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COVID-19 continues to have a profound impact on construction activity in Canada.

COVID-19 continues to have a profound impact on construction activity in Canada. Governments have limited what construction activities can continue during the shutdown, issued emergency orders affecting construction litigation, and changed health and safety protocols at site.

The impacts to construction projects, litigation, and health and safety vary across provinces and territories. Below is a guideline resource for how each province and territory is managing COVID-19s impact on the construction industry. For each province and territory we have assembled and laid out,

1. the list of permitted construction and related services that can continue;

2. the impact of emergency orders on limitation periods and procedural deadlines for construction litigation; and

3. the recommended guidelines for increased health and safety practices for construction sites.

Should you have any questions about whether your construction project can continue during the pandemic, or how these orders may affect your existing or future litigation, please feel free to contact us. We will keep this bulletin updated on a weekly basis.

To locate a particular province or territory in the list, please click it in the list below:

A) Ontario

B) Quebec

C) British Columbia

D) Alberta

E) Saskatchewan

F) Manitoba

G) New Brunswick

H) Nova Scotia

I) Prince Edward Island

J) Newfoundland

K) Yukon

L) Northwest Territories

M) Nunavut

A) Ontario

1. List of Permitted Construction and Related Services

The list of construction and related activities that may continue in Ontario during the pandemic are listed below. Ontarios complete list of essential services can be found here.

Construction Services

1. Construction activities or projects and related services that support construction activities or projects, including demolition services.

2. Land surveyors.

Construction Related Services

3. Lawn care services and landscaping services.

4. Maintenance, repair and property management services strictly necessary to manage and maintain the safety, security, sanitation and essential operation of institutional, commercial, industrial and residential properties and buildings.

5. Businesses that supply other essential businesses or essential services within Ontario, or that supply businesses or services that have been declared essential in a jurisdiction outside of Ontario, with the support, products, supplies, systems, or services, including processing, packaging, warehousing, distribution, delivery, and maintenance necessary to operate.

6. Hardware stores.

7. Garden centres and plant nurseries, including greenhouses that engage in retail sales to the public.

8. Business that provide land registration services.

9. Businesses that deliver or support the delivery of services including:

Sewage treatment and disposal.Collecting, transporting, storing, processing, disposing or recycling of any type of waste.Potable drinking water.Critical infrastructure repair and maintenance including roads, dams, bridges etc.Environmental rehabilitation, management and monitoring, and spill clean up and response.Administrative authorities that regulate and inspect businesses.Professional and social services that support the legal and justice system.Government services including but not limited to policing and law enforcement, fire and emergency services, paramedics, coroner and pathology services, corrections and court services, licences and permits.Allotment gardens or community gardens.2. Impact on Limitation Periods and Procedural Deadlines in Litigation

On March 16, 2020, the Ontario Government issued an emergency order suspending all limitation periods and procedural deadlines in litigation. However, effective April 16, the Ontario Government exempted the limitation periods and procedural deadlines in the Construction Act from the emergency order. For more details on these changes and the impact on liens, holdbacks and construction litigation generally, please see our prior bulletin on this topic here: Show Me the Money Government of Ontario to Amend Emergency Order to Allow Release of Holdbacks. The complete regulation exempting the Construction Act that took effect April 16 can be found here.

3. Guideline for Increased Health and Safety Practices

See here for the Chief Prevention Officers guidance to the construction sector in Ontario on health and safety related to COVID-19.

B) Quebec

1. List of Permitted Construction and Related Services

Starting May 11, 2020, all construction industry worksites from all sectors of the construction industry including residential, civil engineering and roads, institutional, commercial and industrial can resume their activities (however, admin staff must continue teleworking). Quebecs notice in this regard can be found here.

A summary of the more limited construction and related activities that could continue in Quebec until May 11, 2020 are listed below.

Construction Activities

1. Construction firms, for emergency repairs or to ensure safety

2. Electricians, plumbers and other trades (emergency services only)

3. Equipment rental firms

4. Landscaping and landscape maintenance (including nurseries, garden centres and businesses selling swimming pools)

5. Construction and renovation of residential dwellings, for any immovable where the taking of possession of a residential unit must take place on or before 31 July 2020, including the supply of goods and services that may be required for the work, including the services of real estate agents, land surveyors, building inspectors and assessors, and chartered appraisers

Construction Related Activities

6. Maintenance of essential public infrastructures in proper working order (bridges, municipal buildings, etc.).

7. Construction, maintenance and upkeep of essential activities in connection, in particular, with public and private infrastructures that may create a risk for public health and safety (private dams, management of hazardous and radioactive waste, etc).

8. Cleaning, upkeep and pest management.

9. Building maintenance (elevators, ventilation, alarm systems, etc).

10. Household appliance maintenance and repair.

Quebecs complete list of essential workplaces can be found here.

