” I have come to the conclusion that the making of laws is like the making of sausages—the less you know about the process the more you respect the result.'”

Just today (Thursday 6/13), Senator Scott Wiener did what we had heard and predicted that he would do — he gutted SB 592 (the Barber and Cosmetology bill) 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. The “new” bill was referred to Housing and Local Government.  For more details see “SB 592: The Snake in the Grass“.

Here is the link to the comparison of the versions for those who would like to see the “gut and amend” in all its glory for yourselves.

Here are the top 5 reasons to oppose SB 592

1.  MAKES DISCRETIONARY APPROVALS AND VARIANCES OBTAINABLE “BY RIGHT” BY A HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PROJECT. This is because SB 592 inserts a sneaky clause saying that no general plan, zoning or subdivision standard is applicable if the city “could” approve the housing project without meeting the standard. Since nearly everything “could” be varied by a zoning administrator, the city planning commission or city council itself, this language suspends every other regulation related to zoning, planning, design and subdivision standards in favor of density.

2. ELIMINATES all use clauses in residential zones: the only limit is that a “nonresidential” use cannot be more than 1/3rd of the square footage of the project. So restaurants, bars, hotels, hostels, cannabis facilities, methadone clinics, cigar bars, strip clubs, stores, auto body shops, recycling facilities, pet boarding and grooming, office space, live/work spaces, whatever other “nonresidential” use one wants is ok so long as not more than 1/3rd of the space is “nonresidential”.

3. VOIDS all local regulation of the number of bedrooms in a housing development project.

4. ALLOWS DORM STYLE LIVING, HOSTELS, HALFWAY HOUSES, HOTELS, BOARDING HOUSES, AND SROs everywhere.

5. ALLOWS McMANSIONS everywhere.

SB 592 voids limits on “density” yet fails to include a definition of “density”.

Oppositions to the new bill will be due no later than NOON on Wednesday June 25th

But why wait until then?  We need to continue to call/email and fight our way through this year’s legislative session to get to the other side.  PLEASE NOTE:  The ONLY way to submit an opposition for the record is through the legislative portal. So if you have not yet registered, please do it now so that your future oppositions will be easy and DON’T FORGET TO WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORD.  YOU WILL NEED IT GOING FORWARD.

Please also call your own Assembly Member and oppose SB 592 (formerly part of SB 50) and SB 330 NOW.  Please request a meeting with the member and/or the district office or both and please keep up the fight.  We really need to win these to save our state from become an unregulated, international repository for safely storing capital, obtaining an EB5 Visa and speculating on California real estate

Hydee R Feldstein