Housing bill facing doordie Senate vote
SACRAMENTO — After a year of heated debate, state Sen. Scott Wiener’s bid to boost housing construction in California faces a critical deadline this week.
SB50, which would clear a path for denser housing around public transit and in wealthy suburbs, must pass the Senate and advance to the Assembly by Friday to stay alive.
The bill has received strong support from Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, DSan Diego, who used her position to maneuver it around a committee roadblock and onto the Senate floor Monday. But its fate is far from settled.
With opposition mounting from local governments and affordablehousing groups, despite amendments that Wiener made to appease their concerns, legislators are sharply divided about whether the bill is the right approach to address the state’s severe housing shortage.
“I’m very happy that the full Senate will get a
chance to weigh in on an important bill regarding the most pressing issue facing our state,” Wiener, DSan Francisco, said after the measure was moved to the Senate floor. “I look forward to making the case to my colleagues.”
What will the Senate be voting on?
The goal of SB50 is to increase the supply of housing, particularly where it could reduce people’s reliance on cars. It would do this by raising height limits around transit lines, allowing denser development in highincome areas, and effectively opening up the entire state to multifamily residences.
Under the bill, local governments in counties with more than 600,000 people could not block apartment and condominium projects of at least four or five stories within half a mile of rail stations and ferry terminals, provided those projects meet other local design standards. In the Bay Area, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties meet that population threshold.
The measure would also remove density limits and reduce parking requirements within a quartermile of stops on bus lines with frequent service and in highincome census tracts with lots of jobs and good schools, regardless of their proximity to transit.
In smaller counties, including Marin, Sonoma, Solano and Napa, cities with more than 50,000 people would have to allow up to 15 extra feet of height for buildings within a halfmile of transit stops.
A streamlined process to convert vacant plots and homes in residential areas to apartment buildings of up to four units would essentially eliminate singlefamily zoning in California, except in small coastal communities and areas at high risk of fire.
Changes that Wiener introduced in January would give cities two extra years, until 2023, to come up with alternative plans that could accommodate the amount of new housing that the bill would require. Communities at risk of gentrification would have five years to come up with neighborhood plans that combine the development requirements with antidisplacement protections. Cities that did not produce plans would fall under the measure.
New apartment buildings and condominiums approved under the relaxed standards have to set aside 15% to 25% of their units for lowincome families. People already living nearby would have priority.
What are the bill’s chances?
The pressure is on to get SB50 out of the Senate. In addition to Atkins, Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed his desire to pass some version of the bill this year.
Labor unions, business groups, the construction industry and even some environmentalists have lined up in support. But the measure faces stiff resistance from local governments worried about losing control over how their communities grow. The League of California Cities said it is unclear whether the alternative planning process in Wiener’s amended bill would give communities enough flexibility.
Negotiations between Wiener and groups representing affordable housing developers and lowincome communities reached an impasse last week. More than two dozen organizations, including the Western Center on Law and Poverty and the San Francisco Council of Community Housing Organizations, came out against the bill, saying it wouldn’t generate enough affordable housing or protect against gentrification.
Several Democrats representing suburban or coastal districts, which would potentially see the biggest changes, have already said they plan to vote against the measure.
That means Wiener may need help from Republican colleagues, some of whom voted for the bill in committee last year. But they all opposed bringing it to the floor Monday because the amendments had not been reviewed in a committee hearing.
What comes next?
If SB50 clears the Senate, it heads to the Assembly, where the process begins again. The measure would have until the end of August to pass the full house, plenty of time for further negotiations and amendments.
Eleven members of the Assembly have already signed on as coauthors, including Democrats Phil Ting of San Francisco and Buffy Wicks of Oakland, as well as one Republican, Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (Placer County). But its prospects there are no clearer than in the Senate. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, DLakewood (Los Angeles County), has largely stayed quiet about the measure.
One powerful member, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, DSan Diego, said on Twitter this month she was “falling out of love with this bill quickly” because the changes would “let more cities off the hook for longer.”