Daniel Yost, who served on the City Council for 5 years, stated on Monday, “I by no means heard anybody specific any concern about preserving mountain lion territory.” However, Mr. Yost stated, 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 stated. “Lots of people have benefited from the California dream right here,” he stated. Whereas some residents need to “discover a method for others to learn as nicely,” there have been additionally those that “appear intent on kind of drawing up the drawbridge,” he added.
Since S.B. 9 was taken up by California lawmakers final 12 months, many native authorities and house owner teams have vehemently opposed the measure, with some saying it “crushes single-family zoning.”
Sonja Trauss, a housing advocate and the chief director of Sure In My Yard Regulation, stated that her group had documented about 40 circumstances wherein cities sought to restrict, block or discourage S.B. 9 housing. Many cities have been passing “urgency” ordinances, she stated, with little time for overview by the general public and elected leaders.
“The quantity of hysteria that is inflicting, in comparison with the last word density that it requires to be permitted, may be very unusual,” she stated. “S.B. 9 is de facto one of many first statewide zonings that really goes particularly after single-family areas.”
Michael Andersen, a senior housing researcher at Sightline Institute in Oregon, stated that when states cross legal guidelines to handle housing shortages, many rich communities usually reply with new ordinances, like declaring neighborhoods a historic district, or imposing zoning rules that make it tough for a developer to construct multifamily houses.
Woodside’s declaration that it was a habitat for a doubtlessly endangered species was “very novel” by comparability, Mr. Andersen stated.