Housing

Article Local Works By Jackie Krentzman

Visalia is a leader in building new homes, including for farmworkers

Farmworker housing is few and far between and much-needed in the Central Valley. Most full-time farmworkers make well below the income needed to obtain even some subsidized housing and often have to crowd together in housing designated for smaller families.

Article Local Works By Jackie Krentzman

‘What they did was extraordinary.’ How this rural, low-income city sped up housing construction

“For a community of 20,000 to produce so many units of affordable housing over the course of five years is unprecedented in California, much less the nation,” said Ed Mayer, former executive director of the Butte County Housing Authority, of Oroville’s efforts.

Article Legal Notes By Glen C. Hansen

How to create impact fees for classes of development

Over the summer, the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to a decade-long legal saga involving development impact fees — for now. Going forward, cities can expect to see more federal constitutional challenges to fee programs that seek to mitigate the impacts of new development. 

Article Local Works By Belinda Torres

West Sacramento’s decades-long revitalization vision begins to take shape at Grand Gateway

“I like to call it the story of West Sacramento taking little pieces of what the city had inherited and having to kind of reimagine what we could do,” said Mark Polhemus, the city’s community investment manager.

Article Local Works By Jackie Krentzman

Irvine rounds out its master planned villages with a creative public-private partnership

“[Irvine] has this amazing spirit of innovation that allows it to be able to do creative things, and working with them on the Gateway Preserve and the Jeffrey Open Space Trail is a prime example of the city’s views, values, and abilities,” says Mike O’Connell, Irvine Ranch Conservancy president and CEO.

Article Features By Brian Lee-Mounger Hendershot

Cities to next Governor: Let’s partner together to make real change

Western City asked the leaders of the League of California Cities’ policy committees what they thought the next Governor should do when he takes office. In general, their message was the same: It’s time to do things differently. 

Article Legal Notes By Matthew R. Silver and Sean E. Morrissey

A federal law intended to protect senior mobile home parks is being misused to close them

Some groups have developed a business model that aims to profit from converting senior mobile home parks to all-ages groups or closing them altogether. Some have adopted a logically baffling, but legally successful strategy that allows them to self-exempt from local laws. 

Article Features By Jackie Krentzman

Place and prosperity are inextricably linked, argues Harvard professor Raj Chetty

An analysis of a 30-year federal redevelopment program suggests that who you befriend as a kid has a big impact on your life outcomes. But researchers say revitalizing impoverished neighborhoods isn’t the only way to desegregate opportunity.

Article Local Works By Caleb Zimmerschied Valadez

Ojai restoration project helps its most vulnerable residents

“It falls very much in the spirit of what most of our city tends towards — a combination of deep humanitarianism, ecology, and culture,” said Ojai Mayor Andy Gilman. “This whole space is becoming alive with purpose, and I feel really lucky to be a part of it.”

Community leaders gather for ribbon cutting
Article Features By Ali Gaylord

A practical playbook for getting permanent supportive housing approved by your community

Community pushback is often the greatest risk to building new permanent supportive housing. But it doesn’t have to be. The difference between a stalled project and a successful one often comes down to a small set of repeatable risk reduction strategies. 

Article Features By Jackie Krentzman  

Cities worry new protections for the Joshua tree will halt housing in the high desert

Cities near the Mojave Desert face a familiar challenge: They need to build more housing while also protecting the iconic landscapes that draw so many people to California. Some city officials and developers worry a new law is unintentionally slowing or even scuttling badly needed projects.

Article Executive Director's Message By League of California Cities Executive Director and CEO Carolyn Coleman

What the abundance agenda misses

“When local land use and zoning decisions are moved from city councils to state legislatures, who’s able to show up to those hearings? If environmental review is bypassed, who loses the ability to raise legitimate concerns about pollution or contamination?” writes Cal Cities CEO Carolyn Coleman. “These are not hypothetical concerns. They are real experiences for communities that have seen ‘progress’ arrive without consultation.”

Article Features By John Lorinc

AI is shaking up local permitting processes

As cities experiment with a range of AI technologies, automated permitting is proving to be one of the more promising platforms — one focused on speeding up a core municipal service long plagued by bottlenecks and red tape. But this much-heralded acceleration is still a work-in-progress.

Group of people with long ribbon in front of new housing development
Article Local Works By Jackie Krentzman

Crescent City leverages federal funding and exceeds housing goals

“The goal is to get more activity downtown, to help the city’s overall economic development,” says City Manager Eric Wier. “We don’t want our downtown to close down at 5 p.m. — this mix of new residential and retail will add a constant synergy to the area.”

Article Local Works By Brian Lee-Mounger Hendershot

How Berkeley turned firestorm housing fights into routine votes

“When I started development at Berkeley 35 years ago, I would go to public meetings and be compared to Hitler, Attila the Hun — I’m not exaggerating,” says Patrick Kennedy, a longtime local developer. “The local paper called [an eight-story building I built] a Stalinist monstrosity and monument to civic corruption.” 

Article Features By D’Andre D. Lampkin

Practical strategies for balancing state ADU goals with neighborhood capacity

California’s accessory dwelling unit laws opened a fast lane for homeowners to add small, independent homes to existing lots. But ministerial approval doesn’t mean anything goes: Cities can still respond to community concerns while meeting the statute’s requirements.  

Article Features By John Lorinc

People want to have kids and live downtown. Can they?

For decades, planners focused on attracting young singles to dense urban cores. That dynamic has shifted, in part because those young singles didn’t want to move to the suburbs to have kids. But many cities still don’t have enough affordable, family-sized housing or services.

Article Local Works By Jackie Krentzman

Glendora is trying to house homeless residents. But it needs help to maintain momentum

Glendora plans to convert an assisted living facility into either permanent low-income housing or a mix of transitional and permanent housing. The city, which has spent $5 million thus far, needs to raise another $40-$50 million to make it a reality. 

Article Local Works By Jackie Krentzman

‘People here were worried for nothing.’ Culver City residents get behind transitional housing

Culver City’s annual operating budget for homeless services has sharply increased to nearly $16.1 million. The agency’s investment is paying off. The latest Point-in-Time Count found that the number of homeless people in the city decreased from 229 to 105. 

People socializing outside neighborhood cottages
Article Features By Jackie Krentzman

‘We’re using 20th century tools to respond to 21st century problems,’ argues urbanist Daniel Parolek

Most neighborhoods used to have a mix of single-family homes and houses with multiple units. But today, many cities struggle to provide that same level of choice. Daniel Parolek says that’s because the systems needed to deliver those choices have disappeared.