Editorial: Patience, please. Undoing damage from decades of anti-housing policy in California won’t happen overnight

1 year, 11 months ago

Editorial: Patience, please. Undoing damage from decades of anti-housing policy in California won’t happen overnight

LA Times

Construction of backyard homes, known as accessory dwelling units, has been booming. The state desperately needs new homes built to ease the housing and homelessness crises, so it’s worth examining why more property owners haven’t embraced SB 9. The study from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation evaluated 13 cities where property owners seemed most likely to take advantage of SB 9 because of healthy real estate prices and a lot of backyard home construction. For comparison, California cities permitted nearly 20,000 backyard homes, or accessory dwelling units, in 2021, according to state data. They’re similar housing types in similar communities, but it’s easier to build an ADU now thanks to multiple state laws passed since 2016 that overruled local requirements for parking, setbacks and other criteria that made it difficult and expensive to build backyard homes.

Homes Housing Policy California State Build Sb 9 Backyard Homes overnight state california sb homes laws undoing decades cities units damage patience happen editorial housing policy build wont singlefamily backyard

History of this topic

Los Angeles has to rezone the entire city. Why are officials protecting single-family-home neighborhoods?

2 months, 4 weeks ago

Los Angeles has to rezone the entire city. Why are officials protecting single-family-home neighborhoods?

LA Times

The city of Los Angeles is on the verge of redrafting blueprints for its neighborhoods to accommodate more than 250,000 new homes. “This has resulted in an unaffordable housing market due, in part, to a pervasive lack of supply and the fact that single-family homes are more expensive than multi-family residences.” The future of single-family-home neighborhoods has been one of …

Editorial: How changing the rules on stairways could help California build more homes

1 year, 4 months ago

Editorial: How changing the rules on stairways could help California build more homes

LA Times

Construction workers work on Central Park West homes and apartments in Irvine on Jan. 28, 2019. State lawmakers are considering a bill that could eventually allow single-stairway buildings, which could make it easier to build small-to-medium sized apartment complexes. What gets less attention, but are still important, are the narrower proposals to rethink regulations that have inadvertently stymied home construction, …

A new California housing law has done little to encourage building, report says

1 year, 11 months ago

A new California housing law has done little to encourage building, report says

LA Times

A new duplex law once considered to be the end of single-family-home zoning in California has instead done little so far to encourage much housing construction. Across 13 cities in the state, SB 9 projects are “limited or nonexistent,” according to a new study by the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation. “It doesn’t seem like Senate Bill 9 …

Editorial: L.A. can make it easier to legalize backyard homes

2 years ago

Editorial: L.A. can make it easier to legalize backyard homes

LA Times

An investor purchased a house in North Hollywood with a plan to covert the structure in the back to an accessory dwelling unit. State legislators have passed laws requiring cities to cut fees, streamline permits and remove barriers so property owners could create new accessory dwelling units or, in many cases, legalize existing unpermitted units. Los Angeles Councilmember Monica Rodriguez …

Some California cities try to blunt new duplex law with restrictions on new developments

3 years ago

Some California cities try to blunt new duplex law with restrictions on new developments

LA Times

With California on the verge of allowing multi-unit housing in neighborhoods previously reserved for single-family homes, some cities are rushing to pass restrictions on the new developments. Indeed, UC Berkeley researchers found that it would make financial sense for property owners of only about 5% of the state’s 7.5 million single-family lots to add more homes on their property pursuant …

Editorial: Watch out, NIMBYs. Newsom just dumped single-family zoning

3 years, 3 months ago

Editorial: Watch out, NIMBYs. Newsom just dumped single-family zoning

LA Times

Of the three housing bills Newsom signed Thursday, the most consequential is Senate Bill 9 because it will allow up to four units of housing on a single-family lot. Gavin Newsom took his boldest steps yet to fix California’s housing shortage by signing a package of bills that will transform the state by getting rid of single-family zoning and making …

What just happened with single-family zoning in California?

3 years, 3 months ago

What just happened with single-family zoning in California?

