Latest news with #HousingElement
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Concord considers proposal that would roll back city's rent control limits
The Brief The Concord City Council is considering amending its Residential Tenant Protection Program, which caps rent increases at a maximum of 3%. The amendment, which is supported by a landlord industry group, would allow for 5% rent increases and loosen standards for evictions. The Residential Tenant Protection Program was first enacted by the city in 2024. CONCORD, Calif. - Concord renters plan to march to city hall on Tuesday evening, in protest of a proposal to allow greater rent increases and loosen eviction restrictions. The proposal is reportedly the result of lobbying by a private organization representing landlords and property owners. Protesters plan to gather at Todos Santos Plaza at 5 p.m. for a rally, and then march to the city council meeting at 6:30 p.m. The amendment to the city's Residential Tenant Protection Program is set to come before the council for a final vote at its Tuesday night meeting. The item is not scheduled for a public hearing, but members of the public have the right to request the item be discussed. The council voted 3-2 in March in favor of amending the program, and Tuesday night's vote would finalize the change. If adopted, the amended ordinance would go into effect in 30 days. Local perspective Cleo Arias has rented the same Concord apartment for 37 years, and said amending the ordinance could be the difference between having a home or living on the streets. His wife was recently diagnosed with cancer, and Arias, who is retired, said between medical bills and groceries, increasing the rent cap by even 2% could be disastrous. "I have no place to go. The only thing I can think of is looking for a good place under a bridge for me and my wife. I think we'd have to become homeless," Arias said. "It's hard for us, but I'm suffering the same situation as every other renter in Concord right now. But there's still time. We're going to keep working hard to convince the council that (renters) need this protection." The backstory Concord's Residential Tenant Protection Program went into effect on April 19, 2024. The ordinance established a rent stabilization program that restricted rent increases to a maximum of 3%, and limited the reasons a tenant could be evicted. That ordinance was adopted after 8 years of advocacy by Concord renters. The council in March voted 3-2 to approve an amendment that set a fixed rent cap at 5% and exempted certain single-family homes and condominiums from "just cause" eviction requirements. The amendment also waived a requirement that landlords provide a relocation fee to tenants evicted for a no-fault reason. "There has not been enough time since the original ordinance was implemented for the city to gather data and make an informed case for these changes. However, the ordinance was passed after years of data collection through the process of creating Concord's Housing Element, a state-mandated 10-year plan for fair and affordable housing," a news release from the protest organizers states. "The city found that median rents had increased by more than 44% since 2010, outpacing the rise in rental income (37%), and that there was a crisis of economic displacement in concord. The proposed increase of 5% for the rent cap undermines the city's commitment through the Housing Element." What they're saying The California Apartment Association, a landlord industry group, has been heavily invested in amending the ordinance, and takes credit for getting the council to reconsider the current cap. Joshua Howard, the CAA's executive vice president, said the organization opposed the ordinance from the time it was adopted, and supported the amendment when it was introduced by city council member Pablo Benavente earlier this year. Howard said state law already provides tenant protections, and that Concord's ordinance went too far. "Concord adopted probably one of the most restrictive rent control ordinances in recent memory. In January, the council decided to re-examine the ordinance," Howard said. "Our ask was to rescind it because we felt the state law already limits rent increases and provides sufficient eviction protection." Howard said amending the ordinance benefits both renters and landlords by providing "reliability, stability and predictability" — that renters can anticipate their rent increases and landlords can count on keeping up with inflation. Attendees who spoke in favor of the amendment at the March 25 meeting waved signs bearing the CAA logo and contact information, but the East Bay Times revealed those individuals had been hired by a PR firm, Sunshine State. The company's CEO denied she was contracted by the CAA but declined to state who had hired the firm. Howard did not directly respond when asked if the organization was involved in hiring the "protesters" but said CAA staff were present at the meeting, handing out signs and fliers. He did criticize Rent Stabilization Program supporters, who he said were recruited by the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a social justice organization based in Oakland. "The so-called renter activists constantly recruit people to attend meetings by offering them food or childcare and other things," Howard said. "They staged an insurrection-like disruption. The room had to be cleared." Big picture view Concord's rent control program is one of the stricter such limitations in the Bay Area, but the city is not alone. Nearby Antioch has a rent stabilization program that places similar limitations on its rent increases. That city's program was adopted in 2022 and since then, the community's renters have seen some relief. A recent report from rental marketplace platform Zumper named Antioch as the most affordable city in the region, and showed that rents in the community had fallen by 14.6% over the last year. In the same 12 month period — Concord's first year with a rent stabilization program — rents in that city increased by 2.1%.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Motion to remove double staircase requirement in L.A. building code adopted
The Los Angeles City Council adopted a motion Wednesday that would remove a requirement for apartment buildings to have double stairwells. The motion, introduced by Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Katy Yaroslavsky, looks to create more space for more affordable family-sized units. 'These requirements, born out of early 20th century planning concerns – have since become a hindrance to creating larger units with greater natural light and ventilation and buildings with enhanced green space,' the councilmembers stated in a media release. California bill seeks to limit ICE presence on school campuses Wednesday's legislation begins the process of updating the city's building code to allow for multifamily residential buildings up to six stories to be built with a single stairwell instead of a double stairwell. This provides 'greater flexibility in housing construction across the city,' the councilmembers' release said. City lawmakers criticized L.A.'s current building code, calling it outdated and claiming it is a significant barrier to building larger units. The city's most recent Housing Element estimates that less than 15% of rental homes in Los Angeles have three or more bedrooms as compared to 70% of owner-occupied residences. 'As a majority renter city, the lack of available family-sized apartments has resulted in severe overcrowding, with most apartment units housing more people than there are rooms,' officials said. 'Studies have shown that increased safety features, like sprinklers and fire-resistant materials, have rendered the need for multiple staircases obsolete, and major cities across the country, such as New York and Seattle, now allow for the development of single-stairwell buildings over three stories.' Following Wednesday's vote, the L.A. Department of Building and Safety, Los Angeles Fire Department and Department of City Planning will have 90 days to present modifications to the city's building code in order to allow for single-exit, single-stairway multifamily unit residential buildings up to six stories. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Livable Frederick open house dates planned
