"The bill only applies to seven counties in California, the four Bay Area counties of San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara, plus Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento. Three Bay Area counties, Contra Costa, Sonoma and Marin, were carved out of the bill by an added requirement that a county contain more than 15 rail transit stops. Orange County will most likely be included once it finishes its streetcar plan. These eight counties contain 59 percent of the state population."
"It's an article of faith in the Wiener/Yimby supply-side orthodoxy that California is suffering from a severe housing shortage. The business press no longer agrees. There is no question California is suffering from an affordability problem that includes the cost of housing- yet another problem that the state legislature has failed to address. But despite the prattle about supply and demand, the amount of housing in California and its affordability are distinct issues."
Senate Bill 79 mandates large-scale upzoning around BART, Muni and other rail transit stops, creating transit-oriented development zones that exceed expected population growth. The measure targets seven named counties and effectively covers eight counties accounting for 59 percent of the state population while excluding several Bay Area counties via a 15-stop requirement. The bill is portrayed as a solution for transit solvency but is characterized here as serving powerful landowners and pro-growth interests. Housing affordability is framed as primarily caused by income inequality rather than insufficient housing supply. The critique transitions into a geometrical examination of land measurement to assess scale.
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