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Politico
30-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
Lawmakers are acting on CEQA now, voters might be next
BE THE CHANGE YOU CEQA — Lawmakers in Sacramento appear poised to pass two ambitious bills aimed at reforming California's environmental review process for new construction, known as the the California Environmental Quality Act. It may not be enough to keep major CEQA changes off the ballot in 2026. Those who argue the 1970 law hinders California's ability to build new homes see the two bills heading towards apparent victory, from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and state Sen. Scott Wiener, as a major breakthrough. Housing advocates had long assumed the only way to rewrite CEQA would be via the ballot, given labor and environmental opposition that has stymied past efforts to move major changes through the Legislature. Wicks' and Wiener's bills are 'probably the most forthright and direct attempts to reform the intersection of CEQA and housing that I have seen in a very long time,' Louis Mirante, who focuses on housing policy for the Bay Area Council, told Playbook. 'There's always more that you can do, but I think that both of these proposals would solve the lion's share of the problem.' But those groups aren't the only ones who have issues with CEQA. Other industries, from the energy sector and hospitals to commercial developers and homebuilders, might want to grab for themselves some of the momentum behind the two bills on the docket today — Wicks' AB 609, which would exempt most urban housing projects from environmental reviews, and Wiener's SB 607, which would speed up reviews for a range of projects, including infill housing. As Laura Foote, executive director of San Francisco-based YIMBY Action, put it: 'There are 100 different ways to take the garbage fire that is CEQA and put out some of the flames.' Conversations have already been underway about a potential ballot effort to chip away further at CEQA, although no decision has been made about what form such a measure would take or which parts of CEQA it would specifically target: Whether, for example, to add exemptions for specific sectors, speed up the review process for other forms of construction, or limit the kinds of lawsuits that can be brought against major projects. It adds up to either a great moment or an inopportune one to be taking the anti-CEQA fight directly to voters. On the one hand, the Wicks and Wiener bills — and the political power Gov. Gavin Newsom has put behind them as trailer bills to his budget — have drawn public attention to concerns about CEQA's impact. On the other, reformers have new reasons to hope they may be able to accomplish more legislatively than they previously thought. 'If the Legislature and the governor were not taking the kind of steps that we see… it might be a different story,' said Darrell Steinberg, a former Senate pro tem who authored CEQA reform legislation during his time in the Legislature. 'But they are moving, and they are addressing these issues — and it may be the beginning, not the end.' Whether an initiative is likely to move forward will become clearer in the coming weeks, as those with an interest in taking down parts of CEQA — from affordable-housing advocates to chambers of commerce to YIMBY activists — assess the final version of both bills and test potential ideas. Those who become convinced it's a politically viable cause will still have to determine whether they can craft a measure impervious to any future legislative workaround. 'You've got to change the politics in the Legislature for something like this to really stick,' said Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at the University of California, Davis who tracks housing legislation. 'I just don't see how you could write it in a way that would prevent the Legislature from undermining what you're trying to achieve.' NEWS BREAK: Supreme Court turns down LA landlords' rent claim … Late Sen. Dianne Feinstein's mansion sells in San Francisco … Attorney General Rob Bonta says 23andMe sale 'does not comply' with state law. Welcome to Ballot Measure Weekly, a special edition of Playbook PM focused on California's lively realm of ballot measure campaigns. Drop us a line at eschultheis@ and wmccarthy@ or find us on X — @emilyrs and @wrmccart. TOP OF THE TICKET A highly subjective ranking of the ballot measures — past and future, certain and possible — getting our attention this week. 1. Minimum wage (Los Angeles, 2026): The LA city clerk's office is examining the more than 140,000 signatures submitted Friday by a tourism-industry coalition to determine if they include the 92,998 necessary to qualify a referendum to repeal the city's new $30 minimum wage for hotel workers. Unite Here Local 11, which helped to pass the law, claimed Friday that 115,000 signatures are illegitimate because signature-gatherers misrepresented the petition to signers. 2. Save Prop 13 Act (2026?): Assemblymember Carl DeMaio's organization Reform California announced that it would help collect signatures for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association-sponsored amendment that would make it more challenging for local governments to pass taxes. DeMaio has long said he wants to play a role pushing at least three measures to next year's ballot. 3. Prop K (San Francisco, 2024): Embattled San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio is doorknocking across his Sunset neighborhood district in preparation for a September 16 recall election. Engardio finds his job in jeopardy after supporting last year's ballot measure closing the Great Highway to car traffic. Prop K passed citywide but was least popular in the neighborhoods in Engardio's district now being converted to parkland. 