California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a bill to ban most single-family zoning in California, The Mercury News reports.
Newsom signed Senate Bill 9, which allows for up to four residential units to be developed on single-family lots in the state. The move follows efforts by cities in the Bay Area to eliminate single-family zoning amid a housing crisis.
“The housing affordability crisis is undermining the California Dream for families across the state, and threatens our long-term growth and prosperity,” Newsom said. “Making a meaningful impact on this crisis will take bold investments, strong collaboration across sectors and political courage from our leaders and communities to do the right thing and build housing for all.”
Newsom has also signed a budget deal that includes $1 billion to fight homelessness and $1.75 billion to build more homes. He has also signed a $12 billion bill to build homeless housing and support services for the homeless.
Newsom streamlines developments:
Newsom also signed Senate Bill 10, which allows local governments to streamline new multi-family housing projects of up to 10 units near transit or in urban areas and simplifies zoning requirements.
“SB 10 provides one important approach: making it dramatically easier and faster for cities to zone for more housing,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, who wrote the bill. “It shouldn’t take five or 10 years for cities to re-zone, and SB 10 gives cities a powerful new tool to get the job done quickly.”
Housing Crisis Act extension:
Newsom also signed Senate Bill 8, which extends the Housing Crisis Act the legislature passed two years earlier.
The law streamlines the approval process for housing projects, restricts local governments’ power to reduce the number of units permitted on a site, and restricts increases to housing application fees.
