A New Proposed California State law Compels cities: Build more, or we’ll do it for you

Every California city is required to build a certain amount of housing to meet the state goals, and many cities are ignoring it. The new law proposed in Sacramento would force cities to comply, or the state will push the projects forward. It is SB 35 and if passed then each city may be forced to fast track building projects. This takes control from the local level to the state. Most cities don’t like such bullying. It has not been written fully just yet, but it has been proposed by new state senator Scott Wiener. Other similar proposals sank in the senate. Initially the proposed law will allow control locally, but it may be more how a city will comply and not whether they comply. A San Francisco housing initiative pushed for 3,600 new homes every year through 2020. Other San Francisco Bay Area districts will create 160k new homes in the same period. We don’t have the figures for Los Angeles County, but the push from Sacramento is build, build, build regardless of location.