4. California Forever (Solano County, 2026?): The war of words between Suisun City and Solano County continues to grow. County supervisors accuse the struggling city of doing California Forever's bidding for their financial benefit, while Suisun City Manager Bret Prebula lashed out at the county for 'high school mud-slinging.' At a recent city council meeting, county officials showed a real-time video of the long empty drive between Suisun city limits and the developer's property to illustrate the infeasibility of the annexation plan. 5. School choice savings account (2026?): Mike Netter, architect of the successful signature collection effort for the failed 2021 recall of Newsom, has signed on to run a volunteer petition drive for an initiative to allow parents to use state funding to homeschool or send their children to non-public schools. Former Thousand Oaks mayor and community college professor Kevin McNamee plans to file the initiative at the end of July. 6. Prop 12 (2018): The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge from the Iowa Pork Producers Association over California's initiative establishing space requirements for animal products sold in the state. The pork industry continues to lobby Congress to pass a federal statute that would block enforcement of the California law, and allow out-of-state producers to sue the state for damages. 7. Prop 36 (2024): Law enforcement groups which locked arms to help pass last year's tough-on-crime measure are calling this year's budget allocations a 'blueprint for the failure of Proposition 36.' Although the most recent budget agreement offers $50 million for county behavioral health departments, $20 million for court costs and $15 million for pre-trial services, the California District Attorneys and California State Sheriffs associations say the lack of funding for county probation departments and targeted community interventions represents a 'slap in the face to California voters.' ON OTHER BALLOTS Arizona's state legislature approved an initiative for the November 2026 ballot that would require voter approval to raise local grocery sales taxes and cap them at 2 percent … The League of Women Voters in Arkansas has begun collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment that would send statutory election-law changes for voter approval, after state election officials rejected two previous versions of the group's preferred ballot language … Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson formally drew up the ballot order for 17 measures that will appear on the November 2025 ballot, including a constitutional amendment that would provide a property tax exemption for building border security infrastructure in counties along the U.S.-Mexico border … The first referendum in 18 years is headed for a vote in Utah next year, aiming to repeal a new state law that bans collective bargaining for public-sector unions … A group called Rank MI Vote is launching a constitutional amendment effort in Michigan to introduce ranked-choice voting on the statewide level … And the Montana Family Foundation filed suit with the state Supreme Court to invalidate an abortion-rights constitutional amendment approved in 2024, arguing that some late-registering voters didn't receive full voter guides and therefore didn't know what they were voting for. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ... PROP 56 (2016): If fear of death was not enough to stop people from smoking, pricey cigarettes may be. Ten years ago, Californians voted for the country's largest increase in cigarette prices when they approved Proposition 56, which more than tripled an existing excise tax on tobacco. The initiative passed nearly two-to-one even after a Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company-funded No campaign outspent supporters like then-future presidential candidate Tom Steyer by a similar margin. The $2-per-pack cigarette tax has raised about $1 billion annually since, but it is only now becoming clear that the increased cost to consumers has also delivered the initiative's promised impact in discouraging tobacco use. A study published this month by UC San Diego and UC San Francisco researchers found the number of Californians who successfully quit smoking for at least three months increased after Prop 56's passage, from 11.5 percent in the years prior to 14.2 percent after. In those states that did not raise prices via tax increases, the quit rate declined. Researchers pointed to price increases — including in three other states via ballot measure — as the biggest factor that contributed to quitting. 'Raising tobacco excise taxes is one of the main public health tools for reducing smoking prevalence. But to achieve a measurable increase in quitting on a population level, you may have to go big,' said Shu-Hong Zhu, professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego. POSTCARD FROM ... … SANTA CRUZ: This laid-back surfer town has proven it's not afraid to pick a fight with big, deep-pocketed out-of-town players. Just last year, voters approved a tax on sugary beverages in defiance of Coca-Cola and Pepsico and a state soda-tax ban the companies are now fighting to uphold in court. Now, the city government is facing off against an industry with a recent winning streak at the local ballot – the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors. By tapping into the resources made available from their state partners, the group has successfully beat back a 2018 rent control measure, a proposed empty home tax in 2020, and a downtown height restriction in 2024. 