Council Scores Generational Housing Reform Victory!

The Bay Area Council this week (June 30) achieved one of the most consequential housing reform victories in generations when Gov. Newsom signed two bills we co-sponsored that offer California its best chance in decades to finally end our loathsome housing crisis. It was the culmination of many years of hard work to build the political support for overcoming deeply entrenched resistance and opposition that has stymied our past efforts to secure the transformative reforms needed to fix California’s badly broken housing system.

AB 609 (Wicks), which was folded into budget trailer bill AB 130, will exempt most urban housing projects from environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act and SB 607 (Wiener), which was mostly folded into AB 131, will speed up reviews for a range of projects, including infill housing. The reforms included in these bills give investors, developers and homebuilders the green light to unleash a wave of new housing.

“With these bills we are taking a sledgehammer to California’s unacceptable and self-inflicted housing shortage and affordability crisis, a crisis that is hurting millions of residents and holding us back economically,” said Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of the Bay Area Council. “We applaud the courageous leadership of Assemblymember Wicks and Sen. Wiener to take California in a bold new direction on housing. We also thank Gov. Newsom for his strong leadership in making housing affordability a top priority and wrapping these two bills into the budget to ensure speedy action. Thank you also to Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire and Speaker Robert Rivas for their leadership in ensuring passage of these bills. History will remember this day as the day we finally said ‘enough is enough’ to our housing crisis.”

In addition to co-sponsoring the two bills, the Council partnered with Assemblymember Wicks last year as she chaired the Select Committee on Permitting Reform whose work helped inform the legislation approved today. A report produced by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute underscored how California’s complex and outdated permitting system slows progress on housing, clean energy, transportation and other critical infrastructure projects, driving up costs, and making it harder for the state to meet its housing and climate goals.

Thank you to our incredible staff, including Louis Mirante, and our lobbyist, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, for their hard work over the past few months in guiding our legislation over the finish line. To engage in the Council’s housing policy work, please contact Senior Vice President Louis Mirante.