This week on Monday, June 30th, Governor Newsom of California signed two bills aimed at reforming the state’s iconic California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in an effort to alleviate the housing crisis and reduce homelessness.
Governor Newsom signed the AB130 and SB131 bills, which the Governor’s office described as the most significant reform to the California housing and environmental review law in decades.
The California Environmental Quality Act, passed in 1970, requires strict environmental impact reviews for proposed development projects and measures to mitigate or eliminate these impacts.
Newsom expressed gratitude to numerous leaders in the housing, labor, and environmental sectors, as well as the state legislature, for assisting in the passage of the two bills.
The bills include a comprehensive streamlining program that can help eliminate long-standing obstacles to real estate development, create new tools to expedite construction, reduce costs, and enhance accountability statewide.
According to the Governor’s office, these two bills will streamline the CEQA review process, expedite the delivery of housing and infrastructure projects—such as high-speed rail facilities, utilities, broadband, community facilities, and wildfire prevention plans—while maintaining protection for natural and sensitive areas.
The bills also exempt local governments from certain CEQA requirements when reallocating land use.
Furthermore, these measures will expand the Permit Streamlining Act, limit certain Coastal Commission appeals on housing projects to accelerate housing construction permits and approvals, and make several key provisions of the Housing Accountability Act and Housing Crisis Act permanent.
The measures will also enhance regulatory stability and curb cost increases by freezing updates to new residential building standards until 2031, with exceptions for emergencies, fire safety, or energy-related updates.
On the accountability front, the new laws require cities and counties to annually inspect local homeless shelters—regardless of complaints received—or face withholding of related funds by the state government.
Additionally, the bills double the Renters Tax Credit, allowing eligible individuals to receive up to $500 in subsidies, and establish a revolving fund to recycle capital from stable affordable housing operations into new development projects.
Despite California allocating $24 billion in taxpayer funds over the past five years to address homelessness, the crisis persists.
While these two bills garnered some bipartisan support, they also faced strong opposition from environmental groups. On June 27th, over 100 organizations jointly wrote to Governor Newsom, labeling SB131 as “the most destructive anti-environmental bill in recent years in California.”
The letter stated that this unprecedented move severely weakened basic environmental and community protections in California.
The letter also mentioned that the broad exemptions under CEQA cover some of the most polluting projects in California, directly jeopardizing the health and safety of Californians, especially in environmental justice communities.
These groups warned that the bill would result in massive habitat loss and loss of protection for endangered species.
Epoch Times reached out to Governor Newsom’s office for comments but had not received a response as of the publication deadline.