Another take on Scott Wiener's attack on local control

Purple area to be upzoned by the Wiener/Skinner bill

Turns out I didn't have to go all the way to Oregon to get Randal O'Toole's take on Scott Wiener's attack on the right cities and counties in the state now have to control their own zoning laws. Becky O'Malley does a thorough job from Berkeley.

From the Berkeley Daily Planet:

State Senators Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) are again lusting after our remaining affordable neighborhoods on behalf of their developer patrons, who are fronted by the astroturf YIMBYs. 

As reported by Liam Dillon in the L.A. Times: 

A dramatic increase in new housing near transit stations could be on its way across California under new legislation proposed by a Bay Area legislator. Subject to some limitations, the measure would eliminate restrictions on the number of houses allowed to be built within a half-mile of train, light-rail, major bus routes and other transit stations, and block cities from imposing parking requirements. Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the bill’s author, said the state needs the housing to address affordability problems, maximize recent multi-billion-dollar transit investments and help the state meet its climate change goals.

Here’s a link to the bill, authored by Scott Wiener and co-authored by our own State Senator Nancy Skinner.

Transit-rich is the new buzz word in the title, and how ironically apt it is. This bill effectively removes all local planning controls in areas served by transit, opening up enormous swaths of our historically low-income urban neighborhoods (think southwest Berkeley) to gentrifying market rate development. 

And no, it won’t make the current residents, especially renters, rich—but it will certainly make rich developers richer. That's who get the housing bonus. 

This plan doesn’t seem to have been reported in the Bay Area press as yet, but Damien Goodmon, founder and Executive Director of Los Angeles’ nonprofit Crenshaw Subway Coalition, already has their number. He’s posted a stinging denunciation of the bill’s backers and its effect on low-income residents on the organization’s web site...

Wiener tries to defend his bill.

See also Scott Wiener's lie about the Bicycle Plan, Another lie from Scott Wiener, and Good news: Scott Wiener is leaving town.