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Cities Consider Closing Streets to Social Distance As counties begin to open and allow limited retail and dining, cities have been considering how to make social distancing easier. One idea that has been discussed quite a bit is closing local streets and commercial corridors to allow restaurants and retail to occupy expanded sidewalks, parking, and road space. Menlo Park is currently evaluating the impacts of closing Santa Cruz Avenue. The city is also considering closing a f...ew other side streets to help restaurants and cafes open. Shutting Castro Street in Mountain View has been discussed many times in the past, but is being considered again in response to the need for increased social distancing. Eventually, Castro Street will be closed to through traffic as grade separation at the Caltrain Station will prohibit crossings. Palo Alto is considering similar options downtown and on California Street. The city has already begun limiting some traffic access. On May 26, the Los Altos City Council will consider possible street closure options that have been discussed by a working group. The group consists of the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Property Owners Association, as well as other members of the community.

Several local cities, including Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, have adopted emergency ordinances to update their accessory dwelling unit (ADU) regulations to be consistent with state law. ADUs and junior accessory dwelling units (JADUs) have been aggressively pushed by state legislators and many local elected officials as a quick solution that can help alleviate the housing crisis. Due to long and complicated permitting processes and high fees, there have not been as many applicati...ons to construct ADUs as advocates had hoped. New state law that has now gone into effect trumps local regulations and should make it easier to get ADUs permitted. The major changes include: 1. No minimum lot size requirements for parcels wishing to construct an ADU. 2. ADUs of up to 800 square feet for one-bedroom units and 1,200 square feet for two-bedroom units cannot be denied based on square footage limitations. 3. Planning and building departments will now have to approve or deny ADU permits within 60 days. 4. Existing garages can be easily converted to ADUs without having to meet further setback and other design or zoning requirements. 5. Utility fees of any kind are prohibited from being placed on ADUs. 6. No owner occupancy requirements for any unit on the property. Previous legislation has also limited fees on ADUs of certain sizes. Legislation goes further to prohibit other local jurisdiction requirements, such as height limits, to be used to deny ADU applications. While these changes should help spur further ADU applications in local cities, it is likely we will see further legislation from Sacramento and local agencies to further incentivize ADU production.

East Palo Alto Considering Tolls and Congestion Pricing Like many cities in Silicon Valley, East Palo Alto is struggling with traffic and parking issues. The City Council recently discussed ways to address traffic and parking issues in residential areas as commute traffic often cuts through to avoid US Highway101 or to get to the Dumbarton Bridge. Solutions to be considered include residential permit parking, one-way roadways, traffic humps/bumps, and other devices for traffi...c calming. East Palo Alto is also considering bigger solutions to its cut-through traffic, such as congestion pricing on city roads or tolls for drivers. The focus of tolls would primarily be on University Avenue and could be structured so that fees depend on the time of day or how much traffic is flowing through the neighborhood. One major hurdle to implementing such a program is state law. East Palo Alto would need to have a state legislator introduce a bill granting the city special permission to enact a toll or congestion pricing. Caltrain was given special permission to try and raise sales taxes and recently, San Francisco got a bill passed to allow tolls to be collected on Lombard Street. Governor Gavin Newsom eventually vetoed that bill. For now, it seems East Palo Alto will continue to study its options for neighborhood traffic calming and try to work with neighboring Palo Alto and Menlo Park to potentially build broader support for toll lanes or congestion pricing on local roads.

CA Governor Makes it Easier to Build ADUs On Wednesday Governor Newsom signed two bills in Los Angeles to make it easier to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) or tiny homes on residential properties. These two bills were authored by Bay Area legislators who have been working to cut the red tape on ADU permits over the past few years. AB 68, which was put forward by San Francisco Assemblymember Phil Ting, makes it easier for ADUs to be added to multi-family properties or on... a single-family parcel. Homeowners would be allowed to add two ADUs of 800 square feet and up to 500 square feet on parcels with one home. Multi-family properties would be allowed to build more ADUs. AB 68 also limits minimum lot sizes from restricting ADUs and cuts the permitting timeline down from 120 to 60 days for approval. SB 13, proposed by state Senator Bob Wieckowski, pertains to impacts fees required to build ADUs. SB 13 eliminates impact fees for units that are below 750 square feet. If an ADU is over 750 square feet, impact fees are limited to 25 percent of the city's standard rate. It also provides time horizons for illegally constructed units to come into compliance with city code. State legislation will continue to make it easier to build ADUs. Several local cities are taking steps to make their permitting and financing easier, as well. San Jose has undertaken a large effort to provide financing and pre-approved designs. Other cities, like Mountain View, have worked with private companies to allow quicker approval of existing ADU designs.

Mountain View Milk Pail Market Project Goes Back to Drawing Board A developer looking to put eight stories of commercial space on the old Milk Pail Market site in Mountain View was denied the opportunity to move forward in the planning process. Merlone Geier, the development firm, was hoping to add about 230,000 square feet of office space on the corner of San Antonio and California Street. The project also included some ground-floor retail space. The majority of council memb...ers rejected the proposed project because it was more than double the density allowed under the San Antonio Area Precise Plan. The floor area ratio (FAR) of the project was well over 5.0, but the location maximum is only 2.35 FAR. The additional commercial square footage would have also exceeded the 400,000 combined square foot commercial cap in the Precise Plan. Much of the increased density comes from the transfer of development rights/density rights that Merlone Geier purchased from the school district to finance the acquisition and construction on the nearby Kohl's site. Council members were critical of the density and increases in commercial or jobs space, given that Silicon Valley has a housing shortage. The developer has the option of returning with a redesigned project that fits the existing precise plan and may be more amenable to the council.