SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday passed major changes to the California Environmental Quality Act in what supporters say is a historic move to get more housing built across the state.
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Facing a major housing supply shortage and cost of living crisis, the governor said California could not wait any longer for the legislation that had been making its way through the state’s typical lawmaking process. Newsom last week announced that his signature on the state’s $321.1 billion budget relied entirely on the California Legislature approving the measures. By looping the proposal into the state budget, the new law takes effect on Tuesday.
“Today is a big deal,” Gov. Newsom said at a news conference where he signed the legislation on Monday night. “This is the most consequential housing reform in modern history in the state of California. Long overdue? Absolutely.”
The legislation specifically exempts new housing in urban infill areas from the California Environmental Quality Act, also known as CEQA. That means groups against a new apartment in Sacramento, for example, would no longer be able to slow or stop the project by suing over possible environmental violations. The legislation also makes changes to CEQA’s processes overall to speed up not just housing, but also infrastructure projects.
While CEQA is meant to protect the environment, supporters note the law has been increasingly weaponized by groups that seek to stop affordable housing projects because they don’t want them built in their neighborhood. It has also been used by labor groups as a bargaining chip seeking a project labor agreement, or by businesses attempting to undermine their competition.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, has said that while local governments already have a process to determine if a project meets environmental standards, groups will still file these environmental lawsuits.
Under the state’s laws prior to Monday’s signing, it took an average of four years to build housing in California, and it can take even longer in larger cities like San Francisco.
“Today we told the world we are ready to be open for business, the business of being open for housing,” Wicks said Monday night.
It’s not clear how soon California could see ramped-up housing production or how many more homes this will help build in the short term.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, noted legislation to ramp up Accessory Dwelling Units took five to six years to really increase production.
Yes build more housing to cover up productive agriculture lands and bring much higher taxes into the state coffers for the “Tax and Spenders” who the electorate have put into office to enrich themselves and their friends. Always remember that politicians rarely do anything for the people unless there is a benefit to themselves.
This is more stupid is as stupid does….. OR failure is as failure does…..
The Democrats have failed. Their excuse is to flood the state with illegals and congested “Pack’m & Stack’m” housing that will never work.
How many hundreds of millions did the feckless Biden Admin. funnel to Slick and the Radical Socialist State in Sacramento to fund what the State of Calif. Taxpayer cannot afford?
Where is the housing costs and roads going to come from? Oh that is right Slick Newsom moves to a multi million house called a farm that is nothing more than a tax write-off.
So there you goooooooooooo…..
You now see the pretense in New York that is openly RADICALIZED COMMUNIST AND IT IS CLEAR NEWSOM, WIENER AND THE REST ARE NOW MARCHING DOWN THE ROAD OF COMMUNISM.
You vote Dem. in Calif.????? This is what you get.