California Rolls Back CEQA for Urban Infill Development

California Rolls Back CEQA for Urban Infill Development
News| July 1, 2025| Paul Bubny
California & West + Apartment Buildings

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a legislative package that includes broad exemptions to the 54-year-old California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Housing projects in urban infill areas that have already been approved under city and county environmental review will no longer need to be subjected to further state assessment under CEQA, which has often been cited as an obstacle to housing development in the state.

The reform signed by Newsom also exempts high-speed rail facilities, utilities, broadband, community-serving facilities, wildfire prevention and farmworker housing from CEQA review. It also exempts local governments’ rezoning from CEQA as part of their implementation of approved housing elements to accelerate site readiness.

In addition, Newsom put his signature on measures to expand the Permit Streamlining Act, limit certain Coastal Commission housing appeals and speeding up Coastal permitting, and make permanent key provisions of the Housing Accountability Act and Housing Crisis Act.

Newsom also signed a bill to establish sustainable funding tools that include a revolving fund to reinvest equity from stabilized affordable housing into new developments through the Affordable Housing Excess Equity Program, and a statewide CEQA VMT Mitigation Bank to provide an optional compliance tool to allow developers to more effectively fulfill their existing CEQA mitigation obligations by funding location-efficient affordable housing and infrastructure projects.

“We applaud the governor and the legislature for this breakthrough reform package to streamline housing production,” said Matthew O. Franklin, president & CEO, MidPen Housing. “We know that increasing housing supply is key to solving our affordability crisis and are confident these measures contribute to a future with more affordable, environmentally sustainable housing options for all Californians.”

Other News

Multifamily Refinancing Squeeze: 41% Higher Costs, $6.8B Equity Gap

Apartment Buildings

Multifamily owners with loans coming due are faced with higher refinancing costs. While this isn’t news, Newmark put numbers to the issue, indicating that loans maturing in Q3 2026 carried an average interest rate of 4.04%, compared to 5.69% on new loans at an average cap rate of 5.5%, resulting in negative leverage. At the...

Learn more

Mortgage Rates Tilt Demand Toward Multifamily: Marcus & Millichap

Apartment Buildings

An increase in mortgage rates is cooling home sales, with multifamily the biggest beneficiary, according to John Chang, senior vice president at Marcus & Millichap. In a recent video, Chang said that the 10-year Treasury has risen by more than 100 basis points, and the 30-year mortgage rate is up about 130 bps to the...

Learn more

Revere, MA Weighs 1,700-Unit Housing Project

Boston & New England + Apartment Buildings

The city of Revere is eying a large redevelopment plan that would create 1,700 new affordable and market-rate homes about five miles northeast of downtown Boston. The Revere Housing Authority presented a proposal to the Revere City Council last week requesting a zoning change that would allow for development on a 40-acre site at Cooledge...

Learn more
New call-to-action

Brokers

View All

Lenders

View All

Management

View All
Login
or
Sign up