South San Francisco opts to oppose housing invoice | Native Information
After considering whether to support or oppose two controversial housing laws, the South San Francisco City Council decided to speak out against Senate Law 9 unless it was amended and no vote was taken on Senate Law 10.
Senate Laws 9 and 10 would allow homeowners to convert single-family homes into maisonettes, with the potential to split a lot in two, dividing each lot for up to 10 units.
“SB 9 and SB 10 will not solve the housing problem,” said council member Buenaflor Nicolas at the council meeting on July 27th. “The housing problem that we have right now has been a problem for many decades, and this is mainly due to several factors, lack of construction for rapid employment growth, high land, labor and material costs, long and costly inspection and adequate financial resources approve. And there is definitely no silver bullet to solve these problems, what we need is a comprehensive approach. “
Senate Act 9 is called the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act. The bill increases legal density for all single-family zoning counties across the state and was written by Senate President Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. It gives homeowners options by streamlining the process to create a duplex or subdivide an existing lot.
“Building on the successes of the ADU Act, SB 9 strikes the right balance between respecting local control and creating an environment and opportunity for neighborhood housing that will benefit the wider community,” said Niccolo De Luca, Townsend Public Affairs, of the advocated the legislation.
It requires cities to ministerially approve two units or subdivisions of two units on any property that is zoned for single family homes within an urbanized area and not in a fire, earthquake or flood hazard zone and not in a historic neighborhood. Senate Bill 9 does not require the units built to have affordable deeds.
Senate Bill 10, drafted by Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, approves an ordinance not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act to expand land for up to 10 residential units in a busy area within half a mile of transit or one urban infill site. Cities are free to do so or not.
Many citizens said that these bills could not solve the problem of housing affordability.
“I own a house in Avalon Park. I worked my backside seven days a week, 12 hours a day in an oil refinery to get this home. And I believe this bill is a sell-off to families who own and run these homes, ”said Mike Sutter, a 40-year resident of South San Francisco. “This is clearly just a corporate interest bill that ultimately doesn’t benefit any family. As I said, we are not in the middle of a real estate crisis. This is an affordability crisis. “
The average home price for a single family home is $ 1.3 million and for semi-detached houses is $ 1.1 million in South San Francisco. And to afford the average home price, the household income would have to be around $ 260,000, said Nell Selander, assistant director of the city’s economic and community development department.
“I don’t think SB 9’s mere existence would be the answer to the housing crisis,” said Councilor James Coleman. “It’s an affordability crisis that so many of us mentioned today. I think it’s a problem that requires multiple approaches. You could look at the vacancies in our city, especially in some of the larger developments. “
After making some changes to the League of California Cities, South City added the changes to have an affordability requirement, allow cities to determine a range of lot sizes suitable for Senate Law 9 projects, and allow local governments to do so To take into account local conditions such as hills, land dimensions, natural hazards, available infrastructure when approving or rejecting housing project applications and ensuring that major investors and builders do not take advantage of the provisions of the bill, and especially in this last part.
“These types of amendments allow the city to continue to have some control over development,” said Mayor Mark Addiego. “I have big, big concerns about Senate Law 9 and unable to control it, especially in the old town where some of the rents tend to be a little less harsh.”
The city council is sending a letter to the state legislature with these changes and will reject Senate Draft 9 if it is not changed. Councilor Nicolas moved against Senate Bill 10 and the vote died after unsupporting it.
Senate Law 9 is currently on the Assembly’s Budget Committee, and there is no date for a hearing yet. After the approval committee of the assembly, the draft law is presented to the entire assembly. The state legislature is on hiatus and will return on August 16. The remainder of this year’s session will take place from August 16 to September 10.
Senate Bill 10 is currently in assembly for the final vote. Then it goes to the Senate for approval.
