In response to the 4/26 San Francisco Chronicle editorial: “Has California learned anything from the rise of Trump? The fate of this bill will tell us.”
Housing Committee Chair Senator Wahab correctly understands SB 79’s overreach, yet the Chronicle Editorial Board paints her pushback on this overreaching bill as irrational. The Board’s statement that SB 79 “would allow multifamily housing up to seven stories near major transit stops” is a massive oversimplification.
The bill contains no provisions for affordability, bypasses environmental review, has a fungible standard for “near transit,” and extends to any type of commercial project, even those creating no housing. Additionally, its broad brush upzoning includes all lands owned or leased by a transit agency. Local governments are effectively shut out of the process, unable to request the inclusion of affordable units or minimal parking.
Calling out such streamlining as a giveaway to developers isn’t a “tired refrain,” it is a statement of fact. Hundreds of punitive streamlining laws eliminating perceived “inhibitors to housing” haven’t yielded anything resembling the outrageous growth demanded by the state, in part because developers are in service to profit rather than the needs of our communities.
If the legislature continues to create new top-down overlays, what was the purpose of forcing localities to produce certified housing elements—under pressure and at great expense — that already rezone and site the state-mandated housing?
