News about rents, zoning changes, and other issues related to the cost of housing.
Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. wants to know what you love — and what you don’t — about the beachside city’s thriving urban core. To that end, the nonprofit that manages Santa Monica’s downtown area is employing a new digital tool,…
This article first appeared on The Healthy City Local. When voters submit an initiative to enact a law, Section 9212 of the California Elections Code authorizes the relevant legislative body to commission a report analyzing the impacts the initiative would have,…
Today, #DamienTalks with Sam Tepperman-Gelfant, a senior staff attorney with Public Advocates about Governor Jerry Brown’s legislative language to streamline the environmental process for certain types of housing development. Public Advocates was one of the leaders in circulating a letter…
This post originally appeared on Streetsblog California. This week in Sacramento, policy committees are rushing through a last-minute load of bills. The July recess is looming, and this week is the last opportunity to pass bills in the 2015-16 session.…
[pullquote align=left] When it comes to the goals of the anti-development side, as soon as one goal is achieved, a new, more extreme goal is created. [/pullquote]After Tuesday night’s City Council meeting Councilmember Sue Himmelrich might understandably have a “no…
Citing concerns that the anti-development Land Use Voter Empowerment (L.U.V.E.) initiative would only exacerbate Santa Monica’s housing affordability crisis, the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing (SCANPH) voiced their opposition in a letter to the City Council last week. In…
This post originally appeared on Streetsblog California. Today, #DamienTalks with Jason Islas, the editor of Santa Monica Next. This podcast featured Islas a couple of months ago to discuss a proposal by Assemblymember Richard Bloom to make it easier to…
This article originally ran on The Healthy City Local. [pullquote align=left]The proponents of LUVE know that they have a problem politically with the housing issue. In their statements and writings in support, they deny that LUVE would prevent housing from…
This weekend, head to Santa Monica College for the annual “Celebrate America” fireworks show. Next week, the Ocean Park Association is looking for volunteers to help with its annual 4th of July parade. And the Santa Monica City Council will…
The Santa Monica City Council Tuesday night unanimously voted to have city staff study potential impacts of the Residocracy-backed no-growth Land Use Voter Empowerment (L.U.V.E.) initiative before making a final decision next month about whether to put it on the…
If you’ve tried to move to — or within — Santa Monica recently, it should come as no surprise to you that it’s not easy. While the entire Los Angeles region is enduring the consequences of a chronic 30-year-long housing…
The League of Women Voters of Santa Monica on Saturday announced its opposition to the Residocracy-backed anti-growth ballot measure that will go before voters in November, joining a growing list of opponents to the initiative. [pullquote align=right] “The initiative, when…
The so-called “Land Use Voter Empowerment” (L.U.V.E.) initiative, which would require a vote on nearly every new building over two stories, has qualified to be on the November ballot, Santa Monica Next has learned. The initiative, backed by the extreme…
This article originally ran on Streetsblog California. Governor Brown issued his May revision of the state budget proposal, and in terms of transportation, it’s pretty much the same story we told in January. That is, he proposes a variety of new…
This week, the City Council and Planning Commission approved two related Expo-adjacent housing projects that will bring more than 300 new homes — 64 of which will rent to lower-income households — to Santa Monica’s thriving downtown. The two projects…
