Will sprawl save California?

Come November, California residents may turn to sprawl to ease its housing shortage: voters will be asked to consider Proposition 45, a measure that would expand the projects that qualify for a streamlined environmental review. The proposition would streamline housing development for companies such as the Tejon Ranch Company, which has spent the past 20 years trying to build houses on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

The proposition would add 41 pages to the California Environmental Quality Act, Conor Dougherty writes for the New York Times. While the act rarely kills projects outright, the environmental review process it mandates, and the potential subsequent challenges, can make developments take years longer and cost millions more than they would have otherwise.

Jordan Grimes, legislative director at the Greenbelt Alliance, told NYT that California should curb environmental regulations in urban areas, but that “The changes that Proposition 45 makes to CEQA will create an explosion of sprawl across California.” Matthew Walker, chief executive of the Tejon Ranch Company, told NYT that Californians are leaving the state to find more single-family homes, and that the state should focus on expanding its suburbs.