by Both the housing problem in California and the need for large-scale clean energy infrastructure construction are genuine. However, it is not only incorrect but also risky to attribute our state’s lack of housing or climate progress to the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
Columnist Ezra Klein contends in recent podcasts and commentary that CEQA is a well-intentioned law gone wrong, a weapon now used to obstruct housing and transportation. In some quarters, his argument is becoming more and more popular. However, it is predicated on a basic misinterpretation of CEQA’s functions and the actual obstacles to advancement.
California and San Diego’s housing construction difficulties are not caused by CEQA. Nearly 90% of housing developments in the state are either excluded from CEQA or eligible for accelerated assessment, according to the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Court challenges occur for less than 2 percent of all projects. That isn’t a bottleneck in the system. Decades of underinvestment in affordable housing and transit infrastructure, local opposition, and outmoded zoning are the true obstacles.
Like much of the state, San Diego County has benefited greatly from CEQA’s efforts to preserve wetlands, stop hazardous sprawl into regions vulnerable to wildfires, and provide communities with a say in choices that affect their environment and standard of living. It is the cause of the preservation of some of our most delicate inland and coastal environments. When major developments occur in a community, it is also a crucial tool for locals to demand transparency and improved results, especially in lower-income and historically disenfranchised neighborhoods.
Housing affordability and transit accessibility won’t magically arise if CEQA protections are removed. However, it will make it simpler for developers with strong interests, fossil fuel companies, and logistics behemoths to get around environmental protections and public involvement. That might expedite some projects, but it comes at the expense of long-term climate resilience, ecological health, and community trust.
This is not merely a theoretical issue. San Diego is already facing pressure to expand its infrastructure, often without enough infrastructure, in high-risk fire zones, or on the outskirts of development. These pressures would only get greater if CEQA were to be weakened, and the public would have less options for calling for improved planning and more intelligent expansion.
To be clear, we do need to produce housing more quickly and fairly. We require climate-ready infrastructure, sustainable energy, and transportation. However, we do not achieve this by dismantling CEQA. We achieve this by tackling the real obstacles, which include exclusionary zoning, local resistance to density, and the state’s lengthy tradition of giving market-rate development precedence over extremely affordable housing.
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The good news is that CEQA already permits clean energy and various forms of infill development to be streamlined. Building in the correct locations, close to jobs and transit, and with less of an impact on the environment is now easier thanks to recent state legislation like SB 35 and AB 2011. CEQA operates in tandem with such laws, not in opposition to them.
The myth that we must choose between environmental preservation and advancement is spreading. We can actually have both. If we plan ahead and respect the rights of the communities most impacted, we can construct quickly, intelligently, and fairly.The challenge is not CEQA. It is among the most effective instruments available to ensure that California develops in a sustainable, just, and knowledgeable manner. Nothing less is fair to San Diego and the rest of the state.
The Environmental Center of San Diego, whose executive director is Pamela Heatherington, works to enhance our community’s economic vitality and quality of life by promoting healthy natural systems.
