Following 4 days of common scorn after making an attempt to dam a brand new state legislation permitting duplexes on single-family loads through stating itself a “mountain-lion habitat,” the rich Silicon Valley enclave of Woodside has sponsored down.
On the finish of a just about 90-minute the town emergency The city Council assembly Sunday evening, nearly all of which was once held in closed consultation to talk about possible litigation, town officers introduced they might start accepting programs for brand new duplexes.
The exchange got here after a whirlwind sparked through a tale revealed Wednesday in the Almanac native newspaper, revealing that town officers would refuse to allow duplexes and different initiatives allowed beneath Senate Invoice 9 as a result of all the group sits in land that’s habitat for doubtlessly endangered mountain lions.
The city of five,500 is without doubt one of the maximum high-end communities in California and an enclave for tech titans. Oracle founder Larry Ellison reportedly spent $200 million construction a Eastern-style sixteenth century imperial palace throughout 23 acres in Woodside.
The bid to evade the housing legislation, which took impact Jan. 1, was once particularly brazen as a result of beneath the definition of “mountain-lion habitat” utilized by Woodside, all of coastal California south of San Francisco, together with everything of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties would qualify.
Woodside officers had defended the transfer as delicate to the massive cats, however others had puzzled why the city was once OK with allowing mansions however now not duplexes.
Even cougar defenders criticized Woodside. Josh Rosenau, a conservation suggest for the Mountain Lion Basis, instructed The Occasions ultimate week that blanket prohibitions towards enlargement in already advanced spaces isn’t required through the state’s endangered species regulations and doesn’t if truth be told offer protection to pumas.
“Fear for mountain lions isn’t what’s using that coverage as it’s now not what any mountain-lion skilled would suggest doing,” Rosenau mentioned.
Previous Sunday, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta chastised the town in a letter, pronouncing its coverage was once each a crime and the California Charter, and asked Woodside exchange path.
In a remark learn through Assistant The city Atty. Kai Ruess on the finish of Sunday evening’s assembly, the town officers didn’t deal with Bonta’s letter or the outcry surrounding its determination. As an alternative, they blamed a loss of steerage on endangered species regulations from state flora and fauna officers for the duplex ban.
“The Division of Fish and Natural world recommended that all the the town of Woodside can’t be regarded as habitat,” Ruess mentioned. “As such, the The city Council has directed personnel to instantly start accepting SB 9 programs.”
