In the coming year, the California Legislature is set to pass laws or revisions to existing laws on several important initiatives pertaining to environmental and real estate matters. These initiatives tackle longstanding issues affecting the state that may be ripe for significant legislative reform.
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). CEQA was enacted to provide environmental oversight by state and local agencies for development projects. While CEQA was intended to assess and remediate environmental defects resulting from real estate development, it has been misused in various circumstances to halt development for reasons unrelated to environmental consequences. For example, in some cases, CEQA litigation has postponed clean energy projects, and has been used by claimants to shut down certain projects or extract cash settlements. Significantly, this has slowed the pace of development projects with no environmental justification for termination. Amendments to CEQA have been proposed to combat such attempts. The courts have increasingly addressed this issue in the past but many believe that the Legislature may be well suited to enact more substantive changes.
Environmental legislation. A number of environmental and consumer advocacy initiatives are set to be considered in 2017. Changes to one such law -Proposition 65- has introduced new requirements for compliance. Prop 65, which instructs certain companies to label products with carcinogen warnings, underwent changes, such as more stringent rules on labeling, that are set to take effect in 2018.
Housing legislation. In 2017, the California legislature will attempt to draft legislation to address the shortage of housing in the state. While SB 35 has already been introduced to tackle the issue of affordable housing, lawmakers will need to find a balance between offering affordable housing and incentivizing developers to create projects that can be executed at reasonable expense. As a start, Measure JJJ passed in November, 2016 and obligates developers to reserve a certain percentage of units to be designated as affordable housing. Measure S, which would have restricted construction on building projects that require zoning changes in Los Angeles, was soundly defeated in March.
Contact Shane Coons at 949-333-0900 or visit his website at www.ShaneCoonsLaw.com to find out more about his practice.