This editorial board does not often agree with Gov. Gavin Newsom, as anyone who reads these pages knows.
But one public policy area in which he has often had the best instincts is on housing.
Last week, the governor urged the California Legislature to approve two pieces of legislation to make it easier for housing to be built in urban areas.
Specifically, he lent his support to Assembly Bill 609 from Asm. Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, and Senate Bill 607 from Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.
“It’s time to get serious about this issue, period, full stop,” Newsom said this morning. “If you care about your kids you care about getting this done. This is the biggest opportunity to do something big and bold and the only impediment is us.”
AB 609 would exempt most infill development from review under the California Environmental Quality Act. While we would prefer a comprehensive CEQA reform effort, this exemption is quite significant in scope and is an implicit admission that CEQA, as it currently exists, is flawed and a real barrier to housing construction.
The fact is that CEQA has long been weaponized by special interests to hold up or block housing developments for reasons other than genuine environmental concern. This includes unions trying to force union labor on developers, business competitors and just generic NIMBYs.
SB 607, as summarized by CalMatters, would “make it easier for state and local governments to approve projects — housing and otherwise — without conducting a full, lengthy review and exempt certain zoning changes for infill projects from CEQA entirely.”
Among the changes, according to Wiener’s office, the bill “Focuses CEQA review on the most germane administrative records by excluding communications of persons tangential or far removed from project decision-making, with specified exemptions.”
Taken together, AB 609 and SB 607 will indeed help remove unjustified barriers to and outside interference from much needed housing developments.
His ongoing support for housing liberalization is perhaps Newsom’s most consequential and beneficial policy achievement. And for that, we credit him.