'We have a history of wins in Santa Cruz, and we're going to keep winning,' said Victor Gomez, the group's government-affairs director. To do so, the realtors will have to simultaneously play offense and defense against progressive housing activists over a pair of real estate transfer tax ballot measures that will come before voters this year. The first, the Santa Cruz Workforce Housing and Climate Protection Act, originated with the city council, which in 2023 began exploring a transfer and parcel tax to fund affordable housing. After polling indicated that a measure placed on the ballot by the city likely wouldn't reach the two-thirds supermajority required to pass a special tax, the council changed direction. It placed the proposal in the hands of a local progressive group called Housing Santa Cruz County, whose citizen's initiative requires only a simple majority. The realtors, worried that the transfer tax would decrease home sales within city limits, responded by mounting their own measure. The City of Santa Cruz Workforce Housing and Climate Protection Act of 2025, as the measure is called, would cut the parcel tax in half and essentially render the transfer tax irrelevant for much of the city's housing stock, only applying it to homeowners under 55 who sell properties worth more than $4 million. Mayor Fred Kealey, who is backing the council's original tax initiative, calls the real-estate industry's measure a 'dirty trick,' pointing to its copycat name that he believes is purposefully aiming to mislead residents into voting for the wrong measure. The two questions will now run side-by-side on the November ballot. Should both measures pass, the one receiving the most votes will take effect. 'I think we're in a better position because of this 'dirty trick,'' Gomez responds. 'I just call it genius.' THAT TIME VOTERS ... … TOOK A HOLIDAY: Later this week, Californians will enjoy a long weekend of grilling, watching fireworks and celebrating the Fourth of July. The state's voters have seen ballot measures on a wide variety of questions related to holidays and days off, including to: Require employees receive at least one day off per week, restricting work to six days or 48 hours except in emergencies (1914, failed) … Require a minimum amount of vacation time for workers, including four weeks of vacation per year for the first year in a job, five for the second and six in all following years (1990, did not qualify) … Create a state holiday dedicated to children, requiring schools to close for the day and the governor to send a message to all children in the United States encouraging them to study or practice a sport (2004, did not qualify) … Make statewide general election days into state holidays, requiring public schools to close and entitling some public employees to a paid holiday (2005, did not qualify) … Mandate that public schools offer opportunities for students to listen to or perform Christmas music during the holiday season (2009, did not qualify) … And designate the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November in even-numbered years, which aligns with Election Day in general elections, as a state holiday (2011, did not qualify).
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers push to fast-track radical housing model that could transform urban areas: 'Faster timelines and fewer bureaucratic hoops'
In February, a revolutionary housing bill was introduced in the California State Assembly. Assembly Bill 609 will streamline the approval process for urban multi-family housing on pre-developed land (a.k.a., infill housing). This presents an alternative to suburban sprawl, which develops unused land outside cities. California YIMBY, an organization that advocates for affordable housing, collaborated with Buffy Wicks, a California State Representative, to create the bill. If passed, infill housing will be exempt from review under California's Environmental Quality Act. Since it's been proven that infill housing benefits the environment, the bill's proponents argue that there's no need for such extensive review. "The science is clear: building infill housing in cities reduces pollution that causes climate change," Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY, said in a press release. "AB 609 codifies that science in law." According to the press release, new developments would still have to comply with local regulations, which are already approved by the CEQA. Building cheap, affordable housing in urban centers is key to solving California's ongoing housing crisis. Infill housing also takes less of an environmental toll. Residents will be closer to work and other daily necessities, meaning less pollution from cars and shorter commutes. More cities around the globe are waking up to infill housing. London's Elephant and Castle neighborhood utilizes infill housing to keep the city's emissions down, for example. If the process becomes simpler in California, it could set a great precedent for the rest of the United States. AB 609 is part of a larger package of bills introduced in the California state legislature in early 2025. A press release from Assemblymember Wicks' office said, "The Fast Track Housing package is about making our systems work better: clearer rules, faster timelines, and fewer bureaucratic hoops." Do you think America is in a housing crisis? Definitely Not sure No way Only in some cities Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Miami Herald
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
A California environmental law makes it ‘too damn hard' to build. But do Democrats have the will to reform it?