2. Impact on Limitation Periods and Procedural Deadlines in Litigation

By Order number 2020-4251, the Chief Justice of Qubec and the Minister of Justice suspended prescription periods (limitation periods), forfeiture periods and procedural deadlines until the public health emergency is lifted or otherwise amended by further order. The joint ministerial decree can be found here.

Construction hypothec periods are forfeiture periods and are therefore suspended under the Order. However, contractors are being advised to act as if the deadlines still apply and to register their notice of hypothec, and notice of intention to exercise a hypothecary right within the requisite time periods (the land registrar is still open to receive notices).

Additional guidance on how to calculate delays is expected from the Government once the suspension is lifted.

3. Guideline for Increased Health and Safety Practices

The COVID-19 Guides for Construction sites (French Only) published by the Safety of Labour Board (CNESST) on health and safety can be found here and here.

C) British Columbia

1. List of Permitted Construction and Related Services

A summary of construction and related activities that may continue in British Columbia during the pandemic are listed below. British Columbias complete list of essential workplaces can be found here.

Construction and Related Activities

1. Construction work, construction firms, skilled trades, and professionals, and; construction and light industrial machinery and equipment rental.

2. Plumbers, electricians, elevator maintenance providers, exterminators, property management services, building systems maintenance and repair technicians, engineers, fire safety and sprinkler systems, and other service providers who provide services that are necessary to maintaining the safety, sanitation, and daily essential operation of residences, commercial buildings, and ski area infrastructure and facilities.

3. Land registration services.

4. Workers who provide or support inspections to ensure worksites are safe for workers; and who investigate, process and manage claims for workplace accidents, including services related to the care, treatment and provision of workers compensation benefits to those impacted.

NOTE: Unlike some other provinces, which have mandated the closure of any type of business not deemed essential or allowable, British Columbia does not mandate such closures across-the-board. A business or service that is not an essential service may remain open in British Columbia provided that such business or service can comply with the recommendations of the PHO. However, such businesses may be ordered to close by a specific order of the PHO.

2. Impact on Limitation Periods and Procedural Deadlines in Litigation

Ministerial Order 86/2020 suspended limitation periods and procedural time periods from March 26, 2020 until the state of emergency is over (which as of May 20, 2020 is scheduled for May 26, 2020, see here).

On April 15, 2020, Ministerial Order 98/2020 amended MO 86/2020, lifting the suspension of limitation and procedural time periods under the Builders Lien Act (as well as those under Division 5 of Part 5 of the Strata Property Act) effective April 15, 2020. Once lifted, it appears that parties will have the same amount of time to meet a deadline that had been remaining before the suspension began on March 26, 2020.

3. Guideline for Increased Health and Safety Practices

Please see here for the health and safety measures the British Columbian Government has indicated all construction sites should follow: Guidance for Construction Sites Operating during COVID-19 Pandemic.

D) Alberta

1. List of Permitted Construction and Related Services

A summary of construction and related activities that may continue in Alberta during the pandemic are listed below. Albertas list of essential workplaces can be found here.

Construction Activities

1. Construction projects and services associated with the healthcare sector, including new facilities, expansions, renovations and conversion of spaces that could be repurposed for health care space.

2. Construction projects and services required to ensure safe and reliable operations of critical provincial and municipal infrastructure, including transit, transportation, energy and justice sectors beyond day-to-day maintenance.

3. Construction work and services, including demolition services, in the industrial, commercial, institutional and residential sectors.

4. Construction work and services that supports health and safety environmental rehabilitation projects.

5. Construction projects to repair or render operable / safe any public conveyance, including elevators, escalators and ski lifts.

6. Construction projects and services that are required to ensure safe and reliable operations of critical energy infrastructure or support supply chains.

7. Any other construction project that can safely abide by the CMOH Public Health guidelines/directives.

Construction Related Activities

8. Land registration services.

9. Businesses that support the safe operations of residences and essential businesses.

10. Road and transportation construction and maintenance

11. The operation, maintenance and repair of critical infrastructure (railways, dams, bridges, highways, flood control structures, irrigation and water management structures, etc.).

12. Motor vehicle, auto-supply, auto and motor-vehicle-repair, including bicycle repair, aircraft repair, heavy equipment repair, watercraft/marine craft repairs, car and truck dealerships and related facilities.

13. Hardware stores and stores that provide hardware products necessary to the essential operations of residences and businesses.

14. Safety supply stores (safety gear and Personal Protective Equipment).

NOTE: If a business is not listed here as an essential service, it can still continue to operate if: (i) it is not specifically prohibited from offering services in a location accessible to the public; and (ii) the business doesnt fall under previous business, workplace and facility closures.

