ARTICLE
An old saying goes that when you are in a hole — you stop digging. Denis Healy was a well-respected member of the British parliament for 40 years (from the 1950s to 1990s) and had the term “law of holes.” In a nutshell, what this adage means is when you keep digging your hole deeper it’s harder to get out. In other words, if what you are trying isn’t working, then you need to take a different approach to the problem. That is exactly what is happening in cities all over California and especially in our coastal communities. Let’s look at what happened in San Francisco last week where the San Francisco Board of Supervisors rejected a proposed 495 unit apartment building on a Nordstrom parking lot. Officials expressed surprise and anger from Sacramento, where a state housing agency is now investigating whether the SF Board acted improperly, to Orange County, where a legislator suggested the vote exacerbated California’s housing crisis. This has made the hole deeper and has widened the divide between state government and local cities and counties, with their leaders expressing a growing tension as the state intensifies pressure on local communities to build more homes. In a tweet, State Senator Scott Wiener stated, “This arbitrary rejection of new housing by the SF Board of Supervisors probably violates state law and certainly exacerbated our housing crisis. Actions like this are exactly why we’re working so hard at the state level to reform California’s broken approach to housing. His legislative colleague, Senator Sharon Quirk-Silva tweeted back, “Exactly.’ Ironically, Senator Wiener was on the SF Board of Supervisors before being elected to the Senate. As we know, our Santa Cruz City Council’s decision to deny the 831 Water Street project might also lead the state housing agency to investigate that project. And just last week the City of Santa Cruz’s Planning Commission approved an apartment housing project at 130 Center Street with a unanimous vote. However, in a recent news flash, a local neighborhood organization has appealed that decision — placing another delay on much needed housing. As we’ve reported time and again these past few years, frustrated state legislators are putting the heat on local government with legislation aimed to streamline the approval process for affordable housing developments, backyard cottages (ADUs) and duplex conversions, removing some veto power from local governments in an effort to make it easier and cheaper to produce all types of housing that California needs to address its shortage. Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has stepped in to require that cities plan for far more new housing over the next decade and ramped up its enforcement of those goals. His Department of Housing and Community Development, the agency investigating San Francisco’s rejection of the apartment project, has set much higher goals for most regions in the latest regulatory cycle where local governments must come up with a plan to fulfill their housing needs for the next eight years. A new accountability unit directed by the governor, formally launched this fall within the Department of Housing and Community Development, gives the process more teeth. The unit will provide technical assistance to cities and counties as they zone for and permit new housing, while taking enforcement steps against those that fall short of their state goals. The department is also set to receive additional authority in January to take regulatory or legal action against local governments that violate other housing laws. We understand that not everyone agrees with the state taking a larger role in housing production and creation of more affordable units. “Surf City” Santa Cruz has a long history of using political clout and community groups to slow, delay and stop housing projects. And if that doesn’t work they turn to appeals and legal action. The challenge today is this “housing hole” is only getting deeper and the state legislature controlled by the Democrats will be on the hook for not responding to our housing crisis — which leads to economic consequences — forcing longer commutes for workers, depriving family time because of lost hours in traffic, compromising a healthier lifestyle and unfortunately prompting family decisions to leave the community and move out of state. Senator Steve Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda who has regularly opposed bills that remove local control over housing decisions, said the real hurdle to resolving the affordability crisis is that construction has become prohibitively expensive. “But cities like San Francisco, where jobs are concentrated, have a responsibility to lead on building new housing,'' Glazer said. “The decision to reject the project on the Nordstrom parking lot was the height of hypocrisy.” “To defend their inadequacies, they’ve chosen to back legislation that attacks the suburbs.” The City of Santa Cruz has a chance to stop digging now and move more quickly on housing projects. We see a great deal of progress with at least a half dozen projects of significant size in the housing pipeline. There is a plan afoot that could be a game changer. Listen to Santa Cruz Mayor Donna Meyers share her vision: https://vimeo.com/636661136?fbclid=IwAR3XWB2QRLP5POTbUa2Dy-nI_PZwbKyUnpNvu2IMfdWwMh4krnnV7HeqeZE Leadership is not a place at the head of the city council dais. It is taking action and setting new goals for the future of Santa Cruz.
