Just a year ago, a state bill aimed at rolling back environmental review for new development solely in downtown San Francisco was deemed so politically toxic it never made it to a floor vote in Sacramento.
But last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills meant to curtail the California Environmental Quality Act for certain new housing and infrastructure projects.
To hammer home just how much the discourse around CEQA has changed, Newsom called the new laws “the most consequential housing reform that we’ve seen in modern history in the state of California.”…