State Adds Nearly 100,000 New Jobs in February

Finally some good news on the jobs front. The Labor Dept. reported this morning that California added 96,500 jobs in February, far more than any other state - and almost as much as had been created in the state during the previous 11 months.

It's an encouraging sign. For the LA Times story, click here.

AB 208 Moves Through First Hearing with Bipartisan Support

Legislation to help protect the nearly 2,500 existing tentative tract maps and parcel maps by statutorily extending tentative subdivision and parcel maps for an additional 24 months was approved Wednesday by an Assembly committee.

AB 208, by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, chair of the Appropriations Committee, was approved by the Local Government Committee on consent and with full bipartisan support. Fuentes continues to be a stalwart supporter of the homebuilding industry as demonstrated by his authoring of AB 333 in 2009, and again this year with AB 208, the California Building Industry Association reports.

AB 208 will next be heard in the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development on April 6.



Oak Woodlands Update for Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Oak Woodlands Habitat Conservation Strategic Alliance, comprised of Los Angeles County Foresters, Regional Planning staff, Board of Supervisors staff, Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains (RCDSMM) staff, Building Industry Association (BIA) staff, University of California Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program (UC/IHRMP) staff, California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) staff, local arborists and consultants have released the Draft Los Angeles County Oak Woodlands Conservation Management  Plan, March 2011.  This plan evolved over a two year period, and incorporates the input from over 100 community members, as well as over 3,500 hours of time spent reading, writing and thinking about oak woodlands. 

The group, lead by Rosi Dagit, Senior Conservation Biologist at RCD of the Santa Monica Mountains, set out to preserve southern California's vital and rapidly shrinking oak woodlands, balance the regulatory elements of the existing Los Angeles County Oak Tree Protection Ordinance with incentives to encourage voluntary conservation and expansion of oak woodlands, and allow access to the State of California Oak Woodlands Conservation Fund to encourage preservation and expansion of oak woodlands as wells as provide guidance for balancing the long-term housing needs of the County with conservation and enhancement of oak woodlands.   The draft plan, which is available at www.lacountyoakwoodlandplan.org will soon be presented to the Board of Supervisors for their consideration. 

Development Proposals in Ventura County

The Ventura County Star has a nice interactive map on its website that allows people to see where developments are planned in unincorporated areas and in the cities. From the main county map linked to above there are buttons on the top right-hand side to click to get to the city maps. Note that some of the city links are listed on the "More Maps" bar and are easy to find but the rest of them are located just below that and the white font the paper uses gets lost on the Google map.

Is the Worst of the Foreclosure Crisis Over?

A story in today's Daily News suggests that the worst of the foreclosure crisis may be behind us, at least in the San Fernando Valley. According to a report by the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge, notices of default - the first step in the process - plunged to 903 from 1,234 a year ago and 999 in January.

The number of homes lost to foreclosure was also lower in February. The survey found that foreclosures fell last month to 409 properties from 450 a year earlier and 424 in January. Foreclosures are now down 55.5 percent from the record monthly high of 919 in June 2009.

Economist Nancy Sidhu, Director of the Kyser Center for Economic Research in Los Angeles, said that this is an encouraging sign since the number of default notices foretells foreclosure activity in the coming months.

If this is not simply an issue of banks holding off (issuing notices). It suggests we're on the far side of that mountain and that's all to the good.

Of course, all the news wasn't good. Valley home sales fell in February for the eighth straight month as 973 new and existing houses changed owners, down 13 percent from a year earlier and 10.5 percent from January.

But in another glimmer of good news, the median price rose slightly to $378,000 from $370,000 in January and $375,000 a year earlier.