Town Called Itself a Big Cat Habitat to Block Housing, Then Reversed Course

Feb 8, 2022
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Daniel Yost, who served on the City Council for 5 years, mentioned on Monday, “I by no means heard anybody categorical any concern about preserving mountain lion territory.” However, Mr. Yost mentioned, there have been complaints by some Council members about housing mandates.

“We’re lucky right here in Woodside. It’s a rich neighborhood,” Mr. Yost mentioned. “Lots of people have benefited from the California dream right here,” he mentioned. Whereas some residents need to “discover a approach for others to learn as properly,” there have been additionally those that “appear intent on kind of drawing up the drawbridge,” he added.

In all his years in Woodside, Mr. Yost mentioned that he had by no means personally seen a mountain lion. However he recalled that one weekend when he was away, his neighbors mentioned that they noticed a mountain lion on the road.

Since S.B. 9 was taken up by California lawmakers final yr, many native authorities and home-owner teams have vehemently opposed the measure, with some saying it “crushes single-family zoning.”

Sonja Trauss, a housing advocate and the manager director of Sure In My Yard Legislation, mentioned that her group had documented about 40 circumstances by which cities sought to restrict, block or discourage S.B. 9 housing. Many cities had been passing “urgency” ordinances, she mentioned, with little time for evaluate by the general public and elected leaders.

“The quantity of tension that is inflicting, in comparison with the final word density that it requires to be permitted, may be very unusual,” she mentioned. “S.B. 9 is actually one of many first statewide zonings that truly goes particularly after single-family areas.”

Michael Andersen, a senior housing researcher at Sightline Institute in Oregon, mentioned that when states cross legal guidelines to deal with housing shortages, many rich communities typically reply with new ordinances, like declaring neighborhoods a historic district, or imposing zoning rules that make it troublesome for a developer to construct multifamily houses.

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