California: accessory dwelling unit (ADU)

California has a problem
Okay, say an understated obvious housing crisis. There actually are not enough dwellings. Not enough houses for everyone here, for everyone that wants to live here, for everyone we need to live here, in California.

Let's just call it out: In my opinion, "political will" too often is created and supported by self-serving no-growth interests and money. Occasionally this interferes with sound land use planning. Land use decisions are made by property owners and by the many local, regional, and state governmental jurisdictions.

"Not in my Backyard" (NIMBY) is the simplification into a phrase of motives that drive the creation of "no-growth" policies. These policies are implemented in land use decisions that are made into law by jurisdictions. And past lawful land use has not provided enough dwellings in California, at all.

2020 California (State level) land use laws allow densification
New state level Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) laws allow creation of some additional dwellings in specific land use categories.

(Excerpt) "California's housing and affordability crisis isn’t going away any time soon. But a slate of new state laws have empowered homeowners to use a small but significant tool that advocates say will create an increase in new units and new opportunities.

Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs—small structures, typically under 1,000 square feet, that are built by homeowners on their properties—became a centerpiece of state housing legislation... after five bills were signed into law expanding the ability for Californians to build such structures in their backyards. By allowing residents to both build a small apartment and convert their garage, the legislative package, in effect, allows triplexes in much of the state.

'People will be able to have an ADU and a junior ADU on single family lots, or they can convert two garages on a duplex lot,' says Ira Belgrade, an advocate and consultant for ADU construction... ."

MEDIA CREDIT: Curbed SF, 10.11.2019

ON TOPIC:

"What You Should Know About the New California A.D.U. Laws for 2020"

Rost Architects

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Post No. 304

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California: Pacific Standard Time. Always.

By 1949 law, what's going to happen twice a year at 2:00 AM?

2016 voters may ultimately decide for in California...

MEDIA CREDIT: QwkDrw

Law's Author: Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D-San Jose
California Legislature -- 2015/16 Regular Session

Proposed law in California: AB 2496
(Excerpt) "It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to establish United States Standard Pacific Time [PST] as the standard time within the state during the entire year."
Complete text: AB 2496

Okay then. It is about... time. It's TIME to stop the often ineffective, perhaps dangerous, and certainly disruptive biannual clock changes mandated by a practice too-long endured: spring forward/fall back for daylight savings time (DST).

Electorate approved inititive in 1949
that put DST into practice
(Excerpt) "...voters approved [DST] back 1949 via Proposition 12... Reversing the electorate of 1949 would mean going before today’s voters and asking them to make the change, assuming... [AB 2496] passes.

Assemblyman Chu said, 'This could be a very controversial one [AB 2496]... but when he informally polls constituents... the results are very positive.'"
Source: The Sacramento Bee, 2.24.2016

!!

On Topic:
Daylight Savings Time (DST)

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Post No. 249

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City of Baltimore Land Use Zoning Law

Misrepresentation of the mayor’s statement:

The current mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, appeared to be working closely with the city’s police department when she stated what may have been an unintentional and perhaps immediate implementation of land use zoning law. It’s not clear what role, if any, the City Planning Department or other officials may or may not have had in this mayoral executive action.

Standing with political and community leaders, Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s recorded statement included:

(Excerpt) “We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.” Source: Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, 4.26.2015

Economic Law of 'Unintended Consequences'
Will this immediate and temporary mayoral executive action in Baltimore unintentionally create any lasting precedents that politicians, City Planning Departments, property owners, or community leaders in other jurisdictions may find useful to implement immediate change in established but somehow socially untenable and economically unrealistic land use zoning law?

Baltimore's mayor made it very clear:

In the video below, it was not her intention to effect land use zoning law:

Source: Digitas Daily on youtube.com


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Post No. 239

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Redistribution of Suburbia's Influence

Demographic Reversal

(Excerpt) “Last year, for the first time in more than nine decades the major cities of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas [added emphasis] grew faster than their combined suburbs … this puts the brakes on a longstanding staple of American life -- the pervasive suburbanization of its population.

