California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
1–10 of 133 posts
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#2Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#3... near transit hubs.
It should be a net positive if it doesn't die in the courts for every single proposal.
It's also not enough by itself but Rome wasn't built in a day.
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#4... near transit hubs. It should be a net positive if it doesn't die in the courts for every single proposal. It's also not enough by itself but Rome wasn't built in a day.
With the CEQA reform from a couple months ago, those court cases should be lessened a bit.
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#5... near transit hubs. It should be a net positive if it doesn't die in the courts for every single proposal. It's also not enough by itself but Rome wasn't built in a day.
SB 79 is just the latest in a long sequence of pro-housing bills to get passed in California in the last 5-6 years. I’d rather them do one or two small winnable battles per year than bet it all on a giant do-everything bill which might galvanize more opposition.
Frankly, this strategy seems to be a good one considering what a winning streak CA YIMBYs have been on.
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#6... near transit hubs. It should be a net positive if it doesn't die in the courts for every single proposal. It's also not enough by itself but Rome wasn't built in a day.
This law (and other recent CA YIMBY laws) don't create much surface area to sue or slow a project:
* The approvals are designed to be "ministerial", meaning there is no discretion on whether to approve or not. If the project meets the objective criteria spelled out in the law, it must be approved.
* If the city doesn't approve in a limited time window, it's deemed "approved" by default.
* Ministerial approval protects the project from CEQA lawsuits. CEQA requires the government to consider the environment when making decisions. When the approval is ministerial, the government doesn't make any decisions, so there is no CEQA process to sue against.
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#7Nine stories anywhere in the state near a bus stop seems abit much, most small towns don't have anything over 2 or 3 stories(nor do they have a housing shortage).
CA lawmakers seem to pass laws focused on cities, and ignore the fact that maybe this isn't such a good idea in smaller towns & rural areas.
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#8Nine stories anywhere in the state near a bus stop seems abit much, most small towns don't have anything over 2 or 3 stories(nor do they have a housing shortage). CA lawmakers seem to pass laws focused on cities, and ignore the fact that maybe this isn't such a good idea in smaller towns & rural areas.
No one is going to build a 9 story building in a small town or rural area, it wouldn’t make any economic sense. Only places where land is valuable and scarce are economically viable for a 9 story building.
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#9... near transit hubs. It should be a net positive if it doesn't die in the courts for every single proposal. It's also not enough by itself but Rome wasn't built in a day.
> ... near transit hubs.
I don't understand this narrative that California has been pushing the last few years - basically, "There's a bus stop in the neighborhood, therefore we can add a bunch of new housing without doing any other infrastructure upgrades." I just don't see it. What I do see after new housing is added is insufferable traffic and no parking - and empty buses.
Re: California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing
#10Nine stories anywhere in the state near a bus stop seems abit much, most small towns don't have anything over 2 or 3 stories(nor do they have a housing shortage). CA lawmakers seem to pass laws focused on cities, and ignore the fact that maybe this isn't such a good idea in smaller towns & rural areas.
I don't think we're going to see much of that:
* The projects won't be profitable in smaller towns, because rents aren't high enough to recoup the cost.
* Tall buildings cost MORE per square foot than short buildings, so tall buildings only get built where land costs are very high.
* This law's top density (7-8 floors I think?) only applies in a narrow window (0.25 to 0.5 miles) around major transit stops with LOTS of service, like 48 arrivals per day each way. Small towns don't have that kind of infrastructure.
* The law only applies in cities with > 35,000 people.