Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Sept. 15, 2020
September 14, 2020 at 11:30 a.m.
Newsom shouldn’t sign last two housing bills
In a letter to the editor earlier this year, nine proposed state Legislature bills harmful to single-family housing were listed. Legislators blocked seven of the bills. Only AB 725 and AB 2345 are moving to the governor’s desk. These two bills miss the mark.
AB 725 undermines local control by mandating unrealistic regional housing needs allocation numbers, but doesn’t allow backyard granny units to count toward the targets. AB 2345 increases developer bonuses up to 50% for market-rate and luxury housing, which reduces revenue for city infrastructure, but does not provide affordable housing.
In our Nix-the-Nine letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, we urge him to veto the two remaining bills and offer six ways to improve housing policy.
• Legislators should set policy and secure funding for affordable housing. Implementation should remain the constitutional right of local jurisdictions.
• Local jurisdictions should be welcomed as partners in finding flexible solutions, not be blamed or punished for the state’s lack of funding for housing. Local control should be strengthened, not handed over to developers and unelected bureaucrats.
• Tackle economic conditions that worsen the welfare of Californians — the globalization of housing, pension debt and the growing divide between people of wealth and people of wages.
• Set policy that supports the California Environmental Quality Act and accounts for changes in the workplace induced by the pandemic — commuting patterns, unemployment, office vacancies and homelessness.
• Stop the adversarial practice of burdening cities with unfunded mandates. The League of California Cities estimates a $7 billion revenue shortfall over the next two years.
• Housing policy should be based on facts, not the inflated 3.5 million housing unit shortage perpetrated by AB 2345’s author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales, in her latest report.
There is a better way. If you agree, sign the petition at Change.org/nix-the-nine.
— Raymond G. Lorber, San Rafael
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