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Chris Elmendorf Profile picture
Chris Elmendorf
@CSElmendorf
The law prof at UC Davis, not the developer in San Diego. Dad. Denizen of San Francisco. Patron of Amtrak. Tweets are my own, not statements of UC. (he/him)
Apr 21 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Must read @SFjkdineen story on SF's "inclusionary housing" program for middle-income households.

It's yielding mass vacancy rather than housed middle-income families.

Why? B/c of panoply of death-by-good-intention allocation & pricing rules.
🧵/12.

sfchronicle.com/sf/article/mis…
Image Sin #1: An arcane set of "preference" categories, which make applications cumbersome to fill out & review, and which result in units sitting vacant b/c they've been pre-allocated to a different preference group.
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Apr 2 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
Here's an excellent story on @BuffyWicks & @AGRobBonta's AB 1893, the "builder's remedy grows up" bill.

In a nutshell: more predictability + more feasibility, in exchange for new limits on density. Read the rest of this 🧵 if you want the details.
1/20
calmatters.org/housing/2024/0… Predictability:

The law currently says that cities may not apply zoning or GP to a builder's remedy project, yet there's a savings clause for any "development standards" that are consistent with meeting city's share of regionally needed housing. Huh?

/2papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Mar 1 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
New builder's remedy decision!

LA Sup Ct. has released tentative opinion in 600 Foothill v. La Cañada Flintridge. Oral argument is happening now.

Looks like a huge win for @housingdefense, @AGRobBonta and @California_HCD!
🧵/12. Image The holdings:

#1: City's refusal to process BR application as a BR project is a "disapproval" within meaning of HCD, notwithstanding that city hadn't begun CEQA review.

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Feb 17 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
🎆New CEQA case has the makings of landmark.🎇

W/o relying on AB 1633, Hilltop Group v. Cnty of San Diego holds that decision to require further enviro study of an arguably exempt project was (1) reviewable and (2) an abuse of discretion. 🧵. 1/16.

courts.ca.gov/opinions/docum…
Image To best of my knowledge, this is the first CEQA case holding that a lead agency's decision to require more analysis than CEQA in fact requires can be challenged in court.
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Feb 16 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Great pod! It was gratifying to hear Reps @SeanCasten & @MikeLevin engage w/ my critique of the NEPA & local-participation provisions of their Clean Energy Transmission Act.

But I think they're still overlooking or not connecting the dots b/t some pretty basic points. 🧵. 1/10. #1. In defense of expanding legal requirements for community participation & CBAs, they say that a survey of clean energy developers found that most believe that early community outreach -> faster project approvals.

That's very plausible *holding constant the legal regime.*
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Jan 2 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
Whoa, the NEPA provisions tucked into the new "Clean Electricity & Transmission Acceleration Act" are like a wish list for greenmailers.

There's lots of good in the bill (⤵️), but the NEPA stuff is stunning. Come take a look.
🧵. 1/14. 1. The bill defines "enviro impact" to include not only enviro impacts, but also "aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social, or health" effects.

(Whereas CEQA is still about "physical environment"--even in the infamous Berkeley case.
)

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Jan 1 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
A 🧵 on what I'd like to see on the housing front from California & other blue-state policymakers in the New Year.

In two words: relentless pragmatism.

What would this mean in practice? Read on.

1/25 Since Yimbys came on the legislative scene circa 2017, California has passed housing laws by the bucketful, yet the state hasn't moved the needle on overall production.
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Oct 29, 2023 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
A 🧵 on how California enviros lost the plot on infill housing & got rolled by sprawl builders.

trigger warning: if you give money to mainstream green groups in CA, this thread may be hard to read.
1/25 Back in 2018, Cal. Building Industry Association lobbyists came up w/an ingenious scheme:
Make local govs approve any housing project whose density is within range allowed by local gov's General Plan, even if zoning of site is much more restrictive.
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Oct 26, 2023 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
Big new HAA decision from CA Court of Appeal ("Snowball").

Court decisively rejects Yimby argument that cities must approve housing projects whose density is consistent with city's general plan, notwithstanding more restrictive zoning. 🧵.

1/12 courts.ca.gov/opinions/docum…
Image Background: A 2018 bill (AB 3194) amended the HAA to say that if a project is consistent with GP but zoning is inconsistent w/GP, city has to approve project w/o a rezoning (s/t usual health/safety caveat).
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Oct 25, 2023 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
A 🧵 on California's just-released audit of land-use practices in S.F., and where we go from here.
1/18 Context: @GavinNewsom & @California_HCD launched the audit a year ago, in response to multiple complaints of state-law violations & SF having by far the slowest development permitting process of any local gov't in the state.
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hcd.ca.gov/about-hcd/news…
Sep 14, 2023 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
The Assembly has concurred, unanimously. AB 1633 is headed to @GavinNewsom's desk!