A business must still follow all other public health orders and guidelines for workplaces, including: (i) maintaining physical distancing; and (ii) prohibiting people from coming to work sick. Workplaces that are not otherwise restricted or ordered to cease offering close-contact services or services accessible by the public can have more than 15 workers on a work site as long as they follow all public health guidelines, including physical distancing measures.

2. Impact on Limitation Periods and Procedural Deadlines in Litigation

On March 30, 2020, a Ministerial Order suspended limitation periods retroactively from March 17 June 1, 2020. This Order only applies to enactments listed in Appendix A to the Order, which list does not include the Builders Lien Act. As a result, limitation periods under the Builders Lien Act are not suspended.

However, the Order also suspends all procedural time periods in active or intended proceedings from March 17-June 1, 2020. Unlike for limitation periods, the Order does not specify that this suspension applies only to the enactments in Appendix A.

More here:
Construction through COVID-19 in Canada: A Guideline for what each Province and Territory is Doing [Current as at May 20, 2020] - ICLG.com

The city and the Signa Group were discussing details for a long time, but now the reconstruction of the Alte Akademie in the centre of Munich is finally underway. Completion of the project is scheduled for 2023. The duration of the construction phase is determined by the complexity of the process, due to the need to protect historical monuments. The work has to be carried out in individual steps, Alexander Cronauer, who is responsible for the Signa project development division in Munich, explained. Close cooperation between authorities, planners and contractors in the planning and construction phase is a key factor for the smooth handling of the work.

Spanning an area of over 21,000 square metres, the historic building complex will offer a mixture of retail space, restaurants, modern offices and attractive apartments. The office space, covering approximately 9,000 square metres, offers flexible options for innovative spatial solutions. Modern retail concepts will be arranged effectively on around 8,000 square metres. Here, the mix of tradition and innovation that is characteristic of Munich is developed anew.

In the initial phase, which will conclude by the end of 2020, parts inside the building that have been agreed with the preservation authorities will be dismantled, the complex construction logistics will be successively set up and the foundation will be upgraded under archaeological supervision, among other things with the aim of protecting a 15th-century ground monument. The shell structure will be dismantled next. At the same time, individual ceiling sections in the historical part of the Alte Akademie will also be dismantled and the roof truss and the existing windows renovated. With the completion of the shell work from the middle of 2022, the finishing work will begin until the handover to tenants in 2023.

The Alte Akademie is located in one of the most attractive areas in the heart of Munich and has a 130-metre-long front in the pedestrian zone. This former Jesuit College was originally built in the 16th century. It was acquired by Signa in the form of a 65-year leasehold in 2013. In coordination with the regional capital Munich, an international single-stage realisation competition was held, and the results were presented to the public in April of 2016.

The contract for the conversion was awarded to Basel-based architectural firm Morger Partner Architekten. The historical ensemble will be developed further in a harmonious and sensitive way. All faades will be renovated in accordance with preservation orders. Any interventions that may be necessary are based on the character of the existing architecture, which is over 400 years old.

See the original post here:
Signa starts renovations on the Alte Akademie in Munich - Property Magazine International

CHICAGO (CBS) Constant construction noise, dust and debris has been making it into the units of a high rise in Lakeview. Residents who reached out to CBS 2 say it is not just unbearable but also a safety hazard, and they cant take it anymore.

CBS 2s Tara Molina took their concerns to their management company and the city.

Theyre grinding like mad men. There is dust going everywhere, said Stefan Balsa Nikolic.

Stefan says for him, his family and others living at 510 W. Belmont in Lakeview its unbearable.He says the work on the buildings facade started a couple months ago when the stay-at-home order began.

They drill all day, he said. Two, three, four, five days in a row.

The noise is one thing, but the dust and debris, he says, is making it inside, even with the windows closed.

Yesterday I walk into my kids room, and I can just smell the concrete dust, he said.

They are concerned for their safety, and they are not alone. He said someone is distributing around the building a request for a rent protest until they get some answers.

Peter Condich, the general manager of the property management company, said they did make the decision to continue work during the stay-at-home order but says their contractor is using all OSHA approved tools for dust collecting and theyve offered residents headphones and opportunities to work in quieter units.

He also said that the project should wrap in the next couple weeks and theyve adjusted the working hours to 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Condich sent the following statement about the situation:

We acknowledge that living through this Essential Construction Work is made more trying during the Covid-19 Stay at Home order. As mentioned in our conversation, the need for this work was identified in a Faade Inspection Report submitted as part of the Exterior Wall Program with the City of Chicago Department of Buildings. Given the Essential nature of this in-progress restoration, it is not feasible to stop or postpone the work.

