PPCC Opposes Housing Bill

By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter

The Pacific Palisades Community Council unanimously voted to oppose a new housing bill proposed by State Senator Scott Wiener (D) at its meeting on Thursday, February 14.

The senate bill, known as SB-50, is a revamped piece of housing legislation aimed at allowing more housing by preventing cities and towns, like Pacific Palisades, from banning apartment construction in specified areas. The bill borrows language from the previously defeated SB-827, which the council also opposed.

SB-50 would require neighborhoods to allow dense housing units within a half-mile of a rail transit station, within a quarter-mile of a “high-frequency bus stop” or within a “job-rich” neighborhood.

“PPCC respectfully urges you to introduce a resolution in Council opposing SB-50 and any similar proposed legislation that restricts local land use control and violates the principle of ‘home rule,’” wrote the council in its email to local officials, including Councilmember Mike Bonin, State Senator Ben Allen and Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The group showed discomfort in the bill’s lack of definition for “job-rich” neighborhoods and questioned whether areas like Palisades Village would fall under that category. They also took displeasure in the fact that California YIMBY, an organization set out to “end California’s housing shortage,” was heavily supporting the bill.

“Senate Bill 50 … weaponizes state government code to eviscerate local planning statewide and thereby increases financialization of land use; intensifies inequality; encourages predatory speculative activity; and masks massive wealth transfer by shifting property ownership opportunities away from small owners to corporate investors,” PPCC wrote in a written rebuke of the bill, which they attached to their request.

Neighborhood councils in Bel Air, Brentwood and West LA have also opposed the bill, with more councils expected to vote in the coming days.

The statement argued that such a bill “establishes ‘one-size-fits-all’ development criteria” based on bus stops and employment locations that could be changed at a later date “without democratic due process or public scrutiny.”

The PPCC’s disapproval letter was just a recent example of Palisadian resistance to city and state wide ordinances that threatened to invite an influx of new residents.

Last year, PPCC starkly opposed SB-50’s predecessor, SB-827, deeming it an attempt “by the state to arbitrarily increase density around transit hubs” and calling it “an irresponsible encroachment on home rule and the tradition of community input.”

In 2016, the council voted to oppose the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, stating that “local control and jurisdiction over sidewalk vending is strongly preferred, and should be preserved.”

All eyes now shift to City Hall and Governor Gavin Newsom’s next move, as SB-50 is seen by some as a way for him to complete his promise of establishing 3.5 million new housing units by 2025.