The SB-50 Impact Map

In an attempt to address California's housing supply crisis Senator Scott Wiener has introduced a bill which is designed to encourage the building of apartment buildings in areas with good transit, at the expense of single family homes. If passed the bill will prevent cities and towns from stopping the construction of apartment buildings in certain areas.

Of course not all single family home owners are happy at the prospect of new tall apartment buildings being constructed in their neighborhoods. If you want to know if your California neighborhood could be affected by SB-50 then you can refer to a new interactive map which attempts to map out the areas of California where new apartment buildings will be welcomed.

The creators of the Will SB 50 Wipe Out Your Neighborhood? are definitely opposed to State Senator Scott Wiener's SB-50 bill. The site claims that "SB 50 is an unprecedented law that will destroy thousands of homes & apartments to build luxury housing up to 8 stories high". That opposition to the bill shouldn't make much difference to the map as long as it is accurate. However at the moment the final definition of the areas affected by SB-50 has yet to be decided. Will SB 50 Wipe Out Your Neighborhood? claims that in this "map, we roughly approximate the San Francisco Planning Department's approach".

On the interactive map three colors are used to show areas where 'Buildings up to 85' feet could be allowed, where 'Buildings up to 75' feet could be built and where 'Buildings up to 75 feet (in jobs rich/good school areas)' will be permitted. The creators of the map say themselves that the zones are 'purely projections' at this time and "will be updated once the California legislature decides on a definition". If you are worried about SB-50 it might be worth bookmarking this map and returning to it once this definition has actually been decided.