California rolls back environmental law to expedite housing

Catch up quick: An extension of a national policy, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) allows individuals and groups to file lawsuits to challenge projects, which can delay building by years and rack up litigation costs.

• It was enacted in 1970 to prevent environmental damage and requires developers to mitigate potential impacts through a public review process.
• Attempts to reform it have escalated over the last decade amid California's housing shortage.

Driving the news: The new law exempts urban "infill" housing projects, which are built in and around existing development, from CEQA if they are less than 20 acres and located outside hazardous zones.

• Certain infrastructure projects, such as water system improvements, day care centers and advanced manufacturing facilities will also be excluded from CEQA.

What they're saying: These exemptions are "almost certainly the most significant rollback of CEQA for housing since it passed" and "will unambiguously reduce the time frame" for development, Ben Metcalf, managing director of UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation, told Axios.

• Under CEQA, projects usually must undergo review by city staff and a public body like a planning commission. The threat of litigation gives some groups, such as unions, leverage to negotiate project labor agreements, Metcalf said.
• Market-rate housing projects "will get in the ground faster as a result of this change," he added.

The other side: Opponents say the rollback axes essential protections for wildlife, biodiversity and California's most vulnerable communities.

• It forces "blind exemptions for massive industrial projects" and could enable projects handling "highly explosive and hazardous materials" without scrutiny, a coalition of over 100 organizations wrote in a letter to Newsom last week.

Between the lines: The legislation states that a "special statute is necessary" for San Francisco due to its "unique construction of housing projects."

• Much of San Francisco's housing projects are already no longer subject to CEQA review after it fell short of permitting goals last year and triggered a new law to reduce the approval process.