This is a truly momentous achievement by @PhilTing. Here's why. 🧵.
1/25
Image Since Yimbys became players Sacramento (circa 2017), they've scored lots of legislative & media wins, but the actual housing-production results have been, well, disappointing.
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Sep 13, 2023 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
🧵 Today is big test for California legislators -- and for environmentalists: the floor vote on @PhilTing AB 1633, which partially closes a massive loophole in state housing law.
1/23 Here's the loophole:
- Housing Accountability Act says cities may not deny zoning-compliant projects.
- Permit Streamlining Act lays down strict timelines for cities to approve or deny project
- But PSA timelines & HAA kick in only after city completes CEQA review...
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Aug 2, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
🧵A must-read profile of the new breed of "standing-on-my-state-law-rights" California housing developers.

@dillonliam's story also illustrates both the need for, and the need for new limits upon, CA's density-bonus law and builder's remedy.
1/10
latimes.com/homeless-housi… The DBL requires cities to waive almost any zoning/development standard that "physically precludes" the project as proposed.

As @BenTMetcalf says, "It's kind of an amazing law."
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Jul 27, 2023 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
🧵It's wild (and not good) that, due to state Density Bonus Law, city's authority to deny this proposed 590' tower on site zoned for 10 stories may depend on courts gutting California's Housing Accountability Act.

tl;dr: DBL amendments needed.

1/16 Under DBL, developer first shows how many units they could build under base zoning. This determines number of "bonus" units. Then, they get waiver of any zoning & dev standards that "physically preclude" *the project they want to build* w/that unit count + amenities they want.
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Jul 14, 2023 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
🧵New decision from Judge Chalfant of LA Superior Court is first to address CA builder's remedy & current standards for housing-element compliance. On the whole, it's very good.
1/18
therealdeal.com/la/2023/07/13/… Relying on new provision of HE law, J. Chalfant holds, correctly, that b/c city (La Canada-Flintridge) didn't get its HE certified by @California_HCD w/in 1 year of deadline for adoption, it can't be found in compliance until it completes rezoning.
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Jun 17, 2023 • 25 tweets • 6 min read
🧵This @SFNext podcast w/ SF supervisor Hillary Ronen is revelatory.

Through emotion, examples & a theory of change, she conveys how SF-style progressivism has utterly failed as a mode of city governance. (And also--I think--why it's failed.)
1/
 sfchronicle.com/podcasts/artic… Hilary say that trying to fix SF problems has her "split in two," "feeling unsatisfied, depressed and bad a lot of the time," and "quite frankly no longer really liking the job [of serving as city supervisors]."
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Jun 10, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
CA builder's remedy news: @California_HCD has found La Canada-Flintridge in violation of HAA for refusing to process a builder's remedy project application.

I think this is first official statement by a state agency that a city has violated HAA with respect to a BR project.
1/6 Image Unfortunately, HCD's Notice of Violation letter also reiterates the least-tenable legal position the department has taken in recent years: that an adopted housing element does not become "substantially compliant" until HCD finds it to be compliant.
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Jun 4, 2023 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
The CA assembly race b/t @AsmMarcBerman and challenger @lydia_kou (Mayor of Palo Alto) is one to watch for anyone w/ passing interest in state politics & policy or Democratic Party factionalism.
1/9
 sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl… Berman represents many of the richest, most exclusionary suburbs in California (Palo Alto,Menlo Park, Atherton, Woodside, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley).
Yet he's been a stalwart supporter of prohousing bills!
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Jun 3, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Hopeful, indeed! But w/o pro-formas, I can't tell whether this "dom-i-city" vision for denser middle-income housing in SF's single-family neighborhoods is anything more than fantasy.

1/7 The architect's white paper prescribes an elaborate process of city-orchestrated land exchanges, w/ groups of 3 adjoining neighbors jointly trading their older single-family homes for new dom-i-city units.

With city controlling the terms of...
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Jun 2, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Huntington Beach plans to retroactively decertify a 13-year-old EIR covering many of its housing-element sites.

Why?

Maybe to disqualify those sites from CEQA exemptions that require consistency w/CEQA-cleared GP/specific plan/zoning.

1/4 But this is puzzling too, b/c only a couple of the CEQA/housing exemptions have an explicit requirement for a certified zoning or plan-level EIR.

The basic Class 32 exemption requires only GP/zoning consistency and says nothing about EIR for GP/zoning.

2/4 Image
May 26, 2023 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
🧵Check out "The Housing Treadmill," my new essay in @CityJournal on the political economy of state pro-housing reforms.
1/18
city-journal.org/article/the-ho… Image Motivating puzzle: Lots of California pols have embraced YIMBYism, yet instead of pairing statewide upzoning w/reg reforms that *lower* cost of development, they bundle "prohousing" reforms w/reg mandates that *raise* development costs.
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