In an effort to make this process more bearable for our residents, we are doing the following:

The City of Chicago permits construction between the hours of 8am and 8pm. We have limited all destruction work to two shortened windows (9am-12pm and 12:30pm-3:00pm). While limiting the hours of construction extends the overall length of the project this adjustment was made to limit the daily disruptions to the extent feasible.

We have made noise-cancelling headsets available for residents to use that can assist in ameliorating the background construction noise.

We have made available numerous semi-private work spaces in vacant apartments in quieter areas of the building.

We have arranged for use of private work spaces at a nearby apartment building, about one mile from Belmont Tower Apartments.

We have installed dust barriers in apartments when required (as explained in our phone conversation, this mitigation work is utilized when the demolition occurs above the window of the affected unit).

The contractor has used OSHA approved dust mitigation equipment throughout the process (as confirmed by the City of Chicago Department of Buildings).

We are now in the final six weeks of an 9 month project. We take the input of our residents seriously and attempt to address all of their concerns in a practical fashion. We look forward to a successful completion of this project and we believe that we will all get through this together.

Residents who spoke with CBS 2 maintain the company should have held the construction until after the order ends.

More:
They Drill All Day: Residents Say Construction Work On Lakeview Building Is Unbearable During Stay-At-Home Order - CBS Chicago

The ENR regional editors have selected Martin-Harris Construction as the 2020 Contractor of the Year in the Southwest region.

Martin-Harris operates throughout the southwestern U.S. (Nevada, Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas) in a wide variety of market sectors, providing design-build, CMAR, design-assist and design-bid-build services. The firms market-sector expertise includes health care, industrial, office, education, multifamily, special use, hospitality, public works and retail projects.

As a nod to its successful push for workforce diversity, more than 40% of Martin-Harris Constructions workforce is part of the millennial generation. The firm also has partnered in the creation of a STEM 101 curriculum for industry training and education, and expanded the educational reach of that to include the city of Las Vegas Dept. of Youth Development and Social Innovation.

Some of the firms recent, notable projects include:

Martin-Harris has compiled an extensive list of community volunteer endeavors, as well as strong industry involvement in all of the areas it serves.

A feature-length profile of the firm will appear in the June issue of ENR Southwest.

Share This Article:Workers building a modular housing development in West OaklandBy Matt Levin | CalMatters

Toni Atkins stood on the state Senate floor in January and vowed, come hell or high water, that 2020 would see the state pass a bill to build more homes in California.

Support Times of San Diego's growthwith a small monthly contribution

Even her wrangling as Senate pro tem wasnt enough to saveSenate Bill 50, a zoning reform proposal pushing for more apartment buildings around California, from a third straight year of failure. The wonky bill had provoked the kind of polemical discourse typically reserved for Supreme Court nominations or Reddit threads on single-payer healthcare.

I want to personally commit to each and every one of you, and to the people of California, that a housing production bill to alleviate our housing crisis will happen this year, said Atkins, Democrat from San Diego, imploring her colleagues to bring productive ideas to the table to solve Californias most vexing issue making it cheaper to live here.

While neither hell nor high water materialized, a pandemic did.

Nevertheless, this week, Atkins and Senate Democratic leaders unveiled a suite of compromise legislation aimed at making it easier to build more housing. While no individual bill is as sweeping as SB 50, developers and housing experts say collectively the six proposals could make a meaningful dent in Californias housing shortage should they become law.

But while championing the art of the possible, Atkins admits that Californias new coronavirus-normal limited what the state could realistically pull off.

Things have altered and we had to pivot a bit because the world looks very different today, she said.

Heres what you need to know about California lawmakers latest plans to create more housing, and how COVID-19 has changed them.

Atkins suite of bills retains one of the more controversial provisions of Senate Bill 50, the upzoning proposal from Sen. Scott Wiener, Democrat from San Francisco:the elimination of single-family-only zoningthroughout California.

Wide swaths of cities around the state currently prohibit any type of housing more dense than a single-family home. A newjointly-authored billfrom Atkins and Wiener would force cities to allow homeowners and developers to convert single family homes into duplexes or even fourplexes, if the property is big enough. Those conversions would not have to be reviewed for environmental impacts by local governments, an often lengthy and expensive process.

There are hundreds of thousands of two-car garages that are just jammed with crap. And its ready for a builder to come in and demo the garage and scrape it and drop in a new home , said Ben Metcalf, managing director at the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation and former head of the state housing department. Theres lots of potential here.

While technically California ended single-family-only zoning with the passage of a2019 lawthat allows homeowners to build accessory dwelling units granny flats in their backyard, the prospect of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes popping up next door is sure to engender more pushback from homeowner groups resistant to more visible changes to their neighborhoods.

I would not like to see fourplexes going up here, said Susan Kirsch, an anti-development activist in Marin County who founded a statewide lobbying group to help defeat Wieners earlier proposals. These streets are very narrow, its going to increase traffic, itll hurt parking.

