Gavin Newsom signs California housing bill. Why is it so controversial?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Newsom signed Senate Bill 79, which aims to allow for taller, denser housing within one-half mile of transit stops.
- Many cities opposed the bill due to concerns over local control, other issues.
- State Sen. Scott Wiener pitched the measure as a way to help struggling transit agencies and boost housing supply.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a controversial measure that aims to make it easier to build taller and denser housing near public transportation stops.
Senate Bill 79 will largely force cities to allow projects on properties within one-half mile of transit stops, even on land that is zoned for commercial or mixed use. And communities would also generally be prevented from imposing some height and density limits for those developments.
“For too long, California has poured billions into transit without building the housing density needed for those systems to reach their potential,” Newsom said in a statement. “SB 79 helps change that by focusing more homes near rail stations — boosting ridership, cutting traffic and pollution, lowering household costs, and expanding access to jobs, schools, and services.”
Many cities opposed the measure because it would limit the control they have on projects, could cause them to have to redo city plans and other factors.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had urged Newsom to veto the bill in a letter last month. She agreed it was important to create more housing near transit stops, but “we must do so in a way that does not erode local control, diminish community input on planning and zoning, and disproportionately impact low-resource neighborhoods,” Bass said.
Members of a Los Angeles-based group, United Neighbors, also sent thousands of letters to Newsom opposing the bill, said Maria Pavlou Kalban, one of the organization’s founders. Their worries included that the measure would undermine state-required housing plans and that it did not apply evenly because many cities and counties were exempt from the measure, she said.
Sen. Scott Wiener pushed the bill through
The bill’s author, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, argued the measure was a way to help prop up struggling public transit agencies and also make housing more affordable. He amended the bill more than a dozen times to try and secure enough support for it.
That included letting cities come up with alternative plans that had to be approved by state officials and also reducing the number of communities that would be subject to the measure’s requirements.
“For years, cities have embraced transit-oriented development and are actively planning for housing near transit,” Jason Rhine, a lobbyist for the League of California Cities, said in a statement Friday. “SB 79 defies those same housing plans, with no requirements to force developers to actually build housing near transit. Our residents are demanding affordable housing, and this measure falls short.”
That pushback did not dim Wiener’s high hopes for the new law.
“SB 79 is a historic step toward tackling the root cause of California’s affordability crisis — our profound shortage of homes and too few people having access to transit,” he said in a statement after the bill was signed. Adding that it “unwinds decades of overly restrictive land use policies that have driven housing costs to astronomical levels, forcing millions of people to move far away from jobs and transit, to face massive commutes, or to leave California entirely.”
Brian Hanlon, CEO for California YIMBY, an organization that advocates for more housing and a key supporter of the bill, said: “There is still more work to be done, but Governor Newsom just sent a clear message that California is ready to build a more affordable, sustainable and prosperous future for everyone.”
The measure narrowly passed the Legislature last month with support from both Republicans and Democrats. It will likely take years to determine its overall effectiveness.
This story was originally published October 10, 2025 at 9:46 AM.