This reversal is identified in an analysis of newly released Census Bureau data for 2010-2011 and can be attributed to a number of forces. Some are short-term and related to the ... [down-turned] housing market, coupled with continued high unemployment … However, at least some cities may be seeing a population renaissance based on efforts to attract and retain young people, families and professionals.

... [T]he new data show a notable tipping point. … core ‘primary cities’ of the nation’s 51 metropolitan areas [added emphasis] with populations exceeding one million, grew faster than the suburbs of those areas between July 2010-2011. Cities grew at 1.1 percent while suburbs grew at 0.9 percent …

This new ‘tipping point’ clearly has its origins in the downturns in the national housing and labor markets … Yet what may look like a temporary lull in the broad sweep of suburban development may turn out to be an opportunity for some cities to showcase their oft cited lifestyle and cultural amenities to a new generation of residents and developers … ."

Source: Brookings Institution, June 2012

On Topic:

Suburbs Diversify and Transform
Urburbia

Mixed Land Uses

Sprawl vs. Infill Growth
Mixed Use Big Box Store


National Politics and Local Planning

"Think nationally, act locally."   -- unknown

The current administration at the highest level of our federal government may be politically sheltering a plan and policies that, if implemented in a second term, could substantially undermine the governmental and financial self-determination that some suburban communities have historically enjoyed. A range of municipalities that have local governance from service districts, to school boards, to area planning might be impacted: positively or otherwise. Like many things determined by the results of a national election, you may or may not like it. Fair elections, however, are the goal and better than the alternatives.

Author Stanley Kurtz has written a soon to be released book that offers a given perspective and many opinions about the possible effects of President Obama’s potential second term and predicted policies on the autonomy of some low density suburban communities that exist near to America’s high density metropolitan areas:

"Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities"

(Excerpt) “The regulatory groundwork laid so far is just a prelude to what’s to come: substantial redistribution of tax dollars. Over time, cities would effectively swallow up their surrounding municipalities, with merged school districts and forced redistribution of public spending killing the appeal of the suburbs. The result would be a profound transformation of American society.

... [The author] shows the unbroken line of continuity from Obama’s community organizing roots to his presidency. And he reveals why his plan to undermine the suburbs means so much to him personally.

... [The] revelations are sure to be hotly disputed. But they are essential to helping voters make an informed choice about whether to reward the president with a second term.”

Source: A published synopsis of Stanley Kurtz's new book to be released 8.2.2012

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Transit Oriented Development

Source: San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center.
The new Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco will replace the current bus terminal at First and Mission Streets with a multi-modal transit center serving eleven transportation systems.
Interactive link: Transbay Transit Center

TOD
Transit Oriented Development: the built environment (perhaps high density and walkable) near transportation infrastructure -- not just automobile freeway on/off-ramps.

The Right Kind of Density (Excerpt) "Imagine great public spaces where opportunities to sustain public life become numerous. Then focus on great sidewalks, an integral part of great streets, which in turn are the major constituent of public space. As the most intimate of public spaces inhabited by individuals, sidewalks are where we have our most visceral experiences of the city. TOD represents not only an opportunity to put density near transit, but possibly as importantly, to remake the public realm creating a city of great streets and great sidewalks. Yet, many ... have repeatedly been thwarted in ... attempts to build in such a manner due to existing zoning regulations, bureaucratic inertia, and well-organized groups of NIMBYs masquerading as environmentalists. Why? ... While many of the NIMBYs can never be won over, others are merely worried that the scale of new development will overwhelm them and diminish the quality of the public realm ... 'High-Density' development too often appears monolithic, insular and just plain in-human. Separated from its context so completely, it often appears to have dropped from the sky."
Source: Kaid Benfield's Blog, with quotes from Neal Payton

LIFT (Link I Found Today)
It's the elderly, stupid.


