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B’game: Suburban or Metropolitan? Duh.

The Marin Independent Journal just published an article about a bill (AB 1537) that Gov. Moonbeam has signed giving Marin, San Rafael and Novato some relief from high-density "affordable" housing regulations that are being rammed down cities' throats.  Their assemblyman, Marc Levine, appears to have his act together on what should (and shouldn't) be a priority as an elected official.  He is quoted saying

"Housing should be built in a manner that reflects the character of the communities in which we live. This bill encourages this by correcting an anomaly in law. This bill assures that the law reflects what Marin residents already know; we live in suburban communities, not a metropolitan county," Levine said.

Being re-classified as "suburban" means those three cities'

future affordable housing developments can be built at 20 units per acre versus the 30-units-per-acre previously required by the state. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2015, and will apply to one eight-year housing cycle from 2015 to 2023, after which it will be reviewed.

Let's put aside the theory that "affordable housing" is just a shell game that moves costs from one development to another or from part of one large development to another part.  This is progress.  Perhaps our Kevin Mullin could get cracking on the same initiative?

An acre is 43,560 square feet or between 5.8 and 8.7 standard B'game lots.  So suburban reclassification would still equate to between 2.3 and 3.4 times our current single-family density.  San Mateo County is already 3.3 times as dense as Marin County!  Seems like plenty to me especially for something forced on us from Sacramento.  Kevin?  Jerry?  What say you two?

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7 responses to “B’game: Suburban or Metropolitan? Duh.”

  1. Joe

    Let’s not forget that the San Mateo County density figures that I quote from the US Census Bureau take the vast swaths of land that are in the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) http://www.openspacetrust.org/ protected zones as well.

  2. Burlingame is Semi-Urban is density and central location.

    I’d suggest a third category of density and central location:
    1) Metropolitan, 2) Semi-Urban, 3) Suburban.
    Many areas outside of SF and SJ are Semi-Urban such as Berkeley, Burlingame, San Mateo, soon Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Cupertino, etc.
    What do you all think?

  3. Kristen

    Interesting. I still don’t understand the affordable housing is a myth thing… care to elaborate (again)?
    As part of my effort to learn more about housing policy, I’m attending the Housing Leadership Council’s Oct. 24 event at CSM.

  4. Joanne

    Hmmm. Marin County is sounding good!

  5. Holleyroller@hotwire.com

    Like California State Proposition 13, the affordable housing act as well were designed for another Era.
    There is no such thing as “affordable housing.”
    It really is just a smoke and mirror event.
    Affordable housing is not, and never will be possible when the AHC-(affordable housing client) still has to have a car, pay for gas, shop for food, on and on.
    However, the property owner-“The Affordable Housing Magnanimous Landlord,” benefits from all the additional Proposition 13 tax breaks into perpetuity that leaves schools, infrastructure, all Civic Services to eventually “eat their own tail.”
    Anyone who lived in Burlingame within the last 10-20 years can easily apply the terms used above to identify the population of Burlingame.
    Give it some thought.
    Make your own map.
    GO GIANTS!

  6. hillsider

    Any move to kill Prop 13 would make all housing less affordable over time. If you raise the costs, you raise the price. Don’t overthink this, Holy.

  7. Holleyroller@hotwire.com

    I whole heartedly disagree.
    If there were any politicians that were also leaders, honest, and actually able to representing their constituency with NO STRINGS ATTACHED:
    Financial
    Racial
    Religious
    Military Industrial Complex
    China, India, Africa, and Mexico
    We, The world, could really have something special without the baggage.
    Lets just say No.
    No.
    How worse could things really get?
    They would not./

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