Take it to the house: New building reforms remove hurdles to San Jose development

SAN JOSE OFFICIALS are celebrating the rollback of a long-standing environmental law, which has been a hurdle for housing production.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 30 signed two bills, Senate Bill 131 and Assembly Bill 130, which bring significant reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) — allowing many developments to circumvent an environmental review process. New housing projects built on vacant land around existing development, known as infill housing, will no longer be constrained by environmental reviews if they are under 20 acres, less than 85 feet tall and meet local zoning standards.