Focus
Apple pledges $2.5 billion to combat California's housing crisis
NPR – November 4
Apple is pledging $2.5 billion to confront California's housing crisis, in a bid to help the state ease a situation that has been blamed for marginalizing people in service and support jobs and creating a spike in homelessness. The announcement comes as California grapples with how to keep pace with growing demand — by one estimate, the state must build more than 3 million homes by 2025. Apple's plan includes $1 billion to create a mortgage assistance fund for first-time home buyers, and another $1 billion that will be an open line of credit to support building "very low- to moderate-income housing," the company said.
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News
Los Angeles rolls out new zoning proposals to accommodate future growth
Los Angeles Downtown News – November 4
Last week the Department of City Planning released new proposed zoning rules for downtown Los Angeles. The package of proposals is part of the wider Downtown Community Plan, also known as DTLA 2040, and seeks to anticipate and prepare for a period of phenomenal growth in the central city. On October 31, the department outlined plans to nearly double the land area in downtown where housing can be built, as well as increase mobility across the region. The biggest shift will be the removal of parking requirements for new residential projects in downtown Los Angeles. The Department of City Planning expects that removing parking minimums will allow for greater housing density and provide environmental bonuses.
Voters embrace plan to ease building of S.F. teacher and affordable housing
San Francisco Chronicle - November 5
A measure that would lift some barriers to building more 100 percent affordable housing and residences reserved for educators and school staff in San Francisco passed easily Tuesday. By expanding places where affordable and educator housing can potentially be built and eliminating some of the bureaucratic barriers that add delays and expense, Proposition E’s supporters hope to help working-class people who can’t afford to live in the city due to sky-high rents and home prices. Proposition E is poised to pass as the San Francisco Unified School District loses between 300 and 700 teachers a year, in part because they cannot afford to live in the city where they teach.
San Diego proposes easing church parking rules in favor of housing
KPBS - October 30
San Diego planning officials are proposing new rules aimed at helping churches, synagogues, mosques, and other faith communities build housing on their parking lots. The changes were pushed by a group of housing activists calling themselves YIGBY, for "Yes in God's Backyard." City code currently requires houses of worship to maintain a certain number of parking spaces based on either pew space or square feet of assembly space. Those rules have complicated efforts by Clairemont Lutheran Church to build affordable housing on its parking lot. Under the proposed change, places geared toward entertainment or public assembly, including churches, could build housing on their parking lots without falling out of compliance with the required parking minimums as long as the site is near public transit and the housing complies with all other zoning rules.
In fight against urban sprawl, San Jose passes $93 million deal to preserve Coyote Valley
The Mercury News – November 6
In a monumental move to slow down urban sprawl in San Jose, the city council on Wednesday approved a historic $93 million deal to purchase 937 acres in Coyote Valley, a rural expanse of farmland and open space on the south side of the city. The unanimous decision ends more than three decades of development battles over one of Silicon Valley’s most desirable landscapes. Coyote Valley has been considered by numerous big tech companies as a prime location for their headquarters over the years, including Apple in the 1980s and Cisco Systems in the 1990s. The undeveloped land contains the South Bay’s largest remaining freshwater wetland, offers natural flood protection for the city, and forms a key connection that will allow wildlife to move from the Diablo Range to the Santa Cruz Mountains, scientists say.
States and environmental groups challenge DOE’s rollback of lightbulb energy efficiency rules
The Hill – November 4
Separate coalitions of states, including California, and environmental advocacy groups sued the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday, challenging a decision to eliminate energy efficiency standards for nearly half the lightbulbs on the market. Fifteen states and a coalition of seven environmental and consumer groups are fighting the rule, arguing it will hasten climate change as utilities crank out more electricity to power inefficient bulbs. The controversial rule erases Obama-era efficiency standards for lightbulbs, keeping in place rules for standard pear-shaped bulbs, while removing such requirements for recessed lighting, chandeliers, and other shapes of bulbs. The rule will increase U.S. electricity use by 80 billion kilowatt hours over the course of a year, roughly the amount of electricity needed to power all households in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to an analysis by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.
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