Town Hall on Housing
January 21, 2024 – Lucie Stern Community Center, Palo Alto
Hosted by Lydia Kou, former Mayor, Palo Alto
Presentations by Eric Filseth, former Mayor, Palo Alto; Michael Barnes, former Mayor, Albany; Pam Lee, Attorney, Aleshire & Wynder; Anita Enander, former Mayor, Los Altos
Latest News
In Palo Alto, President Biden announces $2.6 billion for climate resilience, modernizing electrical grid
By Sue Dremann
President Joe Biden announced that his administration is investing more than $2.6 billion to fight climate change and to help communities become resilient during a stop at the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center and Preserve in Palo Alto on Monday, June 19.
The Currys have the right to speak out
Basketball legend Steph Curry recently sent a letter to local officials expressing concerns about how a new housing development near his Atherton home could impact the safety and privacy of his family.
Social media swarmed at once. “How dare he,” was the collective response on Twitter, Facebook and beyond.
California State Auditor releases scathing report on RHNA process
Report finds housing goals are not supported by evidence
On March 17, Michael S. Tilden, the Acting California State Auditor, issued a blistering critique of the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and its Regional Housing Needs Assessments (RHNA).
The Auditor found problems in the HCD methodology that may have inflated RHNA requirements by hundreds of thousands of housing units.
Statewide Initiative POSTPONED Until 2024
The Our Neighborhood Voices initiative team has just informed us that the initiative will be 'pivoting' to 2024. Palo Alto has been a superstar in all ways, but we need to ramp up the magic that is here to many more places in our state to make this successful. You...
“Our Neighborhood Voices” Initiative Webinar
Are you aware of the serious threats to YOUR home?
And to YOUR entire neighborhood?
Did you know that local voices are being silenced?
Learn More
Join the webinar on January 20, 2022 at 7PM on Zoom.
“Our Neighborhood Voices”
State Initiative
Thursday, January 20th, 7 p.m. on Zoom
Mill Valley Mayor Disputes SB-9 Claims by Sen. McGuire
At the CO$TMarin webinar on “Clifornia’s New Housing Laws: Truth AND Consequences” Sen. Mike McGuire, co-author of SB9 stated that the law allowed cities to deed restrict properties ‘in perpetuity’. On November 1st at the Mill Valley City Council meeting, Mayor John McCauley challenged McGuire to prove his claim.
California’s New Housing Laws: Truth AND Consequences
CA State Laws Now Target “The Housing Problem” at the Local Level – What Happens from Here? In September, 2021, two days after his recall victory, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB9 as part of a 24 bill package intended to address housing supply and affordability..Legislation to change housing policy statewide is an ongoing thrust and highly contentious. Can recent and future Sacramento legislation deliver a lot more housing and improve affordability?
ABAG Appeals Hearing on RHNA
The ABAG Appeals Meeting for Palo Alto is scheduled for October 22, 2021 from 9AM to 5PM and will include unincorporated Marin county, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, Saratoga, and unincorporated Santa Clara county.
For the upcoming 6th Cycle of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (2023-2031) Palo Alto’s RHNA allocation will be 6068 units. During the current 5th Cycle (2015-2023) Palo Alto’s RHNA allocation was 1,988 units. We believe the City of Palo Alto received between 530 and 2,515 additional housing units more than it should have been assigned. Accordingly, the City of Palo Alto, based on the criteria set forth in state law, is requesting a mid-point reduction of 1500 housing units resulting in an adjusted RHNA of 4,586 housing units.
Town Hall on Housing Affordability & Homelessness Crisis
Every eight years the state assesses how much housing California needs. This cycle, the assessments doubled and, in some cases, tripled for cities across the state. Palo Alto will be required to build more than 6,000 housing units between 2023 and 2031. However, the Governor and State Legislators just mandating “Build, Baby, Build” are only exacerbating the problem. Housing is not just a California issue. What’s really causing our housing prices to be so unaffordable?
Our speaker, Sharon Byrne, from the United Nations Association of Santa Barbara, suggests that the problems may be more widespread than we realize. On October 16, 2021 she spoke at a Town Hall hosted by Lydia Kou. Watch the video and judge for yourself.