State Preemption
New Jersey is now home to one of the "most stringent" environmental justice laws in the country.
Next City
Gregg Lintern, chief planner and executive director of the City Planning Division for Toronto, went before a city committee this week to press for a new inclusionary zoning scheme to ensure the construction of affordable housing.
The Star
Feature
President Trump has opinions about the sanctity of local control that don't agree with his other opinions about local control. This is a cautionary tale.
Another year, another defeat for sweeping changes to the status quo of single-family zoning in the state of California. SB 1120 would have allowed duplexes in areas previously zoned for detached single family zoning.
Los Angeles Times
Shortly after a private White House report blasted Georgia's pandemic response, Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order allowing cities and counties to impose requirements on mask-wearing. The report was leaked to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
L.A. City Councilmembers Herb Wesson and Paul Koretz register opposition to SB 1120, calling the bill an attack on the residential integrity throughout the state of California.
The Planning Report
The Vermont State Senate voted unanimously to approve legislation that would reduce barriers to more compact residential development. The Vermont House of Representatives is up next.
CNU Public Square
The first shelter-at-home order issued in the pandemic's resurgence in the U.S. took effect Wednesday morning in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, an overwhelmingly Latino region that has been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.
The Monitor
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) and the Atlanta City Council over the city's mask mandate, which is stricter than mask provisions defined in the governor's July 15 executive order.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coronavirus cases are surging in the Lone Star State's urban areas, so mayors of nine of its largest cities asked Greg Abbott for the power to mandate the wearing of masks or facial coverings, prohibited by executive order, to slow viral spread.
The Texas Tribune
Dallas will need voter approval to overcome tax increase obstacles put in place by the Texas State Legislature.
The Dallas Morning News
Public health experts were pleased that Trump extended his coronavirus guidelines, but they remain advisory, left to state and local governments to implement. Nine states have yet to issue stay-at-home orders, leaving the nation vulnerable to COVID.
The Hill
As more governors order residents to stay at home and/or close nonessential businesses to contain the spread of COVID-19, Gov. Tate Reeves has gone the opposite direction by issuing an executive order that supersedes stricter local measures.
Jackson Free Press
California State Senator has released draft legislation to follow up on the previous SB 50, which in turn followed up on SB 827. The new bill, SB 902, promises a "light touch."
KQED
So far in 2020, drivers have killed 15 pedestrians on Connecticut roads.
Hartford Courant
Upzoning is gaining popularity among planners and politicians in parts of the country as a tool for affordability. But some opponents of the idea maintain that new density will only make housing affordability worse.
Curbed
For the third year in a row, an effort to increase density near transit in statewide in California has stalled in the legislature.
Los Angeles Times
The Land Use subcommittee of the Virginia House of Delegates decided quickly to uphold local control of zoning.
WAMU
After a San Mateo County Superior Court judge ruled that charter cities are exempt from the Housing Accountability Act, aka the anti-NIMBY law, the state stepped in to support the appellant, a YIMBY group that launched a "Sue the Suburbs" campaign.
San Francisco Chronicle
Washington State is the latest example of a state that wants to preempt local planning law to make it easier to add housing units to single-family residential properties all over the states.
Sightline Institute