LA Times

Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed two bills meant to make it easier to build more housing in California. Single-family zoning refers to a residential area where only one housing unit can be built on a given parcel of land. Instead, it enables local governments to change their zoning rules much more quickly to allow housing developments with up to 10 …

California enacts two laws to slice through local zoning rules

3 years, 3 months ago

California enacts two laws to slice through local zoning rules

LA Times

California single-family neighborhoods could see existing parcels split in half to build new housing under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. That’s not enough to keep from undercutting local control, 241 cities joined by the League of California Cities said in a letter to Newsom, though they acknowledged that affordability and homelessness “are among the most critical issues facing California …

‘Gimme Shelter’: California is on the verge of ending single-family home only zoning

3 years, 3 months ago

‘Gimme Shelter’: California is on the verge of ending single-family home only zoning

LA Times

A sign is posted in front of new homes for sale at Hamilton Cottages last September in Novato, Calif. California lawmakers gave final passage on Monday to a bill that would allow more homes in neighborhoods now zoned only for single-family homes. Under Senate Bill 9 by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, cities across California would have to allow …

Editorial: To save California, sacrifice single-family zoning

3 years, 4 months ago

Editorial: To save California, sacrifice single-family zoning

LA Times

Andrew Aguayo works on an Accessory Dwelling Unit being built as part of a new initiative called Backyard Homes, in which homeowners receive help building an ADU in their backyard in exchange for agreeing to rent it to a low-income Section 8 resident. SB 9 would allow up to four units of housing on a single-family lot. California has already …

Showdown looms in Sacramento over plan to split some single-family lots for more homes

3 years, 4 months ago

Showdown looms in Sacramento over plan to split some single-family lots for more homes

LA Times

Under Senate Bill 9, up to four new housing units could be allowed on a single property in certain neighborhoods that are currently zoned for standalone houses only. Dubbed the “duplex bill,” Senate Bill 9 marks the most conservative effort in a string of so-far unsuccessful measures by Sacramento lawmakers in recent years to permit more housing density in single-family …

‘Upzoning’ in my backyard? California bill won’t turbocharge home building, study says

3 years, 5 months ago

‘Upzoning’ in my backyard? California bill won’t turbocharge home building, study says

LA Times

A new bill would allow most lots now zoned for only one house to have up to four units. Because of the way unit development would pencil out, the study found that “the vast amount of single-family parcels across the state would not see any new development,” said David Garcia, policy director at the Terner Center, which supports the bill …

In a first for California, Sacramento poised to allow apartments in single-family home neighborhoods

3 years, 10 months ago

In a first for California, Sacramento poised to allow apartments in single-family home neighborhoods

LA Times

A jogger passes single family homes in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Sacramento.Sacramento is on the verge of approving a plan that would make the city the first in California to end zoning that permits only one single-family home on a property. “I not only take pride in the fact that we’re leading — I insist on it.” A “Don’t Become …

California has a housing crisis. A bill would allow a duplex on most single-family parcels

4 years, 3 months ago

California has a housing crisis. A bill would allow a duplex on most single-family parcels

LA Times

If SB 1120 becomes law, homeowners could build up to four homes where one now stands. Property owners could also split a single-family lot into two and then build two additional units, thus placing four homes where there previously was one. Because the bill would allow a lot split, property owners could also build another single-family house or duplex — …

Discover Related

L.A. City Council votes to boost housing development, while leaving out single-family-home zones

2 weeks ago

L.A. City Council votes to boost housing development, while leaving out single-family-home zones

LA Times

An apartment building under construction in the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles in 2020. The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to boost housing development in existing high-density residential neighborhoods and along commercial corridors, while leaving single-family zones largely untouched. Last month, a city council committee approved a plan that allowed for more building in existing high-density residential neighborhoods …

Housing City Council Plan Areas Zones Raman

Despite active quake year, some California suburbs refuse to fix vulnerable buildings

1 month ago

Despite active quake year, some California suburbs refuse to fix vulnerable buildings

