Bill to Reform Controversial California Environmental Law Clears First Legislative Hurdle

Updated 9:57 a.m. Tuesday

A bill to exempt some housing projects from a controversial California law that pro-building activists blame for slowing down development cleared its first legislative hurdle this week.

On Monday, the State Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee approved AB 609, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Berkeley), which would exempt infill housing projects built within existing cities from review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

“Why does it take so long to build housing in California? CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, America’s premier environmental protection law, which for over 50 years has helped slow or stall countless bad projects that would have harmed the environment,” Wicks said during the hearing. “But it’s a very blunt tool. And in that time, it has also helped slow or stall countless good projects as well.”

Originally passed in 1970, the landmark law requires developers to study any potential impact their project might have on the environment.

But in recent years, CEQA has become a political lightning rod as housing activists have argued it has been used to slow or stop housing projects from moving forward, while defenders say it hasn’t played a major role in deterring housing production in California.

AB 609 is part of a package of bills authored by several legislators seeking to remove red tape at almost every step of the housing development process. SB 607, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, would remove some of the work required by CEQA that proponents say is redundant.

But not everyone is on board with the proposed changes.

“We just have blinders on in terms of how much good CEQA — and looking at the environmental reviews — has done to preserve safety and safety for water and safety from fire,” said Susan Kirsch, president of Catalysts for Local Control.

Her group argues that local communities should have a say in what gets built in their neighborhoods. She said the bills from Wicks and Wiener take away power from local residents and give it to the state.

“The danger we’re running into is that the state is continuing to try to do things from the top-down, one-size-fits-all point of view and that some of these things should be left to local decision-making with local zoning and local wisdom and stewardship,” she said.

AB 609 now heads to the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development for its next hearing.

Matthew Lewis, a spokesperson for pro-housing group California YIMBY, said he felt optimistic about AB 609, but that any effort to reform CEQA would face strong opposition.

“Former Gov. Jerry Brown called CEQA reform ‘the lord’s work’ and there’s a reason that he framed it that way,” he said. “I would anticipate that, while this first hurdle is important, I don’t think it’s going to be the last one.”