Arent Fox Bay Area Land News - March 7, 2017
News you can dig.
US/California/Bay Area News
San Francisco Business Times
BART extension could be the next Bay Area federal transit project in danger
“California is not going to be [the Trump administration’s] favorite state, and the Bay Area within California is not going to be their favorite locale."
To read the full article, click here. [subscription required]
Business Insider
Millennials are forcing America's largest corporations to kill traditional suburban office parks
Given millennials' penchant for walking and fast-casual restaurants, a number of American companies are either rebuilding their suburban office parks to mimic an urban environment or uprooting for the city.
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Sacramento Bee
California exports its poor to Texas, other states, while wealthier people move in
Well-paid new arrivals in California enjoy a life that is far out of reach of much of the state’s population. Besides Hawaii and New York, California has the highest cost of living in America.
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco Chronicle
Ignoring state threats, firm keeps sucking sand from Monterey Bay
The 8-acre mine has been described by opponents, including politicians and surveyors, as “medieval” and “outrageous,” and some studies have linked it to severe erosion on the southern Monterey shoreline. But a quirk in the law has allowed the plant to remain open 27 years after all the other sand dredges were ordered off the coast.
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco Business Times
Editorial: Worry more about housing need, less about housing greed
Ensuring that developers make little or no money on housing is functionally equivalent to ensuring little or no housing. Which is the greater evil?
To read the full article, click here. [subscription required]
The Registry
Chinese Investors Still Seeking West Coast Assets Despite Hurdles
According to a February news report by Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty, at the end of 2016, China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange tightened controls on capital exiting the country in an effort to stabilize the currency. So far, RSIR brokers have anecdotally asserted that though these restrictions have dampened cash transactions, loans for real estate investments have increased.
To read the full article, click here.
Curbed SF
California lawmakers aim to repeal anti-rent control law
A new bill authored by San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu would do away with the 22-year-old Costa-Hawkins Act, the law that exempts new construction from rent control and generates ire with tenants’ rights activists.
To read the full article, click here.
Silicon Valley Business Journal
How Trump’s plans could affect the real estate industry
As we continue to learn more about the new president, one thing is certain — change is on the horizon. While the exact form and impact of these changes remains widely speculated, it is almost certain that significant tax reform is coming for the real estate industry.
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco News
San Francisco Business Times
Meet the new S.F. supervisor trying to tackle S.F.'s housing crisis
Ahsha Safai, the newly elected Supervisor from District 11, is in the middle of the debate of San Francisco's biggest housing policies: How much affordable housing new projects should provide and whether to allow buildings with some affordable housing to rise higher.
To read the full article, click here. [subscription required]
San Francisco Chronicle
Costly Transbay Transit Center in busload of trouble
San Francisco’s over-budget and oversize $2.4 billion Transbay Transit Center will open in December — but it’s going to cost an estimated $20 million a year to run the place, and no one knows where all the money will come from.
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco Business Times
Forest City’s Jack Sylvan discusses vision for Pier 70 megaproject
Jack Sylvan, senior vice president of Forest City Enterprises, is leading the 28-acre Pier 70 waterfront redevelopment, one of San Francisco’s largest projects with an estimated budget over $1 billion.
To read the full article, click here. [subscription required]
Planetizen
S.F.'s Transbay Transit Center: Grand Central Station of the West, or Billion Dollar Bus Station?
The developers of San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center say it has the potential to change travel patterns in the region and land use in the neighborhood, as did New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. How realistic is this promise?
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco Chronicle
SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin named to California Coastal Commission
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León appointed Peskin to fill the commission seat representing the North Coast and Central Coast, which was vacated by former Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who retired.
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco Business Times
Why is San Francisco's traffic the fourth-worst in the world?
San Francisco ranks the worst in the nation during peak commute hours, when drivers spend 22 percent of their time stuck in congestion.
To read the full article, click here. [subscription required]
South Bay News
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Editorial: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble in Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley is still a desirable place to work and live, but there are warning signs that we can't continue in our current state indefinitely.
To read the full article, click here.
Mercury News
Would higher gas tax fill our spreading potholes?
“It is fiscally irresponsible to wait until our roads fail,” said State Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, chairman of the state Senate Transportation Committee, at a press conference to garner support for his gas tax bill.
