Policy Priorities to Build Needed Housing and Reduce Damaging Sprawl
Enable more Californians to afford housing near jobs, schools, and transportation.
Make it faster, cheaper, and easier to build smaller and more naturally affordable housing near jobs, schools, parks, convenient transportation, and other amenities.
Streamline to reduce red tape and reform excessive fees and other unnecessary obstacles that prevent enough needed infill housing from being built.
End bans on multi-family homes that force lower-income Californians into remote areas to find affordable homes.
Prioritize racial equity in all housing decisions.
Invest in disadvantaged communities, protect against displacement, and enable greater access to well-resourced neighborhoods.
Create ownership opportunities for those who have been historically prevented from building wealth through homeownership.
Create opportunities for developers, builders, small businesses, and workers from communities of color to directly benefit from new developments in their community.
Address the impacts of climate change and increase resiliency.
Prioritize housing development that will reduce vehicle miles traveled and carbon emissions, and improve climate resiliency, biodiversity, clean air, clean water, and food security.
Build new housing in areas that will help reduce exposure to smoke, fire, extreme weather, poor air quality and other hazards for residents—especially communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by climate change.
Invest in public greenspace in cities to reduce climate threats, increase resiliency, protect biodiversity, improve water and air quality, enhance quality of life, and support mental and physical health.
Protect critical wildlife habitats and working lands.
Enact policies to stop dangerous development in high fire-risk areas and future sprawl throughout the state.
Protect biodiversity and restore and maintain carbon storage by preserving natural and working lands and wildlife corridors.
Use best available science to assess and avoid fire and other climate risks.
Evaluate and improve existing information, such as that from CalFIRE, to assess fire risk and identify those areas that are safer and those that have high risk.
Keep land use planning and mapping efforts updated over time based on new information and a changing climate.
Use science-based wildland urban interface boundaries as a land use planning tool in high-risk locations.