{"id":323693,"date":"2025-10-22T11:29:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323693\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:29:14","slug":"california-business-leaders-want-voters-to-streamline-environmental-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323693\/","title":{"rendered":"California business leaders want voters to streamline environmental reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

California voters could soon be asked to usher in a major overhaul of the state\u2019s landmark environmental law<\/a>, a proposal aimed at expediting crucial infrastructure projects, including housing construction, by creating new deadlines for environmental oversight.<\/p>\n

The California Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday introduced a ballot initiative<\/a> that looks to \u201cstreamline and speed up approval\u201d of essential projects, proposing stringent timelines for reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA \u2014 long considered a barrier to development. The proposal comes less than four months after state lawmakers, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, pushed through some of the most expansive CEQA exemptions<\/a> yet for home builders working in urban areas zoned for multifamily units.<\/p>\n

But chamber leaders say this ballot measure, which could be considered as early as November 2026, would do more than just carve out another exception for what\u2019s become known as the \u201cSwiss cheese CEQ.\u201d It would but revise the process entirely. <\/p>\n

The \u201cBuilding an Affordable California Act\u201d seeks to establish \u201creasonable timelines\u201d for environmental oversight on projects deemed essential, such as those focused on affordable housing, clean energy, secure water, healthcare and wildfire resiliency. It would still require that projects comply with the environmental law, but would enact new deadlines for public hearings as well as state and local approvals, in most cases, within 365 days. <\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornians deserve a law that recognizes prosperity isn\u2019t the enemy of preservation,\u201d Jennifer Barrera, the president and chief executive of the chamber, wrote in a statement. \u201cModernizing that law won\u2019t just ease California\u2019s affordability crisis and boost our economy \u2014 it will prove the naysayers wrong about our state. … It\u2019s time to build an affordable California.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the measure<\/a>, the chamber called CEQA an outdated system that is \u201ctoo slow, too bureaucratic and too costly,\u201d and a main driver of the state\u2019s high cost of living. <\/p>\n

CEQA supporters disagree, calling it key in protecting the state\u2019s natural resources, wildlife and vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopers have latched on to using CEQA as the boogeyman that they\u2019re going to blame for a lot of things, specifically the affordable housing crisis,\u201d said Frances Tinney, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. She said that prior CEQA carve-outs have yet to jump-start affordable housing, while helping to increase developers\u2019 profits and decrease accountability. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo just keep hacking at CEQA before we even wait to see the consequences of the last time we hacked at CEQA is just not responsible,\u201d Tinney said, noting the Legislature\u2019s CEQA exemptions passed over the summer.<\/p>\n

In theory, CEQA is relatively simple, requiring proponents of a project to disclose and, if possible, lessen their environmental effects. But in practice, it has often led to long environmental reports, studies and reviews, that are sometimes followed by lawsuits over possible inadequacies that can require a restart. <\/p>\n

Overhauls and changes to the environmental law have for years faced fierce opposition from progressive lawmakers, environmentalists and labor unions \u2014 key factions in California\u2019s Democratic majority.<\/p>\n

The chamber\u2019s proposal also would provide new timelines for legal challenges under CEQA, which has been repeatedly weaponized by unions, NIMBYs<\/a> and project opponents to stop<\/a> or delay<\/a> certain development for reasons that often have nothing to do with the environment.<\/p>\n

The California chamber\u2019s introduction of the measure is the first step to appear on a ballot. It will now be reviewed by the state\u2019s attorney general, including a fiscal analysis and public comment period, before the chamber needs to collect approximately 540,000 signatures in support of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe initiative was carefully crafted to protect the environment while ensuring that plans for much-needed housing, clean energy, reliable water supplies, and public health and safety facilities are reviewed in a timely manner,\u201d Barrera said. \u201cCalifornians deserve a law that recognizes prosperity isn\u2019t the enemy of preservation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California voters could soon be asked to usher in a major overhaul of the state\u2019s landmark environmental law,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[852,45777,81286,1582,276,161642,24973,161641,854,161643,2961,11238,161644,224,5337,161645,6514,2290,290,9111],"class_list":{"0":"post-323693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-approval","10":"tag-ballot-measure","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-california-chamber","14":"tag-ceqa","15":"tag-chamber-leader","16":"tag-clean-energy","17":"tag-essential-project","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-labor-union","20":"tag-landmark-environmental-law","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-major-overhaul","24":"tag-proposal","25":"tag-review","26":"tag-state","27":"tag-voter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115417590320914316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}