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Buffy Wicks CEQA bill ignites worthy debate

April 20, 2025

Though far from the only factor, the California Environmental Quality Act, as currently constituted and implemented, has long been a barrier to much needed housing development in California.

California’s high housing costs are a simple supply and demand problem. Lots of people want to live here, but there aren’t enough housing units to keep housing prices in line. Hence, the considerable strain high housing costs are putting on people all over the state.

Part of the problem has been restrictive land use policies, with local jurisdictions prohibiting or greatly restricting housing in vast areas of their communities.

Such government-imposed constraints have helped throttle the market to the benefit of people who bought their homes long ago and are looking to self, while everyone else has to deal with high prices.

Permitting processes and other review processes are also part of the problem. Developers wanting to build have to rely on bureaucratic approval to move ahead with their projects.

But beyond these limitations, developers who manage to find places to build and figure out how to navigate permitting processes face yet another challenge: CEQA compliance and the ever-present possibility that CEQA will be abused by NIMBYS, competitors, labor unions and others with an ax to grind to throw a wrench into their projects.

It’s one thing for government to ensure a project isn’t going to obviously devastate the environment and yield all manner of negative externalities. It’s another for government to create an onerous system of compliance that can be abused even if a project is developed in good faith and in compliance with the law.

Which brings us to Assembly Bill 609 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, which would exempt most urban housing developments from CEQA.

We have long argued that carve-outs from CEQA are inferior to comprehensive reform, but large carve-outs like this could yield tangible benefits.

As the state’s Little Hoover Commission outlined in a report, “California will never achieve its housing goals as long as CEQA has the potential to turn housing development into something akin to urban warfare—contested block by block, building by building.”

If we are serious about getting more housing on the market and making California more affordable, we need to get government out of the way.

This proposal is a worthwhile effort and will hopefully spur much needed debate in Sacramento.

Orange County Register

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Buffy Wicks CEQA bill ignites worthy debate

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