Kirsch cautioned that if local governments wanted to pursue denser development, they should be allowed to. But she chafes at the idea of the state issuing a top-down edict.

As a state law, I think its an intrusion on community rights, pushed by developers with huge pots of money, she said.

The idea of loosening local zoning rules has gained traction in national progressive circles, with Democratic lawmakers inMinneapolisandOregonprohibiting single-family-only zoning last year. Local ordinances prohibiting denser development have historically been associated with excluding renters, who skew lower income and non-white, from more affluent communities.

Atkins says she doesnt think single-family-only zoning is inherently bad policy, and cautions that the option of converting a home into a fourplex wont erode neighborhood character.

I love my neighborhood, I live in a neighborhood that is single-family and has some multi-family spread throughout and it works, said Atkins. I wouldnt call this the death knull of single family neighborhoods. I would think thats a mischaracterization.

Eliminating single-family-only zoning has a new allure for lawmakers in a post-coronavirus world: It doesnt cost the state any money.

Conspicuously absent from Senate Democrats housing package is any proposal that would devote new state dollars to building low-income housing or allow cities to beef up infrastructure to accommodate it. Confronting arecession-induced budget deficitthe Newsom administration has pegged at $54 billion, Atkins said proposals that might have been possible in January simply arent feasible right now.

In the moment we have to be strategic and focused, but it doesnt mean all those things go by the wayside, said Atkins.

Instead, Atkins package tries to incentivize market-rate developers to include more low-income units in their projects.A bill from Sen. Nancy Skinner, Democrat from Berkeley, would enhance an existing state density bonus program that allows developers to build taller and denser if they charge below market-rates for some of their units.

But while low-income housing advocates say they are pleased Senate Democrats are still addressing housing issues, they want a stronger focus on helping those who were already struggling before the novel coronavirus threatened their livelihoods.

My sense is that theres a real desire to see the market help fix our problems, and I think thats kind of fundamentally at odds with our perspective, said Chione Flegal, managing director at PolicyLink, an organization that advocates for greater equity in housing policy. Although theres certainly a role for the market, the last two decades have shown that the market is not working to build supply for people at the bottom of the income spectrum and its never worked for communities of color.

Flegal and other advocates say more density must also be accompanied by stronger protections for communities sensitive to gentrification and displacement pressures.

Some of the precious dollars cities and low-income housing advocates are seeking have instead found their way intoanother part of Atkins housing proposal: a $300 million to $500 million annual plan to help renters and landlords impacted by coronavirus.

Unveiled last week but included in this package of housing bills, the program would give renters 10 years to pay back rent bills missed because of COVID-19 directly to the state. Landlords would be compensated with tax credits they could sell on secondary markets for cash.

Beyond Atkins package, other proposals for affordable housing dollars are still circulating in the Legislature. But the pandemic-induced budget deficit has made the road ahead for those bills daunting.

A proposalthat would have eliminated the mortgage interest deductions on vacation homes to fund homeless housing died earlier this week. Two remaining high-profile bills that would spend billions annually on low-income housing have not identified a new revenue source, meaning cuts would have to come from elsewhere in the budget to offset their cost.

Cash-strapped local governments are especially dismayed at how the pandemic has reshaped state housing proposals. Before coronavirus struck, they had hoped to see portions of a January budget surplus devoted to low-income housing, infrastructure grants and local planning departments.

That hope has dimmed significantly. And while Gov. Gavin Newsoms post-pandemic budget proposal preserves funding for an important tax credit program for low-income developers, it claws back some money cities had hoped they could tap for housing-related programs.

A spokesperson for the League of California Cities, which represents municipalities across the state, said it was still reviewing Atkins proposals and not yet taken a position on the package.

Cities did score one housing-related victory because of the pandemic: A slew of bills aimed at reducing the impact fees local governments could charge developers on new projects has been shelved as cities cling to any source of revenue they can get their hands on.

The economic downturn caused by the novel coronavirus could contain a silver lining for California: When that big box retailer or shopping mall goes out of business, all that real estate could be converted to new housing.

The new Senate housing plan tries to seize on that opportunity.A billfrom Sen. Anna Caballero, Democrat from Salinas,would make more land zoned for office parks or retail outlets eligible for housing development and streamline the approval process for developers who want to build on that land.

There is real interest in combining housing and retail, said Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Association, the primary developer lobbying group in the capital. Some of the national home builders and regional builders are looking at these sites.

While homebuilders may be bullish on converting retail to housing, they are less enthusiastic about incentivizing construction in denser, urban environments near public transit.

A billfrom Sen. Wiener included in the Senate housing package would give cities the option to speedily approve smaller-scale housing developments in transit-rich areas and urban infill sites.

