Gov. Newsom signed payments ending single-family-only zoning, a step towards addressing the housing disaster.
With a stroke of his pen, Gov. Gavin Newsom has formally ended the over 100-year scourge of single-family-only zoning in California.
Single-family-only zoning legal guidelines make it unlawful to construct something however a single-family dwelling on a selected lot of land. Now (with small exceptions like for fire-prone areas) additionally it is authorized to construct duplexes.
That change was a part of a set of housing manufacturing payments Newsom signed into legislation on Thursday, persevering with a years-long development of California pushing ahead as one of many few states trying to sort out the housing provide disaster.
The payments had remained unsigned on the governor’s desk, presumably till after Newsom had an opportunity to handily cope with the recall problem that had threatened his tenure. California’s housing affordability disaster and ensuing homelessness disaster had been key components of the frustration constructing in a state the place Zillow says the standard house is valued at $708,936 (greater than double the standard US dwelling worth of $303,288).
Whereas overhauling single-family-only zoning may sound revolutionary, the payments are light makes an attempt at growing density: legalizing duplexes and quadplexes and making it simpler to construct small house buildings that present as much as 10 houses. This doesn’t imply single-family houses are outlawed or can now not be constructed, however it offers owners the choice to transform their houses into duplexes or promote their houses to individuals who need to accomplish that. Prior to now, it was unlawful for somebody to transform their dwelling to a duplex on lots zoned for single-family zoning. Not anymore.
This isn’t a panacea for housing manufacturing. UC Berkeley’s Terner Middle for Housing Innovation discovered that SB 9 (the invoice that legalizes duplexes) will “modestly speed up the addition of latest items relative to the established order.” Different legal guidelines that prohibit the constructing of latest and extra inexpensive houses are nonetheless in impact — particularly, native legal guidelines round minimal lot sizes will proceed to make it unlawful to show single-family houses into duplexes if the present lot is just too small to subdivide whereas nonetheless adhering to the scale laws.
Nevertheless, the Terner Middle finds that “roughly 700,000 new, market-feasible houses can be enabled below SB 9.” That’s lots! However as a result of many individuals received’t need to promote their houses or subdivide them themselves, “solely a share of that potential is prone to be developed, significantly within the close to time period. … As such, whereas vital, the brand new items unlocked by SB 9 would symbolize a fraction of the general provide wanted to totally tackle the state’s housing scarcity.”
Earlier incremental progress on housing manufacturing got here within the type of ADU (accent dwelling unit) legalization — for developing yard residences or changing garages into houses. This added greater than 20,000 new houses to the state’s housing provide.
That is nonetheless the start of a protracted struggle to make it simpler to construct inexpensive housing in California, however it’s an enormous second. Ending single-family-only zoning had lengthy been considered unimaginable. California is pushing the chances frontier of states taking motion the place localities have failed with respect to producing sufficient housing for his or her populations. And so they’re not the primary to pursue a coverage on this vein: In 2019, Oregon handed a invoice mandating that any metropolis with over 10,000 folks enable duplexes in areas zoned for single-family-only housing. This successfully banned single-family-only zoning in that state as nicely.
This achievement was hard-won by legislators and pro-housing advocates who helped elect them, and it alerts a shift in who’s deemed liable for fixing the housing disaster. Housing remains to be largely seen as an area difficulty, however because the regional and even nationwide results start to be well known, states are feeling the strain to take motion.
“The tip of exclusionary, single-unit zoning in California is a historic second — we’ve taken an enormous step towards making California a extra inexpensive, equitable, and inclusive state,” Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY, mentioned in an announcement.
