Thread: California Today: A Spreading ‘Yimby’ Movement

California Today: A Spreading ‘Yimby’ Movement

Mike McPhate
CALIFORNIA TODAY JULY 14, 2017



A pro-development movement has flourished in San Francisco’s high-cost housing environment. CreditJim Wilson/The New York TimesGood morning.

Today’s introduction comes from Conor Dougherty, who reports on economics from the Bay Area.

It’s like Woodstock, but for housing activists.

Over the past two years the rising cost of housing in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere has created a budding movement of pro-development “Yimby” (yes in my backyard) groups that advocate for building more housing in hopes of easing exploding rents and home prices. On Friday a group of 200 or so activists from around the country, as well as Britain and Canada, will convene in Oakland for the “Yimbytown” conference.

“The goal is to get people together on how to build housing and bring those ideas back to those people’s cities,” said Kieryn Darkwater, an organizer with East Bay Forward, a pro-development group whose members are regulars at City Council meetings in Oakland, Berkeley and other east-of-San Francisco cities.

The conference is another sign of momentum for the Yimby movement, which has clashed with the Bay Area’s liberal establishment. A year ago most Yimby groups were tiny ragtag operations, but today they are pushing bills in Sacramento and have attracted enough money from Silicon Valley and elsewhere that many activists have been able to quit their day jobs to do politics full time. Scott Wiener, the state senator from San Francisco who is pushing a bill that aims to force California cities to ramp up housing production, is scheduled to speak at the conference on Saturday.

This is actually the second Yimby meeting. The first such gathering was last year in Boulder, Colo., and was organized by a group that included Will Toor, Boulder’s former mayor.

“It is great to see a second national Yimby conference bringing together activists from this burgeoning movement,” Mr. Toor said. “It is clearer than ever that if we really care about solving big national issues like inequality and climate change, tackling the lack of housing in thriving urban areas, caused largely by local zoning restrictions, is key.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/u...T.nav=top-news

U.S. Needs 4.6 MILLION New Apartments by 2030

Sean Keeley·June 9, 2017

Real Estate Development

Sacramento Approves 3,000-Home Greenbriar Community by Airport

Sacramento Approves 3,000-Home Greenbriar Community by Airport


It’s taken almost 10 years but a 600-acre development near Sacramento International Airport has finally received city approval.

The Sacramento City Council recently approved Greenbriar, which will bring, among other things, almost 3,000 homes to what has been farmland on the northwestern edge of Sacramento. The move is seen as a big win to help alleviate the stress of low housing inventory in the city and region. Specifically, the development will be located south of West Elkhorn Boulevard, edging up alongside Interstate 5 and Highway 99.

Model home rendering courtesy of Integral Communities

Developer Integral Communities plans to build 2,497 homes geared towards first-time and move-up buyers.

They will also include 483 rental units, 200 of which will be set aside for low-income seniors. A rep for the developer told the Sacramento Bee that 94 percent of the homes will be within a half-mile of a proposed light rail station that would connect downtown Sacramento and the airport.

Plans also call for three commercial sites within the development, including a retail hub around the light rail station. The developer is also working with Twin Rivers Unified School District to see if a K-8 school site can be added in or close to Greenbriar.


The approved guidelines call for Greenbriar to be designed as a pedestrian-oriented community. As such, five public parks will be created, including one designed specifically for sports. Two swimming pools and a community center are also in the mix. Over 140 acres of lakes, dedicated habitat mitigation areas, and other open space are included as well.

Integral Communities told the Sac Bee that it plans to develop Greenbriar across two phases, with work on the north section likely to begin in 2018. The second phase would begin construction “four or five years later, depending on the market.”

https://www.neighborhoods.com/blog/s...ity-by-airport

CA affordable housing bills benefiting in political dealing over cap and trade

Josie Huang
July 13, 06:22 PM



An effort in the California Legislature to address affordable housing is benefiting from negotiations over cap-and-trade legislation pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES



California's proponents of affordable housing say they've never been so bullish about making a dent in the housing crisis as in the current legislative session.

Votes are planned Monday in Sacramento on a large package of housing bills expected to include millions of dollars in subsidies for low-income housing and policy changes to encourage the production of affordable housing.

Gov. Jerry Brown has opposed housing subsidies in the past, preferring to push along development by easing regulations. But now Brown needs legislators' help to extend for another 10 years the state’s cap-and-trade program that collects money from polluting companies.

"Cap and trade — because it’s urgent and needs to happen — provided us with an opportunity in our negotiations with the governor," said state Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica).

A vote on the cap-and-trade program is also planned for Monday.
California is in the midst of a growing and crippling housing crisis, with some of the highest home prices and rents in the country. Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco count among the cities with the least affordable housing in the state.

Bloom said he was optimistic the housing package will include eight to 15 bills, including his own, AB 1505, which would allow local governments to require affordable housing in new apartment buildings.

Bloom’s bill is a top priority for Tyrone Buckley, policy director of Housing California, which advocates for affordable housing. He said the measure will allow lower-wage workers to live near their jobs.

Buckley, who has worked in Sacramento for five years, said he has never seen progressive Democrats prioritize housing at this level before.

"I‘m just pleased that they are leveraging political capital for affordable housing," Buckley said. "I’m as hopeful as I’ve ever been about success for housing this year."

Bloom said other bills that may be part of the package include a new $75 fee on real estate transactions to fund affordable housing as well as a $3 billion low-income housing bond measure planned for 2018.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/07/13/...g-in-politica/

No matter how you do it, there is only so many people you can squeeze into a given amount of space. Water and waste become insurmountable issues.

There are too many people on this planet and some places are suffering in this worse than others. The popularly idiotic solution for too many is to ship them some place else -- like here -- so they can have more space and resources to puke out more babies.

Votes are planned Monday in Sacramento on a large package of housing bills expected to include millions of dollars in subsidies for low-income housing and policy changes to encourage the production of affordable housing.

Now we make subsidized housing for the illegals and their anchor babies.