California is ending a rule that helped trigger its 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 specific 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 production bills Newsom signed into law late yesterday afternoon, persevering with a yearslong development of California pushing ahead as one of many few states making an attempt 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 deal with the recall challenge that had threatened his tenure. California’s housing affordability disaster and ensuing homelessness disaster have been key components of the frustration constructing in a state the place Zillow says the everyday house is valued at $708,936 (greater than double the everyday US dwelling worth of $303,288).

Whereas overhauling single-family-only zoning sounds revolutionary, the payments are literally light makes an attempt at rising density: legalizing duplexes and quadplexes and making it simpler to construct small residence buildings that present as much as 10 houses. This doesn’t imply single-family houses are outlawed or can not be constructed, however it offers householders 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 rather a lot zoned for single-family zoning. Not anymore.

This isn’t a panacea for housing manufacturing. UC Berkeley’s Terner Heart for Housing Innovation found 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 — specifically, native legal guidelines round minimal lot sizes will proceed to make it unlawful to show single-family houses into duplexes if the prevailing lot is just too small to subdivide whereas nonetheless adhering to the dimensions rules.

Nevertheless, the Terner Heart finds that “roughly 700,000 new, market-feasible houses could be enabled underneath SB 9.” That’s rather a lot! But in addition 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, notably within the close to time period. … As such, whereas essential, the brand new items unlocked by SB 9 would signify a fraction of the general provide wanted to totally deal with 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 flats or changing garages into houses. This added more than 20,000 new homes to the state’s housing supply.

That is nonetheless the start of a really lengthy combat to make it simpler to construct inexpensive housing in California, however this second indicators a shift. Ending single-family-only zoning had lengthy been regarded as unimaginable. California is pushing the probabilities frontier of states taking motion the place localities have failed with respect to producing sufficient housing for his or her populations. They usually’re not the primary to pursue a coverage on this vein: In 2019, Oregon passed a bill mandating that any metropolis with over 10,000 individuals permit duplexes in areas zoned for single-family-only housing. This successfully banned single-family-only zoning within the state as nicely.

This second was hard-won by legislators and pro-housing advocates that helped elect them, and it additionally marks a rising shift in who’s accountable for fixing the housing disaster. Housing remains to be largely seen as a neighborhood concern, however because the regional and even nationwide results start to be widely known, states are feeling the strain to take motion.

“The top 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, stated in a statement.