From Green Icon to Housing Villain: The Fall of California's Landmark Environmental Law

West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group Leader Jennifer Hernandez was cited in a POLITICO Pro article reviewing the history of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and analyzing the political changes that led to landmark amendments creating new exemptions and seeking to increase affordable housing production. Born in the 1970s during an era of increasing environmental consciousness, with developments such as the signing of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), CEQA was originally intended to target projects that could increase air and water pollution. However, a California Supreme Court decision finding the law applied to private projects if they required public agency approval – a scope that covers almost all developments – changed the game for real estate developers and housing advocates and spurred what has since become an omnipresent threat of litigation, even for seemingly non-environmental issues. Ms. Hernandez, who has studied and written extensively about CEQA litigation abuse, spent years pushing for changes to help shield badly needed housing projects as the state's housing crisis worsened, seemingly to no avail.

"In an arms control race, who wants to lay down their weapon?" she explained. "You're talking about a real challenge to political power."

Recently, however, a political shift gave her enough hope to feel "more bullish about fixing it," to the point that she added a "FIX CEQA" vanity plate to complement her current one with "CEQANRD." This shift culminated in the reforms passed last month.

READ: From Green Icon to Housing Villain: The Fall of California's Landmark Environmental Law (Subscription required)