To read the full article, click here.
Mercury News
To attract teachers, pricey Bay Area school districts are becoming their landlords
As school districts in the state’s pricey coastal enclaves struggle to attract and keep qualified teachers, many are considering Santa Clara’s “if you build it, they will come” model to teacher retainment.
To read the full article, click here.
Peninsula News
The Almanac
Report: How Stanford project may add to Menlo Park traffic woes
The two residential and three office buildings proposed are expected to bring 512 residents and 500 employees to the site.
To read the full article, click here.
SFGate
City releases more details on Google’s Charleston East campus
The Mountain View City Council will discuss Tuesday whether it will grant Google permits to create its Charleston East campus that will be open to its employees and the public.
To read the full article, click here.
Mountain View Voice
Council seeks to solve some familiar challenges
The city's big goals for the next two years will once again grapple with the South Bay's stubborn, yet familiar problems -- the lack of affordable housing, ongoing environmental cleanup and the worsening traffic.
To read the full article, click here.
The Registry
Release of Menlo Park’s Draft EIR for the Middle Plaza at 500 El Camino Real Project
A Draft Infill Environmental Impact Report (Draft Infill EIR) has been prepared to evaluate the environmental impacts of the proposed Middle Plaza at 500 El Camino Real Project, which includes construction of approximately 144,000 square feet of non-medical office uses, 10,000 square feet of retail uses, and 215 residential units on an 8.4-acre site.
To read the full article, click here.
Bisnow
Palo Alto's Aggressive Sustainability Goals Set The Bar High For Bay Area
Palo Alto passed its first climate plan since 2005 late last year. The new plan sets lofty goals with a target of reducing greenhouse gases by 80% by 2030.
To read the full article, click here.
The Almanac
Atherton will consider allowing Airbnb-type short-term rentals
Currently, Atherton treats any rental of less than 30 days as a commercial enterprise not allowed in the town.
To read the full article, click here.
Palo Alto Online
County funds boost effort to modify rail corridor
Even as Caltrain's electrification project faces fresh financial hurdles, Palo Alto officials signaled on Wednesday that they plan to stay on course with their own rail priority: the separation of train tracks from local roadways.
To read the full article, click here.
The Almanac
Menlo Park: Willows residents press city to fight cut-through traffic
Drivers cutting through the Willows neighborhood of Menlo Park to get to U.S. 101 and Bayfront Expressway are creating increasingly hazardous conditions, particularly for children, say residents of the area who want the city of Menlo Park to come up with mitigation measures.
To read the full article, click here.
Mountain View Voice
City reopens applications to rent control committee
The five-person rental committee will be the group in charge of administering the Measure V rent-control program. The city last put out a call for prospective applicants in December and 19 people applied.
To read the full article, click here.
Palo Alto Online
Council shifts gears on downtown parking program
By gradually reducing the number of employee permits, the city's latest plan threatens to drive these businesses out of the city entirely, dentists and business owners argued in recent weeks.
To read the full article, click here.
East Bay News
San Francisco Business Times
BART delays another extension project — Contra Costa now coming in 2018
BART delays another extension project. Its 10-mile track into Antioch may not open service until 2018.
To read the full article, click here. [subscription required]
Bisnow
CIM Group’s Latest Oakland Projects Would Add Office And Residential
CIM Group is seeking approval for two separate projects in Oakland. The first would create an office tower near Kaiser Plaza while the other is for two additional sites of mixed-use residential in Jack London Square.
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco Business Times
Developer proposes 1,400 micro-units near West Oakland BART
Panoramic Interests is proposing more than 1,400 units on a property near the West Oakland BART where other developers have failed to build.
To read the full article, click here.
Bisnow
Tenants Want To Work In Oakland, But There's Not Enough Supply
Two potentially large leases could move much-needed office projects forward, but panelists at a recent Bisnow event in Oakland do not expect a lot of new construction during the current cycle.
To read the full article, click here.
San Francisco Business Times
First homes to break ground in Brooklyn Basin, Oakland's new waterfront neighborhood
After close to two decades of ground work, Signature Development Group plans to kick off construction of the first new homes in Brooklyn Basin in April.
To read the full article, click here. [subscription required]