Ethan Elkind

@ethanelkind.bsky.social

Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law CLEE, author of Railtown (book on history of LA Metro Rail), and host of KALW’s State of the Bay.

SB 79 at one month: 1) Very encouraging signs of developer interest in actually using the law 2) New projects are all in high resource areas with exclusionary histories 3) We won’t see the full impact in most of the state’s biggest cities for another 5 year 4) Beverly Hills is on some bullshit

Aaron 🏗️🚲🌲🏀@aceckhouse.bsky.social · 2d ago

Most cities are doing their best to follow the law, but some are not. The worst is probably Beverly Hills, which is trying to use a shell game to disappear nearly 3,000 homes worth of zoned capacity. HCD should have nipped this in the bud, but there's still time for them to bring down the hammer.

Beverly Hills was the first city to propose a local TOD alternative plan, which are allowed under SB 79. The core logic of those plans is straightforward: The city can move some of the zoned capacity from one place to another; the alternative plans are then reviewed and certified as compliant by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). 

But Beverly Hills is trying a shell game by which they just make that zoned capacity disappear instead.

A local alternative plan under SB 79, also referred to as an “Eckhouse Plan,” must maintain the same “net zoned capacity” as the state zoning standards. Net zoned capacity is calculated by subtracting the density & floor area of existing uses from the capacity allowed by the zoning. 

Since the law requires cities “maintain at least the same total net zoned capacity” between SB 79 and the local alternative plan, the city should do that on both sides of the ledger: subtract existing uses from SB 79’s capacity, and from their local plan’s capacity. 

Instead, Beverly Hills calculated net zoned capacity from SB 79, and then compared that to the total zoned capacity of their local plan. The result: overcounting their local plan’s capacity by nearly 3,000 homes, or 15% of the total capacity.

Most troublingly, HCD did not address this problem in their initial review of the city’s alternative plan. We will continue to work with HCD and other stakeholders in Beverly Hills to ensure that their final Eckhouse Plan is compliant with the letter of the law.

With DOJ admitting politics determined Trump admin grant cancellations, California could stand to benefit greatly from the court reinstating billions in these grants, including for the ARCHES zero-emission hydrogen hub and zero-emission vehicle programs.

UC Berkeley Law@ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social · last wk.

“The government has stipulated that grants were cut off to states that voted against Trump. As far as I know, this blatant politics in cutting off grants is unprecedented. It also is illegal,” says Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to @latimes.com: https://lat.ms/3U0jaKE

If successful, Li-air batteries will kick jet fuel out of the sky and bunker fuel out of the ocean Li-ion: ~250-270 Wh/kg Li-air: 12 kWh/kg, near gasoline CATL eyes 12 kWh/kg Li-Air EV Bat interestingengineering.com/energy/catl-... Air Energy to Scale Li-Air Bat natlawreview.com/press-releas...

CATL eyes lithium-air EV batteries with theoretical 12,000 Wh/kg limit

CATL unveils a new strategic focus on lithium-air batteries, a "breathable" design that could eliminate EV range anxiety.

interestingengineering.com