An old saying goes that when you are in a hole — you stop digging. Denis Healy was a well-respected member of the British parliament for 40 years (from the 1950s to 1990s) and had the term “law of holes.” In a nutshell, what this adage means is when you keep digging your hole deeper it’s harder to get out. In other words, if what you are trying isn’t working, then you need to take a different approach to the problem.
That is exactly what is happening in cities all over California and especially in our coastal communities. Let’s look at what happened in San Francisco last week where the San Francisco Board of Supervisors rejected a proposed 495 unit apartment building on a Nordstrom parking lot. Officials expressed surprise and anger from Sacramento, where a state housing agency is now investigating whether the SF Board acted improperly, to Orange County, where a legislator suggested the vote exacerbated California’s housing crisis. This has made the hole deeper and has widened the divide between state government and local cities and counties, with their leaders expressing a growing tension as the state intensifies pressure on local communities to build more homes.
In a tweet, State Senator Scott Wiener stated, “This arbitrary rejection of new housing by the SF Board of Supervisors probably violates state law and certainly exacerbated our housing crisis. Actions like this are exactly why we’re working so hard at the state level to reform California’s broken approach to housing. His legislative colleague, Senator Sharon Quirk-Silva tweeted back, “Exactly.’ Ironically, Senator Wiener was on the SF Board of Supervisors before being elected to the Senate.
As we know, our Santa Cruz City Council’s decision to deny the 831 Water Street project might also lead the state housing agency to investigate that project. And just last week the City of Santa Cruz’s Planning Commission approved an apartment housing project at 130 Center Street with a unanimous vote. However, in a recent news flash, a local neighborhood organization has appealed that decision — placing another delay on much needed housing.
As we’ve reported time and again these past few years, frustrated state legislators are putting the heat on local government with legislation aimed to streamline the approval process for affordable housing developments, backyard cottages (ADUs) and duplex conversions, removing some veto power from local governments in an effort to make it easier and cheaper to produce all types of housing that California needs to address its shortage.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has stepped in to require that cities plan for far more new housing over the next decade and ramped up its enforcement of those goals. His Department of Housing and Community Development, the agency investigating San Francisco’s rejection of the apartment project, has set much higher goals for most regions in the latest regulatory cycle where local governments must come up with a plan to fulfill their housing needs for the next eight years.
A new accountability unit directed by the governor, formally launched this fall within the Department of Housing and Community Development, gives the process more teeth. The unit will provide technical assistance to cities and counties as they zone for and permit new housing, while taking enforcement steps against those that fall short of their state goals. The department is also set to receive additional authority in January to take regulatory or legal action against local governments that violate other housing laws.
We understand that not everyone agrees with the state taking a larger role in housing production and creation of more affordable units. “Surf City” Santa Cruz has a long history of using political clout and community groups to slow, delay and stop housing projects. And if that doesn’t work they turn to appeals and legal action.
The challenge today is this “housing hole” is only getting deeper and the state legislature controlled by the Democrats will be on the hook for not responding to our housing crisis — which leads to economic consequences — forcing longer commutes for workers, depriving family time because of lost hours in traffic, compromising a healthier lifestyle and unfortunately prompting family decisions to leave the community and move out of state.
Senator Steve Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda who has regularly opposed bills that remove local control over housing decisions, said the real hurdle to resolving the affordability crisis is that construction has become prohibitively expensive. “But cities like San Francisco, where jobs are concentrated, have a responsibility to lead on building new housing,'' Glazer said. “The decision to reject the project on the Nordstrom parking lot was the height of hypocrisy.”
“To defend their inadequacies, they’ve chosen to back legislation that attacks the suburbs.”
The City of Santa Cruz has a chance to stop digging now and move more quickly on housing projects. We see a great deal of progress with at least a half dozen projects of significant size in the housing pipeline. There is a plan afoot that could be a game changer. Listen to Santa Cruz Mayor Donna Meyers share her vision: https://vimeo.com/636661136?fbclid=IwAR3XWB2QRLP5POTbUa2Dy-nI_PZwbKyUnpNvu2IMfdWwMh4krnnV7HeqeZE
Leadership is not a place at the head of the city council dais. It is taking action and setting new goals for the future of Santa Cruz.