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It took what amounted to political blackmail against the Legislature, but Gov. Gavin Newsom finally achieved what his predecessor, Jerry Brown, could not — modifications to the heavily misused California Environmental Quality Act.
Brown governed for eight years during his second stint prior to Newsom and tried to maneuver modifications through the Legislature, but it didn’t even receive a vote with fierce opposition from the building trades and environmental groups. Former Tracy Congressman Richard Pombo spent much of his time in Washington D.C. trying to modify the federal law with little success. His lack of attention to the home front may have cost him re-election with current state Sen. Jerry McNerney upsetting him.
Perhaps the Trump team will have more success.
Newsom agreed with Legislative leaders on a budget deal last week that largely used gimmicks (such as pushing expenses from June into July 2026 and the next fiscal year) and borrowing to avoid any significant reductions. Putting off the day of reckoning will make it much more difficult in the future when it cannot be avoided—Newsom hopes to be done with Sacramento when that day comes.
The Newsom budget deal came with a price—pass two bills exempting projects from CEQA or he would not sign the budget. No budget on July 1 means no paychecks—a real incentive. The Legislature did that Monday so money will flow.
Bills authored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks of Oakland and Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco were modified as budget trailer bills and open the way for development without local interference in urban areas. Prior Wiener legislation allowed higher density construction near transit stations. This time, multi-family buildings on parcels of less than 20 acres will be exempt from any environmental review (single family housing is not covered).
The housing crisis overwhelmed environmental opposition and the bills contained some goodies for the trades. It also exempted farmworker housing, advanced manufacturing facilities, certain sewer systems and the high-speed rail stations. That could affect not only the state’s absurd Central Valley line that has neither funding nor private investment, but also the privately funded Las Vegas to San Bernadino line in the median of Interstate 10. That may get done before the LA Olympics in 2028.
Remember that Newsom came into office proclaiming the state, under his leadership, would build 500,000 units a year. It’s been barely 100K and he’s walked that back to an “aspiration.”
Time will tell whether what will play out, but big barriers came down Monday
Interesting how quickly things change in the corporate world. Chevron USA, headquartered in the Bay Area (San Francisco and San Ramon) throughout its history is decamping for Houston. Just three years ago, it sold its 91-acre San Ramon campus with 1.3 million square feet of office space back to Sunset Development Co., owners of Bishop Ranch.
It leased 400,000 square feet at 2600 Camino Ramon, the million-square-foot former Pac Bell headquarters that Sunset has refurbished for a variety of users. Now Chevron has listed the entire space for sublet as it downsizes locally with the executive team off to Houston. It also has continued to shift workers to Houston or layoff others.
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Eliminating CEQA was a huge win for all Californian’s and particularly young Californians. We need to make lots of dense housing which is both affordable and convinently also more environmentally friendly.
Next step is to also change the way we do zoning state wide so cities like Pleasanton cannot block the type of housing we so desperately need.