California lawmakers handed laws this week altering the state’s landmark environmental legislation in an effort to decrease limitations to reasonably priced housing. We unpack the modifications and their implications.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
This week, lawmakers right here in California voted to reform a robust, decades-old environmental legislation. Loosening the legislation’s protections has been a objective of housing advocates for years. They are saying the modifications will assist handle the state’s reasonably priced housing scarcity and homelessness disaster. However some environmentalists warn that the modifications may have unintended penalties. Local weather reporter Laura Klivans of member station KQED in San Francisco joins us now. Hello, Laura.
LAURA KLIVANS, BYLINE: Hello.
CHANG: OK, so simply begin us off by reminding us what’s on this California legislation, precisely.
KLIVANS: Properly, the legislation was created in 1970 to fight sprawl and air pollution and defend locations like forests and waterways. It is known as the California Environmental High quality Act – or CEQA. It meant if you wished to construct, you’d undergo a rigorous evaluation course of that takes a bunch of issues into consideration, just like the air air pollution your constructing would add, the noise, the way in which it impacts wildlife and the way a lot power it makes use of. It is one of many strictest sorts of environmental evaluation legal guidelines within the nation. The issue, its critics say, was that over time, the legislation grew to become extra difficult and really prolonged and gave folks a software to cease initiatives they did not like, even when their issues had nothing to do with the setting.
CHANG: OK, so what have been the modifications that the state legislature made this week?
KLIVANS: The reforms vastly streamline constructing processes. They make it simpler to construct housing in city facilities. They usually’ll exempt a number of classes of initiatives from environmental evaluation, issues like farmworker housing, childcare facilities and well being clinics. Housing advocates and specialists are excited concerning the modifications. Alex Horowitz directs housing coverage at The Pew Charitable Trusts. He says one of many stunning unintended penalties of CEQA was that it really made sprawl worse. As a result of folks complain extra about constructing in cities and cities, those that wished to construct houses have discovered it simpler to take action in far-flung locations like forests or wetlands.
ALEX HOROWITZ: So the passage of those payments makes it simpler to construct housing in California. And it really makes it simpler to construct housing in present cities and cities, the place new housing doesn’t must be situated in fire-prone areas, in flood-prone areas.
CHANG: OK. However as we talked about, not everybody agrees that the modifications to this legislation have been a good suggestion, proper?
KLIVANS: Proper. There is not a lot pushback about streamlining constructing in present cities, however the brand new legislation additionally permits what are known as superior manufacturing amenities to construct in locations zoned for industrial use. These are issues like semiconductors and nanotechnology.
CHANG: OK.
KLIVANS: Here is Francis Tinney, an lawyer on the Middle for Organic Variety.
FRANCES TINNEY: That form of manufacturing creates main hazards for communities. And there isn’t any setbacks. It may be close to houses. It may be close to faculties. There is not any limits on that.
KLIVANS: I did speak to Chris Elmendorf, who’s a land use and housing legislation knowledgeable on the College of California Davis. And he pushed again on that concern a bit, saying most manufacturing amenities would nonetheless should undergo other forms of environmental evaluations. Now, environmentalists are additionally involved about another features of the legislation, like one which they are saying will not defend essential habitats for endangered species and one other that can pause updates to constructing requirements, which largely are supposed to deliver down planet-warming air pollution.
CHANG: Proper. Properly, once more, it is a California state legislation. Do you suppose it might affect extra states to cross comparable legal guidelines across the nation?
KLIVANS: Properly, in line with Alex Horowitz, the housing knowledgeable, we do see reforms in a single state affect others. However we should always observe that is a part of an even bigger pattern already taking place. Quite a few states have been passing legal guidelines that take away limitations to constructing. Horowitz says we noticed a report variety of them in 2025. Generally they’re based mostly on environmental evaluation. We noticed that in Minnesota final 12 months. Generally they’re based mostly on different issues, like in Texas. It is now simpler to construct as a result of they’ve reformed one thing known as a protest petition, which neighbors would use to dam growth.
CHANG: That’s Laura Klivans from KQED. Thanks a lot, Laura.
KLIVANS: Thanks.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might fluctuate. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
