SB 50 Amendments Turn Single-Family Homes into a Demolition Derby

State Sen. Scott Wiener’s radical anti-homes bill got far worse at a hearing in Sacramento yesterday, allowing developers to wipe out all single-family homes in California to usher in high-cost housing units no bigger than a bedroom.

The amended bill would end single-family zoning statewide, including in most of the Coastal Zone, allowing developers to demolish tens of thousands of houses to cram four units onto a single-family lot. The bill also allows 8-story buildings to take over any low-rise street near transit.

SB 50 will allow luxury fourplexes to be built within the footprint of a demolished, typically sized, 1,400 sq. ft. home. The units will be big enough only for a single or a cozy couple, driving families further from urban centers.

Critics across California call SB 50 an anti-family demolition derby, a sore point for Wiener, who yesterday clumsily insisted “no demolitions” will be allowed to destroy single-family homes. The Los Angeles Times picked up his false language — as a fact. 

In fact, homes will be gutted from rooftop to floor, with just three walls left standing, and box-like fourplexes will be jammed onto the destroyed former home site. 

Across L.A. County, the O.C., the Inland Empire and San Diego County, we predict an end to thriving family areas in cities such as Inglewood, Compton, Culver City, South L.A., the San Fernando Valley, South Gate, Lakewood, Long Beach, Irvine, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino. SB 50 invites developers to bid up the land to pursue lucrative towers and fourplexes. 

Where will families live, under this untested gentrification and displacement experiment? 

The senate Governance and Finance Committee couldn’t answer that question yesterday, leaving only one member — Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg — to truthfully describe SB 50 as a drastic bill filled with “unintended consequences” that should never become law without a full impact study. “This is wrong!” the normally upbeat Hertzberg implored the committee.

The senate committee went easy on Northern California areas represented by its Chairman Sen. Mike McGuire, Wiener’s close ally. McGuire’s committee came down hard on SoCal: 

Under SB 50, historic districts in counties such as L.A. and the O.C. with more than 600,000 people can be decimated by developers, but not in counties with fewer than 600,000.Under SB 50, large apartment towers near rail can be built without any parking, but only in the 15 largest counties including L.A., the O.C., and San Diego. Under SB 50, the Coastal Act will be thrown out to build apartment towers in coastal L.A., Long Beach and other large oceanfront cities. The bill was approved in a packed room with the crowd 3-1 against Wiener. It now moves to the Appropriations Committee. If it isn’t killed there it goes to the senate floor for a vote in the coming weeks.  ##