In March, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) released the draft of its fourth iteration of CalEnviroScreen (CES). First released in 2013, CES is a database of environmental hazards that forms the basis of myriad state and local efforts to limit human exposure and strive for environmental justice.

The California Legislature has come roaring back in 2021 with a whole new set of bills affecting planning and development

The council vote was unanimous, but now comes the hard part: Implementing an upzoning in a city with strong homeowner advocacy and fire-prone hillside neighborhoods.

Many housing advocates considered the assignment of 1.3 million new housing units to Southern California via 2019’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation process to be a serious win. It was followed up by an intra-regional allocation process that weighted units toward high-cost, high-demand coastal cities, for another win. Last month, they scored a few more wins — 50 to be exact.

While many in the state do not have the means to pick and choose exactly where they want to live, the combination of remote work and pandemic ennui has prompted untold numbers of well-off urban Californians to retreat to suburbs and to exurban “Zoomtowns.”

60% of Orange County cities challenge their targets, which are much higher than last time around

Already an epic-scale tragedy, California’s wildfires–consuming a record 4 million acres this year–are effectively shrinking the amount of land available for housing and prompting planners to make tough choices between growth and safety

Southern California and Bay Area MPOs must get more aggressive to meet RHNA goals and SB 375 goals.

OPR issues guidelines for implementing SB 1000, which requires local governments to address EJ directly in planning for the first time

Low-cost transformation of streets to public — and restaurant — spaces may help enliven city neighborhoods and revive their sales tax bases

Visual depictions of projects remain an issue — though accessibility might actually be improved for some. Brown Act has been loosened for the duration of COVID-19

Even entitled buildings won’t be built unless they have financing

A typical jumble of land-use measures — but they suggest California’s future direction

To cut down on discretionary review, new housing laws require cities to approve housing projects so long as they conform to “objective” design standards. Cities are scrambling to draft standards that promote housing and promote desired aesthetic goals

While many Bay Area cities resist growth, El Cerrito is booming with transit oriented plan on San Pablo Avenue

Santa Barbara will be on full display at next week’s conference of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association. In advance of the conference, CP&DR’s Josh Stephens spoke with Santa Barbara Community Development Director George Buell.