A publication of the American Planning Association, California Chapter, Northern Section
Making great communities happen
Featured articles
Oakland 2100 – The Game
By Sarah Allen, AICP. This “game” offers a serious way to engage in identifying community desires and values related to design and urban planning, with a big side benefit of understanding some of the challenges that developers, residents, and the city face on a daily basis.
Here are the Northern News survey results
By Naphtali H. Knox, FAICP. The survey was emailed on January 14 and remained open for seven days. Just under half of the respondents work for public agencies; 35.8 percent work for private firms or are self-employed; 93.9 percent had read Northern News in 2019; and 86.4 percent are APA members.
Building a community of tiny homes for homeless veterans in Sonoma County
From HUD USER, September 24, 2019. Veterans Village in Santa Rosa houses 14 chronically homeless veterans who receive supportive services and rental assistance. The project’s status as a two-year pilot allowed it to take advantage of an exception to the normal requirements of CEQA.
In memoriam: Pioneering equity planner Norman Krumholz, FAICP
By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer, December 21, 2019. Norman Krumholz was part of a generation of urban thinkers who reacted against federally-funded Urban Renewal projects that displaced low income and minority residents. He was a widely known advocate for equity planning, holding that planners should work to improve life for the city’s poorest residents rather than serve powerful interests in big development projects. He was the coauthor of several books, including “Making Equity Planning Work,” 1990.
Where in the world?
Four cities, small to large
Tap for the answer
Northern Section announcements
Who’s where
In this segment, we cover eight job changes from around the Bay Area: James Castañeda, AICP; Elizabeth Caraker, AICP; Nisha Chauhan, AICP; Ellen Clark, AICP; Coleman Frick; Evan Kenward; Carolyn Neer, AICP; Matthew Stafford, AICP. Congratulations all!
SFUFF starts Sunday; some events are free
By Fay Darmawi. SF Urban Film Fest aims to leverage the power of storytelling to spark discussion and civic engagement around urban issues. SFUFF focuses on what it means to live together in a city and how to make urban planning more equitable and inclusive.
Planning news roundup
Senate Bill 50, in a Senate vote late Wednesday afternoon, fell three votes short of the 21 it needed to advance to the State Assembly. Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, a supporter, said, ‘SB 50 might not be coming forward right now, but the status quo cannot stand.’
By Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, January 28, 2020. “Jane Jacobs wasn’t focused on gentrification, and New York is not Palo Alto is not Barcelona is not Hong Kong: Density is not one size fits all. Urbanism isn’t a mere kit of parts. That said, the implications today are still plain for rezoning legislation like [California’s] SB 50.”
By Liam Dillon, Los Angeles Times, January 23, 2020. A coalition of groups representing low-income communities now opposes Senate Bill 50. That’s a blow to efforts to advance the bill before the Jan. 31 deadline for it to pass the Senate.
By Lily Jamali, KQED News, January 22, 2020. Three-quarters of new addresses listed in Paradise, CA, are for P.O. boxes, not homes — indicating these Camp Fire survivors haven’t gone far. But hundreds have left and moved east of the Rockies (map).
By Gennady Sheyner, Palo Alto Online, January 19, 2020. HCD rejected a grant of $10.5 million for a 59-unit development that will target low-income residents and include units for adults with developmental disabilities. The city stepped in to bridge the gap with a $10.5 million loan made up of impact and “in lieu” fees.
By Joseph Ronson, LifePulseHealth.com, January 16, 2020. A nonprofit affordable housing and service provider in Los Angeles and Ventura counties will utilize $24 million from HCD to build three new projects with 147 homes for low-income families, some of them homeless.
By Eric Westervelt, NPR, January 13, 2020. Homelessness — a hard-to-fix national problem — is particularly severe in California. The state’s homeless population jumped 16 percent in 2019. A January 2020 HUD report notes that California’s homeless population of more than 150,000 accounts for 53 percent of all unsheltered people in the U.S.
By Janice Bitters, San Jose Spotlight, January 9, 2019. Sand Hill Property Co. previously invoked SB 35 at the Vallco Shopping Mall redevelopment in Cupertino, promising half the residential units to those earning less than the median income. Sand Hill is now pursuing a much smaller SB 35-compliant development with 10 percent of the units for very low-income residents.
By Ally Schweitzer, WAMU American University Radio, January 9, 2020. High housing costs affect those who can’t afford to buy or rent. They also impact employers, local governments, the neighborhood coffee shop, and even well-to-do homeowners as traffic worsens, employers struggle to find workers, and cost-burdened people buy less.
