Environment law rethought
California’s housing shortage is spurring efforts in Sacramento to change the state’s 35-year-old environmental protection laws to make it easier for developers to build housing in downtowns and older urban neighborhoods.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to unveil proposals to ease current California Environmental Quality Act rules and make it harder to use the law to stop residential projects.
A bill by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland), who wants more central city and downtown housing projects declared off limits to CEQA challenges, would greatly expand the acreage and number of homes that would be exempted.
Other measures would allow builders to use “short-form” environmental reports in areas already planned and zoned for homes and would require those who file CEQA lawsuits to disclose their backers and their economic or other interest in the project. Another plan would exempt some downtown residential projects from traffic impact studies.
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