Re: KQED Forum on CASA (audio track included)Monday at 9:00 am
Host: Rachael Myrow and Guests: Susan Kirsch, Founder, Livable California; Michael Covarrubias, CASA Co-Chair, CEO, TMG Partners and Guy Marzorati, reporter, KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk.
Who will pay for the CASA Compact programs if they are implemented? Who will finance a new regional development organization composed of unelected officials with authority to collecting new taxes? It feels as if the major theme is to use our taxes against us to create a dense living situation that we oppose.
Video of the Jan 10, 2019 Cities Association of Santa Clara County Board Meeting on CASA compact…
By Larry Klein
At the Jan. 10 board meeting of the Cities Association of Santa Clara County. Every board member (elected city council member repressing a city) expresses serious concerns on CASA Compact.
In the end, it’s revealed that. CASA compact is done. The fake outreach they are doing now have no effect on the progression of CASA Compact at all.
The MTC person only gave very high level description of the 10 element so that a person won’t be able to learn much of anything from her presentation.
Fortunately, all the city council members there have done their homework and asked some pretty pointed questions… (more)
42 people flew to Manhattan for a three-day event that had no real policy purpose — and MTC is stonewalling on releasing the price tag.
During the final meeting of the CASA Technical Committee on December 12, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf let slip that she and unnamed others had recently taken a trip to New York City. No such trip had appeared on any public agenda.
My curiosity pricked, later that day I sent CASA’s sponsor, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a California Public Records Act Request asking to see documentation of all monies, public and private, that had passed through MTC to fund CASA. I also asked to see all documents concerning the funding of the New York City trip, including those with information about the participants, the itinerary, and any agendas…
CASA’s unpublicized January 25 Sacramento deadline
The CASA Compact is a self-described “legislative package” of ten “Elements,” a bundle of policy recommendations intended to be incorporated into bills by members of the state Legislature. At numerous public meetings, MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger repeatedly said that all the elements would move forward together.
In fact, as indicated by the chart that Heminger presented at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s January 11 meeting, on December 3, legislators introduced bills incorporating aspects of all the elements in CASA but three: the proposals for a statewide just cause eviction policy, for the statewide privatization of public land, and for a Bay Area-specific “Regional Housing Enterprise.”… (more)
Representatives from ABAG / MTC present the “Casa Compact” to skeptical local officials attending the League of California Cities meeting in the North Bay. The Q and A following the presentation drew sharp criticism over Sacramento “one size fits all” planning as currently proposed in Senator Wieners SB50 in the 2019 legislative session. The CASA compact is a series of proposals that will result in 1.5 BILLION dollars in new taxation and redistribute the majority to builders in the large population cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. It is not surprising that almost all of the remaining 101 cities, especially the smallest recognize that they will not only lose the power to manage local land use according to their needs, they will also lose the revenue to create new housing and infrastructure…
Regional governments tout the benefits of so-called transit-centered housing. The concept is at the heart of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s CASA (Committee to House the Bay Area) compact and San Francisco Democrat Sen. Scott Wiener’s new Senate Bill 50.
Superficially, it appears logical that people living in high-density apartments adjacent to rail, bus or ferry transit stops won’t need an auto to commute to work. Instead, they’ll take transit because it’s more convenient.
The reality isn’t so simple…
Let’s see if transit-centered housing works as promised in Marin. Presume our typical commuter lives at Corte Madera’s Tam Ridge Apartments, aka WinCup. The four-story 180-unit high-density complex is exactly the housing envisioned in SB 50. When approved, WinCup was touted as transit-centered housing next to a Highway 101 trunk line bus stop…
Whether the transit-centered housing theory works in practice is irrelevant to them [MTC]. They’ll be enjoying big profits while average Bay Area citizens pay the price with increased traffic congestion, higher taxes and crowded schools…(more)
By Mercury News & East Bay Times Editorial Boards :mercurynews – excerpt
It’s great that the region is finally having this overdue discussion, but it’s critical that we get it right
A coalition of divergent Bay Area interests has come together on a plan to confront the region’s housing crisis…
The group’s so-called CASA Compact, unveiled last week and up for its first public review at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday, provides a serious foundation for a much-needed discussion. It hits the target on several fronts but misses the mark on others.
It recognizes, for example, that easing the crisis requires addressing rent gouging, reducing barriers to residential construction and changing zoning around transit stations to enable denser housing.
But it fails to examine how much responsibility employers, especially in the Silicon Valley, have to participate in solving the crisis. And while calling for more housing near job centers, the compact ignores the traffic-easing potential of providing more jobs near housing centers, especially in the suburban East Bay… (more)
The CASA Steering committee approves the CASA Compact. An aggressive housing scheme that will mean $1.5 Billion dollars in new taxes to pay for affordable housing. The biggest cities will get the most money and all of the 101 Bay Area cities will sacrifice the ability to manage development. It is the most ambitious power and money grab in our lifetimes…(more)
SF CEQA 