YIMBYs and their allies nationwide celebrated on June 30th the collapse of a third rail in California politics. Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a budget package which, among its other elements, included legislation which would exempt certain types of housing and infrastructure projects from environmental impact reports (EIRs) or appeals on the basis of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Signed into law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan in 1970, CEQA quickly became a textbook example of the law of unintended consequences. The law was originally intended to prevent governments, either the state government or local governments, from taking actions that could harm the environment. However, in the case Friends of Mammoth v. The Board of Supervisors of Mono County (1972), the California Supreme Court ruled that all projects, public and private, were subject to environmental review and impact assessment by virtue of the fact that governments had to issue permits to approve private development. In an instant, a law which was only supposed to apply to public projects applied to all development in California.
CEQA-based lawsuits quickly became the favorite tool of those simply seeking to prevent new housing developments, especially those close to them. That all changed the evening of June 30th. With a stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom affirmed what majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature believed and what groups like YIMBY Action have argued for years: CEQA had become a hindrance to environmental protection and sustainability, not a help.
One of the types of development exempted from CEQA in the budget package provides a prime example: infill housing, or housing built on a property that already has housing on it. For decades, CEQA has been a tool for those looking to block increased housing density on a parcel of land, including in urban areas. Combined with other legal restrictions, the result of this abuse of environmental review has been to incentivize sprawl into sensitive areas, including areas at high risk of fire, flood, or other natural disaster.
Californians have ended up consuming more land, not less, for housing; commute greater distances to access employment, education, and recreation; burn more fossil fuels – yes, even if they drive an electric vehicle, given our natural-gas-reliant power grid; and require more land be taken up for parking. By exempting infill development, the people and leadership of California have acknowledged in law urban density is in and of itself an environmentally friendly policy critical to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Multifamily housing in particular allows households to consume less energy, generate fewer emissions, and live closer to where they commute, hopefully with access to quality transportation alternatives like rail, buses, or bikes.
The environmentally focused CEQA exemptions ratified in the budget package were also not limited to housing development. Projects dedicated to wildfire resilience, water infrastructure, transportation, and clean energy were also given exemptions and provided streamlining to prevent the litigious few from preventing these efforts from benefiting the many.
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CEQA had become a cudgel, but these sensible exemptions more closely align with the original spirit of the law. . While transparent and accountable government is always a laudable goal, we should be vigilant for laws, policies, and processes that either outlive their original intended purpose or become tools for reactionaries who besmirch the good name of environmental protection to prevent anything from ever changing.
The passage of these essential reforms are the opening act in the movement for a sustainable California that builds and provides the fruits of opportunity and abundance for current and future residents. Organizations like YIMBY Action and YIMBY LA will continue to be actors on the stage of reform until legal changes translate to into more permits, more homes, more infrastructure, and more opportunities to live, work, learn, create, and enjoy a California where progress and freedom are synonymous with doing, not obstructing.
Tyler Laferriere-Holloway is a lead for YIMBY Los Angeles, the Los Angeles area chapter of YIMBY Action.