Category: News

September 5, 2019

The final report of a University of Washington pilot study on Curb Allocation Change indicates that creating a designated space for passenger loading (PLZ) can discourage double-parking and reduce traffic conflicts. Geofencing is used to increase driver compliance by setting a GPS or RFID boundary around an area, thus triggering a response when a mobile device enters or leaves the area. Data was collected in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, an area with considerable congestion and TNC use. A second phase study has been proposed to test geofence and PLZ strategies in a high traffic, transit corridor.

Read the press release here.

The new law will spur development of affordable housing, limit fees on affordable housing, prohibit demolition of affordable and rent-controlled units unless they’re replaced, and give existing tenants first right of return.

The votes were 67-8 in the Assembly and 30-4 in the state Senate.

The paragraphs below explain the thrust of the new law and are excepted from an August 30 Op-Ed by Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), author of the bill and the California Senate majority whip.

The successful approach of “city and county officials [in] the aftermath of the Tubbs fire to expedite the rebuilding of thousands of homes,” wrote Skinner, … inspired me to introduce Senate Bill 330…

“The bill accelerates housing construction in the state during the next half-decade by slashing the time it takes for developers to get building permits, limiting fees on housing, and barring local governments from reducing the number of homes that can be built…

“SB 330 is based on the premise that much of the housing we need has already been planned for by our local communities. California cities and counties have approved zoning for 2.8 million new housing units, according to a 2019 report by UCLA’s Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies…

“Recent studies have also pointed out [that] cities and counties often levy burdensome fees that can reach $50,000 per unit on housing projects, and developers can face delays of up to four years after they submit their applications to build housing…

“SB 330 is designed to help California communities swiftly build much of the housing the state needs without altering local zoning rules. Until 2025, cities and counties [will] have to slash the time it takes to process housing applications to no more than 90 days for most market-rate housing projects and to 60 days for affordable ones after a project application is deemed complete and it complies with local zoning rules. The bill also limits the number of public hearings on a project to five. In addition, cities and counties would be barred from hiking fees after the project applicant has submitted all preliminary required information.

“For five years from the time the bill becomes law, urban areas throughout California [will] be prohibited from changing design standards for how housing should look, reducing the number of housing units allowed, establishing a cap on the number of people who can live in a community, or implementing a moratorium on new housing construction.

“The bill also includes anti-displacement measures, including a ban on the demolition of affordable and rent-controlled units unless developers replace all of them and pay to rehouse tenants and offer them first right of return at the same rent.”

You can read the text of the bill here. 

Excerpts from an article by Kriston Capps, CityLab (with 8 large color photos, September 3, 2019)

“Just 45 minutes south of Indianapolis, Columbus is in most respects a quaint Hoosier town brimming with main-street appeal. But in one vital way, it is unlike any other place in the country. It is a mecca for Modernism, a repository of mid-century architecture. As unlikely as it sounds, Columbus, Indiana, is a citadel of design.

“For the next three months, I.M. Pei’s plaza [at the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library] is even more inviting than usual. It’s the temporary home for Untitled, an elevated garden terrace designed by Mexico City’s Frida Escobedo Studio. Next to the 1969 library, Escobedo’s platform is a complement in elegance and a contrast in materials (and ideas).

“More than a dozen other additions and pairings across town make Columbus an ideal destination for lovers of high design. ‘Exhibit Columbus’ has turned the lens around on architecture, and on itself. Social factors are as key to contemporary design as glass was to the Modernist era, and this biennial reflects that trend.”

How did Columbus become what it is today, with “One map of Columbus listing 97 projects of architectural significance, dating from 1942 to the present day”?

“J. Irwin Miller was executive and chairman of Cummins, a diesel-engine [and now Fortune 500] company headquartered in Columbus. After World War II, prospects for the business were strong, but Miller saw that teeny Bartholomew County was struggling to attract the world-class engineering talent that the growing company needed.

“So in 1954, under Miller’s stewardship, the Cummins Foundation offered to subsidize any new, public, Modernist building in this Bible Belt town by paying for the architectural fees. Miller generated (confidential) lists of preferred architects for each project, which he offered like a menu to institutions such as the school board. From the 1950s on, the program furnished exceptional buildings with the goal of putting Columbus on the map. The Saturday Evening Post dubbed the city “Athens on the Prairie.”

READ MORE in the CityLab article: “Exhibit Columbus looked to architects who focus on community — and designs that would provoke as much as they delight — to elevate the city’s historic architecture. Mostly missing is the high-strung academic bafflegab that attends events in New York or Paris or Dubai. The language of design is accessible here.”

By Elijah Chiland, Curbed LA, July 23, 2019

“A Los Angeles nonprofit organization aims to bring back the bungalow court as ‘a good way to house people.’

“John Perfitt, director of Restore Neighborhoods LA, earlier this year won a $500,000 grant from Los Angeles County for its Bungalow Gardens proposal in South Los Angeles.  The complex would likely be LA’s first new bungalow court in more than seven decades.

“Perfitt calls the bungalow court — at one time the most common form of multifamily housing in Southern California — a ‘functional but elegant’ form of architecture.

“Built mainly from the early 1900s to the 1930s, Los Angeles’s bungalow courts generally consist of a cluster of individual cottages arranged around a courtyard or a strip of shared open space. The courts have been impractical to build since Los Angeles officials adopted minimum parking requirements for new developments in the 1930s.

“RNLA’s project, planned between two existing court-style complexes, is set to include four studios and four one-bedrooms — spread between four buildings surrounded by shared space and sandwiched between two existing court-type complexes.

“Building this type of project is now possible because of LA’s Transit Oriented Communities program, established after voters approved an affordable housing ballot measure in 2016.

“Projects like Bungalow Gardens, which are accessible to major train or bus stops and contain affordable housing, are eligible for certain incentives — including more allowable density and fewer required parking spaces. Because all of the units in RNLA’s court will be affordable, the project isn’t required to have parking at all.

“With partial grant funding from the county secured, RNLA is now opening the project up to investors from the general public in order to raise additional funds needed to complete the project.

“Tenants will be selected through the county’s Coordinated Entry System, which connects homeless residents with available housing. Rents will be subsidized through housing vouchers provided by the county.

Read the full article here. 

From The Planning Report, Los Angeles, August 14, 2019

TPR interviewed Michael Woo, a former LA City Council member (1985-93) who recently retired after 10 years as Dean of Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design — the first urban planner to hold that position. (Woo holds a master of city planning from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in politics and urban studies from UC Santa Cruz.) The interview starts with the loaded observation that “city planning seems disrespected by all interests,” and later asks, “what should schools of planning and architecture be inculcating in their students?” and “who should planners be planning for?” Among Woo’s responses were these morsels:

“… the best graduates we produce will be more than just technicians, because the software will be constantly changing. The best graduates will be generalists whom the employer can move around to different assignments and different teams that may not be predictable at the time the graduate is originally hired. Oral and written communication skills are very important because if you can’t communicate your good idea, what good are you?

“… planners should be planning for the future.

“… in a democratic society, the elected leadership has the primary responsibility for defining a vision of the future. Of course, the leaders may need to be responsive to the senior citizens among us, or the people who are registered voters among us. But, beyond the short-term responsibility of representing the people who elect the officeholders, the elected officials and the politicians have a higher responsibility to think about the future, including people who aren’t here yet, haven’t been born yet, and who can’t vote.

“… the public sector needs to step up and define what the future is going to be about. The private sector definitely deserves to have a large voice, but it’s not the private sector that should decide. By definition, the private sector cannot define what is in the best interest of the public.”

You can read the full interview here.