They said it: Dialing back environmental rules to speed home building

July 6, 2025

Gov. Gavin Newsom, alongside Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland and state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, signs two bills Monday June 30, 2025 to reform CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, with the goal of building housing and other projects faster. (Photo: Governor’s Office)

“None of us thought this would have been possible a couple of months ago. But I think the winds of change are with us. Our constituents are demanding it.”

— Assembly member Buffy Wicks, an East Bay Democrat whose bill to shield new “infill” urban apartment development of less than 20 acres and surrounded on three sides by other urban uses from costly and time-consuming review under the California Environmental Quality Act was approved and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week.