A follow-up note to yesterday’s post – much of what the legislature passed this session in the way of land use legislation is still state preemption – it was just crafted with the cooperation of local officials (some of them, at least) which hopefully will result in better realization.  Not all of the bills passed were created this way, however – witness the food truck bill!

Robert Gehrke of the Trib takes on the issue of short-term rentals in today’s column.  As he notes, two bills that were introduced on this topic during the session did not pass.  I heard a lot of noise from local officials about this issue leading up to the legislative session, so I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this one.

And finally, to the issue of locals finding ways to circumvent top-down mandates, there’s an interesting piece in the San Francisco Chronicle (it’s paywalled) about how that city is attempting to do that.  Here’s a description of the story from the Planetizen website:

San Francisco officials are proposing a novel workaround for SB9, a new California law that promotes increased density in neighborhoods previously zoned only for single-family homes, report Dustin Gardiner and J.D. Morris for the San Francisco Chronicle.

On its surface, “Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s plan would double down on the state’s goal to add more homes in existing neighborhoods by allowing up to four units on lots currently zoned for residential homes — and up to six units on corner lots.” However, “the effort recently took on a new dimension after he accepted a recommendation from the Planning Commission that would upzone all single-family neighborhoods to allow duplexes, basically exempting San Francisco from SB9 because the law applies only to areas zoned for single-family homes.” Additionally, the proposal also keeps the city’s onerous permitting process.

The fun and games continue!