Housing Expert: “Prop 45 Isn't About Affordability or the Housing Crisis."

Recent Legislative Action Makes Prop 45 an Unnecessary Overreach

SACRAMENTO – One of the state’s leading housing experts says Proposition 45 will not accelerate the development of affordable housing or reduce housing costs but instead will muzzle communities from input on the development of polluting projects.

Proposition 45 is the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, water, and public health laws.

In a column that appears in Bay Area News Group publications, Jordan Grimes of the nonprofit Greenbelt Alliance, who has championed reforms to reduce obstacles to urban housing in the Legislature, notes:

“California doesn’t need Prop. 45 to address our housing crisis either. Last year’s AB 130 exempted nearly all urban housing, including most apartment buildings, from environmental review. That’s the kind of housing we most need, and Prop. 45 won’t have any impact on building more of it. That’s because Prop. 45 isn’t about affordability or the housing crisis. It’s about handing shortcuts to polluting industries that they’ve wanted for years, disguised as relief for Californians struggling with the cost of living.

“Prop. 45 rehashes the same playbook rolling out of Washington: Strip away oversight, hand industry the wheel and let ordinary people absorb the cost. Californians know better. We’ve built stronger environmental protections precisely because we know what’s lost without them, from clean air and water to corporate accountability.”

Read the full column here.

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