LA Times

Southern California is seeing its most seismically active year in decades, but some cities near the epicenter of recent temblors have yet to require retrofits of many apartment buildings deemed most at risk of collapse, a Times investigation has found. In San Francisco, 94% of 4,941 apartment buildings affected by a soft-story retrofit law passed in 2013 have since been …

Law Buildings Building City San Francisco Earthquake California

L.A. City Council committee approves sweeping housing rezoning plan

1 month ago

L.A. City Council committee approves sweeping housing rezoning plan

LA Times

A key Los Angeles city council committee signed off on a sweeping rezoning plan Tuesday that would focus new market rate and affordable housing on commercial corridors and in existing dense residential neighborhoods. “By opening up some of these neighborhoods — to some new housing — we would actually be making steps towards undoing the city’s patterns of segregation that …

Housing City Council Plan Committee Build Plum

Number more important than type in housing construction: CPB

1 month ago

Number more important than type in housing construction: CPB

NL Times

The number of homes built is more important for the position of households in dire straits on the housing market than the exact type of home. “The most important thing for households in dire straits is that as many homes as possible are built.” Discussion often arises about which type of homes should be built, such as small homes or …

Homes Housing Land Households Cpb Housing Construction Smaller Homes

Los Angeles rezoning plan won’t spur enough new housing, report finds

1 month ago

Los Angeles rezoning plan won’t spur enough new housing, report finds

LA Times

Los Angeles is on the verge of redrafting blueprints for its neighborhoods to accommodate more than 250,000 new homes. A soon-to-be-voted-on plan to rezone the city of Los Angeles will fall far short of its homebuilding goal, according to a new analysis from UCLA researchers. But when analyzing the likelihood of what developers would actually build, researchers found the number …

City Los Angeles Plan Ucla Phillips Housing

Could L.A.’s rezoning plan to boost housing supply cause more tenant displacement?

1 month, 1 week ago

Could L.A.’s rezoning plan to boost housing supply cause more tenant displacement?

LA Times

Sandra Sanchez described the headaches as strong. “It doesn’t make sense to have this huge cornerstone of our housing policy solution be at risk.” Los Angeles is proposing changes because state housing rules mandate the city find land where developers can add 255,000 new homes — just over half of which would be affordable to low-income families. The incentives vary …

Housing Tenant City Los Angeles Units Plan Department

Proposition 5 ballot measure to make it easier to fund affordable housing fails

1 month, 2 weeks ago

Proposition 5 ballot measure to make it easier to fund affordable housing fails

LA Times

Construction on Casa Sueños, an affordable housing complex in Oakland, in 2023. A ballot measure that would have made it easier to finance affordable housing and other public projects in California has failed. Results from prior elections showed dozens of local bond measures that exceeded 55% support but failed to reach the required two-thirds majority, meaning that Proposition 5 could …

California Measure Proposition 5 Housing Local

Prop. 2, statewide bond measure to upgrade California schools, leads in early voting

1 month, 2 weeks ago

Prop. 2, statewide bond measure to upgrade California schools, leads in early voting

LA Times

Proposition 2, a bond to provide $10 billion in funding for repairs and upgrades at thousands of public elementary, middle and high schools and community colleges across California, was leading in early returns Tuesday night. Proposition 2 would provide $8.5 billion in facility renovations and new construction for K-12 schools, with 10% of the funds dedicated to small school districts. …

Bond California State Prop School Districts

Nearly 500,000 WA homes have at least one spare bedroom amid major housing crisis

1 month, 2 weeks ago

Nearly 500,000 WA homes have at least one spare bedroom amid major housing crisis

ABC

Australia doesn't have enough houses. "Potential sellers say, well, if you can find me a nice three bed, two bath on a smaller block, I'd be more than happy to sell this property," Mr Papineau said. Curtin University property professor Steven Rowley said while changing rules around subdividing blocks and encouraging house-sharing could help, it wouldn't solve everything. "The challenge …

Homes Cent Need Abc Tony Stamp Winthrop

Prop. 33 Could See Big Changes in Berkeley's Rent Control

1 month, 3 weeks ago

Prop. 33 Could See Big Changes in Berkeley's Rent Control

Associated Press

Proposition 33, a ballot measure in California, could have a significant impact on housing regulations in several cities. If passed, the measure would allow cities to impose stricter rent control measures on single-family homes and apartments, potentially leading to higher housing costs for residents. However, it is important to note that the measure would not apply to existing exemptions for …

