Governor Signs Senator Cortese’s Bill To Streamline CEQA And Speed Up State Housing Production

Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation on September 1, by Senator Dave Cortese intended to speed up housing across California. SB 406 will eliminate certain types of repetitive reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) while maintaining California’s strong environmental protections. The Governor also signed Senator Cortese’s SB 642 to help protect the public from pollution and deter unfair business practices.

“Our state and regional housing crisis is complicated, but we continue to work together to find ways to ramp up housing production, particularly affordable housing for people in need,” said Senator Cortese (D-San Jose). “SB 406 will speed up housing by cutting bureaucratic red tape while keeping environmental protections intact.”

To tackle California's unprecedented housing crisis, local governments have taken steps to offer financial aid for developing affordable housing. For example, as a Santa Clara County Supervisor, Senator Cortese initiated the creation of a countywide housing task force that led to the creation of Measure A in 2016 that the Senator co-chaired, a voter-approved $950 million bond to help create about 4,800 affordable units. To date, the measure has funded the construction of over 4,300 new apartments spanning 47 developments across nine cities. Additionally, it has contributed to the refurbishment of more than 680 affordable housing units.

Public agencies regularly provide low-interest loans that support new affordable housing projects and guarantee their long-term sustainability. Similar actions to Measure A have been implemented in Alameda, Los Angeles, and San Francisco counties.

However, when a local agency helps fund an affordable housing project, this financial assistance can trigger an evaluation under CEQA, in addition to the separate, independent CEQA review conducted on the project itself. Implementing CEQA this way is ineffective, repetitive, and ultimately causes delays and increased expenses for urgently needed affordable housing.

SB 406 extends to local governments an existing CEQA exemption for state financing of affordable housing projects, provided that the project will still undergo a CEQA review by another public agency.

The Governor also signed the following bill:

SB 642 (Hazardous Waste Enforcement): SB 642 will help protect the public from pollution and deter unfair business practices by giving county counsels full civil enforcement authority over hazardous materials violations. The law is similar to a 2021 law authored by Senator Cortese, SB 461, which expanded the authority of county counsels to take on unfair competition cases.

SB 642 is sponsored by the County of Santa Clara, the California State Association of Counties, and Rural County Representatives of California with support from California Environmental Voters, the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, and more.