Gavin Newsom claims it’s the “most consequential housing reform in modern history” that he just exempted most urban housing projects from environmental review, as the new state budget has some additions that hope to weaken the notorious CEQA.

A very nerdy policy topic we often discuss is the 55-year-old California Environmental Quality Act abbreviated as CEQA (pronounced “SEE-kwa”). It’s an environmental law signed by Governor Ronald Reagan in 1970 when Nixon was in the White House, at a time when the Republican Party felt very differently about environmental conservation. CEQA was designed to ensure legislators conducted full reviews of all environmental impacts that might result from proposed large development projects, but the courts expanded it to allow any common folk to challenge developments. Those challenges could be about major issues like air pollution and traffic, or more frivolous issues like shadows or considering “people as pollution.”

These challenges often led to red tape and lengthy, costly litigation that held up some major housing developments. But on Monday, in what Governor Gavin Newsom is calling “Holy Grail reform,” KTVU reports that Newsom has signed a budget bill that purports to be a major rollback of CEQA. Newsom is also crowing that this is the “most consequential housing reform in modern history."

"We've seen this abuse over and over again," Newsom said at a Monday press conference, per KTVU. "We’ve fallen prey to litigation as a strategy, delay as a strategy. The consequences of all of that are too much demand chasing too little supply. It’s not complicated, this is Econ: 101."

Newsom forced a power move on this one, as the CEQA rollbacks are two CEQA waiver bills from Assemblyperson Buffy Wicks and state Senator Scott Wiener. Those two bills were embedded at the 11th hour into the state’s $321 billion budget, which Newsom said he would refuse to sign if the two bills were not included.

The New York Times analysis of the CEQA rollback says that CEQA has had a role in the state’s “homelessness crisis,” though it seems like income inequality has a lot more to do with that. But the Times also notes that the rollbacks exempt most urban housing projects from environmental review, and lower the standards on when union labor is required for housing projects.

CalMatters adds that this is a CEQA rollback on a lot more than just housing projects, and also strikes down CEQA rules on the development of “child care centers, health clinics, food banks, farmworker housing, broadband, wildfire prevention, water infrastructure, public parks or trails and, notably, advanced manufacturing.”

It’s that “advanced manufacturing” part that has environmentalists crying foul. That expectation paves the way for Big Tech industrial manufacturing plants to roll into what critics say will be vulnerable, low-income communities.

“This law would not harm all California communities equally,” Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability state policy manager Asha Sharma told CalMatters. “This budget deal is an attack on lower-income communities of color that consistently get sited for harmful industrial projects.”

Still, both add-on bills were passed in a landslide, with the state Assembly passing them 50-3, and the Senate passing them by a 33-1 margin. And state Senator Scott Wiener is definitely taking his victory lap.

“These new CEQA reforms are a bold step forward toward tackling the root causes of California’s affordability crisis,” Wiener said in a statement. “The high costs devastating our communities stem directly from our extreme shortage of housing, childcare, affordable healthcare, and so many of the other things families need to thrive. These bills get red tape and major process hurdles out of the way, allowing us to finally start addressing these shortages and securing an affordable California and a brighter future."

Still, the big question is… Will this actually result in any more housing getting built? I have lost count of how many times YIMBYs have spiked the football in recent years claiming that they’ve removed so-called barriers to housing, yet our rate of housing production seems to have not budged up an inch.

Housing production is currently being hampered by construction costs, insurance gouging, and high interest rates, and it remains to be seen whether tossing out major components of CEQA will result in any near-term boost in housing availability.

Related: Scott Wiener Introduces Bill to Halt Environmental Reviews In Downtown SF for 10 Years [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist