Newsom throws support behind housing proposals to facilitate construction and reform allowing restrictions

Sacramento – Governor Gavin Newsom launched his support behind two invoices on Wednesday which would rationalize the development of housing in urban areas, saying that it was “time to become serious” to reduce administrative formalities to approach the housing crisis.

Newsom said that his revised state budget proposal, which he announced at a press conference on Wednesday, will also include provisions that pave the way to more new housing by reforming the law of state environment in California and cleaning other obstacles.

The governor congratulated the assembly of the Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) assembly and the Senator of the Scott Wiener State (D-SAN Francisco) to sponsor bills designed to facilitate the authorization process for filling projects or construction in urban areas that already have a development.

Newsom’s housing proposal seeks to force the permit times for the coastal commission, to allow housing development projects of more than $ 100 million to use the rationalization of the CEQA generally available for smaller projects and create a fund, paid by developers, to finance affordable housing near public transport.

The CEQA has long been used by opponents to hinder or delay construction, often locking developers in judicial battles of several years. The law is so vague that it allows “essentially to all those who can hire a lawyer” to contest the developments, Wiener said in a press release.

“It is time to accelerate urban filling. It is time to exempt them from the CEQA, it is time to focus on judicial rationalization. It is time to become serious on this issue. Period, full judgment,” said Newsom during the morning budget press conference. “… This is the greatest opportunity to do something big and daring, and the only obstacle is us. We are therefore owners, and we must have the answer.”

Bill 609 of the Assembly, proposed by Wicks, which is chairman of the Committee of Credit of the Assembly, would create a radical exemption for housing projects which meet local construction standards, in particular in the fields which have already been approved for additional development and examined for potential environmental impacts.

“It’s time to refine the CEQA for the modern era, and I am proud to work with the governor to make these long -standing changes a reality,” Wicks said in a statement.

Bill 607 of the Senate, written by Wiener, which is chairman of the Senate housing committee, concentrates the environmental examination process and clarifies CEQA exemptions for urban filling housing projects.

“By eliminating obsolete procedural obstacles, we can approach the cost of California’s scandalous life, cultivate the economy of California and help the government to solve the most urgent problems of our state. We are impatient to work with Governor Newsom and our legislative colleagues to advance these two important bills and to ensure an abundable and abundant future for California” in a declaration.

The two bills are pending before the credit committees in the Assembly and the Senate, respectively.