(CN) --- Clearing a path for new housing, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday inked legislation intended to streamline environmental review for projects over $15 million.
Newsom and supporters say the goal is to expedite the arduous and prolonged legal challenges known to hold up major infrastructure and housing developments and finally cut into the Golden State’s glaring housing deficit. The Democratic governor said the bill is the result of “remarkable cooperation” between builders, local politicians and environmental groups and will aid in the state’s pandemic recovery.
“This bill deserves attention,” Newsom said during a signing ceremony in San Jose. “This bill is about the investment in the future of the state of California; this bill is about our comeback.”
Backed by state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and a coalition of construction trade unions, Senate Bill 7 will allow qualifying housing projects to benefit from a fast-tracked review process already offered for other major developments. Over the last decade, the state has greenlighted nearly 20 projects for expedited review, including Apple’s Cupertino campus and the Golden State Warriors’ arena in San Francisco.
Despite the jarring need for new housing and spiking homelessness rates, myriad obstacles continue to slow progress in the Golden State: For two consecutive years California has seen a drop in housing production.
But with the state struggling to reduce the multi-million home shortage, Newsom and lawmakers now want to cut red tape for housing developers as well.
Of the various hurdles to building housing in California, such as real estate prices and labor costs, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuits are often the most difficult for developers to clear.
Instead of protecting the environment, critics say CEQA has given anti-development groups a surefire way to delay and squash projects by requiring builders to undertake unnecessary studies and fight costly litigation. CEQA has been blamed for stalling everything from new apartment buildings to urban transit stops and even nature trails.
According to supporters, SB 7 won’t lower the threshold for environmental review, just speed it up.
Under SB 7, state courts will have 270 days to decide CEQA lawsuits filed against housing projects in the $15-100 million range. In addition, developers will have to submit plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions during the construction phase and designate at least 15% of the new units as affordable housing.
Atkins, D-San Diego, says her bill will not only produce housing but spur new jobs as the state continues to see high unemployment.
“More jobs, more business, more affordable housing,” Atkins said.
One of the projects that figures to benefit is Google’s 80-acre mixed-use project planned for San Jose that will include around 4,000 housing units and 7.3 million square feet of office space.
Newsom, Atkins and local officials held Thursday’s signing ceremony at the proposed site for the tech giant’s massive project. Newsom called Google’s proposal one of the most important projects pending in the state and said it could be used as a statewide model going forward.
Atkins' proposal breezed through the Assembly and state Senate in overwhelming bipartisan fashion, but there were detractors --- including one of the state’s most ritzy cities.
In an opposition letter, the city of Beverly Hills, home to some of the most expensive properties in the state, said the 15% affordable housing requirement was too low.
“Given the magnitude of our affordable housing crisis, we believe that this important process subsidy should be reserved for projects that produce a more significant amount of affordable units,” the city’s letter states.
Claiming the expedited review would add strain to state courts, the Judicial Council of California also opposed SB 7.
"Imposing a 270-day timeline for the review of potentially hundreds of housing projects, on top of existing CEQA calendar preferences… is an arbitrary and unrealistically short timeframe for California's trial courts to address all of the issues each CEQA case is likely to present," the council warned.
The opponents were ultimately outdone by a diverse group of supporters including major cities, tech titans like Google and Facebook, and labor unions.
“Insufficient supply has been driving up the cost of housing across the state and more acutely in major metropolitan areas,” the city of San Diego wrote in support of the bill. “The additional criteria and focus of SB 7 places on housing projects will provide impetus to build creative, mixed-use projects in San Diego and throughout the state.”
The proposal is one piece of the “Building Opportunities for All” housing package introduced earlier this year by Atkins and state Democrats. The plan also calls for small apartments near transit centers, the creation of a new affordable housing bond, residential projects in existing retail and commercial zones and a wave of new duplexes.
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