Despite a deep­en­ing hous­ing short­age and home­less­ness cri­sis, writes Conor Dougher­ty, Cal­i­for­ni­a’s “State Leg­is­la­ture has strug­gled to fol­low their pre­scrip­tion to increase urban den­si­ty, often because law­mak­ers fear anger­ing sub­ur­ban vot­ers, whose pref­er­ences for sin­gle-fam­i­ly home liv­ing have been regard­ed as polit­i­cal­ly sacro­sanct.” This week, the leg­is­la­ture advanced a bill “that would allow two-unit build­ings on lots that for gen­er­a­tions have been reserved exclu­sive­ly for sin­gle-fam­i­ly homes.” 

The pro­posed upzon­ing, Sen­ate Bill 9, “was furi­ous­ly opposed by home­own­ers and local gov­ern­ment groups who said it ‘crush­es sin­gle-fam­i­ly zon­ing’ and would be ‘the begin­ning of the end of home­own­er­ship in Cal­i­for­nia.’ ” Toni Atkins, the bil­l’s author and pres­i­dent pro tem of the Cal­i­for­nia Sen­ate, called it “a gen­tle den­si­ty increase that respects the char­ac­ter of neigh­bor­hoods” and “will give oppor­tu­ni­ties to peo­ple who haven’t been able to own a home.” The bill, which passed the State Sen­ate in May, “made it through the Assem­bly by a vote of 45–19″ and will now go back to the Sen­ate for a con­cur­rence vote. 

Reduc­ing or elim­i­nat­ing sin­gle-fam­i­ly zon­ing has been a hot top­ic in recent years as cities and states strug­gle to cre­ate more afford­able hous­ing and keep up with ris­ing demand. “So far only Ore­gon has passed a state-lev­el ban on sin­gle-fam­i­ly house zon­ing. If Cal­i­for­ni­a’s S.B. 9 gets final pas­sage and is signed, it would add a state of 40 mil­lion to the list.” 

A sec­ond bill passed by the Cal­i­for­nia Assem­bly this week, SB 10, “would allow local gov­ern­ments to rezone parcels up to 10 units with no envi­ron­men­tal review, which would speed devel­op­ment by shrink­ing the rezon­ing process by sev­er­al years.” Pro­po­nents of statewide zon­ing reform argue that because “U.S. met­ro­pol­i­tan areas oper­ate as a con­tigu­ous econ­o­my, while their hous­ing mar­kets are frac­tured by dozens of cities and sub­urbs that each have their own reg­u­la­tions,” more com­pre­hen­sive state-lev­el poli­cies are cru­cial to solv­ing the hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty cri­sis.