OAKLAND, Calif. - For years, this lot just south of the West Oakland BART station has sat vacant, surrounded by RVs and broken-down vehicles. This was supposed to be housing - a 222-unit tower with 16 apartments set aside for low-income renters. But soon after Oakland's planning commission signed off on the project, the decision was appealed. A coalition of trade unions, using the California Environmental Quality Act, demanded that the developer conduct more studies to assess the soil's contamination levels - a process that could hold up construction for months. The developer, Scott Cooper, said the unions offered to drop the appeal - if he agreed to use more expensive union subcontractors. He declined. The appeal proceeded. Ten months later, Cooper finally won - but in that time, interest rates spiked, making the project financially unappealing. "They killed it," Cooper said. "Right now, the project should be complete." The California Environmental Quality Act, better known as CEQA, passed in 1970. It was meant to require governments to study any environmental harm a development might cause and take steps to lessen it. But over time, critics say, the law has become a powerful tool for obstruction, letting almost anyone file lawsuits or appeals that can hinder construction of critical public infrastructure and housing - including projects that would help advance the state's environmental goals. Each year, 200 CEQA lawsuits are filed in California. Most of these target housing. That total doesn't include cases that don't make it to court, like the West Oakland tower. They can still delay a project with lengthy studies and additional government approvals. In recent years, legislators have poked holes in CEQA, adding exemptions for certain types of affordable housing. But this year, lawmakers are proposing the most sweeping reforms yet. A bill by Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, AB 609, would exempt most housing built in existing neighborhoods from required environmental reviews. Another, SB 607, proposed by San Francisco Democrat Scott Wiener, would raise the famously low bar for those looking to challenge such environmental reviews. "It's been politically fraught to engage on CEQA in a really meaningful way, because there's been interest groups that like to keep it exactly the way it is," Wicks said. "The result of the status quo is that it is too damn hard to build anything in California." Wicks and Wiener see an opening where they didn't before. Democrats view the November election as a wake-up call. Some within the party say its focus on process and coalition-building has come at the expense of meaningful action, especially on housing, for which the state is 2 million units short. "We have to show that Democrats can get things done," Wiener said. But to overhaul CEQA, Democrats may risk crossing some of the core members of their coalition - groups like trade unions and environmentalists that have been stalwart defenders of the law. "People say, 'Nothing gets built,'" said Jennifer Ganetta, legal director for Communities for a Better Environment, one of the many environmental groups that has lined up to oppose the bills. "But what about the projects that are built, and they're better because we had CEQA?" Trade unions are especially resistant to reform - they often use CEQA as a cudgel to extract concessions from developers. As a result of their intervention, nearly every CEQA exemption bill passed so far has come with a major provision: to get the exemption, a developer must hire union-affiliated workers, or pay their laborers higher wages and provide health benefits. Developers say that increases their costs significantly. Few have taken advantage of the exemptions, a report by the pro-housing group YIMBY Law found. For Cooper's project in West Oakland, using union labor would have increased building costs by around $10 million. "If we're in a housing crisis, shouldn't we want to build as much housing as possible for as cheap as possible?" he asked. But solving the housing crisis shouldn't come at the expense of workers, the trades argue. "We've made projects better because of our members exercising the laws as they were designed," said John Dalrymple, a representative for a coalition of Bay Area trade unions. "None of these projects were stopped because of our interventions." Wicks' bill may be heading for a showdown in Sacramento with the unions as early as this week: Unlike previous CEQA reform bills, hers does not currently include a prevailing wage provision. The trades are likely to negotiate for one, and their significant influence in the Legislature suggests they'll get it. During the last two election cycles, the State Building and Construction Trades Council and its affiliated unions donated over $24 million to lawmakers in the two chambers. In the last election cycle, the trade unions' political action committees donated $8 million to California legislative candidates - more than any other groups, including Uber, the oil and gas companies and law enforcement unions. But certain factors have aligned this year that could undermine the union's power. The Legislature saw enormous turnover, welcoming more new members than at any time in the last 10 years. Wicks has also ascended in rank - this year, she was appointed chair of the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee - the place where legislators decide if a bill lives or dies. Wicks is relatively independent from the trades, compared to some of her Democratic peers. The associated unions donated just 8% of her total campaign chest in the last two election cycles, whereas they made up 25% of donations to other Bay Area lawmakers, including newly elected Sen. Jesse Arreguín of Berkeley and Assemblymember Liz Ortega of Hayward. The State Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents hundreds of thousands of construction workers, declined to state a position on Wicks' or Wiener's bills. The Nor Cal Carpenters Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For now, lawmakers are working to ensure the trade unions don't feel isolated. When asked whether he worries the trades could block his CEQA bill, Wiener said they're "major stakeholders" who will continue to "have a seat at the table." Beyond the trades, Wiener and Wicks are also meeting resistance from advocates for the environment and local control, who say that the proposed reforms would give community groups fewer opportunities to raise concerns about a project and result in less transparent environmental review. "CEQA has lots of things that keep it from being too burdensome," said Stuart Flashman, who has brought several CEQA lawsuits on behalf of environmental groups. The result of the interest groups' intervention may be another CEQA exemption bill that Democrats weigh down with provisions to appease all of them. Robert Selna, a land use attorney who represents developers in environmental cases, worries that won't be enough to spur more housing. "You can do everything you want around the edges of CEQA," Selna said. "But CEQA reform is necessary in order to solve the housing crisis." _____ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
