Sacramento, California-Governor Gavin Newsom promulgated a review of California environmental protection standards that, according to him, are essential to address the critical scarcity of housing and the long-term crisis of the house.
The Democratic governor seen widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate described the two -bills package as a historical remodeling of the environmental rules that, although initially well intentional, too often resulted in litigation and expensive delays that strangled the very necessary development.
Newsom said the bills, which he signed on Monday night, represents the reform of the most consistent housing in the recent history of California.
“We have too much demand chasing very little supply,” said Newsom at a press conference. “Many of the challenges that all United States can connect to this problem.”
Once known for its stratospheric growth, it is possible that the most populous state of the nation can lose a handful of seating of the US House. In the 2030 census because the population has been changing to states such as Texas and Florida, where the cost of living is more affordable.
And with about 18 months in office, the term Newsom is also seeking to strengthen its legacy when trying to address one of the most intractable problems of the State: high rentals and prices of homes that are out of the reach of many middle -class families. When the government is looking for for the first time, Newsom said he wanted to end the scarcity of Housing in California by building millions of new houses, a goal that seems unlikely to reach when he leaves the office in January 2027.
It was difficult to predict how much activity it would continue.
“I think the increase will be incremental instead of a boom,” said planning expert Bill Fulton, former mayor of Ventura and director of Planning and Economic Development in San Diego. He observed in an email that many other factors come into play, including the financing of the lenders, the cost of construction materials and the availability of workers.
With the race to happen it, the Republicans have criticized Newsom and the dominant Democrats of the Legislature for doing little to control the costs of everything, from public services to housing.
With a serious home scarcity, Newsom said that nothing less than confidence in the government was at stake, the ability to produce results. This is “the reputation of the state of California,” he said.
Newsom had threatened to reject the state budget approved last Friday unless legislators reviewed the Environmental Quality Law of California, or CEQA, a law of the 70s that requires a strict examination of any new development due to its impact on the environment.
The governor and housing defenders argue that Ceqa put bureaucratic obstacles that have made it more and more difficult to build homes in the state of 39 million.
Legislators approved the transformative measure despite the opposition of environmental groups.
Jakob Evans, a senior policy strategist for Sierra Club California, said in a statement that “these bills at half -written law will have destructive consequences for the communities of environmental justice and endangered species in California.”
Newsom called it a step to solve the problem of affordability of state housing.
“This was too urgent, too important, to allow the process to develop as it has done for the last generation,” he said after signing the bill.
Earlier this year, Newsom resigned from some CEQA rules for forest fire victims in southern California, creating an opening for the State to reexamine the law that critics say it hinders development and increases construction costs.
The state budget approved last week supports a series of progressive priorities, including a historical expansion of medical care for low -income adult immigrants without legal status, to close a deficit of $ 12 billion.
