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California is the most expensive state in the country to buy a house for a host of reasons, including a lack of inventory and high costs of building. One oft-blamed culprit is the California Environmental Quality Act. Developers say CEQA, enacted in 1970, made housing more expensive by piling on environmental regulations and making it too easy for individuals to file lawsuits against projects in their communities. This summer, the state legislature amended the law with the goal of making it faster and less expensive to build housing in California. We’ll talk about how much of a difference CEQA reform could make in addressing the Bay Area’s housing shortage and where – and when – we might see new developments.