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Sprawl vs. Infill Growth

Sprawl

Some time before and then especially after the GI’s of WWII came marching home, America's cities, towns, and neighborhoods grew by spreading outward. Covering up land with homes on low density suburban lots, low rise commercial buildings, acres of surface parking, and wide streets where city busses, big-rig semi-trucks, or track-based transportation would never travel. This template has been common for planners, architects, engineers, and developers. And has provided some of the most preferred suburban, if not remote and isolated, neighborhoods for many Americans to buy into.

Until 2008 -- a year during the 110th United States Congress. This ‘new normal’ may last for awhile. The creation of vast tracts of suburban sprawl may have significantly slowed -- if not completely halted -- in some areas. The seemly inexorable movement outward over previously undeveloped areas of land is given pause to reconsider.

Infill Growth

This pause may also be a type of opportunity. Leaders and professionals in the built environment could be encouraged to turn with head and shoulders to look back over the “rings of suburbia” (copyright notice), toward the city core itself; to see various places for growth, revitalization, and new forms of economic development in the existing built environment.

Densification

Of course as never before, there could be a few problems. Physical challenges and knee-jerk reactions. The existing built environment is not at all of bean fields and cows.

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Yerba Buena Island

Media Credit: Wikipedia

(Excerpt) "It lies like a jewel in the setting of San Francisco Bay, Yerba Buena Island, the hub spot of a wheel whose rim is punctuated by the thriving cities of a mainland fringing that bay. As it is geographically centralized, so too, have been directed, like the spokes of the wheel from every direction, casual interests in the earlier years, and the heightened interest and appreciation of accomplishments of the later years, the climax of which is the building of the great San Francisco Bay bridge, tieing in the mainland with San Francisco by way of the island. Its completion is the raison d'etre for the San Francisco Exposition of 1939.

Since before the days of the Mission padres, the island has had its strata of historical interest. Recently exhumed bones in connection with the bridge building project have told the mute story in scientists' language that Indians, centuries ago, wended their way from the mainland, probably in the tule barges, their known mode of transportation, and held conference or pow-wow on this prominence."

Source: The Legend of Yerba Buena Island

Transition from Military Uses

Adjoining Yerba Buena Island by a short isthmus is the relatively flat manmade former Naval Air Facility, Treasure Island.

(Excerpt) "... many 'native sons' of San Francisco ... [have] never stepped foot on the island. Treasure Island, created from bay mud ... was the home of the Pacific Fleet during World War II. The [Navy] base was decommissioned in 1993 by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The Pentagon then gave [The City of] San Francisco and the Treasure Island Development Authority [TIDA] responsibility for converting Treasure Island to civilian use ...

[TIDA] has pushed to bring in a slew of sports leagues, including Gaelic football and rugby. In addition, the Treasure Island Music Festival has brought 10,000 alternative rock fans the last two Septembers, and Oracle has held its employee appreciation day there, bringing more than 30,000 people to the island [for concerts] ... The island’s new marketing slogan is 'recreation destination'."
Source: San Francisco Business Times

Sailing Interests

At the 'Silicon Valley Watcher' blog (link below) is a video clip of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (also of America's Cup sailing competition fame) receiving a key to The City. The short clip (5:42) also includes a presser type interview with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Larry Ellison, and others. In the clip Mr. Ellison mentions the possible future use for a small olympic village type of sailboat racing center and marina, generally in the Bay Area Region. Yerba Buena, Treasure Island, or the TIDA does not seem to be directly mentioned.

Source and video clip: Silicon Valley Watcher

Watercraft Facility Planning

It might be interesting to see a report that would highlight proposals for how marina, ferry services, and other watercraft components would fit and function in an eventual master plan for Treasure Island's transition to civilian land uses. Perhaps an overview of possible designs for the island's water/land interfaces, to use a word.

Opportunity for Problem Solving

As might be expected, particularly to those groups and individuals with interests and responsibilities to make it happen safely and successfully, the change in character of these connected islands from primarily military uses to include other public and for profit land uses appears to be a somewhat complicated and challenging task politically and even technically.

