WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:22.510 On this week's episode: San Jose's City Council steers a housing study toward transit, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors finalizes changes to its environmental review rules, and Oakland's City Council moves to raise maximum nuisance fines. 2 00:00:26.174 --> 00:00:31.534 Five minutes on this week's decisions from the local governments CivicFM covers in the Bay Area. 3 00:00:32.294 --> 00:00:41.174 This episode is made with AI from each government's own show, which reports from the public recordings of its meetings. Sources are in the show notes. 4 00:00:44.517 --> 00:00:58.882 Our top story this week: so-called missing middle housing in San Jose's single-family neighborhoods. On Tuesday, the City Council voted nine to two to have planners study tiered densities there, higher closer to transit. 5 00:00:58.882 --> 00:01:01.282 So is my street being rezoned? 6 00:01:01.282 --> 00:01:33.397 Not with this vote. A councilmember stressed the council was approving an analysis of density, not any density. A substitute that would also have kept current densities where transit is limited failed. Staff warned that excluding high-resource areas could put the city's state-certified housing element at risk, and losing certification would reopen the builder's remedy, which lets qualifying projects ignore local zoning. Staff will return as soon as possible, and Mayor Matt Mahan said a final vote is expected by December 2027. 7 00:01:37.061 --> 00:01:52.516 Next, San Francisco. Two weeks ago we told you the Board of Supervisors gave a first vote to changes in the city's local environmental review rules. On Tuesday the Board gave them final approval, eight to one, with two supervisors excused. 8 00:01:52.516 --> 00:01:54.276 What actually changes? 9 00:01:54.276 --> 00:02:11.541 As the clerk read it, the ordinance removes shadow analysis as its own type of environmental impact, cuts the time to appeal environmental decisions to the Board from thirty days to fifteen, drops some procedures state law doesn't require, and adopts recent state changes on when that review happens. 10 00:02:15.125 --> 00:02:22.885 Over in Oakland, the City Council gave first approval Tuesday, eight to nothing, to much higher maximum fines for nuisances. 11 00:02:22.885 --> 00:02:24.565 How much higher? 12 00:02:24.565 --> 00:02:54.240 Up to twenty-five hundred dollars a day for repeated or continuing violations, and up to ten thousand dollars a day for nuisances on property left unfixed after notice. Councilmember Zac Unger, the sponsor, said the thousand-dollar cap dates to 1968 and some repeat offenders treat it as a cost of doing business, though a colleague said it was raised to five thousand dollars in 2020. City attorney staff said it's a ceiling, and the city administrator can set a schedule of fines under it. 13 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:55.920 Who's going to enforce it? 14 00:02:55.920 --> 00:03:03.365 A councilmember asked that too, and said the city's current fines aren't enforced. Final passage is set for November tenth. 15 00:03:06.868 --> 00:03:30.653 Now a quick trip around the area. Oakland's City Council also rejected, eight to nothing, a two-person slate for its Police Commission. One nominee withdrew because his law firm represents parties suing the city, then asked to take that back. The city attorney's office said rejecting the slate simply resets the process, and isn't a judgment on either nominee's qualifications. The selection panel will send a new slate. 16 00:03:30.653 --> 00:03:47.803 In San Francisco, two renter protections passed a first vote Tuesday. One would require online rental listings and leases to show the total estimated monthly cost, rent plus required fees. The other would bar evictions for unpaid rent below a threshold tied to local fair market rent. 17 00:03:47.803 --> 00:04:11.188 San Jose's City Council denied an appeal, nine to nothing, with one member recused and one absent, and upheld an environmental exemption for a data center use of up to twenty megawatts inside an existing North San Jose building used by NVIDIA. Staff said adding exterior equipment such as generators would need a new permit and new review. Citywide data center standards go to the council December eighth. 18 00:04:11.188 --> 00:04:26.068 And Oakland's Rules and Legislation Committee scheduled a citizen initiative that would raise the minimum wage to thirty dollars by 2037 for the December first council meeting. There, the council must adopt it unchanged, send it to voters, or order a report on its effects. 19 00:04:29.412 --> 00:04:33.012 That's the week around the Bay Area. See you next time.