Although outbreaks of novel coronavirus have been more associated with overcrowded housing than density, Dunmoyer says that the pandemic could be reshaping where Californians want to live.

If youre going to be forced to shelter in place, do you want a two-bed, two-bath condo in a city or do you want a three-bed, two-bath home with a backyard? said Dunmoyer.

For his part, Wiener doesnt believe demand for living in urban environments close to jobs will be all that affected by the pandemic.

People have a lot of different reactions to the virus, but anyone who is really looking at the facts knows that the whole notion that housing density fuels COVID is simply false, he said.

Key to any housing bills moving forward in the state Legislature is the support of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the construction workers union that donates heavily to state Democratic lawmakers.

Asked if he supported Atkins housing package, council president Robbie Hunter said that while hes still reviewing all the proposals, overall the package works for his members.

Shes made an effort to make sure that workers that work in construction, particularly affordable housing, are paid a fair wage, said Hunter. You cant address poverty in housing by driving construction workers into poverty to build it.

Both Caballeros retail-to-housing bill and aseparate Atkins proposalto grant larger housing projects the same speedy environmental reviews as sports stadiums contain provisions guaranteeing that union-level wages be paid to construction workers.

But labor backing doesnt guarantee a housing bill becomes law. Wieners SB 50 was blessed by labor, and even with Atkins support couldnt make it past a Senate floor vote.

While still controversial, none of the individual proposals in this housing package are as aggressive as SB 50. That allowed Atkins to build support for the package from a variety of lawmakers, including those who opposed Wieners previous measures.

Obviously I spent years trying to pass SB 50 and we were swinging for the rafters and it didnt cross the finish line, said Wiener. But (Atkins) handled this very wisely. She decided the way to do this was to convene a working group of senators who havent been quite vocal, senators who were on both sides of SB 50.

If it passes the Senate, the new housing package will have to get through the state Assembly a body filled with the types of moderate suburban lawmakers and veterans of city government typically opposed to encroachments on local control.

Atkins said she had briefed the governors staff on the housing package, and is hoping the governor will support the legislation.

We would love to have his support obviously, as soon as he would like to give it, it would be helpful, said Atkins. But the Legislature has its own process and Im optimistic about our chances with this package.

CalMattersis a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

COVID Complicates Sen. Toni Atkins Push to Build More Housing in California was last modified: May 23rd, 2020 by Editor

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COVID Complicates Sen. Toni Atkins Push to Build More Housing in California - Times of San Diego

In SummaryLawmakers are pushing a revised housing plan that would end single-family-only zoning, instead encouraging duplexes, four-plexes, and converting retail spaces to residential ones.

Toni Atkins stood on the state Senate floor in January and vowed, come hell or high water, that 2020 would see the state pass a bill to build more homes in California.

Even her wrangling as Senate pro tem wasnt enough to save Senate Bill 50, a zoning reform proposal pushing for more apartment buildings around California, from a third straight year of failure. The wonky bill had provoked the kind of polemical discourse typically reserved for Supreme Court nominations or Reddit threads on single-payer healthcare.

I want to personally commit to each and every one of you, and to the people of California, that a housing production bill to alleviate our housing crisis will happen this year, said Atkins, Democrat from San Diego, imploring her colleagues to bring productive ideas to the table to solve Californias most vexing issue making it cheaper to live here.

While neither hell nor high water materialized, a pandemic did.

Nevertheless, this week, Atkins and Senate Democratic leaders unveiled a suite of compromise legislation aimed at making it easier to build more housing. While no individual bill is as sweeping as SB 50, developers and housing experts say collectively the six proposals could make a meaningful dent in Californias housing shortage should they become law.

But while championing the art of the possible, Atkins admits that Californias new coronavirus-normal limited what the state could realistically pull off.

Things have altered and we had to pivot a bit because the world looks very different today, she said.

Heres what you need to know about California lawmakers latest plans to create more housing, and how COVID-19 has changed them.

Atkins suite of bills retains one of the more controversial provisions of Senate Bill 50, the upzoning proposal from Sen. Scott Wiener, Democrat from San Francisco: the elimination of single-family-only zoning throughout California.

Wide swaths of cities around the state currently prohibit any type of housing more dense than a single-family home. A new jointly-authored bill from Atkins and Wiener would force cities to allow homeowners and developers to convert single family homes into duplexes or even fourplexes, if the property is big enough. Those conversions would not have to be reviewed for environmental impacts by local governments, an often lengthy and expensive process.

There are hundreds of thousands of two-car garages that are just jammed with crap. And its ready for a builder to come in and demo the garage and scrape it and drop in a new home , said Ben Metcalf, managing director at the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation and former head of the state housing department. Theres lots of potential here.

