NEW CHAIRS CONVENE COUNCIL’S HOUSING COMMITTEE

Under the leadership of new Chairs Kofi Bonner of Lennar Urban and Denise Pinkston of TMG Partners, the Bay Area Council Housing Committee met this week (Aug. 11) and got an insider briefing from Oakland Assistant City Administrator Claudia Cappio on continuing negotiations and other developments involving the Coliseum City project. Cappio gave an update on the many challenges of the project, including financing, the various uses that could be incorporated into any future development and dynamics surrounding the plans of the Oakland Raiders, the NFL and the Oakland A’s.

The committee also approved making a recommendation to the Council’s Executive Committee to formally oppose Proposition F on the November 2015 ballot in San Francisco. Prop F would impose Draconian restrictions on short-term rentals at a time when the city is in desperate need of housing. The committee concluded that regulations on short-term rentals that the city approved in 2014 deserve time to work, and that ballot-box legislating would be harmful, could produce unintended consequences and would be difficult to undue or revise. To engage in the Council’s housing policy work, please contact Senior Vice President Matt Regan.