Politics Law Economy Housing Berkeley

The hidden earthquake danger lurking inside California homes and what you can do about it

2 months ago

The hidden earthquake danger lurking inside California homes and what you can do about it

LA Times

A home collapsed in the Boulder Creek area of the Santa Cruz Mountains during the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. The soft-story seismic defect in houses Built before 2000, they’re known as “soft-story” homes — single-family homes with a living space over a garage. Grants available to owners of soft-story homes This month, the California Residential Mitigation Program …

Homes Space Homeowners San Francisco Earthquake California Los Angeles

Los Angeles’ $22-billion homelessness problem gives leaders a choice: Double down or change strategies

2 months, 1 week ago

Los Angeles’ $22-billion homelessness problem gives leaders a choice: Double down or change strategies

LA Times

City of Los Angeles officials are finally confronting a question that has seemed too big to answer: How much would it actually cost to get every person living on the street today indoors and make sure that no one languished there for years again? “In other ways, it doesn’t seem that eye-popping to me for the scale of the problem.” …

Housing Construction City Homeless Homelessness Report Los Angeles

Harris and Trump see federal land in the Southwest as an opportunity for more housing

2 months, 1 week ago

Harris and Trump see federal land in the Southwest as an opportunity for more housing

NPR

Harris and Trump see federal land in the Southwest as an opportunity for more housing Both major presidential candidates are reimagining swaths of land in the Southwest, much of it federally owned and maintained, as an opportunity to build more housing. Well, a lot of this land is federally owned and maintained, and both major presidential candidates see it as …

Housing Trump Opportunity Arizona Washington Harris Las Vegas

Harris and Vance have found a new culprit for the housing crisis

2 months, 1 week ago

Harris and Vance have found a new culprit for the housing crisis

Politico

Industry experts, however, say kicking investors out of the housing market is exactly the wrong approach. “Nobody wants to run for office saying the reason young people can’t buy their first homes is old people are staying in them too long or paying all cash — that would be politically suicidal.” The battle underscores a broader political dynamic at play, …

Homes Institutional Investors Housing Crisis Investors Harris Vance Brown

Letters to the Editor: Are L.A.’s single-family neighborhoods worth protecting?

2 months, 3 weeks ago

Letters to the Editor: Are L.A.’s single-family neighborhoods worth protecting?

LA Times

To the editor: I am a never-homeowner living in an apartment building on a street full of apartment buildings. As a native of Los Angeles, I have countless Latino and Black friends raised in dense environments who have worked hard to to move to single-family neighborhoods. Most recently, the Los Angeles Planning Commission voted to exempt single-family neighborhoods from the …

Housing City Los Angeles Los Angeles Apartment Neighborhoods

Gavin Newsom signs controversial bill regulating California warehouse development

2 months, 3 weeks ago

Gavin Newsom signs controversial bill regulating California warehouse development

LA Times

Gavin Newsom has signed a controversial bill that establishes siting and design standards for industrial warehouses that, according to supporters, would better protect the health of nearby residents. The League of California Cities is committed to fixing this “costly, burdensome bill” during next year’s legislative session, President Daniel Parra said in a statement Sunday. Environmental advocates are especially concerned about …

Environmental California State Feet Bill Warehouse

Track the money for Prop 5: Contributions for and against housing and infrastructure bonds

2 months, 3 weeks ago

Track the money for Prop 5: Contributions for and against housing and infrastructure bonds

LA Times

Proposition 5 would lower the vote threshold needed to pass local bond measures for affordable housing, transportation, parks and other infrastructure. Supporters contend that changing the required majority from two-thirds to 55% will make it easier for voters to approve government financing for needed housing and other public projects. Overall fundraising Cumulative contributions Biggest supporters The Non-Profit Housing Association of …

Editorial: A test for Mayor Bass’ Planning Commission — support affordable housing or preserve single-family zoning?

