Author: saveurvoice

By: Jeff Collins for the OC Register As of late January, developers filed 26 applications to build 8,642 new homes under California’s three-decade-old builder’s remedy provision, setting aside 1,795 of those as low-income units. The law, adopted in 1990, forbids cities and counties without a state-certified plan called a “housing element” from denying affordable housing…

By: Jeff Collins for the Orange County Register Almost half of the state’s municipalities are vulnerable to a little-known provision that has created a virtual zoning holiday. Despite local objections, high-rise apartment buildings could soon spring from low-rise neighborhoods across Southern California. To the horror of slow-growth proponents and neighborhood preservationists, proposals range from a…

By Anita Enander for Mercury News The Mercury News recently reported on the story of a Los Altos Hills developer working to construct a 20-unit apartment building on a single-family lot — using a state law that prevents neighbors and local elected officials from having any say in approving the project. He is not alone. Throughout California,…

BY: Ethan Varian for Mercury News To hear Sasha Zbrozek tell it, the story behind his plans to tear down his four-bedroom house in tony Los Altos Hills and replace it with an apartment complex is a simple tale of a young man’s California dream home being ruined by the region’s notorious red tape —…

By Brian White for CBS8 News SAN DIEGO — Neighbors in the College East area don’t like what they’re seeing as multiple, two-story accessory dwelling units (ADUs), are popping up in their neighborhood. “This is what’s going up behind our property,” said Joe Newsome, who has lived on the 5100 block of 69th Street for…

By: Emily Hoeven for the San Francisco Chronicle Housing advocates are about to deliver a message to the Bay Area: Comply with state housing law or face the consequences. The message is being delivered in the form of 12 lawsuits, most of which will be publicly unveiled for the first time Tuesday by three pro-housing…

By: Susan Shelley

By: Susan Shelley Exactly one day after he survived a recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills that ended single-family zoning throughout California. Senate Bill 9 allows single-family lots anywhere in the state to be split in two, so that there can be two houses and two accessory dwelling units on a lot that…