A specter is haunting California — the specter of CEQA.
The 1970 statute known as the California Environmental Quality Act could get a major reform if lawmakers in Sacramento pass a bill exempting urban housing development from onerous impact studies weighing the risk of traffic, noise and pollution.
The bill, AB-609, would make environmental impact reports a thing of the past for most new housing projects across the state. And it would take away a powerful weapon used to squash projects through litigation. Such lawsuits often have nothing to do with protecting the environment, according to the bill’s sponsor, Assembly member Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat.
“Why does it take so long to build housing in California? CEQA, America’s premier environmental protection law,” Wicks said in an Assembly committee hearing Tuesday night. “It’s a very blunt tool, and it has helped slow or stall countless good projects. I’m particularly talking about housing projects.”
If passed, the bill would automatically exempt all multifamily projects spanning up to 20 acres in urbanized areas. It would fast track the development of so-called “infill” lots where Wicks said environmental studies are an unnecessary burden.
CEQA has so far largely been spared from reform even as state lawmakers have passed a flurry of laws to tackle the state’s housing crisis and crack down on nimbyism in recent years. New laws now force cities to accommodate more development through California’s Housing Element Law, speed up permitting and make it easier to add accessory dwelling units to single-family lots.
But Dave Rand, a Los Angeles-based land use lawyer who has been on the frontlines of the state’s CEQA battles, said in testimony Tuesday that AB-609 is “the most consequential single piece of housing legislation” he has seen.
“It’s the only bill that made a CEQA consultant call me up in a complete panic and say, ‘Dave, this is going to put me out of business,’” Rand told the committee members. “And that’s exactly why you should vote for it.”
The bill survived the crucial committee vote Tuesday night, and also gained a key endorsement from the California Conference of Carpenters, one of several construction trade unions that typically has a stake in state housing policy.
That’s a dramatic change of tune for the carpenters union, which uses CEQA to sue developers on environmental grounds when talks over labor provisions break down. In recent years, the union’s Los Angeles chapter along with the Laborers’ Local 300 stymied Icon’s Panorama City with litigation, delaying the $150 million project for eight years.
“No wonder only one in seven households [in California] can afford to buy a home, the second-worst rate in America,” Wicks said during the bill’s hearing Tuesday. “No wonder two-thirds of lower-income households have to sacrifice some of their most basic needs — food, education, health care to pay to keep a roof over their heads.”
The Natural Resources Committee passed the bill by a vote of 12-2, a feat given the committee’s history of supporting pro-environment legislation.
“You’re nothing if not bold,” Assemblymember Ash Kalra told Wicks during the hearing. “Everyone at the very least should respect that you’re trying to find solutions to our most pressing issue.”
AB-609 will now make its way to the full state Assembly for a vote before the state Senate takes it up.
Rand was hopeful about its prospects, but said Wicks will need to continue to unite a coalition of labor and industry interests to see it succeed.
“There’s a change in attitude,” Rand told The Real Deal after the hearing. “People are starting to realize that this is a primary concern among voters. This is the direction of the Democratic Party.”