2 months, 4 weeks ago

Editorial: A test for Mayor Bass’ Planning Commission — support affordable housing or preserve single-family zoning?

LA Times

The Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday will make one of its most consequential decisions in years. And we hope Mayor Karen Bass’ appointees on the commission agree and back a proposal to allow apartments and townhomes to be built on single-family zoned properties near public transportation stops and major streets in affluent areas, such as Ventura Boulevard and Wilshire …

Homes Housing City Commission Affordable Zoned Properties

Why Nevada's housing crisis is about more than Californians driving up home prices

2 months, 4 weeks ago

Why Nevada's housing crisis is about more than Californians driving up home prices

NPR

Why Nevada's housing crisis is about more than Californians driving up home prices toggle caption Krystal Ramirez for NPR LAS VEGAS — James Watts, a third generation Las Vegan, and his partner, Lauren Tuvell, just fulfilled a dream that currently might feel out of reach for many long-time Nevada residents. toggle caption Krystal Ramirez for NPR toggle caption Krystal Ramirez …

Housing Prices California Nevada House Las Vegas Know

California governor signs package of bills giving state more power to enforce housing laws

3 months ago

California governor signs package of bills giving state more power to enforce housing laws

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California cities will soon face more state scrutiny — and new penalties — for pushing back on housing and homeless shelter construction, according to a package of laws signed Thursday by Gov. Newsom has been cracking down on what he sees as local resistance and defiance of state laws in the face of California’s desperate need for …

Housing Cities Homeless California State Newsom Laws

Why a bill to regulate California warehouse development is generating sweeping opposition

3 months, 2 weeks ago

Why a bill to regulate California warehouse development is generating sweeping opposition

LA Times

A bill on Gov. Environmental advocates are especially concerned about the bill’s setback requirements for projects involving warehouses 250,000 square feet and larger that are within 900 feet of homes, schools, parks or healthcare facilities. they still affect us.” The bill would simply enshrine current warehouse development practices into law and undermine local efforts to advocate for the much bigger …

Property Cities California Feet Bill San Bernardino Standards

Silicon Valley-backed voter plan for a new California city won’t be on the November ballot after all

5 months ago

Silicon Valley-backed voter plan for a new California city won’t be on the November ballot after all

Associated Press

FAIRFIELD, Calif. — A Silicon Valley-backed initiative to build a green city for up to 400,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area on land now zoned for agriculture won’t be on the Nov. 5 ballot after all, officials said Monday. The California Forever campaign qualified for the ballot in June, but a Solano County report released last week raised …

Land California County Solano County California Forever

Letters to the Editor: Ending single-family zoning will wipe out what makes L.A. unique

6 months ago

Letters to the Editor: Ending single-family zoning will wipe out what makes L.A. unique

LA Times

To the editor: Your editorial board shows its unwavering commitment to a strain of progressive politics best described as, “If I can’t have it, nobody can.” It’s a punitive form of social justice dressed up as enlightened policy. Abolishing single-family zoning would wipe out the neighborhoods that give Los Angeles its unique character and would turn L.A. into a third-rate …

Los Angeles Street Parking

Editorial: Climate change is making more California homes dangerously hot. It’s time state laws caught up

6 months ago

Editorial: Climate change is making more California homes dangerously hot. It’s time state laws caught up

LA Times

Farmworker Leticia Jimenez wipes sweat from her forehead as her window air conditioner struggles to put out cool air during extreme hot temperatures at the Oasis Mobile Home Park in Thermal, Calif. Instead they passed watered-down language that directed the Department of Housing and Community Development to come up with recommendations for maximum indoor air temperatures that ensure homes are …

Homes Housing Temperature Heat Air California Cooling

Editorial: L.A. can't become affordable with single-family zoning

6 months, 1 week ago

Editorial: L.A. can't become affordable with single-family zoning

LA Times

In 2021, Los Angeles adopted one of California’s most ambitious housing plans. The decision to exempt single-family zones perpetuates unfair land use patterns, a coalition of housing groups wrote last month in a letter to city leaders, and means “most of the city’s wealthiest and most privileged areas will remain off-limits to mixed-income multi-family housing development.” The Planning Department acknowledged …

Housing Land City Plan City Council Affordable Programs

This California city is letting owners sell ADUs as starter homes. Will it be a housing revolution?

