On Monday, California enacted an important new law breaking down a key regulatory barrier to new housing construction. The CalMatters website has a helpful summary:
A decade-spanning political battle between housing developers and defenders of California's preeminent environmental law likely came to an end this afternoon with only a smattering of "no" votes.
The forces of housing won.
With the passage of a state budget-related housing bill, the California Environmental Quality Act will be a non-issue for a decisive swath of urban residential development in California.
In practice, that means most new apartment buildings will no longer face the open threat of environmental litigation.
It also means most urban developers will no longer have to study, predict and mitigate the ways that new housing might affect local traffic, air pollution, flora and fauna, noise levels, groundwater quality and objects of historic or archeological significance.
And it means that when housing advocates argue that the state isn't doing enough to build more homes amid crippling rents and stratospheric prices, they won't — with a few exceptions — have CEQA to blame anymore.
"Saying 'no' to housing in my community will no longer be state sanctioned," said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat who introduced the CEQA law as a separate bill in March. "This isn't going to solve all of our housing problems in the state, but it is going to remove the single biggest impediment to building environmentally friendly housing…."
[F]or years, the building industry and "Yes in my backyard" activists have identified the law as a key culprit behind California's housing shortage. That's because the law allows any individual or group to sue if they argue that a required environmental study isn't accurate, expansive or detailed enough. Such lawsuits — and even the mere threat of them —add a degree of delay, cost and uncertainty that make it impossible for the state to build its way to affordability, CEQA's critics argue.
