Stroock Presents: GOAT Town, Episode 4: Office-to-Residential Conversions in NYC – Magic Bullet or Merely One Piece of the Puzzle?
Creative Housing Solutions Pop Up Across Oregon
Business Better Podcast Episode: Affordable Housing in Chinatown, Los Angeles: How To Better Serve Your Community
Affordable Housing on the Front Range: Inclusionary Housing Ordinances and the New Middle Income Housing Authority
Orrick Public Policy Podcast #25 – A Conversation with the California State Senate Majority Leader Robert M. Hertzberg
Inside DC: Highlights and Implications of the FY 2022 Budget
[WEBINAR] Housing and Land Use Legislative Update
[WEBINAR] Advancing the Policy Discussion Around Housing
[WEBINAR] Innovative Partnerships to Overcome Housing Challenges in Communities
BOSTON—City Deploys Sensors to Combat Rat Infestations - Boston officials announced the implementation of a new rodent-tracking sensor system throughout the city to provide data on hotspots and measure the effectiveness of...more
We start our August Alert with some potentially very good news. The RENTAL Act, a bill to reform TOPA, passed its first vote by the DC Council on July 28, 2025. The RENTAL Act includes, among other things, a blanket exemption...more
Across the United States, empty office buildings have become a common sight. According to Moody’s Analytics, office vacancies are at their highest since the 1990s. The COVID hangover has left us with an abundance of vacant or...more
As discussed in our earlier post, California's CEQA landscape has rapidly, and potentially seismically, evolved with the passage of AB 130 and SB 131. This post focuses on the immediate creation of a new statutory exemption,...more
Workforce housing (also referred to as middle-income or essential housing) is becoming a central focus for communities across the country. Whether you’re a city, town, village, housing authority, developer, or part of the...more
As part of Colorado’s broader efforts to close the middle-income housing gap, Fulcrum Communities, a Colorado nonprofit, launched a pilot project using an innovative financing model to deliver workforce housing more quickly...more
BOSTON—City’s First Office-to-Residential Conversion Project Begins -Construction has officially begun on Boston’s first office-to-residential apartment conversions. This effort is a part of a City pilot program aimed at...more
Note: This is the second update in our series covering AB 130 and SB 131, two bills that work substantive changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California housing law....more
On June 30, 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two budget trailer bills—AB 130 and SB 131—that together work major changes both to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California housing law. Because these bills...more
Originally enacted in 1970, the objective of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was to review projects to assess potential impacts on the environment, disclose those impacts to the public, and mitigate those...more
Single-family-only zoning has officially ended in the City of Seattle. On May 27, 2025, the Seattle City Council passed CB 120969 to comply with RCW 36.70A.635, which requires adoption of development regulations allowing for...more
On June 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two budget bills that contained the most significant reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in decades, effective immediately. These changes create an...more
On June 16, 2025, the San Diego City Council voted 5-4 to cap the number of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) that can be built on single-family lots. The decision reverses the City’s 2020 implementation of a program allowing...more
On 18 June 2025, the German Federal Cabinet adopted a draft law to accelerate residential construction and secure housing (Schneller bauen mit dem Wohnungsbau-Turbo | Bundesregierung) in order to implement the 100-day target...more
A roundup of news and multimedia from the Unfamiliar Terrain team: San Francisco - Mayor Lurie names new S.F. planning director (SF Chronicle): Sarah Dennis Phillips has been named the City’s planning director,...more
City Invests in Certifying CTE Teachers- Philadelphia City Council allocated $500,000 to help Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers cover certification costs, addressing a teacher shortage and supporting growing...more
NEW YORK—Waymo Applies for NYC Permit - Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, plans to begin manually operating vehicles in Manhattan as a first step toward launching autonomous ride-hailing in New York City. The company...more
On June 20, 2025, the Adams Administration and the Department of City Planning (DCP) initiated public engagement for the 'Manhattan Plan,' a proposal to add 100,000 new homes in Manhattan over the next decade. The Plan aims...more
London boroughs are implementing the London Plan's requirements for affordable Purpose-Built Student Accommodation ("PBSA") in varied ways, with some setting stricter or additional criteria....more
The San Diego City Council voted on March 4, 2025, to begin the process of revising its Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Bonus Program (ADU Bonus Program or Program), which has served, to date, as one of the state’s most...more
Deep in the 1,100 pages of the “big, beautiful bill” is a plan to retool and extend one of the big policies from the first Trump administration: Opportunity Zones. Under this tax incentive program, investors defer capital...more
On June 4, 2025, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors approved a new Affordable Dwelling Unit Ordinance that becomes effective on Dec. 1, 2025. The ordinance, adopted under the authority of Virginia Code...more
On May 29, 2025, the Supreme Court held that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — which requires federal agencies to analyze the environmental impacts of projects that they carry out, fund, or approve — does not...more
The New York City Council approved the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (AAMUP) on May 28, 2025. This initiative represents a significant rezoning aimed at transforming a key corridor in Central Brooklyn, which has been zoned...more
California’s 2025 legislative cycle includes another ambitious package of housing bills as the state continues to look for ways to ease the housing crisis amidst continued political and economic uncertainty. Reforming the...more