CityWatch is published 24/7 with special e-news blasts on Monday and Thursday evening, with Extras as appropriate around special events such as elections or important issues. Share it with your Neighborhood Council and other activists.
State laws make it easier, faster to build housing and in more places than before. Gauging the effect on housing shortages, sales prices and rents will take time.
Los Altos council talks RHNA data, disagrees on housing report Written by Eric He
In a debate that could signify a divide in the Los Altos City Council’s approach to housing, the council last week was split on whether to invite representatives from a group that penned a report suggesting state-mandated housing allocation figures in response to the affordable housing crisis are based on faulty data to a future council meeting – sparking an exchange between the mayor and vice mayor.
Toward the end of the Jan. 26 council meeting, Vice Mayor Anita Enander asked Mayor Neysa Fligor if they could bring in someone from the Palo Alto-based Embarcadero Institute to discuss the institute’s report, which accuses the state of using incorrect data from vacancy rates and also “double counting,” leading to legislation that exaggerated the number of housing units required in the Bay Area and other regions across the state.