land-use law.

• Eric Biber
• October 12, 2018

CEQA and Local Land-Use Regulations

California gubernatorial candidates debate the role of CEQA and local land-use regulations in the state’s housing crisis

The first (and probably only) debate in the California governor’s race happened earlier this week between Democratic nominee Gavin Newsom and Republican nominee John Cox.  Appropriately enough both candidates were asked how they were going to address the state’s housing crisis.  Newsom’s response was an ambitious target of 500,000 new homes/year through 2025 (far higher …

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• Eric Biber
• August 23, 2018

What is the role of CEQA in California’s housing crisis?

Ongoing research suggests that CEQA is more a symptom than the cause of the problem.

This blog post was authored by Moira O’Neill, Giulia Gualco-Nelson, and Eric Biber. Discussions about what laws and regulations might drive up housing costs continue in California. One reoccurring theme in the media is the question of whether the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) significantly contributes to the housing crisis in California by either driving …

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• Eric Biber
• February 21, 2018

Surveying the Landscape of Local Zoning and CEQA

First report from Berkeley/Columbia research project shows how Bay Area residential developments negotiate land-use and CEQA review

A group of interdisciplinary researchers from law and planning (which I am part of) just released its first report on how CEQA and land-use law shape the process of regulating and approving residential developments in five Bay Area cities.  (I first posted about our research here.)  I’ve included the Executive Summary below, and the full …

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• Eric Biber
• October 1, 2017

Is CEQA the problem?

Developing a better understanding of how land-use law and housing production interact in California

On Friday, the Governor signed a package of housing bills intended to help address the soaring costs of housing in many metro areas in California. Follow-up coverage of that bill package has (rightly) indicated that those bills are a drop in the bucket in terms of addressing California’s housing crisis. One theme that emerges in …

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• Eric Biber
• January 18, 2013

Is CEQA “Greenmail” A Problem?

Via PropertyProf blog, here’s an article on the real estate blog LA Curbed in which they disclose a previously secret settlement agreement between an LA neighborhood group and a local developer.  The agreement resolved potential CEQA litigation by the neighborhood group against a possible condo development proposed by the developer.  In particular, Curbed is outraged …

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