featured Articles

City planning here — and there

Elizabeth “Libby” Tyler, Ph.D., FAICP, highlights what it’s like being a city planning director for a city in the heart of a Midwestern state and in an equivalent-sized city in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Meet a local planner: Ruth Cueto

Interviewed by Catarina Kidd, AICP. Cueto, a supervising planner with San Jose for the past four years, previously was land…

Does your city allow buildings of 10 or fewer DUs in non-single family zones? Read SB 478.

By Naphtali H. Knox, FAICP, editor. Cities and counties may no longer use FAR and minimum lot size to deny…

SB 9: What it says and what it doesn’t

By Naphtali H. Knox, FAICP, editor. Don’t miss this one-hour webinar recording, with attorney Barbara Kautz, FAICP, and David Garcia,…

Northern Section News & Announcements

Register now for our 2022 Mentorship Program

Who’s where

How to preserve and protect housing from wildfires

East Bay cities debate ADUs amid increasing wildfire risk

LETTERS

Envision Burlingame cited by Planetizen

Acknowledging we live, work and play on indigenous lands

Updated databases for Protected Areas and Conservation Easements

Wrap-up on key planning-related bills for 2021

Ethics on-demand webinar, CM credits, now available

pLANNING nEWS rOUND uP

Tension over new development rises amid water scarcity in Healdsburg

By Mary Callahan, The Press Democrat, August 23, 2021. Opponents claim the city’s 2015 Urban Water Management Plan considered an…

Oakland residents fighting a mysterious startup taking over their quiet street

By Georgia Freedman, SFGate, August 23, 2021. Neighbors argue that CloudKitchens, a kitchen-to-delivery startup, gamed the city’s zoning and permitting…

Judge rules that UC Berkeley must study the impacts of growth before raising enrollment

By Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside, August 24, 2021. Cal must redo the SEIR to address certain issues, including how student enrollment…

How arenas like the Oakland Coliseum became emblematic of California’s housing crisis

By Erika Paz, Calmatters, August 24, 2021. California’s Department of Housing and Community Development cited Oakland and two other cities…

Bay Area cities and counties falling dramatically short of affordable housing goals

By Kiley Russell, Bay City News Foundation, August 27, 2021. New local financing strategies and the state’s first regional affordable…

City of Napa housing division revamps rental housing rehabilitation loan program

By Edward Booth, Napa Valley Register, August 30, 2021. The maximum loan for home repairs has increased by tens of…

San Jose approves strategy to spread out multi-unit affordable housing citywide

By Lloyd Alaban, San Jose Spotlight, August 31, 2021. The plan divides San Jose into three categories to prioritize where…

Chinese ghost cities are finally stirring to life

By James Mayger, Lucille Liu, Yujing Liu, Lin Zhu, and Yinan Zhao, Bloomberg News, September 1, 2021. The government wants…

Berkeley seeks objective standards for thorniest aspects of new developments

By Nico Savidge, Berkeleyside, September 5, 2021. Objective standards are becoming an increasingly important way for cities to exercise local…

Cupertino again at odds with the state over the SB 35 Vallco project

By Marisa Kendall, Mercury News, September 7, 2021. Department of Housing and Community Development says the project’s special approval under…

Over 3,000 acres of East Bay open space to be preserved as state park in $31 million deal

By Joseph Gena, East Bay Times, September 8, 2021. Scientists have described the land as a ‘biologically unique habitat’ and…

How can the pedestrian malls of the past inform today’s shared streets?

By Stephan Schmidt, Bloomberg CityLab, September 9, 2021. A Cornell study analyzed over 100 past pedestrian malls to see what…

San Mateo loses housing ruling with big statewide implications

By Curtis Driscoll, San Mateo Daily Journal, September 14, 2021. Upholding the Housing Accountability Act could lead to new housing…

Gov. Newsom abolishes most single-family zoning in California

By Marisa Kendall, East Bay Times, September 17, 2021. SB 9, now law, allows up to four units on single-family…

SF piloting tiny cabins for homeless people as a cost-effective alternative to tents

By Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 2021. 70 tiny homes (cabins), similar to those used in Oakland and…

Drought: Marin, Saudi crown prince eyeing same desalination plants

By Will Houston, Marin Independent Journal, September 20, 2021. Desalination is still the district’s secondary option to prevent it from…

Northern News November 2021