California Senate approves housing budget trailer, CEQA changes after debate on tribal consultation and mortgage rules

SACRAMENTO — The California State Senate on June 27 approved a package of budget trailer bills designed to accelerate construction of housing and related infrastructure and to change aspects of environmental review, advancing Assembly Bill 130 and Senate Bill 131 and several companion measures after hours of floor debate.

The measures bundle funding and policy changes intended to lower costs and speed approvals for housing, child care centers, food banks, health clinics and certain manufacturing projects, while also adding or restoring housing assistance funds and renter tax credits. Supporters said the bills will reduce delays and boost production; critics said the changes shorten or weaken tribal consultation and could raise constitutional or environmental concerns.

AB 130, presented by Sen. Scott Wiener, was described on the floor as a housing “budget trailer” bill that aims to make it faster and cheaper to build housing, protect homeowners from abusive mortgage practices and provide new financing options for affordable housing. Wiener said the bill removes sunset dates on statutes that facilitate housing production, pauses some building-code changes temporarily, and (under certain conditions) exempts environmentally friendly infill housing from CEQA review provided projects meet requirements including tribal consultation and specified labor standards. He also said the bill would limit certain homeowners association fees that block ADU construction, add procedural protections against revived “zombie” second mortgages, and create an optional pathway for developers to address vehicle-miles-traveled mitigation via contributions to a transit-oriented development fund at the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). ("Thank you very much, madam president.…