Big boxes to join conversion trend

Remember Fry’s Electronics, the warehousestyle stores that shut down completely in 2021?

Those stores joined 41 Califor nia Bed, Bath & Beyond locations, 17 Disney stores in the state and more than a dozen Best Buys that shuttered just in the last year.

They joined hundreds of locations once occupied by Borders Books & Music, KMarts, K-B Toy stores, Linens-N-Things warehouse-style stores, Mervyn’s stores, Circuit Cities, Radio Shacks, Sport Chalets and Blockbuster Video outlets.

No one has tracked just how many of those store locations have been reoccupied by other retailers, but anyone driving around California cities can readily see that many have not.

Big box stores and their parking lots often sit empty. So do scores of mini-malls.

But probably not for long.

Tens of millions of square feet of office space vacated during the depth of the coronavirus pandemic remain empty today, as law firms, insurance companies, stockbrokers and many other types of white collar businesses reduced their rental footprints and allowed millions of workers to keep working from home, wherever they make it.

Fears of contagion were also part of the reason for the many store closings around the state during the last three years, as shoppers avoided crowded spaces and ordered merchandise of almost all kinds online from home instead.

Many jilted properties are about to be reassessed at far lower tax rates than today’s, as rent reductions reduce the market value of both office towers and other types of commercial property.

It was plain from the beginning of the pandemic that the eventual answer would have to be conversions, as all those vacancies coincided with a declared housing shortage, one variously estimated by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development at anywhere from 1.2 million to 3.5 million dwelling units. The vast differences in official state estimates of need are likely due to the sort of incompetence noted in a state auditor’s report on that department in 2021.

It took years for legislators to realize they must remove obstacles to building conversions, making residential properties out of structures originally designed as commercial.

But they finally acted last year, passing two measures that greatly ease conversions, which are already taking off in significant numbers, with more than 10,000 such permits issued by the end of last year. Latest example: an eightstory tower in Emeryville soon to be redeveloped near the eastern foot of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Expect the 10,000 figure to grow exponentially by the end of this year, especially if the first redesigned units sell easily and quickly.

One new law that took effect Jan. 1 makes new zoning unnecessary for remaking commercial properties. That was one big previous obstacle to conversions, as some cities took purist attitudes toward separation of residential and commercial property.

Cities and counties will still have authority to inspect newly redesigned structures during reconstruction, just as they do with any building. But unless they find flaws that can’t be fixed, projects will proceed and new housing will result, in big numbers. New units can be of all price levels, from lowerfloor apartments and condominiums exposed to street noise to penthouse units 30-plus floors above the racket.

Emptied big box stores and their parking lots will also morph into housing, with parking lots a place where homes are built from scratch. Even excess property owned but little used by religious institutions will be available for new residences.

Some estimates from legislative aides predict as many as 1.2 million new units to appear where formerly there were offices and stores. Two positives here are that under the new laws, not only will most projects be immune from lawsuits under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), but conversions will leave existing neighborhoods largely undisturbed, while avoiding most changes in the footprints of large buildings.

In some ways, this promises to be the best of all housing worlds, letting building owners recoup their investments via rents and sales proceeds and giving neighbors little reason to be annoyed, let alone angry.

The bottom line: The solution to some of California’s housing woes is at hand, about to become a very visible reality.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net.

Housing

Interfaith Housing Justice Davis wishes to thank our council for opening the door to a tax proposition for the November 2024 ballot at the April council meeting. We understand that the city has identified serious budgetary shortfalls including for road maintenance and facilities as well as for staff salaries and that additional funds are needed for a functional city.

IHJD believes that the Housing Trust Fund also should be a community funding priority. Our city needs a year-round shelter to protect our unsheltered from physical violence, the cold and rain of the winter months, the ever-hotter temperatures and often smoke polluted air of the summers.

We need transitional housing opportunities with services for the unhoused ready to progress to permanent housing and then a range of low-income housing with supportive services to which individuals and families can graduate.

Individuals who work in this town

Speak out

President cannot afford to rent or purchase a home here. Our adult children who wish to continue to call this city their home can’t afford to buy in.

Our schools are facing declining enrollment due to a lack of new families with children in our community. A wellfunded HTF could be used to help families purchase homes with a Down Payment Assistance Program.

All these needs require funding. Funding to support the unhoused. Funding for emergency rental assistance to keep families on the edge to stay housed and protected from eviction.

Funding subsidies for nonprofit affordable housing developers to build lowincome rentals. Funding for a down payment assistance loan program. A well-funded HTF can allow our community to tackle all these needs with the care and compassion they deserve.

IHJD urges our community to support a tax proposition for the next general election and urges our city council to include the HTF as a funding priority so that we can start addressing our city housing crisis.

Ellen Kolarik

Co-chair IHJD

The Hon. Joe Biden, The White House, Washington, D.C., 20500; 202-456-1111 (comments), 202-456-1414 (switchboard); email: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

U.S. Senate

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3841; email: https://www. feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/ e-mail-me

Sen. Alex Padilla, 112 Hart Senate Office

Jesus was heterozygous

A recent letter (“On Miracles,” June 16) to The Enterprise reported several miracles over the centuries in which the Catholic Eucharist — which, as an article of faith, is the actual body and blood of Christ — bled.

In one case, the blood type is confirmed to be AB. This is truly amazing; we now know with certainty that Jesus was a heterozygote. As the product of Mary’s virgin birth, another article of faith, the implication is quite clear that God Himself must be either type A or type B. Furthermore, remembering that Mary was female, the fact that Jesus was male is solid evidence that God, his Father, is also undeniably male. So much for questioning whether God should be represented as a paternal figure which has become quite fashionable in modern times.

The existence of these miraculous tissue samples is extremely exciting. They should be immediately submitted to 23 and Me for complete genotyping since half of Christ’s genome is divinely inherited.

Carl Schmid Prof. emeritus, genetics

Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202224-3553; email: https://www.padilla. senate.gov/contact/contact-form/

House of Representatives Rep. Mike Thompson, 268 Cannon Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515; 202225-3311. District office: 622 Main Street, Suite 106, Woodland, CA 95695; 530-753-5301; email: https:// https:// mikethompsonforms.house.gov/contact/ Governor Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; 916-4452841; email: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/ gov40mail/

Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Charles M. Schulz