Link I Found Today (LIFT)

The following is not intended as a continuation of the above subject. It is simply the last segment to read at the end of this post. This "LIFT" bonus feature may not be in any way appropriate or relevant to anything. And if it is -- it's probably a conscience ...

LIFT: Andropause

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Phased Skyscraper

Media Credit: College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) Cal Poly, Connections Magazine, Fall 2009, “Crowning Glory”, page 5.

Hearst Corporation Building -- with Historic Base Building

Completed in 2006, this is the first skyscraper to be constructed in Manhattan after September 11, 2001. The tower was built over the Historic Hearst Corporation Building. In this special case, two major elements -- the Skyscraper Base Building and the skyscraper tower -- were constructed and completed separately. A significant period of time came between completing the lower phase and starting the higher phase. This unintentionally phased skyscraper may provide useful lessons in how to manage the NIMBY Syndrome initially associated with the development of some taller buildings.

In some situations, it may be possible for a planned tall structure to be permitted in several phases with the lower levels built and put in use several years before visible construction begins on the higher floors. This intentional exposure, interaction, and eventual familiarity with a building at the street level may help mitigate the 'Fear of Change' that may be initially triggered if a tall building is planned to impact the city entirely at once.

Currently some governmental bodies empowered with permitting authority over development of the built environment use various and some similar techniques to mitigate a real or imagined 'Fear of Change' that may be encountered within the jurisdiction's constituency.

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Skyscraper Base Building

Media Credit: College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) Cal Poly, Connections Magazine, Fall 2009, “Crowning Glory”, page 4.

Historic Hearst Corporation Building

A New York City landmark, the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan was from its inception intended to become a towering skyscraper that would provide the offices for all Hearst employees working in New York City. Upward construction of the project was stopped in 1928 by circumstances that came to be called the Great Depression.

The base building, a small percentage of the project’s planned total structural area, was completed, occupied, and eventually became recognized as a historic monument. The building -- actually a multi-storey base building for a skyscraper tower -- served it’s owners, occupants, and the public for a number of years. Surely, city dwellers and visitors became familiar with its pleasing presence, purpose, and street space impacts at the site

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NIMBY Syndrome

Not In My Back Yard

Excerpt: "... a person who opposes particular construction or projects in their community ... I.E.: Being selfish ... People who fight LULUs, or Locally Unwanted Land Uses: developments or institutions that are needed, but that nobody wants near them ...".

" ... I should have used my BRAIN before purchasing a house [in a undesirable or subordinate location] ... For some reason I didn't wonder why the house was so cheap in the first place ...".

"... Other forms of NIMBY [may or may not] include the NOPE (Not On Planet Earth), the BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone), and the TEDAO (Tear Everything Down At Once)."

Source: www.urbandictionary.com

Fear of Change

City and Regional Planning (CRP) issues might occasionally be confronted or aided by the emotions of individuals within a planning area. Perhaps there are definable reasons, beyond the obvious monetary losses and gains, for why some people seem to suffer with a NIMBY syndrome. One possible reason to explore is 'Fear of Change'. Perhaps this is explained somewhere within the disciplines of Psychology or Social Psychology

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Fear of Change

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
-- [Albert] Einstein Quotes

Surely there is individual sanity at various times within the total of humanity. Different results sometimes occur when change is made. Experiencing something different might be problematic at times for some individuals. Somewhere within the total of humanity, there may be Fear of Change .

One appropriate goal of City and Regional Planning might be to mitigate Fear of Change within humanity. If this occasionally occurring fear is a phobia or anxiety disorder, then perhaps it could be mitigated by applying psychologically sound management techniques in situations that involve changes in the built environment. Exploring psychological methods and tools for managing Fear of Change at the city or regional scale was not a memorable aspect in most Planning Theory professor's classroom lectures or essay assignments.

Pity that. Perhaps future posts here, with the label Fear of Change , may review research and observations within this topic

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