California rolls back environmental protection laws for housing ...
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California Rolls Back Its Landmark Environmental Law
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers scaled back a law that was vilified for its role in California’s housing shortage and homelessness crisis.Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills, which were written by Democrats but had rare bipartisan support in California’s divided State Capitol, that will allow many development projects to avoid rigorous environmental review and, potentially, the delaying and cost-inflating lawsuits that have discouraged construction in the state.
What say you?
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Seems a good thing to do. But I have never lived there so what do I know about it? I have a feeling (based on the number of products I've purchased that come with warnings specific to CA) that the state probably went overboard with its restrictions.
Matt Lewis, spokesman for California YIMBY, which supports the new legislation, said a law that had initially been intended to prevent projects like new freeways from plowing through neighborhoods had over the years been “Frankensteined” into a tool to block housing development. And the act, ultimately, has harmed the environment by limiting denser housing, which reduces pollution, he said.
Isn't ironic that the original legislation was signed into law by a Republican governor, and it's being rolled back by a Democratic governor.
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CEQUA was a hot mess and got worse as time went on.
Eliminating it is a step forward.
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I don’t know much about this but I recently listened to a podcast episode (probably 99 Percent Invisible but maybe not) that talked about how it’s almost impossible to build things in California to fix major problems because there were so many (well intentioned) laws passed in the 70s. I assume this is related?
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Exactly.
