{"id":38839,"date":"2025-01-16T12:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T20:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38839"},"modified":"2025-01-16T12:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T20:54:17","slug":"malibu-fires-and-the-mandate-for-endless-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/16\/malibu-fires-and-the-mandate-for-endless-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Malibu, fires, and the mandate for endless growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a climate crisis, is it really a good idea to build more and denser housing in high-severity fire zones?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By ZELDA BRONSTEIN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JANUARY 13, 2025 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalifornia will force Malibu and other towns to add housing. Here\u2019s why that\u2019s not nearly enough.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So reads the headline on an op-ed<\/a> published by the Los Angeles Times on May 5, 2024. The authors are Paavo Monkkonen, a professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA, and Aaron Barrall, a housing data analyst at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. Monkkonen<\/a> is one of the most vocal advocates of the Yimby build-baby-build agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fires darken the skies over Los Angeles. Wikimedia Commons image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The op-ed touted the state\u2019s recent \u201cunprecedented action to spur housing production in recent years:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since 2017 the Legislature has passed nearly a hundred new laws<\/a> to facilitate construction, including requiring cities to update local housing plans with more ambitious production targets. The executive branch has pursued a carrot<\/a>-and-stick<\/a> strategy to reward cities committed to addressing the housing crisis and penalize those that are not. And the attorney general scored recent high-profile victories in legal conflicts to advance plans for housing in the wealthy cities of Malibu<\/a>, Huntington Beach<\/a> and La Ca\u00f1ada Flintridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yet this legislative tsunami\u2014in fact it\u2019s much bigger than Monkkonen and Barrall and their source, the Terner Center at UC Berkeley say\u2014\u201dhas not had the tangible impact on housing production and affordability seen in other states (such as Texas<\/a>) and countries (such as New Zealand<\/a>).\u201d California \u201cis not on track to reach its 2022 goal of building 2.5 million units by 2030<\/a>. In recent years, we\u2019ve permitted only an average of around 110,000 units annually<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors\u2019 poster child for this failure is Malibu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the city dragged its feet on its mandated housing plan, which was due in 2021<\/a>, the attorney general petitioned<\/a> the courts to intervene in April. Malibu settled with the state, agreeing to adopt a compliant plan by mid-September<\/a>. In effect, the city was allowed to delay its plan update \u2014 and any new housing it may have produced \u2014 for almost three years without significant consequences.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Malibu is not alone. Nearly a quarter<\/a> of Southern California cities still lack state-approved plans to accommodate new housing development and implement fair housing policies. While these cities dawdle, the region\u2019s residents suffer the effects of the housing shortage: high rents, overcrowding, eviction and homelessness. Given how far behind the state is in its goal to meet housing demands, stronger penalties and plans are needed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To address this shortfall, Monkkonen and Barrall urge weakening the California Environmental Quality Act. That would \u201cremove an excuse that anti-housing cities use to delay growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reader Fred0000087 commented:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The entirety of the City of Malibu is in a notorious High Severity Fire-Hazard Zone (HSFHZ). With limited ways in and out, and half or more of the city subject to immediate evacuation notice, there are life-threatening consequences to the imposition of higher density within the city.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To which Socialtimesreader8 replied:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hadn\u2019t thought of that. Excellent point. You can\u2019t even get through that area as it is. Constant landslides, narrow roads, closed roads, Topanga is set to be closed for months. Death trap if they tried to make it Miami Beach. Which of course the developers do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s one thing that the still-raging fires in Los Angeles have made clear, it\u2019s that California\u2019s environmental laws need to be strengthened, and that weakening CEQA further would be insanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This insight has eluded Governor Newsom. On January 12, he suspended<\/a> \u201cthe application of CEQA and the permitting requirements under the Coastal Act to efforts to rebuild or repair properties or facilities destroyed or substantially damaged by these fires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to say Newsom\u2019s action is unbelievable. Unfortunately, it\u2019s just the latest and most frightening example of how California\u2019s political leaders and their academic enablers are impervious to the dangers of untrammeled growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a climate crisis, is it really a good idea to build more and denser housing in high-severity fire zones? By ZELDA BRONSTEIN JANUARY 13, 2025 (48hills.org) \u201cCalifornia will force Malibu and other towns to add housing. Here\u2019s why that\u2019s not nearly enough.\u201d So reads the headline on an op-ed published by… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38839"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38840,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38839\/revisions\/38840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}