Environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act would no longer apply to the construction of homeless shelters under a law proposed in the California State Legislature.
"A California Democrat introduced legislation on Wednesday to speed up construction for homeless shelters and affordable housing in the state by exempting certain projects from environmental review," reports Hannah Wiley.
Assembly Bill 1907, authored by Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), would end the need for environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for specific kinds of homeless shelters and other emergency housing facilities until 2029. The bill would expand statewide a similar law, applying only to the city of Los Angeles, authored by Santiago in 2019 and signed by Governor Newsom into law, according to Wiley.
Liam Dillon provides additional news coverage of the proposed law, noting that CEQA "has been credited with helping to preserve California’s natural beauty but also blamed for stymieing construction."
FULL STORY: New California proposal would skip environmental review for homeless shelters
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The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association