At the core of Calabasas’s plan is a simple assumption: Everyday
communication will fail during an earthquake or wildfire. And
even if it doesn’t, recent emergencies demonstrate that residents
need reliable channels of communication for information.
“For a community of 20,000 to produce so many units of affordable
housing over the course of five years is unprecedented in
California, much less the nation,” said Ed Mayer, former
executive director of the Butte County Housing Authority, of
Oroville’s efforts.
Farmworker housing is few and far between and much-needed in the
Central Valley. Most full-time farmworkers make well below the
income needed to obtain even some subsidized housing and often
have to crowd together in housing designated for smaller
families.
Over the summer, the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to a
decade-long legal saga involving development impact fees — for
now. Going forward, cities can expect to see more federal
constitutional challenges to fee programs that seek to mitigate
the impacts of new development.
“As wildfires grow more frequent and destructive, the most
effective defense may begin not with technology or top-down
policy, but with neighbors,” write Nevada City Council Member
Gary Petersen and Dr. Elissa Lee. “Wildfire resilience depends on
neighbors working together to protect each other.”
As wildfires increase in size and ferocity, local governments are
upgrading their buildings to ensure critical operations keep
running. These upgrades often result in other benefits, including
decarbonization and long-term cost savings.
“I like to call it the story of West Sacramento taking little
pieces of what the city had inherited and having to kind of
reimagine what we could do,” said Mark Polhemus, the city’s
community investment manager.