For two new state senators, addressing California’s housing crisis has emerged as an early legislative priority.
Shortly after being sworn in this month, Sens. Scott Wiener and Toni Atkins introduced separate bills to bolster the state’s affordable housing stock.
Although still being fleshed out, Senate Bill 35 by Wiener, D-San Francisco, would encourage cities to approve residential developments, particularly those with affordable housing. In part, Wiener’s bill is based on Gov. Jerry Brown’s unsuccessful attempt to streamline the approval process, KQED reported. To defeat Brown’s plan, some opponents cited a loss of local control in vetting projects, and unions pointed to lost bargaining power for prevailing wages.
“I give the governor enormous credit for calling the question,” Wiener told KQED in this article about SB 35. “It didn’t work out … my hope is we can avoid some of those flare-ups by working collaboratively with some of the stakeholders.”
SB 35, just a few lines of text at present, takes aim at cities that fail to build …
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