Published June 10th, 2020
Mayor incensed by state's attempt to eliminate single family home zoning
By Sora O'Doherty
Prompted by the incident in Orinda on Halloween 2019, state Sen. Steve Glazer has introduced a bill to raise fines for short-term rental violations. Orinda Mayor Darlene Gee is writing a letter of support for SB 1049, one of a number of current bills that the city council reviewed on June 2. Other bills that will get support from Orinda include SB 793, a bill to eliminate flavored tobacco products, and SB 862, which deals with public power outages.
Other bills, however, raised the ire of the city council, and especially of the mayor, who sees an attempt by Sacramento to eliminate zoning for single family homes. Gee was particularly incensed by SB 1120. The title of the bill refers to subdivisions and tentative maps, but according to Gee is really aimed at eliminating all single-family-home zoning. Gee said that the bill is "just out and out subterfuge. . The title this bill has wouldn't get anyone's attention," she said, "but I think if you told people in Lamorinda that it eliminates single-family-housing zoning, that would get their attention!"
Gee will also write to oppose AB 1279, which is another housing measure and AB 1484, which eliminates the city's ability to collect impact fees.
The council received a report on proposed legislation from Planning Director Drummond Buckley. It was pointed out that by this time in most years, proposed legislation would already have been going through the legislative process, and many bills would have been eliminated. However, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and the concomitant delays in Sacramento, more bills will be processed more quickly, making it more difficult for local governments to track them and respond.

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