A series of budget-related bills, aimed at altering the application of environmental laws to certain housing types in urban areas, was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom last week. The legislation includes AB 130 and SB 131, both focusing on streamlining the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for specific scenarios.
The California Chamber of Commerce highlighted the importance of these changes in a statement released before the Governor's approval, stating: “The late insertion into this year’s California budget process of proposals to streamline more housing construction signals how vital the issue has become in addressing the state’s persistent affordability crisis.”
Key provisions of the CEQA streamlining include exempting infill housing projects in urban areas from CEQA review, which typically takes several years. Other measures involve limiting certain Coastal Commission housing appeals, expediting coastal permits, and making permanent parts of the Housing Crisis Act from 2019 that reduce delays in local agency approvals for compliant housing development projects.
AB 130 also introduces a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) mitigation bank program. This is described as “one optional strategy that a project applicant may use to mitigate a significant transportation impact under CEQA.” However, CalChamber expressed concerns about this provision, viewing it as an additional mandate on developers that could increase construction costs and potentially reduce housing availability for working families in California.
Despite requests from builders and chambers to amend AB 130 so that the mitigation option would be used only with mutual agreement between lead agencies and developers, this language was not included in the final version.