There are hundreds of thousands of two-car garages that are just jammed with crap. And its ready for a builder todrop in a new home.

While technically California ended single-family-only zoning with the passage of a 2019 law that allows homeowners to build accessory dwelling units granny flats in their backyard, the prospect of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes popping up next door is sure to engender more pushback from homeowner groups resistant to more visible changes to their neighborhoods.

I would not like to see fourplexes going up here, said Susan Kirsch, an anti-development activist in Marin County who founded a statewide lobbying group to help defeat Wieners earlier proposals. These streets are very narrow, its going to increase traffic, itll hurt parking.

Kirsch cautioned that if local governments wanted to pursue denser development, they should be allowed to. But she chafes at the idea of the state issuing a top-down edict.

As a state law, I think its an intrusion on community rights, pushed by developers with huge pots of money, she said.

The idea of loosening local zoning rules has gained traction in national progressive circles, with Democratic lawmakers in Minneapolis and Oregon prohibiting single-family-only zoning last year. Local ordinances prohibiting denser development have historically been associated with excluding renters, who skew lower income and non-white, from more affluent communities.

Atkins says she doesnt think single-family-only zoning is inherently bad policy, and cautions that the option of converting a home into a fourplex wont erode neighborhood character.

I love my neighborhood, I live in a neighborhood that is single-family and has some multi-family spread throughout and it works, said Atkins. I wouldnt call this the death knull of single family neighborhoods. I would think thats a mischaracterization.

Eliminating single-family-only zoning has a new allure for lawmakers in a post-coronavirus world: It doesnt cost the state any money.

Conspicuously absent from Senate Democrats housing package is any proposal that would devote new state dollars to building low-income housing or allow cities to beef up infrastructure to accommodate it. Confronting a recession-induced budget deficit the Newsom administration has pegged at $54 billion, Atkins said proposals that might have been possible in January simply arent feasible right now.

In the moment we have to be strategic and focused, but it doesnt mean all those things go by the wayside, said Atkins.

Instead, Atkins package tries to incentivize market-rate developers to include more low-income units in their projects. A bill from Sen. Nancy Skinner, Democrat from Berkeley, would enhance an existing state density bonus program that allows developers to build taller and denser if they charge below market-rates for some of their units.

But while low-income housing advocates say they are pleased Senate Democrats are still addressing housing issues, they want a stronger focus on helping those who were already struggling before the novel coronavirus threatened their livelihoods.

The last two decades have shown that the market is not working to build supply for people at the bottom of the income spectrum and its never worked for communities of color.

My sense is that theres a real desire to see the market help fix our problems, and I think thats kind of fundamentally at odds with our perspective, said Chione Flegal, managing director at PolicyLink, an organization that advocates for greater equity in housing policy. Although theres certainly a role for the market, the last two decades have shown that the market is not working to build supply for people at the bottom of the income spectrum and its never worked for communities of color.

Flegal and other advocates say more density must also be accompanied by stronger protections for communities sensitive to gentrification and displacement pressures.

Some of the precious dollars cities and low-income housing advocates are seeking have instead found their way into another part of Atkins housing proposal: a $300 million to $500 million annual plan to help renters and landlords impacted by coronavirus.

Unveiled last week but included in this package of housing bills, the program would give renters 10 years to pay back rent bills missed because of COVID-19 directly to the state. Landlords would be compensated with tax credits they could sell on secondary markets for cash.

Beyond Atkins package, other proposals for affordable housing dollars are still circulating in the Legislature. But the pandemic-induced budget deficit has made the road ahead for those bills daunting.

A proposal that would have eliminated the mortgage interest deductions on vacation homes to fund homeless housing died earlier this week. Two remaining high-profile bills that would spend billions annually on low-income housing have not identified a new revenue source, meaning cuts would have to come from elsewhere in the budget to offset their cost.

Cash-strapped local governments are especially dismayed at how the pandemic has reshaped state housing proposals. Before coronavirus struck, they had hoped to see portions of a January budget surplus devoted to low-income housing, infrastructure grants and local planning departments.

That hope has dimmed significantly. And while Gov. Gavin Newsoms post-pandemic budget proposal preserves funding for an important tax credit program for low-income developers, it claws back some money cities had hoped they could tap for housing-related programs.

A spokesperson for the League of California Cities, which represents municipalities across the state, said it was still reviewing Atkins proposals and not yet taken a position on the package.

Cities did score one housing-related victory because of the pandemic: A slew of bills aimed at reducing the impact fees local governments could charge developers on new projects has been shelved as cities cling to any source of revenue they can get their hands on.

The economic downturn caused by the novel coronavirus could contain a silver lining for California: When that big box retailer or shopping mall goes out of business, all that real estate could be converted to new housing.

