ACTION Apartment Association

Mountain View - Tenant attorneys demand citywide rent refund

07/17/2017 10:23 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

Could Mountain View's landlords soon be on the hook to pay back a small fortune in overcharged rents?

Measure V did indeed include "plain language" about its effective date -- Dec. 23 -- but complications cropped up after Mountain View voters approved the law in November with about a 53.4 percent majority. A widely anticipated lawsuit was filed by the California Apartment Association on Dec. 21, derailing the planned implementation two days later.

DCP clears penultimate hurdle

07/15/2017 10:30 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Council has given preliminary approval to the Downtown Community Plan with instructions to bring a final version of the document for approval on July 25.

The council made a series of unanimous votes at the end of a six-hour meeting to advance the plan with several revisions.

Council kept a trio of opportunity sites earmarked for larger development, maintained ground level commercial use in the downtown area and streamlined housing development up to 75,000 feet.

SMa.r.t.-The DCP: When Less is More

07/14/2017 1:00 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

We’re a unique beachfront community and we should capitalize on that, not change it. The Downtown Community Plan (DCP) as proposed will likely have serious consequences for our city – it is not a plan, but rather a wish list for developers. It would substitute open sky and parks with tall buildings that will darken our streets and mire our downtown in gridlock.

Downtown Districts: Housing

Santa Monica’s past has shown that the “market place” will not produce affordable housing on its own. Land and building costs, combined with a scarcity of housing in an affluent community, will cause housing costs to continue higher and out of range for many in need of shelter. In short, we cannot “build our way to affordability” solely by increasing our housing stock. The City is therefore left with only two options: 1) mandates that require existing or new projects to provide it and/or 2) City subsidies or funds to defray the costs or adequate City funds to provide it themselves (e.g. Community Corp.).

City Attorney Files Lawsuit To Stop Harassment of Local Tenants

07/14/2017 7:58 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office sent the following press release this afternoon:

The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Consumer Protection Division has filed a lawsuit against two local landlords, alleging violations of a local law that protects tenants against harassment.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Santa Monica Superior Court, names as defendants landlords Ante Trinidad and the Adel Luzuriaga Trust doing business as SanMo17 Property. It alleges that the defendants bought a nine-unit Santa Monica apartment building in July 2016 and immediately targeted three long-term, below-market-rent tenants with harassment tactics in a manner designed to make the tenants vacate so that the landlords could obtain higher rents from new tenants.

The lawsuit alleges that the landlords’ misconduct included:

Using fraudulent and coercive tactics to force tenants’ existing roommates to vacate

Improperly refusing to allow the tenants to get other roommates, and

Conducting bogus and intrusive “inspections” of tenants’ units

State Officials Release Earthquake Fault Map for Santa Monica

07/14/2017 7:47 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

July 14, 2017 -- For the first time, the California Geological Survey on Thursday released new draft maps that show the location of earthquake fault lines that run beneath the city of Santa Monica.

The map -- which includes Westside communities along the Santa Monica Fault -- will impact future development, since state law requires that those seeking to build in a fault zone hire a geologist to determine if their property is on the fault line, state officials said.

The final authority will rest with local building officials, who must ensure the buildings are not constructed on the fault line, officials said.

The release of the map comes less than three months after the Santa Monica City Council approved the nation's most extensive retrofitting effort.

and

https://patch.com/california/santamonica/new-map-fault-under-santa-monica-could-spell-trouble-building

Affordable Housing Bill by Santa Monica Lawmaker Clears Hurdle

07/14/2017 7:45 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

July 14, 2017 -- A bill authored by Assembly Member Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) that would channel more money to local governments to finance construction of affordable housing cleared a hurdle Wednesday.

AB 1568 -- which passed out of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on a 5-to-1 vote -- allows local jurisdictions to use any increase of receipts for local sales and use taxes to finance affordable housing.

If enacted, the “Neighborhood Infill Finance and Transit Improvements Act” would require local governments to use 20 percent of the bounty for housing for extremely low- to moderate-income earners.

Plan for Santa Monica’s Downtown Receives Initial Nod from City Council

07/13/2017 3:06 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

July 13, 2017 -- The Santa Monica City Council Tuesday gave the initial nod to a plan to construct nearly 6,000 multi-family rental units downtown and potentially clear the way for a trio of mixed-use hotel projects as tall as 12 stories.

Fresh from a more than six-hour public hearing the night before, the council tackled the Downtown Community Plan (DCP) in a series of votes Tuesday, although the document does not receive a final vote by the council until July 25.

AND

http://smmirror.com/2017/07/santa-monica-city-council-unanimously-endorses-the-final-draft-downtown-community-plan-including-a-call-for-increased-housing-production/

Two Bills ... Win Key Committee Approval

07/13/2017 3:02 PM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

July 13, 2017 -- Bills sponsored by Santa Monica Assemblyman Richard Bloom to preserve affordable housing and create a new decal program for zero emission vehicles were approved by a key committee this week.

AB 1521, which passed out of the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee
on a 9-4 vote, requires owners of expiring affordable rental properties to accept market-rate purchase offers from "qualified preservation entities," Bloom's office said in a statement.

The new owner of the property must "intend to maintain" the affordability restrictions for multifamily rental properties of five or more units affordable to lower income households.

Both AB 544 and AB 1521 now head to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Unanimous Council move DCP forward

07/13/2017 6:54 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

City Council has given preliminary approval to the Downtown Community Plan with instructions to bring a final version of the document for approval on July 25.

The council made a series of unanimous votes at the end of a six hour meeting to advance the plan with several revisions.

Council kept a trio of opportunity sites earmarked for larger development, maintained ground level commercial use in the downtown area and streamlined housing development up to 75,000 feet.

The DCP will require every housing project to contain between 20-30 percent affordable units on site depending on the overall size. Those requirements increase to 25 – 35 percent if the housing is built offsite.

City of Santa Monica Offers Rebates For Rainwater Storage Tanks

07/13/2017 6:48 AM | Margaret Fulton (Administrator)

In an effort to deal with California’s drought, the city has a program that pays residents for using a basin to collect rainwater for later usage.

AND

http://www.water.smgov.net/rebates