After half a century, California legislators on the verge of overhauling a landmark environmental law - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2025-06-02/new-ceqa-legislation-most-aggressive-in-generations #CEQA

#Newsom picks more #housing over #CEQA in backing YIMBY plans - CalMatters https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/05/newsom-ceqa-yimby-housing/

#DJT bloviation of intent to reappropriate #Alcatraz prison on #SanFrancisco Bay to host high security prisoners is as impractical as it is illogical.

Barriers of existing environmental acts including regional #CEQA process and wildlife regs , plus need to import all fresh water to island, and other construction and upgrades needed all make repurposing popular #NationalPark site back to historic usage as a #FederalPrison an impractical and downright dumb idea.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/05/04/california-trump-alcatraz/?share=0zwt5wozwpstmlpc5mer #GiftLink #SharedStory

Good. CA’s CEQA needs massive streamlining and reform. I’m tired of the NIMBYs using this state law to delay and cancel housing, especially in urban areas. Build more housing now

#california #ceqa #NIMBYism #urbanism #housing #housingcrisis

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/california-ceqa-20244075.php

Fresno Fast-Tracks 300MW Solar + Storage ⚡🌿 🚜 Sheep + solar: dual-use agri-energy ⚡ Powers 300K homes, zero-carbon at night 📜 CEQA reforms slash red tape delays Contact EnkiAI to get such insights. Don’t forget to follow for more developments. #Fresno #CEQA #EnkiAI enkiai.com

California Fast-Tracks Fresno ...

As fires continue to burn across LA, officials are already talking about rebuilding. We need to think long and hard about rebuilding in fire-prone areas. https://bit.ly/4fTh7gW #fires #development #environment #CEQA #rebuilding #Newsom #Los_Angeles

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/01/12/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-help-los-angeles-rebuild-faster-and-stronger/ “victims who have lost their homes and businesses must be able to rebuild quickly and without roadblocks” #wildfire #LosAngeles #CEQA #housing #shortage #pricegouging

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/alameda-food-bank-services-in-jeopardy-due-to-lawsuit/ “This location is a historic parking lot” #ceqa #preservation #predatorydelay #foodsecurity #redtape #food #parking #foodbank #alameda

#yimby #sanfranscisco #housing #ceqa Interesting to see 48hills casually admit that CEQA is routinely used as a means of extorting developers: https://48hills.org/2024/01/is-this-the-end-of-ceqa-as-a-tool-to-challenge-housing-projects-that-damage-communities/ (https://www.coffeehouse-talker.net/posts/48-hills-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud.html)

The tunnel will also forever damage the cultural landscape of the Delta, eliminating or changing #TribalPractices and the lands and the water associated with them that have existed for millenia. The agency's #CEQA review failed to consider the tunnel's implications for the Delta's Tribal peoples or on #EnvironmentalJustice communities who rely on the Delta for their #survival. The Delta is a fundamental part of the histories and lives of the people who have and continue to live there.

4/6

#RegulatoryCapture: discouraging important #CEQA lawsuits that enforce #environmentaljustice to block or mitigate the harmful effects of #housing #projects proposed in #toxicareas.

https://capitolweekly.net/ceqa-gutting-bill-threatens-californias-public-health-communities/

Weiner and Newsom gutted #CEQA instead of solving the problem of private unaffordable housing: luxury units with amenities that students say they don’t need and increasing pressure on the cost of other #student #housing in the #private #rental market. In many cases #studentdebt load is as much about housing costs as it is about #tuition.
#regulatorycapture #SocialHousingNow #RightToHousing

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/30/student-accommodation-university-housing-crisis

Where I live in the Bay Area is where housing insecurity is at a peak. CEQA needs to be reformed so that it's more flexible in classifying what are real environmental risks and what are lesser priorities. For decades denser projects have been stopped by local communities to protect single family housing zoning. #CEQA #zoning #YIMBY

#CEQA seeks to both (1) #inform the #public and governmental #decisionmakers about #tradeoffs in approving a #project with environmental effects, and (2) prevent #significant and #avoidable damage to the #environment. Vulnerable critters like the Temblor legless #lizard depend on CEQA to require agencies to fully consider and (where #feasible) #mitigate harmful environmental impacts.

https://legal-planet.org/2023/07/14/ucla-clinic-submits-amicus-brief-in-kern-oil-ordinance-case/

#ArrestedDevelopment: Democratic legislator backs people against the Governor trying to steal water for lawns and cattle at the expense of salmon.

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/06/budget-setback-delta-water-tunnel/

#Bypass #DeltaTunnel #CEQA #Waivers

https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2023/06/update-legislators-oppose-delta-tunnels.html

#CAWater- Gov Newsom stopped from changing #CEQA to build the #DeltaTunnel & other projects for #BigAg oligarchs, the building industry & other corporate interests: In addition to opposing the Delta Conveyance Project’s inclusion in the package the legislators said they also continue to oppose the “Fully Protected Species Reclassification” language that would “unjustly ease the permitting process to take (kill) species around the Delta.”
The letter was signed by Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua, Assembly District 13, Senator Bill Dodd, Senate District 3, Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson, Assembly District 11, Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, Assembly District 10, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, Assembly District 6, Assemblymember Damon Connolly, Assembly District 12, Assemblymember Timothy S. Grayson, Assembly District 15, Assemblymember Heath Flora, Assembly District 9, Assemblymember Josh Hoover, Assembly District 9; and Senator Brian Dahle, Senate District 1.

#DoNoHarm: The coalition which included the Sierra Club and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band prevailed in court! Valleywater violated the California Environmental Quality Act (#CEQA) by trying to bypass a review of how a #geological study would impact the #environment. Time for the District to work on better #waterprojects like #stormwater & #wastewater recycling and #waterefficiency (#MWENDO) that we proposed.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05/22/huge-dam-proposed-for-santa-clara-county-hit-with-new-setback/

At least #ceqa reform is on the way with #AB1700:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1700

I hate how #ceqa **gets abused being used as a tool to block housing **especially when it comes to college towns like #Berkeley which **REALLY **need #housing for students and residents.

CEQA needs to be 100% reformed so it doesn't block good projects like housing, #transit, #highspeedrail, #mobility projects, etc and makes harmful projects such as #highway expansions entirely unfeasible.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-24/court-ruling-halts-uc-berkeley-from-building-student-housing-at-peoples-park

UC #Berkeley People's Park project stopped dead in its tracks by court ruling. UC “failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus" and shoulda done a #CEQA study. Given Berkeley's racist history of exclusionary zoning, double ironic. Welcome to the #NIMBY slippery slope.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-24/court-ruling-halts-uc-berkeley-from-building-student-housing-at-peoples-park