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New CEQA Reform Draws Wait-and-See Response from CBIA
From CBIA President and CEO Dan Dunmoyer: You have all probably heard by now that California’s Legislature recently passed, and Governor Newsom signed into law, the budget as well as key trailer bills that made substantive changes to California’s housing laws. In short, key housing provisions in AB 130 include:
- A positive CEQA Exemption for Infill Residential and Mixed-Use Projects with no Prevailing Wage requirements for buildings under 85 feet tall.
- A positive pause for 6 years on almost all code changes and a long-sought CBIA change for production-style home construction that will allow the builder to use the same building codes that were in effect when the model homes were approved for up to 10 years.
- An Elimination of the Sunset Date contained in SB 330 – The Housing Crisis Act of 2019. This is the Senator Skinner bill that has been successfully used to stop renegade local government antics for the past 6 years. No labor or wage provisions were added to this excellent law.
- AB 130 also included a provision that could drive up housing costs by up to $320,000 per home according to a state sponsored study. AB 130 created a VMT mitigation banking scheme that allows a homebuilder to mitigate a project’s VMT impacts by funding or facilitating affordable housing on infill sites or related infrastructure.
Because of this last and seriously flawed section of AB 130, CBIA opposed this measure and labeled it a “Housing Killer.” This new VMT Mitigation Banking concept has never been heard before in any form in the Legislature and needs serious changes. CBIA will be meeting with the governor’s senior staff to discuss and seek substantive amendments.
AB 130 CEQA Exemption for Infill Residential and Mixed-Use Projects
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