On April 29, 2020, six Bay Area counties – Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara – as well as the City of Berkeley, each issued substantially similar updates to their extended local shelter-in-place orders, with welcome implications for construction projects. The new local orders will go into effect on May 4, 2020 and extend through May 31, 2020.…

As previously reported on the Unfamiliar Terrain blog, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a moratorium on evictions of small and medium-sized businesses (those having worldwide receipts of $25 million or less) impacted by COVID-19 for non-payment of rent. By supplemental declaration on April 1, Mayor Breed ordered that the moratorium also applies to non-replenishment of security deposits. The April 1 supplemental declaration is the eighth of ten supplemental declarations (as of April 21, 2020)…

We last reported on the Unfamiliar Terrain blog that California Governor Gavin Newsom banned the enforcement of residential evictions against qualified California tenants who fail to pay rent. Less than two weeks later, on April 6, the California Judicial Council substantially expanded statewide tenant protections and eliminated the qualifications for protection. With the Council’s action, residential and commercial tenant eviction lawsuits cannot be initiated during the state of emergency and for 90 days after, regardless…

UPDATED ON APRIL 22, 2020 On March 19, 2020, Governor Newsom issued a “Safer at Home” Order, which generally permits construction, including housing, to continue statewide. On March 31, 2020, six Bay Area counties – Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara – as well as the City of Berkeley, coordinated on and each issued updated local shelter-in-place orders extending and further restricting non-essential activities through May 3, 2020. Among other…

As we previously reported, in the past two weeks, the federal government, the state of California, and many local governments have taken action to provide tenant and homeowner protections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.…

In recent days, the federal government, the state of California, and many local governments have taken action to provide tenant and homeowner protections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.…

SB 50, Senator Scott Wiener’s bill to boost housing production near transit and job centers, has been defeated. The bill fell three votes short on Wednesday, and Wiener was unsuccessful in his reconsideration request today. The bill was stalled in the Senate last May when the Chair of the Appropriations Committee deferred action on the bill until 2020. On January 24, Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins moved it to the Rules Committee, which…