East Palo Alto puts the brake on the COPA train

On March 1, East Palo Alto City Council met and failed to pass a dubious, overly complex ordinance that would privilege nonprofits in the real estate market, at the expense of mom and pop property owners. Councilman Carlos Romero moved that City Staff take the rest of the year to work on an updated ordinance and that it returns to Council before the end of the year. SJ's Housing Department's version of the ordinance (called COPA in San Jose) has run into withering criticism from all sectors of the real estate economy as an onerous, intrusive, and byzantine ordinance--and one that potentially would actually increase housing costs in the city. The following are notes from community leaders regarding the EPA vote.

The added scrutiny of an open process will inevitably change things as homeowners become fully aware of the destructive power of OPA on our local real estate market.

Mayor Abrica started talking about removing single-family homes and Councilwoman Gauthier was indicating that removing "Right of First Refusal" would make sense. Councilwoman Regina Wallace-Jones asked that in-person public hearings occur as part of this revised process, and Councilman Antonio Lopez asked that the debate occur in chambers, not on Zoom.

It is of note that 35+ people were not allowed to speak last night against OPA. City Staff appears to be cherry picking who talks and who does not speak on OPA.

An important part of this debate was Councilman Antonio Lopez strongly coming out against OPA with an editorial in the Palo Alto Post:

Regina Wallace-Jones continued to express skepticism and opposition to OPA based on facts, analysis, and common sense.

Councilmember Lopez' Palo Alto Post editorial can be found here:

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