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Livable California
Act Now on 4 Bad Bills in Sacramento
State Sen. Scott Wiener's luxury housing bills have been killed by his colleagues three times since 2018. Wiener’s SB 827 and SB 50, and his SB 50 redux, would have displaced thousands of working-class households, killed single-family zoning in vast swaths of California, harmed homeownership, and brought chaos to city and community planning.
This year’s most destabilizing, harmful lookalike bills are Wiener’s SB 902, soon to be heard by the Housing Committee which Wiener chairs, and AB 3171, AB 725 and AB 1279.
Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, the legislature won’t meet until May, giving the media and public time to grasp what these 4 misguided bills say and do.
All 4 bills strip cities and communities of land-use powers and hand that power directly to private luxury-housing developers. None require developers to include affordable, low-income housing.
Low-income housing construction bills could be in place by now, had Wiener and his small circle in Sacramento not wasted two years of time. Please help stop Sacramento from wasting a crucial year.
ACT NOW to Stop SB 902, Worse Than SB 50
Senate Bill 902 (Scott Wiener):
Alert your state senator that this bill would overrun single-family streets with 8-plexes in cities of 50,000 or more — not 4-plexes, as misreported by L.A. Times. Smaller towns will be forced to allow 6-plexes and 4-plexes in every neighborhood. Equally wrong-headed, SB 902 lets cities ignore your local zoning to approve15-unit luxury buildings in areas anywhere near “transit” or “jobs.”
Sample Letter: CLICK HERE TO SEND
Dear Senator,
Please oppose the neighborhood-destroying SB 902 by Sen. Scott Wiener. This luxury housing bill up-zones all single-family streets to 8-plexes in cities of 50,000 or more — not 4-plexes, as misreported by L.A. Times. This is due to new state "granny flat" laws that would instantly double Sen. Wiener’s figures — a key fact not divulged in SB 902l. Moreover, in cities smaller than 50K, and in unincorporated areas, SB 902 up-zones all single-family streets to luxury 6-plexes or 4-plexes, not duplexes as this non-transparent bill suggests.
Doubling down on its concept of building luxury housing by pushing out existing communities, SB 902 allows cities to approve 15-unit luxury buildings on single-family streets anywhere near a regular bus route, or where residents are found by the state to have good educations or good jobs. This unprecedented statewide experiment will harm homeownership and destroy working- and middle-class communities. This bill requires no affordable housing. Please oppose SB 902.
ACT NOW to Stop AB 725, the Deception Bill
Assembly Bill 725 (Buffy Wicks and Scott Wiener):
Alert your state senator that AB 725 will let luxury apartment developers pave over thousands of thriving single-family, duplex & small apartment communities by stripping away local rules and moving heavy density to low-density areas.
Letter: CLICK HERE TO SEND
Dear Senator,
Please oppose AB 725 by Buffy Wicks and Scott Wiener.
It requires that 25% of future “RHNA” growth be shifted by the cities into stable neighborhoods that are currently home to “2 to 35 housing units per acre.” What does that mean? We believe assembly members who kept AB 725 alive didn’t realize that that acreage-based definition means the takeover of single-family, duplex & small apartment neighborhoods — by luxury housing developers.
AB 725 creates unknowable consequences, ripping through our solid, affordable communities statewide. It will harm, not help, efforts to create housing. This bill requires no affordable housing. Please oppose AB 725.
ACT NOW to Stop AB 3173, “Luxury Walk-In Closets”
Assembly Bill 3173 (Richard Bloom):
Please alert your state senator that AB 3173 proposes extreme density in California’s eight largest cities, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach, Sacramento and Oakland. Sen. Bloom seeks to radically miniaturize the concept of micro-units while allowing luxury prices estimated at $1,700 — for a room the size of a large closet.
Letter: CLICK HERE TO SEND
Dear Senator,
Please oppose AB 3173 by Richard Bloom, who proposes extreme luxury density in California’s eight largest cities by radically miniaturizing the size of "micro-units.” Micro-units are very seldom smaller than 300 square feet, but AB 3173 cuts the size to 80 square feet, not much more than a walk-in closet.
Developers will be exempt from local review, parking and height rules. Micro-units generate very high per-square-foot profits, and research shows the units will rent for about $1,700. This bill won’t create true housing and will be abused for corporate rentals and illegal Airbnb. This bill requires no affordable housing. Please oppose AB 3173.
ACT NOW to Stop AB 1279, “Punish the Middle Class”
Assembly Bill 1279 (Richard Bloom):
Please alert your state senator that AB 1279 is based on a punishing concept in which certain middle-class areas will be deemed by the state to be “High Resource Areas” and will be targeted by this bill with transformation to dense luxury rental communities.
Letter: CLICK HERE TO SEND
Dear Senator,
Please oppose AB 1279 by Richard Bloom.
This bill uses an unacceptable and unusual tool to target all cities which fail, on paper, to achieve their “housing-approval” targets under California’s controversial RHNA law. Baffled residents who have not heard of "RHNA" would see their communities branded by California state employees as “High Resource Areas” to be targeted for up-zoning, buy-out and demolition.
In scores of cities, small and large, who don’t hit their RHNA housing-unit targets, unsuspecting middle-class areas would be punitively up-zoned and subjected to dramatic upheaval. AB 1279 directly attacks unsuspecting middle-class areas within the boundaries of any city that fails to satisfy arbitrary “RHNA targets.” It’s unfair and punitive — and requires no affordable housing. Please oppose AB 1279.
Livable California is a non-profit statewide group of community leaders, activists and local elected officials. We believe in local answers to the housing affordability crisis. Our robust fight requires trips to Sacramento & a lobbyist going toe-to-toe with power.
Please donate generously to LivableCalifornia.org here.
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