The new Senate housing plan tries to seize on that opportunity. A bill from Sen. Anna Caballero, Democrat from Salinas,would make more land zoned for office parks or retail outlets eligible for housing development and streamline the approval process for developers who want to build on that land.

There is real interest in combining housing and retail, said Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Association, the primary developer lobbying group in the capital. Some of the national home builders and regional builders are looking at these sites.

If youre going to be forced to shelter in place, do you want a two-bed, two-bath condo in a city or do you want a three-bed, two-bath home with a backyard?

While homebuilders may be bullish on converting retail to housing, they are less enthusiastic about incentivizing construction in denser, urban environments near public transit.

A bill from Sen. Wiener included in the Senate housing package would give cities the option to speedily approve smaller-scale housing developments in transit-rich areas and urban infill sites.

Although outbreaks of novel coronavirus have been more associated with overcrowded housing than density, Dunmoyer says that the pandemic could be reshaping where Californians want to live.

If youre going to be forced to shelter in place, do you want a two-bed, two-bath condo in a city or do you want a three-bed, two-bath home with a backyard? said Dunmoyer.

For his part, Wiener doesnt believe demand for living in urban environments close to jobs will be all that affected by the pandemic.

People have a lot of different reactions to the virus, but anyone who is really looking at the facts knows that the whole notion that housing density fuels COVID is simply false, he said.

Key to any housing bills moving forward in the state Legislature is the support of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the construction workers union that donates heavily to state Democratic lawmakers.

Asked if he supported Atkins housing package, council president Robbie Hunter said that while hes still reviewing all the proposals, overall the package works for his members.

You cant address poverty in housing by driving construction workers into poverty to build it.

Shes made an effort to make sure that workers that work in construction, particularly affordable housing, are paid a fair wage, said Hunter. You cant address poverty in housing by driving construction workers into poverty to build it.

Both Caballeros retail-to-housing bill and a separate Atkins proposal to grant larger housing projects the same speedy environmental reviews as sports stadiums contain provisions guaranteeing that union-level wages be paid to construction workers.

But labor backing doesnt guarantee a housing bill becomes law. Wieners SB 50 was blessed by labor, and even with Atkins support couldnt make it past a Senate floor vote.

While still controversial, none of the individual proposals in this housing package are as aggressive as SB 50. That allowed Atkins to build support for the package from a variety of lawmakers, including those who opposed Wieners previous measures.

Obviously I spent years trying to pass SB 50 and we were swinging for the rafters and it didnt cross the finish line, said Wiener. But (Atkins) handled this very wisely. She decided the way to do this was to convene a working group of senators who havent been quite vocal, senators who were on both sides of SB 50.

If it passes the Senate, the new housing package will have to get through the state Assembly a body filled with the types of moderate suburban lawmakers and veterans of city government typically opposed to encroachments on local control.

Atkins said she had briefed the governors staff on the housing package, and is hoping the governor will support the legislation.

We would love to have his support obviously, as soon as he would like to give it, it would be helpful, said Atkins. But the Legislature has its own process and Im optimistic about our chances with this package.

Excerpt from:
The pandemic hasnt killed Californias big housing plans but they have mutated - CALmatters

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A 15-acre piece of farm ground insouthern Sioux Falls that's surrounded by development will soon be infilled with apartments and offices.

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A lot set for a future apartment complex stands empty on Thursday, May 21, at the intersection of 57th Street and Benson Ave. in Sioux Falls.(Photo: Erin Bormett / Argus Leader)

A 15-acre piece of farmland insouthern Sioux Falls will soon be infilled with apartments and offices.

Lloyd Companies this summer intends to begin constructionon what would be a four-phased development project at 57th Street and Bahnson Avenue that will bring 10 different buildings totaling 314 apartment units, office space and 4,000-square-feet of retail. The project would also see Bahnson Avenue extended south to Woodsedge Street, the next road south of 57th Street.

The estimated value of construction on the project is $40.5 million.

"We're hoping to break groundby August 1st," said Luke Jessen, development project manager for Lloyd Cos.

All 10 buildings included in the project will be two and three stories. The buildings closest to 57th Street will be have first floor office space and some retail with apartments on the second floor.

Lloyd Cos. has plans for a four-phase, 10-building development with office and apartments at 57th Street and Bahnson Avenue.(Photo: City of Sioux Falls)

Jessen said the apartments will be one to three bedroom units with some studios with rents between $860-$1200 a month.

"The first apartments would open up here in February or March of next year," he said. "Overall for whole property, we're looking at a three-year project."

A lot set for a future apartment complex stands empty on Thursday, May 21, at the intersection of 57th Street and Benson Ave. in Sioux Falls.(Photo: Erin Bormett / Argus Leader)

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Workers paint a wall on a Factory OS construction project in West Oakland. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters.

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