(The Center Square) – Governor Newsom designated five new cities as “prohousing” amid a new housing push in the California legislature as the state continues to fail to meet its housing goals.
After announcing in late 2022 California’s goal to build 2.5 million new housing units by 2030, or an average rate of over 300,000 units per year. According to the California Department of Finance, California built just 116,000 units of new housing in 2022, while a 2022 paper from University of Chicago and George Mason University researchers estimates California has an over 4.5 million unit housing shortage. In the face of these numbers, California will need to triple its housing production to meet its own more limited housing goals, let alone catch up with the overall shortfall.
By receiving “prohousing” designations, as just presented to Long Beach, Moreno Valley, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, and the Town of Windsor, municipalities that earnestly work towards and have made progress in meeting their housing needs can become eligible for state resources that range from funding incentives from California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, especially for so-called “affordable” housing that costs less than the 30% of an area’s median income in rent and utilities.
Currently two significant bills face the California legislature to spur further housing development, the first of which could allow for the building more family-sized apartment units by allowing for single-stair housing, and the second of which would allow new low-income housing to be exempted from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) so long as local zoning allows for multifamily development.
The first bill, AB 835, would instruct the California Fire Marshal to include proposed standards for single-staircase multifamily, residential buildings above three stories, for which single-staircase design is already permitted. Proponents of the bill, which was spearheaded by the Livable Communities Initiative Los Angeles with East Bay for Everyone, argue it will greatly reduce the cost of building housing, increase the size of available units to better accommodate families, and create better-lit apartments with lower cooling costs.
“AB 835 is an important step in bringing California’s building code up to international standards, allowing for more multifamily, infill developments that can be designed in a way that allows for more family-sized units,” said Nolan Grey, city planner and research director for California YIMBY, a pro-housing organization that backs AB 835.
The second bill, AB 1449, would exempt low-income multifamily housing in areas already zoned for multifamily development from the California Environmental Quality Act, a measure signed into law by then-governor Ronald Reagan in 1970 and used to prevent use of natural resources, and the building of new structures. While still boasting significant support, the bill faces opposition from both Democrats and Republicans and passed the State Assembly 54-13.
According to CEQA expert and California Policy Center co-founder Edward Ring, creating more exemptions to CEQA fails to address why California is so expensive in the first place.
“If you’re going to exempt low income housing, you’re still leaving all other housing subject to CEQA. If you can’t repeal CEQA, creating exemptions means the politically connected special interests get ahead while everyone else remains a victim of CEQA,” said Ring. “If you’re going to play the exemptions game with housing then it must be all housing. When you increase the supply you will lower the price.”
