On June 30, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two Bills, the effects of which will long outlast his tenure. Both AB130 and SB131 drastically reduce the application of California Environmental Quality Act, [CEQA] review to “affordable “ housing projects, as well as to projects that “consist of the development, construction or operation of a heavy maintenance facility…for electrically powered high-speed rail, assuming certain prescribed conditions are met.” See AB130, section 21180.70(a).

            Specifically, AB130 “would exempt from the requirements of CEQA any aspect of a housing development project” so long as it “meets certain conditions”, including size, density, location on site, and use within 500’ of a freeway. The only environmental aspect that would still be considered would be the project’s potential release of hazardous substances.

            SB 131, for its part, would exempt from CEQA not only “the rezoning that implements the sequence of actions contained in an approved [General Plan] housing element”, but also projects that implement the development of water, sewer, and transportation facilities.

            Finally, gilding the lily, in July 2025, Sen. Scott Wiener introduced SB79, which not only prohibits the replacement of housing “on sites where the development would require the demolition of housing, or that were previously used for housing, [or] that is subject to rent or price controls”, but also requires that a local transit agency “adopt “transit-oriented development zoning standards”, the purpose of which is clearly to expedite the production of housing near public transit.

            Viewed independently, the referenced legislation performs an important public function by potentially facilitating the location and erection of more, desperately needed, housing. However, viewed in context, the lifting of environmental protections, including for critically endangered species; semi-conductor plants and, potentially, nuclear facilities; and limitations even on the disclosure of staff notes and other internal correspondence currently required by the California Freedom of Information Act, sets a precedent for the episodic legislative remaking of long-standing, environmental protections, that have long been the hallmark of life in California. Stay tuned for the public response.