Friday, February 15, 2013

San Mateo county peninsula housing element concerns


Palo Alto Daily News/Bonnie Eslinger, Staff, 2/15/13.  "Peninsla cities feel the heat to produce more homes."

Compare cozy:   220 sq. ft. San Francisco apartment, only $1,200 monthly
In response to grumblings over the pressure to produce more homes, Assemblyman Rich Gordon is forming a committee of local officials to investigate ways to improve California's controversial housing element law.

But Gordon is quick to point out he isn't siding with the Peninsula's anti-growth advocates. "I think that if you look at the jobs-housing imbalance in the Peninsula, it raises the question of how do we as a region -- not necessarily city by city -- appropriately house people in ways that gets them closer to work," Gordon said.

....  California requires municipalities to remove obstacles to housing growth, such as restrictive zoning, and to develop strategies for meeting current and projected housing needs within their boundaries. .... Unless they successfully challenge them, local governments must adopt the allocations handed down by October 2014 and work to meet the quota until the numbers are changed again in 2022. ....  It might make more sense to put the bulk of housing in the region's larger, more urban cities and near public transit hubs, he said. But Gordon acknowledged that he doesn't know what, if anything, can be done at the state level to appease local concerns."    Read article.

RelatedLos Angeles Times/Lee Romney,11/21/12. "San Francisco approves 220-square-foot apartments"  "Lawmakers on Tuesday approved what appear to be the nation's tiniest apartments — 220 square feet, including the bathroom, kitchen and closet — in a pilot program aimed at creating more options in this prohibitively expensive housing market. The city already allows for construction of 290-square-foot micro-units. But Supervisor Scott Wiener backed the reduced minimum size in hopes that the apartments would rent for $1,200 to $1,500 a month, a steal compared with San Francisco's current average studio rents of $2,000."

Posted by Kathy Meeh

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What has Pacifica done for low income housing. What has our trails and the ecology is the economy brain dead council done? Nothing.

Pete Shoemaker, claims to know what belongs in the quarry but he refuses to give his idea?

Nice going Hippies and nobbees Pacifica is down to 2 weeks payroll in reserves.

Bankruptcy!!