Mar 27, 2025 | Legislation, Bills, Housing
In a unified effort to tackle California’s housing crisis, a bipartisan and bicameral group of legislators today unveiled the Fast Track Housing package — a suite of more than 20 bills aimed at making housing more affordable by slashing red tape, removing uncertainty, and drastically diminishing the time it takes to get new housing approved and built. This package builds off the recommendations in the Final Report of the Select Committee on Permitting Reform, chaired by Asm. Wicks.
Mar 14, 2025 | Bills, Housing, Legislation
Erin Baldassari
Mar 14
State Sen. Scott Wiener is back with another bill to allow medium-rise apartment buildings near transit across California — his fourth attempt in seven years.
SB 79 by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would allow apartments up to seven stories tall within a quarter-mile of certain train stations. Allowable building heights would decrease farther from the train station or bus rapid transit stop, dropping to as low as four stories within a half-mile.
Feb 12, 2025 | Bills, Housing, Taxes
By Kate Talerico
February 19, 2025
California voters could soon be asked to authorize spending billions of dollars on new affordable housing. East Bay Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Yolo County Democrat, this week brought back a proposal to place a $10 billion bond for affordable housing programs on the June 2026 ballot after failing to get the measure on the November 2024 ballot.
Nov 5, 2024 | Legislation, Bills
Holland & Knight Alert
November 5, 2024
As in previous years, California saw a significant volume of new housing legislation emerge from Sacramento in 2024. (See Holland & Knight’s previous annual recaps of California Housing Laws in the final section below.) This Holland & Knight alert takes a closer look at some of the most significant housing laws that the California Legislature passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law, grouped into following categories
Sep 28, 2024 | Bills, Housing, Legislation
By J.K. Dineen
Sep 28, 2024
Developers hoping for a faster and easier path to converting empty office buildings to housing in California’s downtowns will have to wait for another legislative session after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation that would have fast-tracked such projects.
The measure, AB3068, would have expedited adaptive reuse projects by mandating by-right approval for projects converting offices to residential or mixed-use in city centers.
Sep 4, 2024 | Housing, Bills, Litigation
By Hillel Aron
September 4, 2024
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he plans to sign a bill that would strengthen the state attorney general’s power to fine cities that flout state housing laws.
Once Senate Bill 1037 goes into effect, the attorney general can seek penalties that would be assessed from the date that the housing law violation began. Those much larger fines will now go toward building affordable housing in the jurisdiction being penalized.
