Housing Element (Winter is coming)
The push for high-density housing from Sacramento legislations and The Housing Element housing mandates is raising huge concerns today. Our neighbors are angry and beginning to engage! There are huge changes coming to our cities and it behooves us to engage now and ensure that we do the right thing.
I have always been a proponent of managed growth - Yes, we need housing, but I have pushed for an approach that is pragmatic and based on the foundation of a proper urban plan. Not this approach that is handing a blank check to the real-estate developers.
Tax increases is the unfortunate reality we are facing. The push for housing without an infrastructure plan will impose inordinate pressure upon every city to increase taxes to fund the infrastructure gap. Yes, city governments will be tremendously pressured to raise taxes once the build-out (and up) of your city occurs over the next few years.
Housing Element’s Impact on your city: As you know, the Housing Element RHNA allocation is a state-wide housing mandate from California's Department of Housing and Community Development. The 2022 RHNA housing numbers are exponentially higher than what has been allocated in the past. High-density housing sites are being proposed in every city as a result. Many cities and communities are reeling under this housing pressure and are fearful of its impacts that will be felt for decades to come. The land developers will make a fortune and our cities will cease to be what they are today. The RHNA housing units allocated to your city include categories such as very low income housing, low income, moderate income, and above moderate income housing. It is also an environmental disaster. Sacramento’s housing policy is relying on supply and demand to create more housing in the hope of driving prices down - but that has never worked anywhere. The legislative bills from Sacramento like SB-9 and SB-10 are also pushing high-density housing all over California - and there are more coming. However, this approach has failed to adequately address the creation of more affordable housing or fix the systemic challenges that have led to today’s exodus from California. No one wants to discuss the infrastructure gap.
Please stay vigilant and involved. Communicate with your neighbors. Now is the time!
My Housing Policy in a Nutshell
Protect property value and preserve the quality of life, while keeping crime and burglaries down. Develop a managed growth plan for Silicon Valley.; my policies favor housing on the foundation of an infrastructure plan that keeps the environmental impact, traffic, schools, roads, water, and sewers in consideration. Read my op-ed pieces here published in The Mercury News and The Palo Alto Daily Post. If we solve the transit problem, we will solve the housing problem - this is how cities like Tokyo and Singapore have approached the problem successfully.
Stand firm against the dark money’s influence on the political system and call out elected leaders who are selling out to special interests, such as real
I will do all I can to ensure that we make the best choice for you and your neighborhood with the above agenda. As part of the pushback, I am supporting the push for a state-wide 2022 ballot measure to ensure that local ordinances are NEVER preempted. Additionally, I am inviting elected leaders from 21 counties via the Managed Growth group to get involved. I am also leading efforts to get signatures for this petition locally that will be submitted to the California Secretary of State to place the ballot measure on the Nov. 2022 ballot. Polling indicates about 70% of Californians are against the preempting of local control that Sacramento’s laws are pushing for. The petition will need 1.5 million signatures by April 2022 to qualify. If this ballot measure is passed, local housing laws will prevail, and prior bills like SB-35, SB-9, SB-10 will become null and void. And that will be the end of the blank check to land developers by our politicians.
Here is how you can stay connected with this effort:
Sign this petition
Join this Facebook group
Subscribe to this email group
Visit Livable California here
But you may ask, “What is the alternate plan?”
Housing and Transportation: Click here to read
During the early days of our 2019 congressional campaign, we called out the failures of Bay Area’s Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) that were highlighted by the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury (CGJ) 2018-2019 report. Our elected officials cannot afford to sweep such failures under the rug. It is about time we took some action! I support Assemblymember Marc Berman's AB 1091 which supports the CGI recommendations and calls for action.Water infrastructure challenge: Click here to read
Homelessness challenge: Click here to read
Big Money in politics: Click here to read