California Lawmakers Unveil Bipartisan Plan To Fast Track Housing
Sacramento, CA– California legislators from both parties unveiled a housing reform package Thursday, introducing more than 20 bills aimed at expediting housing development by reducing bureaucratic hurdles and clarifying regulatory processes.
The Fast Track Housing package seeks to address the state’s housing crisis by tackling key bottlenecks in the approval and construction process. Lawmakers say the proposals will create clearer rules, accelerate timelines, and eliminate unnecessary delays while maintaining environmental and safety standards.
“Right now, it takes far too long to build the housing Californians need — and that’s a failure of government,” Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) said. “This package reflects a broad, bipartisan commitment to saying yes to housing, yes to progress, and yes to a government that helps solve problems instead of creating them.”
California faces a shortfall of 2.5 million homes, with nearly 200,000 residents experiencing homelessness. Lawmakers argue that lengthy permitting processes and inconsistent regulations have worsened the crisis by discouraging new development. The proposed legislation focuses on five areas: application processes, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance, entitlement approvals, post-entitlement permitting, and legal enforcement. The package includes reforms to streamline CEQA reviews, require standardized applications across jurisdictions, and impose deadlines on local governments and agencies to process housing approvals.
The legislative package, which has backing from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, now heads to committee for further consideration.