6 months, 1 week ago

This California city is letting owners sell ADUs as starter homes. Will it be a housing revolution?

LA Times

Some cities are moving to let homeowners sell their backyard cottages and converted garages separately from the houses they live in, potentially transforming ADUs into a new generation of starter homes. Now, a handful of cities are moving to let homeowners sell their backyard cottages and converted garages separately from the houses they live in, potentially transforming ADUs into a …

Homes Housing Homeowners California State House Owners

Opinion: California will force Malibu and other towns to add housing. Here’s why that’s not nearly enough

7 months ago

Opinion: California will force Malibu and other towns to add housing. Here’s why that’s not nearly enough

LA Times

California has taken unprecedented action to spur housing production in recent years. Since 2017 the Legislature has passed nearly a hundred new laws to facilitate construction, including requiring cities to update local housing plans with more ambitious production targets. And the attorney general scored recent high-profile victories in legal conflicts to advance plans for housing in the wealthy cities of …

Housing Cities California State Plan Legislature Plans

Los Angeles voters want more housing but worry it won’t help them, poll finds

7 months, 2 weeks ago

Los Angeles voters want more housing but worry it won’t help them, poll finds

LA Times

A strong majority of Los Angeles voters support building more housing across the city but are skeptical that it will benefit them or ease cost pressures in their neighborhood, a new poll has found. A plurality of voters, 49%, said that new housing in their neighborhood would drive up costs and push residents out compared to 40% who said the …

Housing Construction New Housing Homeowners Building Focus City

Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities

7 months, 3 weeks ago

Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities

LA Times

Men fish at the pier in Redondo Beach, one of five cities fighting California to restore single-family zoning in its neighborhoods. Rob Bonta, whose office defended the law, said the attorney general is reviewing the decision “and will consider all options in defense of SB 9.” SB 9 is one of the highest-profile laws approved in response to California’s housing …

Cities California State Units Legislature Kin Redondo Beach

Many baby boomers own homes that are too big. Can they be enticed to sell them?

8 months ago

Many baby boomers own homes that are too big. Can they be enticed to sell them?

NPR

Many baby boomers own homes that are too big. Enlarge this image toggle caption Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Washington Post via Getty Images Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Washington Post via Getty Images Among the many hard truths for those trying to enter America's brutal housing market, here's one: Baby boomers continue to own many of the country's large houses, even after their households have …

Homes Housing Homeowners Baby House Murray Getty

California is building fewer homes. The state could get even more expensive

8 months, 3 weeks ago

California is building fewer homes. The state could get even more expensive

LA Times

An apartment complex under construction in Koreatown in 2020. “The metrics don’t work.” Across California and the nation, developers moved to start fewer homes in 2023, a decline some experts say could eventually send home prices and rents even higher as supply shortages worsen. Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Assn., said one major reason for the decline …

Homes Costs City Interest Rates California State Los

Opinion: The future of Los Angeles housing can learn from Silver Lake, Fairfax and Crenshaw

8 months, 4 weeks ago

Opinion: The future of Los Angeles housing can learn from Silver Lake, Fairfax and Crenshaw

LA Times

Just off Sunset Boulevard sits a bleached white structure topped by onion domes as if it had been lifted off the coast of North Africa. Yet from Parkman Avenue to the fourplexes of the Fairfax district and garden apartments in Crenshaw, multifamily housing has a legacy as deep and rich in Los Angeles as single-family homes. These features made early …

Homes Housing Buildings Building City Los Angeles

Opinion: Californians narrowly passed Proposition 1. Can the state ensure the measure will work?

9 months ago

Opinion: Californians narrowly passed Proposition 1. Can the state ensure the measure will work?

