California Governor Gavin Newsom approved Senate Bill 9 last September. The bill’s purpose is to encourage more affordable housing construction in California’s troubled Golden State. It waives discretionary review and holds public hearings when two homes are built on the same parcel that was previously intended for just one. The law allows the division of one lot into two separate lots. These new lots do not have to be equal in size. Its actual purpose is the state trying to overrun local communities’ attempt to control the amount and nature of local home construction, thereby determining what kind and quality of city they have.
Individual cities and towns are not too thrilled about the possibility that builders can throw out as many garbage pseudo-houses as they like, thereby causing havoc in their communities. This opens up more opportunities for predatory lenders, who will be able to take advantage of unqualified homeowners and create another financial crisis like 2008. BRILLIANT! It all happens in the name equity or some other thing.
Woodside, a tony little suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area, has devised a novel method to fight against Senate Bill 9’s egregious overreach. The city’s secret weapon? Mountain lions. No, really.
Woodside, with a median household income exceeding $250,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau, blocked any further development under Senate Bill 9 because of a provision in the bill that prohibited development within the habitat of an endangered animal.
Mountain lions have not been added to the state’s list of “endangered” species but are “threatened” and granted protections under the California Endangered Species Act.
Unsurprisingly, our old friend Scott Wiener, who wrote Senate Bill 9 and has never met a taxpayer-funded social engineering program he didn’t like, is not amused.
Woodside announced it’s exempt from state housing law because of … mountain lions.
I’m all for mountain lions. I’m also for people. The ones in need of homes, you know.
Can’t wait for the lawsuit against Woodside for this brazen violation of state law. https://t.co/Ig5Zc4Dik3
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) February 2, 2022
It doubtless burns Wiener’s miniature organic hot dog buns that a community would have the unmitigated gall to desire maintaining control over itself. Worse yet, the community is using the endangered animal tack, thus exploiting one of liberalism’s fondest pet issues (pun intended, weak though it may be). The matter is so upsetting it might distract Wiener from his current children’s crusade, namely allowing 12-year-olds to get COVID jabs without parental consent. As everyone is aware, every twelve-year-old can make educated medical decisions, and they have the ability to save the planet.
It is always, never dull, no matter what one has to say.
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