Regional housing fix unveiled

MTC is what caused this mess in SMC. Local Control is important. Measure W funds should be placed in an Escrow Account until all the questions have been answered.

Sadly this will not solve our regional housing problem but is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at rent control. This putative solution does nothing to limit the demand for housing (i.e., overzealous commercial development) but merely imposes price controls on property owners, many of who are small "mom and pop" investors. Voters in San Mateo, Burlingame, and Pacifica have astutely rejected this heavy handed intervention by rejecting recent attempts at rent control.

For those who think rent control is good public policy I suggest visiting Mountain View, a city that enacted rent control in 2016, and speak with the tenants who are losing their apartments because property owners are leaving the rental business and converting their properties to owner occupied housing.

Shame on Mr. Slocum for trying to advance this initiative.

So a group of unelected bureaucrats got together without any mandate in order to tell cities what they need to do regarding housing. I hope cities and voters tell these people what they can do with their suggestions. Who are these regional players and who asked them to all get together? Please join me in rejecting anything that comes out of a regional committee that was not elected and have no power to write law. Last thing, you ever notice that there isn't a taxpayer advocate on any of these secretive regional meetings. The only thing we get is the bill at the end of the day. How is that $2.2 billion bus station going in San Francisco that the region just built? Not so good is it.

The CASA Compact should NOT be approved or endorsed without proper evaluation by the cities and counties who will be impacted if it is adopted by the legislature. The provisions of the Compact are hostile to local governments.
Supervisor Slocum correctly noted, “the devil is in the details and those details haven’t been fleshed out”.
The MTC Board is primarily made up of appointed elected officials with no accountability. CASA is an unelected body made up of unelected “hand-picked stakeholders", with less accountability, that is impowered to adopt proposals that do need MTC approval.
In this situation The Staff created policy, organized a committee of The Staff and has empowered the Committee to adopt. The intention of the Compact is to circumvent Board authority and accomplish State Legislative approvals which the Boards will have no power to change or modify.
This is a violation of process and authority.
This reminds me of a friend at church who often says, “Satan will tell you ten truths to get you to believe one lie.”

CASA is the best of both worlds -- it blends badly needed tenant protections like Just Cause eviction protections and the right to legal counsel with mechanisms to create copious amounts of new housing at all income levels. I hope you'll support the compact, Supervisor!

"It also seeks to facilitate development of housing proposals adjacent to transit stops..." When you say the MTC is making a decision, I always start to shiver in fright. But whether it is by ignorance or indifference, this organization fails to parlay the fact that all the housing in the world, of the kind the Bay Area is currently building, will NOT touch the tremendous need for affordable housing. The percentage of Below Market Rate units and low income units will be but a drop in the bucket – and the current brand of development will perpetuate our regional gentrification with its trend toward tech employees. Further, we've already discussed ad nauseam that commuter trains are over capacity, and the continued growth rate of the population is guaranteed to negate any positives the electrification could bring. Just who is fooling who? I guess the joke lands squarely on the shoulders of the tax payers.

Government is not the solution, but the problem! The attitude of the fat bureaucrats that they can steal money and give to the "less fortunate" is the best argument against them. Free speech + free markets = Free People.

MTC has been around for nearly 50 years and clearly hasn't done a very good job.

Also from the MTC website some information on the downside of TOD:

TOD can accelerate gentrification. High demand for TOD living tends to drive up prices for market-rate units, sometimes resulting in prices significantly higher than the surrounding area.
While the inclusion of some below-market rate housing can help mitigate this effect, additional efforts to minimize displacement of existing residents and businesses may also be needed.
https://mtc.ca.gov/about-mtc/

Have any of the Yimby's looked at the rents in the thousands of units that have been built at TOD developments like Station Green or in Bay Meadows lately?

2 BRs 2 Bathrooms rent $4,720 - 4,995 per month
1 Bedroom 1 Bathroom rent $3,661 for 757 Sq Ft

https://www.apartments.com/station-park-green-san-mateo-ca/j60y0f7/

Prices are high market rate, even after to introduction of thousands of so-called TOD units in the City of San Mateo......... FACT, not magical thinking, and also a fact, there are plenty of units available right now in the City of San Mateo, both for rent and for sale. Thousands more on the Peninsula. Just Google it.

It is very curious that this proposal is coming from the MTC under the guise of solving our transportation problems. The Legislative Analyst's Office produced a report a few years ago the proved that the renters are less likely to relocate when their jobs move out of the area because they want to hold onto their low rent. So why does the MTC want to impose rent control when doing so will only worsen traffic? My guess is the MTC is run by people who want rent control for the sake of rent control despite the problems it causes and the fact the voters and elected officials in many communities have said no to this misguided policy. Looks like they are trying do to an end run around the voters. So much for democracy.