CA: Governor signs bill to spur housing near public transit

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a Bay Area lawmaker’s bill Friday aimed at spurring more housing development near public transit.

Senate Bill 79 by Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, allows taller housing developments near major transit hubs, aiming to create much needed housing and boost transit ridership.

“For too long, California has poured billions into transit without building the housing density needed for those systems to reach their potential,” Newsom wrote in a signing statement. “SB 79 helps change that by focusing more homes near rail stations — boosting ridership, cutting traffic and pollution, lowering household costs, and expanding access to jobs, schools and services.”

Wiener, who had seen two prior attempts at similar legislation fail to pass out of the Legislature and struggled through multiple amendments and dealmaking with colleagues to get this version passed last month, described the signing as a “historic step.”

“In California, we talk a lot about where we don’t want to build homes, but rarely about where we do — until now,” Wiener said in a statement. “It’s been a long road to tackle these decades-old problems, but thanks to Governor Newsom’s leadership, today marks a new day for affordable housing and public transportation in California.”

The new law was supported by the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored, public-policy advocacy organization. Housing affordability and traffic congestion have been major hurdles for Bay Area companies to attract talent to the region.

“By signing this measure, Governor Newsom is making housing in California more affordable and the Bay Area a more attractive place to live and start a business,” said Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman.

But the legislation also had critics, who argued it would weaken local authority over land-use planning.

To neutralize opposition from a powerful trade union, Wiener agreed to require union labor on any building taller than 85 feet. To placate tenant groups, the senator added protections for low-income neighborhoods. And to win over suburban lawmakers, he narrowed the bill’s reach to counties with more than 15 major transit stations, leaving out places like Marin and Contra Costa counties. Currently, it applies to only seven counties within the state: Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Orange County will be included after completion of a streetcar project next year.

Even with those concessions, the legislation had critics and barely garnered enough votes to pass. Sen. Aisha Wahab, a Democrat from Fremont, opposed it because she felt it favored developers without requiring them to provide enough affordable housing.

Wiener and Newsom insisted the new law provides enough safeguards to preserve local land use authority.

“Far from limiting local control, the bill strengthens it,” Newsom said in his signing message. “Cities and counties can craft their own alternative plans tailored to their communities or build on existing local policies, so long as they meet the baseline housing capacity required by this measure.”

SB 79 was among dozens of housing related bills the governor signed Friday aimed at tackling California’s vexingly high housing costs. They include Assembly Bill 1050 by Assembly Member Nick Shultz, a Burbank Democrat, which Newsom wrote in a signing message “removes outdated barriers that keep underutilized commercial properties from being converted into housing.”