Frederick County government will host open houses to gather more information from the community as part of the Livable Frederick project. The county will host events between 6 and 8 p.m. at the following dates and locations: * Thursday, March 13, Thurmont Regional Library, 76 E. Moser Road, Thurmont * Wednesday, March 26, Middletown Branch Library, 31 E. Green St., Middletown * Monday, April 7, Urbana Regional Library, 9020 Amelung St., Frederick The presentations will look at the Livable Frederick plans around the Housing Element, the Historic Preservation Plan and the Green Infrastructure Plan. Livable Frederick is a project developed within the Division of Planning and Permitting that focuses on turning holistic goals into plans for the future of the county. The content of the three open houses will be the same, according to a press release. Activities at the open houses will be grouped into three categories: shelter, culture and nature. The activities are designed to gather ideas related to housing; mapping; historical events, places and traditions; and green spaces. — Cameron Adams
CBS News
05-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
San Francisco supes pass amendment to ease office-to-housing conversions
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a resolution Tuesday amending the city's planning code in an effort to encourage the conversion of commercial buildings into housing. The amendment will remove some fees and application deadlines for certain downtown spaces being converted from non-residential to residential use. Development impact and inclusionary fees—the largest source of city-imposed costs for commercial to residential projects—will be waived for these projects. City staffers have estimated that about $70,000 to $90,000 can be saved per unit for these developments. Projects that were approved before this year and have yet to be granted construction permits are also allowed to request a modification to their development impact fees. The resolution will also abolish the December 2028 application deadline for the Commercial-to-Residential Adaptive Reuse Program, which the city established in 2023 to streamline approvals by easing zoning and building requirements for office-to-housing conversions. Mayor Daniel Lurie sponsored the resolution along with cosponsors Supervisor Matt Dorsey and Supervisor Danny Sauter. Nine supervisors voted in favor of the resolution and Supervisor Shamann Walton voted no. The amendment was originally proposed by former mayor London Breed as part of her plan to boost occupancy in a downtown struggling with office vacancies and to transform the area into a 24/7 neighborhood. It is also intended to remove bureaucratic barriers to getting housing built as required by the state to meet the city's Housing Element, a mandate that San Francisco must deliver 82,000 residential units by 2031 in order to meet the housing needs of its residents. "Transforming vacant offices into housing will help drive our recovery downtown while creating new homes for San Franciscans," Lurie said in a press release last week when the resolution was passed by the supervisors on first reading. "This is a win-win for our city thanks to the new era of collaboration at City Hall so we can create a thriving, 24/7 downtown that benefits both residents and business," he said.
Los Angeles Times
14-02-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Nonprofits allege Los Angeles plan to boost housing development is too weak, illegal
Two housing advocacy organizations sued the city of Los Angeles on Thursday, alleging its recent plan to boost home building is inadequate and fails to comply with state law. In their lawsuit, the groups, Yes In My Back Yard and Californians for Homeownership, allege that the city has not demonstrated its plan can accommodate an additional 255,000 homes as required, in part because the city failed to change the underlying zoning in many neighborhoods. In a news release, Yes In My Back Yard, or YIMBY, said the need for more housing is even more pressing after January's fires wiped away thousands of homes in Los Angeles. 'Angelinos are expecting their government to deliver the housing and infrastructure they need to thrive,' Sonja Trauss, YIMBY executive director, said in a statement. 'We need to rebuild quickly and efficiently.' Economists generally blame a lack of home building as the main driver of California's high prices and rents. The lawsuit filed Thursday covers a complicated process cities go through to try to ensure enough housing can be built. Under the state-mandated process, known as the Housing Element, the city of Los Angeles needed to find land where an additional 255,000 could realistically be built over an eight-year period. To hit that goal, the city changed the underlying zoning in a few communities, including downtown, but relied mostly on a series of new incentive building programs known collectively as the CHIP ordinance, which it approved last week. Under CHIP, while underlying zoning rules stay the same, developers can exceed those limits on size, height and unit count if they include a certain percentage of affordable units. In general, the incentives can only be used in commercial and existing multifamily zones, not areas reserved for single-family houses. In the lawsuit brought by YIMBY and Californians for Homeownership, which is funded by the California Assn. of Realtors, the groups allege the city previously committed to changing the underlying zoning of more neighborhoods, and in failing to do so, violated state law. Matthew Gelfand, counsel for Californians for Homeownership, said Los Angeles initially indicated it needed those additional rezonings to meet its numbers and that by relying on voluntary incentive programs Los Angeles makes it less likely it will produce the large volume of units it needs. Nora Frost, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles City Planning Department, said the city's plan complies with housing element law and that it is a 'transformative program, driven by extensive, multilingual community engagement, which will significantly increase housing production throughout the city.' Alicia Murillo, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees the implementation of the state housing law, said the agency is evaluating Los Angeles' plan and 'will reach out to the city if there are any questions or concerns.' YIMBY and Californians for Homeownership have a history of suing cities to enforce state housing law. In November, an L.A. County Superior Court judge found the city of Los Angeles illegally denied 78 affordable homes in Sun Valley in a lawsuit brought by YIMBY.
