This week, California’s Senate voted down SB50, a bill introduced by State Senator Scott Weiner to address the housing-affordability crisis. The bill would have removed local control over zoning for many areas of the state—including those near transit lines, ferries, and major bus routes, as well as high-income areas with lots of jobs, such as Silicon Valley—and required that midrise and medium-density apartment buildings be permitted there, regardless of what the local government wanted. It was Weiner’s third attempt at a major housing bill to permit more density near transit, and it was weeks away from dying in committee again before the Senate’s president pro tem bought it to a floor vote.
SB50 was extremely controversial, with many considering it an overreach of state power in seeking to preempt local control. It was also seen as imposing high-rise and high-density development on traditionally suburban communities. These criticisms were off the mark. It did seek to override local government, but those localities have gone too far in constraining the rights of individual landowners. When local government is overly restrictive of what people can build on their own property, it’s the local government that is overreaching. Though it allowed for taller and denser projects, SB50 didn’t prevent smaller buildings; nor did it create any mechanism for a public agency to build larger buildings if private groups didn’t build them. As for high density, SB50 was quite modest, allowing buildings 45-55 feet tall in some areas, or 15 feet taller than currently allowed in others. Manhattan skyscrapers need not apply.
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