Press Release

Senate Housing Committee Passes Major Legislation by Senator Wiener to Allow More Homes Near Public Transit, But Fails To Advance Proposal To Strengthen Landmark Streamlining Laws

SAN FRANCISCO – The Senate Housing Committee passed Senator Wiener’s landmark housing bill, SB 79, the Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, but failed to advance SB 677. The bills tackle the root cause of California’s affordability crisis by allowing more homes to be built in the most productive and sustainable areas of the state.

  • SB 79 passed 6-2 and heads next to the Senate Local Government Committee. The bill  allows homes of four to seven stories near major transit stops.
  • SB 677 failed to advance by a vote of 4-3. The bill makes a number of changes to strengthen existing housing streamlining laws, SB 423 and SB 9.

“I’m deeply grateful to my colleagues on the Senate Housing Committee for advancing SB 79, which will help us tackle California’s devastating housing shortage in addition to supporting our public transportation systems,” said Senator Wiener. “While I’m disappointed the Committee did not advance SB 677 — an important bill to ensure our housing streamlining laws are as effective as they can be — the passage of SB 79 is a game changer. 

“Today’s votes show the challenges that continue to plague California’s efforts to address the housing shortage, even as we continue to make real progress. We heard the same opponents of these bills make the same anti-housing arguments they’ve used to oppose new homes for decades. The Committee took a bold vote to advance a proposal to allow more homes near transit — an idea whose time has come — and we will continue to work on SB 677. 

“Californians are demanding bold, radical changes right now to address a generational affordability crisis. Opponents of more homes, with all due respect to them, are not offering real solutions, beyond making vague appeals to hypothetical affordable housing — all while ignoring actual opportunities to open more areas to new affordable homes.

“The Legislature needs to meet this moment. Will we continue to default to a failing status quo, even as more and more families move away, even as we lose political and electoral power on the national stage as a result of that exodus? I think, instead, we should embrace the difficult changes we need to make to tackle the root causes of our affordability crisis. We should embrace the overwhelming data and evidence showing that places that allow more homes to be built become more affordable. We should try something different than the broken status quo that has failed to produce affordability in California for the past half century.

“My door remains open to work with any and all stakeholders who wish to address our affordability crisis—the democratic process often makes bills better.”

SB 79

SB 79 allows more homes near transit by:

  • Establishing state zoning standards around train stations and major bus stops (bus rapid transit stops) that allow for multi-family homes up to seven stories immediately surrounding major transit stops, with lower height standards extending up to half a mile away from such stops.
  • Streamlining approvals, if they meet certain eligibility requirements for existing streamlining pathways (under SB 35/423), for homes built near transit.
  • Allowing local transit agencies to develop at the same or greater density on land they own. 

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. 
  • The 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. 

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 implementing ordinance 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, and the Bay Area Council. It is supported by the following elected officials: Congressmen Ro Khanna, Congressman Scott Peters, Jed Leano, Mayor of Claremont; Jesse Zwick, Santa Monica City Councilmember; Rashi Kesarwani, Berkeley City Councilmember – District 1; Rebecca Saltzman, El Cerrito City Councilmember; Zach Hilton, Gilroy City Councilmember, Alexander Pederson - Vice Mayor, Capitola, Brian Barnacle - Petaluma City Councilmember, Casey Glaubman - Mount Shasta City Councilmember, Lucas Ramirez - City of Mountain View Councilmember, James Coleman - South San Francisco City Councilmember, Emily Ramos - City of Mountain View Vice Mayor, Laura Nakamura - City of Concord Vice Mayor, Lucas Ramirez - City of Mountain View Councilmember, Mark Dinan - City of East Palo Alto Vice Mayor, Matthew Solomon - City of Emeryville Councilmember, Phoebe Shin Venkat - Foster City Councilmember, and Sergio Lopez - Mayor of Campbell.

SB 677

SB 423 (and SB 35, the law on which it is based) has streamlined the production of tens of thousands of homes across California, but overly restrictive inclusionary requirements have limited the number of affordable homes produced under the law. In addition, the law has not fully kicked in yet in many parts of the state because the assessments that trigger the law are too infrequent.

SB 9 is a landmark accomplishment that sought to legalize duplexes across the state and functionally end single family zoning. Unfortunately, the law has at times proved difficult to utilize effectively, and too few applications have been submitted.

SB 677 will strengthen these landmark laws.

Improvements to SB 9 include:

  • Prevent Homeowners Associations (HOAs) and Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs) from prohibiting or restricting SB 9 projects.
  • Amend the Owner-Occupancy Requirement to allow developers to sell SB 9 properties to owners who pledge to inhabit for 3 years minimum.
  • Bring parity with environmental eligibility criteria from Senate Bill 423.
  • Add reporting requirements for local governments and state review for HCD.
  • Reduce coastal commission SB 9 permitting obstacles and delays.
  • Make several changes to address land use decisions designed to impede the law’s applicability, regarding setbacks, upzonings, height limits, lot coverage limitations, access requirements, and other objective design standards and permitting requirements.
  • Make several ministerial and streamlined approval changes.

Improvements to SB 423 include:

  • Expand market-rate project streamlining (subject to 20% instead of 50% inclusionary requirements) in jurisdictions solely failing to meet lower income RHNA goals.
  • Increase the re-evaluation frequency from every half-RHNA cycle (every 4 years for most jurisdictions) to every quarter-RHNA cycle (every 2 years for most jurisdictions).
  • Shift the burden of proof to require local governments to provide evidence of environmental criteria ineligibility, and make other environmental criteria clarifications.

SB 677 is sponsored by the Housing Action Coalition and California YIMBY.

 

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