GUEST OPINION
Los Angeles as viewed from the Hollywood Hills (Photo – Diliff)
The current housing and homelessness crisis has bolstered efforts to “streamline” housing development public review process laws such as the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”).
By Mitchell M. Tsai
The recent arrest, however, of current Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar for allegedly trading favors to wealthy foreign development interests in exchange for monetary payments demonstrates why now is not the time to roll back government accountability laws such as the CEQA.
If State legislators truly were committed to solving the State’s housing crisis, they would dedicate resources to funding affordable and homeless housing as well as local planning efforts rather than to the implementation of legislative changes that benefit only wealthy large national and multi-national real estate developers.
Many of the current CEQA and land use “reform” efforts serve only to streamline government approval for luxury skyrises, stadiums, arenas and hotel projects. These efforts do little to address our State’s housing and homelessness crisis, and they ignore the most pressing issues in local land use decisions.
Ignored in all this chatter about “reform” is that an overwhelming majority of housing and development projects already are entitled under existing law; they do not require CEQA environmental review. Yet, many of these projects languish in underfunded planning and building and safety departments which are forced to rely upon fees paid by applicants to fund their operations.
A recent study conducted by the UC Berkeley School of Law found that
- “Non-legal factors (such as practices in planning departments, or the amount of resources dedicated to planning) may impact development timelines,” that
- “Because CEQA comes into play where a local government has the discretion to approve / disapprove a proposed project, targeting a state environmental review statute may do little to address the housing supply crisis … [and that]
- [M]isguided CEQA reform could undermine environmental protection throughout the state without providing meaningful improvements to our housing situation.” (Moira O’Neil et al (2018) Getting it Right: Examining the Local Land Use Entitlement Process in California to Inform Policy and Process.)
Another study, conducted by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation and funded by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, found that impact fees charged by municipalities for the cost of infrastructure necessary to support new development stifle development of new homes. (Haley Raetz et al (2019) Residential Impact Fees in California: Current Practices and Policy Considerations to Improvement Implementation of Fees Governed by the Mitigation Fee Act.
Assembly Bill 3279 (AB3279), authored by local Assemblymember Laura Friedman (Democrat, 43rd Assembly District), recently passed by the State Assembly and currently pending before the State Senate Environmental Quality Committee, is one example of a poorly conceived attempt at CEQA reform.
AB3279 does not address any of the core issues driving our State’s housing affordability crisis while insulating elected officials from public scrutiny and paving the path for wealthy real-estate developers to obtain special entitlements from those very same elected officials. The bill seeks to weaken the legal remedies for CEQA violations, require plaintiffs to pay for the costs of preparing administrative records, remove the already deferential standard of review for agency decisions, and require expedited briefing and trial of CEQA matters. This bill would strongly deter public interest environmental litigation and as a result is widely opposed by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Communities for a Better Environment and the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.
It is an odd choice for a self-proclaimed progressive environmentalist such as Assemblymember Friedman to author a bill that will deter public-interest environmental litigation and the public’s right to hold elected officials accountable. Given the rampant corruption that is being uncovered among local elected officials related to local land use decision and development, the last thing we need right now is “reform” that will restrict the public’s right to hold elected officials accountable.
Mitchell M. Tsai is a public interest environmental attorney based in Pasadena, California and an elected member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee.
Dear readers,
We have temporarily stopped the Print Edition of our paper due to COVID-19 and as a precaution towards our delivery people and staff. Our online edition has been going strong as journalism continues. We will resume our Print edition when it’s safe. Your subscription will be honored when we resume printing.
In the meantime, we appreciate your support with our online edition. Our readership grew 200% in the last few months while our expenses increased exponentially and our ad revenues completely dried up.
Click for the many ways you can support ColoradoBoulevard.net:
[asp_product id=”80314″]
Leave a Reply