Sam Alcorn
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samalcorn.bsky.social
Sam Alcorn
@samalcorn.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.2K following 2K posts
Housing abundance. Urbanism. Zoning abolitionist. Accessibility Compliance expert. YIMBY. Located in Tovaangar. #OverturnEuclid
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samalcorn.bsky.social
I’m so excited about this portion of SB 79 here in CA. Combined with the IZ requirements in the bill, it should result in more BMR units in high-resource census tracts:
From the text of SB 79: (m)Beginning on January 1, 2027, a local government that denies a housing development project meeting the requirements of this section that is located in a high-resource area shall be presumed to be in violation of the Housing Accountability Act (Section 65589.5) and immediately liable for penalties pursuant to subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (k) of Section 65589.5, unless the local government demonstrates, pursuant to the standards in subdivisions (j) and (o) of Section 65589.5, that it has a health, life, or safety reason for denying the project.
November 13, 2025 at 9:58 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Today is a good day to wear this T-shirt. Tomorrow will be a good day to wear this shirt. Next week will be a good time to wear it:

voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4381...

Available in a range of colors and sizes. All cotton.
A T-shirt with text reading, “RELEASE THE GODDAMN EPSTEIN FILES”
November 12, 2025 at 6:59 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Periodic reminder to Democratic state and Federal lawmakers: not touching single-family zoning (designed from the start for purposes of exclusion) is a page right out of the MAGA playbook. Specifically, page 511:
From page 511 of Project 2025: It is essential that legislation provides states and localities maximal flexibility to pursue locally designed policies and minimize the likelihood of federal preemption of local land use and zoning decisions. In the same manner, Congress should prioritize any and all legislative support for the single-family home. Homeownership forms the backbone of the American Dream. The purchase of a home is the largest investment most Americans will make in their lifetimes, and homeownership remains the most accessible way to build generational wealth for millions of Americans. For these reasons, American homeowners and citizens know best what is in the interest of their neighborhoods and communities. Localities rather than the federal government must have the final say in zoning laws and regulations, and a conservative Administration should oppose any efforts to weaken single-family zoning.
November 12, 2025 at 2:54 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Get your US Representative and then Senator to vote for the release of the Epstein files. Wear this shirt proudly everywhere you go. Available in many colors and a full range of sizes:

voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4381...
An all-cotton T-shirt for sale reading, “RELEASE THE GODDAMN EPSTEIN FILES”
November 12, 2025 at 1:47 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
ADUs can be restricted from High or Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones. And the city has restricted ADUs from lots that are both a) in a VHFSZ and b) front a street <20’W in a Hillside Area, as defined by the Hillside Area Map.
cityclerk.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2...
Can local agencies restrict ADUs based on Fire Hazard Severity Zones or other environmental hazards? HCD understands that extreme weather conditions occur, and the threat of destructive wildfires cannot be ignored. Some agencies have used the High (HFHS) and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone (VHFHSZ) maps provided by CAL FIRE to mark areas where ADUs may be restricted or prohibited altogether. However, according to CAL FIRE, the HFHSZ and VHFHSZ maps are intended to govern building materials used in construction and defining zones of defensibility around structures. These are not intended to restrict housing development. The presence of a High Fire Hazard Severity Zone is not a conclusive rationale to warrant restricting ADUs. A restriction based on the threat to public safety should be supported with findings detailing the impact of ADUs on public safety. (Gov. Code, § 66314, subd. (a).)
November 11, 2025 at 1:27 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com
Logo for Voice of Dissent Wear https://voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:33 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
A birdie on my shoulder told me about this great shop on Etsy that sells T-shirts you might like. If this color isn’t to your liking, they’re available in many different colors.
A T-shirt for sale with text reading “ZONING ABOLITIONIST” then under that “OVERTURN EUCLID” Available in many colors! https://voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4376780429
November 6, 2025 at 11:14 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Never seen this train so crowded.
November 3, 2025 at 5:49 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
The “residential” building code exists in the first place for very bad reasons. Don’t ever forget that. Lawrence Veiller, addressing the NAHB in 1913:
From the NAHB proceedings, 1913: MR. LAWRENCE VEILLER, Secretary, National Housing As- sociation, New York City: The question is "How can we keep apartment houses and tenement houses and flats out of our city?" Before 212 NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION we can answer that we must be sure that we want to keep them out. If we put it to a vote in any one of your cities, I think we would find it very difficult to get a vote against an apartment house. I am not for it —don't misunderstand me — but I do recognize that it provides a very convenient way of living, and because of the servant question, which Mr. Davis alluded to, a great many people prefer it. Per-sonally, I think it indicates a very bad tendency and will have a very bad effect on American life and upon our political and social conditions. I don't think you can have proper homes in an apartment house of the highest type. The question is, " How are we going to stop it?" I think there is a way; at least, I have tried it and I think it is going to work. In framing our laws to regulate the construction of dwellings of all kinds, do everything possible in our laws to encourage the construction of private dwellings and even two-family dwellings, because the two-family house is the next least objectionable type, and penalize so far as we can in our statute, the multiple dwelling of any kind, whether it is flat, apartment house or tenement house. It If we require multiple dwellings to be fireproof, and thus increase the cost of construction; if we require stairs to be fireproofed, even where there are only three families; if we require fire-escapes and a host of other things, all dealing with fire protection, we are on safe grounds, because that can be justified as a legitimate exercise of the police power. We can show the necessity of these extra precautions where many families live in a dwelling, and at the same time we have made it difficult to build apartment houses. I recommend that method to the conference. In our laws let most of our fire provisions relate solely to multiple dwellings, CITIES OF HOMES 218 and allow our private houses and two-family houses to be built with almost no fire protection whatever.
October 29, 2025 at 9:48 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
And there are still sometimes overlays in the new zoning strings:
Diagram of new zoning designation strings for the City of LA: Building Relationship to the Street Development Standards Permitted Uses Number of Units Optional (when applicable) | [ FORM - FRONTAGE - STANDARDS] [USE - DENSITY ][PLAN OVERLAY ] Built Environment Activity Supplemental Regulations
October 29, 2025 at 4:05 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
And the zoning strings in the new LA Zoning Code, being rolled out slowly as each of the 34 Community Plans get updated, are even longer and more complex. Thankfully, it gets rid of the hassle of looking up [Q] conditions separately, but my god are there a lot of designations.
Where Does the New Zoning Code Apply? As City Planning updates its 34 Community Plans, the New Zoning Code will implement the policies and goals for the different neighborhoods across Los Angeles. Check below to see if your property is within a Community Plan Area that has transitioned to the New Zoning Code, Chapter 1A. New Zoning Work Status Adopted-Downtown - Downtown New Zoning Under Council Review - Boyle Heights - Harbor Gateway - Wilmington New Zoning Under Development - Canoga Park-Winnetka-Woodland Hills-West Hills planning.lacity.gov
October 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
That’s exactly the sort of thing that’s radicalized me over the years, to the point where I had to make a T-shirt advertising my position:

voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4376...
A T-shirt that says, “ZONING ABOLITIONIST OVERTURN EUCLID!”
October 29, 2025 at 3:21 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
All-cotton T-shirt available in many colors in a full range of sizes: “RELEASE THE GODDAMN EPSTEIN FILES”

voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4381...
An all-cotton T-shirt printed with the text, “RELEASE THE GODDAMN EPSTEIN FILES” Shown here in orange, but available in many colors. Photo taken outside during the day on a sidewalk, in front of a street tree and an ivy-covered brick wall.
October 26, 2025 at 4:44 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
New shirt: MAGA = RINO
Remember when right-wing candidates used to disparage their opponents by claiming they were Republicans In Name Only? I don’t know how anyone can think the MAGA Party has any relation to the party of Lincoln besides its name.

voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4392...
October 25, 2025 at 6:33 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
@stephenjacobsmith.com, I wonder if you’ve read this book from 1982. Chapter 3 might be especially interesting to you:

archive.org/details/reso...
Chapter 3 THE ECONOMICS OF BUILDING CODES AND STANDARDS Peter F. Colwell James B. Kau
October 25, 2025 at 2:31 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
From several decades before the Mast paper we all like to cite:
1981] INCLUSIONARY ZONING 1185 housing. As time passes, any individual housing init tends to filter downward in relative quality as its components depreciate, and as its layout and equipment become obsolete. The central point about filtering is this: low- and moderate-income families benefit from the construction of housing at all levels of quality, including the highest quality units that they could not conceivably afford to buy. The infusion of new lousing units into a regional market sets off a chain of noves that eventually tends to increase vacancy rates (or reduce prices) in the housing stock within the neans of low- and moderate-income families. Conse-quently, an excellent way—-perhaps even the best way-to improve the housing conditions of low- and moderate-income families is to increase the production of housing priced beyond their reach. 83 Although this trickle-down process does not occur instantaneously or without some friction, most housing economists agree that it does work in due time, 84 and that it has produced in the United States a housing stock that is the envy of the world. 8s
October 24, 2025 at 4:50 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
My estimate is that 516 acres of this specific plan area is subject to SB 79, out of a total of 1,889 acres.
A GIS map of the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan Area in San Diego, overlaid with my estimate of the area in it subject to SB 79.
October 22, 2025 at 6:24 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
All-cotton T-shirt available now in many colors and sizes:

voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4381...
T-shirt for sale: Release the goddamn Epstein files https://voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4381159847
October 22, 2025 at 4:33 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4380...
October 21, 2025 at 8:35 PM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Sure, but once Menlo Park meets the threshold (which is quite close; 2020 pop was 33,872), it’ll be bordered by more SB 79 area. A corner of one of the giant lots in Atherton is w/in 1/4 mi of a Caltrain station.
October 15, 2025 at 7:32 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Burlingame, for example, is less than 5k from the threshold. It’s got a weird chasm at its border like Emeryville does. Most of the towns along the the Caltrain route are close to the threshold, except for Atherton.
A GIS map of SB 79 area in Burlingame.
October 15, 2025 at 5:06 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
A photo of a GIS map showing the Manhattan Beach country club, half covered by SB 79 upzoning
October 15, 2025 at 3:49 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Incidentally, Emeryville and El Segundo are right next to each other on the alphabetical list of CA towns/cities. Both have much less than 35k population.
A photo of an alphabetical list of California cities with their populations
October 15, 2025 at 3:44 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Yes indeed. Perhaps even weirder than Emeryville.
A GIS map of SB 79 areas in El Segundo showing very strange shapes A GIS map of SB 79 areas in El Segundo showing very strange shapes
October 15, 2025 at 3:34 AM
samalcorn.bsky.social
Per the 2010 ADA Standards, accessible routes have to be at least 36”W, but can go down to 32”W for a maximum distance of 24”. Those tree wells look like they’re probably >24”.
403.5.1 Clear Width. Except as provided in 403.5.2 and 403.5.3, the clear width of walking surfaces shall be 36 inches (915 mm) minimum. EXCEPTION: The clear width shall be permitted to be reduced to 32 inches (815 mm) minimum for a length of 24 inches (610 mm) maximum provided that reduced width segments are separated by segments that are 48 inches (1220 mm) long minimum and 36 inches (915 mm) wide minimum. Figure 403.5.1 24 max. 610 48 min 1 36 min 915 min 815 24 max 610 32 min 815 smin Clear Width of an Accessible Route
October 14, 2025 at 11:19 PM