Despite advancing, fate of housing bill SB 79 remains uncertain
www.paloaltoonline.com
An ambitious and divisive housing bill that seeks to encourage taller and denser developments near transit lines survived a key vote in the state Senate last week with the assistance of state Sen. Josh Becker, though its ultimate fate remains uncertain is it moves to the Assembly.

State Senator Josh Becker said he will oppose legislation unless changes are made

While Becker voted to advance the bill, he emphasized in an interview that his support hinges on significant changes that would need to be made to the legislation before it comes back to the Senate for a final vote

“I will not vote on this bill on the way back unless the radius has changed” he said.

The bill also proved divisive in Palo Alto, where City Council member Pat Burt described the prior version of the bill as a “one-size-fits-all” proposal that takes the “chainsaw to local zoning.”

“We’re talking about 55 feet and 5 stories by right without any parking requirements in an Eichler neighborhood” Burt said at an April meeting, referring to Eichler neighborhoods in south Palo Alto that are within half a mile of the San Antonio Caltrain station.

https://www.paloaltoonline.com/housing/2025/06/11/despite-advancing-fate-of-housing-bill-sb-79-remains-uncertain/

  • manxu@piefed.socialEnglish
    5·
    12 hours ago

    Americans have so much of their wealth sunk in their real estate / home that they eye any change with deep suspicion and an eye on how it affects their home value. Surely, a 5 story building next to your ranch home is going to lower your home value, so it must not happen.

    I think this is a dilemma that everybody in the Bay Area faces: you can universally agree that more housing and especially more dense housing needs to be built, but you can’t allow it to be built near you because that drags your home value down. Even just a 5% drop in value may be all the equity you built if you are a recent buyer.

    I guess a compromise might be to give people near these new buildings a property tax rebate as counterbalance. Also, instead of mandating parking, maybe you mandate that people moving into spaces designed to be near public transit not register cars there.