Landmark Bill To Build More Homes Near Public Transit Heads To The Governor
California needs to build millions of new homes in sustainable locations to meet state housing goals, slash climate emissions, and reduce the cost of living. SB 79 creates less restrictive state zoning codes to allow more homes near transit to lower costs for families while bolstering public transit use, slashing traffic congestion, and supporting cash-strapped transit agencies.
SAN FRANCISCO – In a bipartisan vote, the California State Senate gave final approval to Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) landmark Senate Bill (SB) 79, the Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act. The bill now heads to Governor Newsom, who must sign or veto the legislation by October 12.
SB 79 tackles the root causes of California’s affordability crisis by allowing more homes to be built near major public transportation stops and on land owned by transit agencies, by:
- Establishing state zoning standards around train stations and major bus stops (bus rapid transit stops) that allow for midrise homes within a half mile of major transit stops.
- Allowing local transit agencies to develop on land they own.
SB 79 builds on the landmark CEQA reforms passed earlier this year in AB 130 (Wicks) and SB 131 (Wiener). By establishing state zoning standards, SB 79 unlocks a great deal of critical land to use streamlining bills like AB 130 and Senator Wiener’s SB 423 (2023).
“Building more homes in our most sustainable locations is the key to tackling the affordability crisis and locking in California’s success for many years to come,” said Senator Wiener. “Decades of overly restrictive policies have driven housing costs to astronomical levels, forcing millions of people away from jobs and transit and into long commutes from the suburbs. Many are being forced out of the state entirely. It has been a long road to tackling these decades-old problems, but today’s vote is a dramatic step forward to undo these decades of harm, reduce our most severe costs, and slash traffic congestion and air pollution in our state.”
"Today, California YIMBY achieved one of its founding goals: legalizing apartments and condos near train stations,” said Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY. “We won many victories over the past eight years, but the dream of passing a robust, transit-oriented development program has long eluded us, until now. My message to YIMBY activists across the country: Keep organizing, keep educating, and keep hustling. Your time will come.”
“SB 79 is the boldest housing action California has ever taken, and it couldn’t come at a more urgent time,” said Marc Vukcevich, Director of State Policy, Streets For All. “By opening the door to millions of new homes, this bill tackles our housing shortage at the scale the crisis demands. For Streets For All, this is about more than housing—it’s about equity, affordability, and creating communities where people can live near jobs and transit without being forced to drive. SB 79 will make California more affordable, more sustainable, and more just.”
“California’s severe housing shortage makes it difficult for working families to stay housed and for our homeless neighbors to find a place to call home,” said Mahdi Manji, Director of Public Policy at the Inner City Law Center. “By ensuring that housing for all Californian’s, regardless of their income, is built near publicly funded transit infrastructure, SB 79 puts California on track to meet our state’s housing needs and build homes for all our neighbors.”
"Californians have been demanding bold action on housing affordability and climate change, and today the legislature delivered,” said Azeen Khanmalek, Executive Director of Abundant Housing LA. “SB 79 will lead to more affordable housing, cleaner air, safer streets,.and accessible transit. Abundant Housing LA thanks Senator Wiener for his leadership and tireless dedication to solving our housing shortage, and our fellow cosponsors for their hard work."
“The Bay Area Council is proud to cosponsor SB 79, which will allow more housing near transit and jobs,” said Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council. “Amid rising rents and already-too-high home prices, measures like these are critical to making housing more affordable, increasing ridership on transit, and giving people the option of living closer to where they work. This is critical to making the Bay Area the best place to live and work, and we thank Senator Wiener for being an incredible champion for the region’s housing and transportation needs.”
The bill has been amended to provide greater local flexibility and establish safeguards for affordability, worker’s rights, displacement, demolition, impact on low resource areas, historic preservation, wildfire risk, and sea level rise. The amendments also establish minimum density standards for the bill.
California has the highest cost of living of any state, primarily due to our extreme housing shortage. At the same time, overly restrictive zoning laws prevent millions of Californians from living near public transit, making train and bus systems impractical for many. Building an abundance of homes at all income levels, in close proximity to major transit stops, will address our housing shortage to lower costs while making public transportation feasible for millions of families to use. Building these homes starts with legalizing to build multifamily housing near major transit stops, also known as transit-oriented development.
Building on land owned by transit agencies will also provide urgently needed financial support for public transit. Many successful transit agencies in cities like Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong raise revenue to support public transit by developing land that they own. In Hong Kong, the approach is so successful that the transit agency regularly turns a profit—in stark contrast to the many transit agencies facing major budget shortfalls across California due to slowly recovering ridership and the state’s low level of support for public transit compared with other jurisdictions.
Several jurisdictions outside of California have made progress in making transit-oriented
development easier:
- Colorado requires cities to allow an average of 40 dwelling units per acre within a quarter-mile of transit.
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority must have at least one multifamily district allowing at least 15 dwelling units per acre.
- Utah requires an average density of 50 dwelling units per acre in transit reinvestment zones.
SB 79 sets standards for allowable housing development within a half mile of train stops and major bus stops, also known as bus rapid transit (BRT) stops. SB 79 does not apply around low frequency bus stops. The standards are tiered to allow greater height and density in the immediate vicinity of the most heavily trafficked transit stops, and lower levels around less trafficked types of transit stops and in the surrounding areas
For Tier 1 stops — which include heavy rail lines like BART, Caltrain, and LA Metro’s B & D Lines — the state zoning standards will be:
- Up to 9 stories adjacent to the stop
- 7 stories within ¼ mile
- 6 stories between ¼ and ½ mile
For Tier 2 stops — which include light rail like Sac RT and SF Muni, high frequency commuter rail like some Metrolink stations, and major bus transit that qualifies as bus-rapid transit under the state’s definition, or is served by a 24-hour bus-only lane) — the state zoning standards will be:
- 8 stories adjacent to the stop
- 6 stories within ¼ mile
- 5 stories between ¼ and ½ mile
Transit oriented housing developments under SB 79 are eligible for the streamlined ministerial approvals process under Senate Bill 423 (Wiener, 2023) if they meet that law’s environmental, labor, and affordability standards. Under SB 79, local governments would have flexibility to tailor their TOD areas and standards in an alternative plan subject to oversight from the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
SB 79 is sponsored by Streets for All, California YIMBY, Greenbelt Alliance, SPUR, Abundant Housing LA, Inner City Law Center, and the Bay Area Council.
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