Great Day in the Legislature for Council’s Housing Reform Efforts

Today was a great day for housing reform in California, with priority housing bills passing out of a critical final legislative committee that the Council either sponsored or supported. AB 1633 by Assembly member Phil Ting (San Francisco), which the Council is cosponsoring, will close a hole that local governments use to deny housing and evade accountability for doing so. The bill was inspired by and fixes statutory problems exposed when opponents abused the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to block a 495-unit residential building on the site of a parking lot at 469 Stevenson St. in San Francisco, a project brought forward by Council members Build SF and Allen Matkins. 

Another critical bill, SB 423 by Sen. Scott Wiener (San Francisco), will extend the Senator’s landmark SB 35 CEQA streamlining that has already fast-tracked nearly 20,000 homes in California, including many done by Council members. These and other housing bills pending before the legislature during its final moments of the session, which adjourns on September 14, represent some of the most important housing bills the state has ever considered. To engage in the Council’s housing work, please contact Vice President of Housing Policy Louis Mirante.