Citing a continued deficit in housing across California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday that will expand a ban on local governments requiring parking spaces at developments near transit areas.
Authored by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, Assembly Bill 2553 builds on preceding legislation from 2022 that did away with parking minimums in residential, retail and commercial development within a half mile of major transit stops.
The legislation, part of a bill package signed Thursday, serves the state’s overlapping goals of building its way out of its housing crisis and weaning off the public’s reliance on cars to get around.
“The original sin in this state is affordability,” Newsom said at a press conference in San Francisco with state and local leaders. “That’s the challenge we are trying to address here today.”
Kurt Canfield, an organizer with Car-Lite Long Beach, explained that state law previously defined a major transit area as any intersection of at least two bus routes at a frequency of 15 minutes or less during the morning and afternoon commute periods.