the policy were optimistic that many owners of more than 8,000 eligible lots in the city would jump at the tax break. However, so far, only four lots have received a tax break under the program. The UAIZ program allows owners of plots of up to three acres to claim a property-tax reduction if they use or lease the land for agricultural purposes for a minimum of five years. But urban-farming advocates believe property owners are apprehensive about giving up their vacant land, likely because many are holding it for future development.
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE - Jul 27 Imagine a neighborhood in which everything you need is within a 10-minute walk, ride on public transit, or drive from your home. It’s an idea that a team of consultants hired by National City will look into for the next year and a half. The team will prepare plans for improvements to the city’s neighborhoods and recommend changes to land-use plans and policies to support the vision. During a recent city-sponsored roundtable, consultants, city staff, and representatives from the Navy, a housing nonprofit, and Southwestern College discussed how 10-minute neighborhoods can cater to residents, particularly the city’s three largest growing demographics: students, military members, and seniors.
