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Livable California
Thanksgiving: Talk About CASA - It's a real turkey!
2345 - 24th Avenue
San Francisco, California
10:00 AM PT - 12:00 PM PT
Why would you want to talk about CASA with family and friends this Thanksgiving? Because it's not yet a reality, EVERYBODY in the 9-county Bay Area will be impacted by its scheme to usurp local say in land use policy and get more of your money to reduce your influence, and there's still time to stop it.
So let's start with the basics.
What is CASA? CASA, the Committee to House the Bay Area, is developing a regional approach to push higher, denser, more traffic-inducing housing with less parking. In June 2017, MTC and ABAG convened a group including reps from the Bay Area Council, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, housing developers, business, labor, and nonprofit stakeholders. The intent is to create legislation, financial, policy and regulatory recommendations. The plans are described in the CASA Compact, in what they call game-changing solutions to the region's housing crisis.
What is the CASA Compact? The Compact is built around Protection and Preservation (eviction standards, emergency rent cap, right to legal counsel and eviction proceedings). The majority of the effort is to boost Production and includes reducing zoning for housing near transit (SB-827), streamlining laws (SB-35), streamlining the Housing Accountability Act), and streamlining for ADUs.
A key provision of the CASA Compact is to create a Regional Housing Enterprise, which would have the authority to gather and disperse $1.5B per year, primarily for production. Sources include Property Owners, Developers, Employers, Local Governments, Philanthropy, ad Taxpayers. (Which leaves some people wondering where the money needed for health care, education, climate change or any other needs will come from.)
Some Call it a Coup Without input from the 101 cities, the Regional Housing Enterprise (RHE) is being positioned to usurp local say in land use policy and planning. The RHE will rely on unelected bureaucrats to impose regional zoning standards, issue bonds, raise taxes, buy and sell land, and further destroy the middle class.
Of the $1.5B raised annually, they propose 60% goes to housing production (new housing), 20% to acquire and preserve housing, 10% for tenant protection services, and 10% to local jurisdictions for lost revenue due to caps on impact fees. Of the money collected through a new proposed regional tax measure, 75% will be spent in the county of origin and 25% will go to regional revenue sharing.
Timeframe: The current schedule calls for the CASA Compact to be finalized by mid-December and then use it to influence 2019 housing legislation.
Zelda Bronstein, former chair of the Berkeley Planning Commission and contributor to The Marin Post, Dissent, and The Nation, will lead the discussion.
Organization: Livable California
Contact: Susan Kirsch
Contact Phone: 415-686-4375
Contact Email:
Website: http://LivableCalifornia.org