LA Times

In a contest so close that it took more than two weeks to call the race, Californians narrowly passed Proposition 1, a $6.4-billion bond measure and reallocation of existing funds to address mental health and homelessness in the state. Proponents of Proposition 1 say it will create direly needed treatment facilities and housing that can also address the state’s addiction …

Housing Treatment Care Facilities California State Californians

Ready to build or rent out an ADU? Here’s how to win over nervous neighbors

9 months, 2 weeks ago

Ready to build or rent out an ADU? Here’s how to win over nervous neighbors

LA Times

A refuge for aging parents. “Do everything by the book” or complaints to the city could derail your project, warned a marketing professional in Glendale, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid further conflict. Once he started construction on his ADU, he said, neighbors yelled at him and his contractor and regularly reported minor infractions. “Just treat people the way …

Build Adu Nervous Neighbors

Opinion: Don’t gut L.A.’s best shot at building affordable housing

9 months, 2 weeks ago

Opinion: Don’t gut L.A.’s best shot at building affordable housing

LA Times

Development west of USC. Two housing initiatives — an Affordable Housing Overlay and expansions to the Transit Oriented Communities program — would have made it possible to build affordable and mixed-income housing in areas traditionally off-limits to multifamily homes. California law requires that development programs “ affirmatively further fair housing, ” meaning that they should “overcome patterns of segregation and …

Housing City California Los Angeles Communities Proposals Neighborhoods

Govt working on the scheme to help middle class purchase or build homes: Housing and urban affairs secretary

10 months, 3 weeks ago

Govt working on the scheme to help middle class purchase or build homes: Housing and urban affairs secretary

Hindustan Times

A day after the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget 2024 speech that the government will launch a housing scheme for the middle class to buy or build their own houses, a top official of the ministry of housing and urban affairs said that the government is ‘working on the scheme’. The government is "working on a scheme" …

Real Estate Housing Urban Scheme Affordable Naredco National Convention

Opinion: Why is L.A. still letting single-family homeowners block solutions to the housing crisis?

10 months, 3 weeks ago

Opinion: Why is L.A. still letting single-family homeowners block solutions to the housing crisis?

LA Times

Last month YIMBY Law, a nonprofit, pro-housing advocacy group, sued the City of Los Angeles on behalf of a private developer seeking to construct a 360-unit apartment building in Canoga Park. Last year, the mayor’s office amended ED1 to shield single-family zones from streamlined development — after eight such applications, including the Canoga Park proposal, were already submitted. Bass announced …

Housing City Projects Bass Affordable Canoga Park Ed1

Pvt builder allowed to redevelop Sion-Koliwada MHADA township

11 months, 3 weeks ago

Pvt builder allowed to redevelop Sion-Koliwada MHADA township

Hindustan Times

MUMBAI: The state government has given the nod to a proposal by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority regarding the redevelopment of 1,200 homes in the Sion-Koliwada area through a private builder. HT Image Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday conducted a meeting regarding various issues related to housing and redevelopment projects in the constituencies of BJP MLAs. …

Mumbai Redevelopment Project Bjp Feet Square Mhada

Editorial: No, wealthy La Cañada Flintridge shouldn’t be allowed to block affordable housing

1 year ago

Editorial: No, wealthy La Cañada Flintridge shouldn’t be allowed to block affordable housing

LA Times

Cedar Street Partners officials Alexandra Hack, Jonathan Curtis, center, and Garret Weyend pose in front of a former Christian Science church building in La Cañada Flintridge, which the firm sought to redevelop. It’s the state’s first lawsuit involving “builder’s remedy,” a long-unused part of state law that lets developers build whatever they want so long as the project includes units …

Housing Cities Lawsuit City California State Plan

Hoping to build an ADU? New grants can help low-income Californians get started

1 year ago

Hoping to build an ADU? New grants can help low-income Californians get started

LA Times

Michael Wolff looks over plans for an accessory dwelling unit he is building for his father in Santa Rosa in this September 2019 file photo. State officials have revived a popular grant program to help lower-income California homeowners build accessory dwelling units by covering some of the upfront costs. The California Housing Finance Agency’s ADU Grant Program offers up to …

Housing Income California Build Grant Adu Neighborhood Housing Services

Letters to the Editor: This housing project isn’t ‘down the street.’ It’s right next to single-family homes

