By law, regional government agencies for the Bay Area—MTC/ABAG–must approve a new growth plan—Plan Bay Area 2050. The process must start by acknowledging that the previous Plan has failed to address those issues that have had a huge negative impact on life in the Bay Area. We must address these issues now or accept a continuation of an ineffective Plan for the next eight years.
A “gut and amend” technically may be legal but it is not necessarily moral or good governance. The gut and amend of SB 592 bespeaks of a legislator unable to accept consensus and all too willing to plan ahead and prepare bills that can then serve as vehicles for these kinds of legislative maneuvers. SB 592 is such a bill.
Huge office complexes are being actively pursued in downtown San Jose. Millions of square feet of office space, enough to nearly double the size of downtown San Jose’s office inventory, is in the development pipeline.
Just today (Thursday 6/13), Senator Scott Wiener did what we had heard and predicted that he would do — he gutted SB 592 held at the Assembly Desk since May 24, 2019 — and amended it to a new “Housing Accountability Act” now set for hearing on July 3, 2019 at 9:15 am before the Assembly Housing Committee.
More than a decade ago, Bay Area regional planning agencies launched a growth strategy intended to concentrate new jobs and housing at designated sites close to transit — so-called Priority Development Areas or PDAs.
Developers would pay for only 20 percent of the demand their projects create – so why are we still building so much office space?
If you don’t know about what is going on in Sacramento proposed legislation this year yet, FIND OUT ABOUT IT FAST because it is coming for your home, your block, your neighborhood, and your community NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA.
Save Local Zoning Control
This coming Monday, May 6th, 5:00 p.m. the Palo Alto City Council is holding a special joint session with the Menlo Park and East Palo Alto City Councils — focused on SB 50 and other proposed state-mandated legislation that would destroy local zoning control and radically change our family residential neighborhoods forever!
Save Palo Alto’s Groundwater and the City of Palo Altoare pleased to present Planning for Rising Waters:Sea Level, Ground Water and the Bay Edge Dr. Kristina HillAssoc. Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and Urban Design, U.C. Berkeley April 24, 2019, 7PM to 8:30PMMitchell Park Community Center, El Palo Alto […]
This coming Monday, the City Council will consider the repeal and elimination of the Downtown Commercial Cap (officially known as the Non-Residential Square Footage Cap), which sets specific limits on the level of office & hotel growth in the downtown area and helps lower traffic congestion throughout the City.