1 year, 1 month ago

Letters to the Editor: This housing project isn’t ‘down the street.’ It’s right next to single-family homes

LA Times

A proposed 33-bed interim homelessness shelter at the site of a city parking lot on Midvale Avenue in West L.A. has drawn backlash from housed residents nearby. To the editor: Your editorial on the local opposition to a temporary housing project for homeless people in a West L.A. residential neighborhood failed to include any objective data or arguments on why …

Housing Homeless Homelessness Project Los Angeles Editor Homeless People

California has so many new housing laws. Now let's put them to use

1 year, 2 months ago

California has so many new housing laws. Now let's put them to use

LA Times

Could 2023 be the sleeper year for solving California’s housing crisis? California’s housing shortage was created over decades by a panoply of state and local regulations, some designed to slow growth and home construction. Bills signed into law by Newsom target key housing reforms, including making it easier to convert existing commercial or industrial buildings into housing, rethinking staircase requirements …

Construction Local California State Newsom Affordable Signed

Column: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar

1 year, 2 months ago

Column: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar

LA Times

Government officials in California and the rest of the country should be doing everything they can to support clean energy. In theory, a strong community solar program could help make up for cuts to “virtual net metering” — the solar incentive program for apartment dwellers, schools and farms that’s currently on the chopping block at the utilities commission. From Edison’s …

Community Energy Climate Solar Utilities California Public

A lesson on California housing from the billionaires planning a new city

1 year, 3 months ago

A lesson on California housing from the billionaires planning a new city

LA Times

A cadre of Silicon Valley elites is drawing fierce criticism from local residents and environmentalists for planning a new city on the outskirts of the Bay Area, a project dubbed “California Forever.” But the effort should be applauded for revealing a truth about California’s failed housing policies. Yet the state’s supposedly pro-development new housing laws have yet to produce more …

Growth Housing Development Urban San Francisco California State

California governor signs bill to clear hurdles for student housing at Berkeley’s People’s Park

1 year, 3 months ago

California governor signs bill to clear hurdles for student housing at Berkeley’s People’s Park

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Democratic Gov. The University of California, Berkeley, plans to build a $312 million housing project for about 1,100 of its students at the 3-acre People’s Park. The law makes it clear that “people are not pollution” under the state’s sweeping California Environmental Quality Act, Wicks said in a statement. NIMBY refers to a movement known as “not …

Law Housing Supreme Court University California Project State

California lawmakers vote to fast-track low-income housing on churches’ lands

1 year, 3 months ago

California lawmakers vote to fast-track low-income housing on churches’ lands

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers are debating nearly 1,000 bills during the hectic final two weeks of the Legislative session. Here’s action taken by the California Legislature Thursday: AFFORDABLE HOUSING ON CHURCHES’ LANDS Religious institutions and nonprofit colleges in California could soon turn their parking lots and other properties into low-income housing to help combat the ongoing homeless crisis, lawmakers …

Housing School Religious Institutions California Republican State Newsom

Opinion: How L.A. can build more housing without looking like New York

1 year, 3 months ago

Opinion: How L.A. can build more housing without looking like New York

LA Times

With the typical cost of a home in Los Angeles soon topping $1 million, and the state’s median rent approaching $3,000, there’s a sense of doom around how unaffordable California has become. Los Angeles is geographically vast — nearly twice the size of Chicago and significantly larger than New York City, with much lower population density than those two cities. …

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Opinion: The $1-million home is becoming the norm in L.A. This is an outrage we could have prevented

1 year, 4 months ago

Opinion: The $1-million home is becoming the norm in L.A. This is an outrage we could have prevented

LA Times

Single-family homes in South L.A. More than three-quarters of the region is zoned for them. UC Berkeley’s Terner Center modeled six different housing policies for Los Angeles and found that the single intervention with the biggest impact on supply growth was loosening density restrictions. In 2020, white homeownership reached a postwar peak of 75%, while Black homeownership lagged far behind …

Housing California Homeownership Los Angeles Zoning