Dear Friends --

On Friday we joined Sen. Scott Wiener, local elected officials, YIMBYs, and transit advocates to kick off SB 79. And now we need your help to grow the movement to pass this bill.

One of the most effective ways to tackle California's housing shortage and affordability crisis: Make it easier to build homes near transit.

California has been building more transit in our cities, with the intention of allowing more people to easily and affordably get to work, to school, to a restaurant or a game. That also helps reduce climate pollution.

But many cities still have onerous regulations and zoning rules that make it difficult to build housing near transit. Infill housing is still outlawed near many stations serving BART, LA Metro Rail, San Diego Trolley, rapid bus lines, and other transit services.

We're going to change that. California YIMBY is co-sponsoring Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 79 to make it easier and faster to build multi-family housing near transit stops. We just kicked off our campaign for SB 79 at the Daly City BART station. But we’re going to need your help to pass it.

Will you add your name in support of SB 79? Show legislators that Californians want to make it easier to build new homes near transit!

SB 79 will make it legal to build multi-family housing near transit, including in areas currently zoned only for single-family homes, by requiring upzoning near rail stations and bus lines. It will help address housing affordability by increasing the supply of homes in these areas, while also bolstering transit use – and the funding stability of public transportation systems.

Most cities in California continue to prohibit multi-family homes on many properties near transit stops, which both increases housing costs, and undermines access to, and use of, transit. The broad prohibitions on multi-family housing also increase climate pollution. That happens through reducing transit ridership and forcing people to drive private vehicles, often in long distances, for more of their trips.

Despite the Legislature’s successful recent efforts to reduce local barriers to transit-adjacent housing, many properties within a half-mile of transit are still essentially off-limits to multi-family housing — often because local zoning restrictions prohibit these types of homes. Across California, single-family-only zoning districts still dominate the land use around many publicly-funded transit systems.

That's why we're coming together with Sen. Wiener and allies including Streets for All, SPUR, the Bay Area Council, and Greenbelt Alliance to support SB 79. This bill will help make it easier and faster to build homes near our state’s transit services.

SB 79 will also help stabilize mass transit in California. The pandemic caused a major hit to transit agency budgets. Riders are returning to transit, but services still face a fiscal cliff. By making it easier to build homes near transit stops, SB 79 can also provide a source of new riders – and new revenues for our transit agencies.

This is a major bill – and as you might guess, we expect major opposition from the same forces who always work to kill housing and climate action. Will you help build the movement to support transit-oriented development in California?

Sign the petition to the legislature and show your support for SB 79 today!

Thank you so much for stepping up in this urgent moment.

Gratefully,

Matthew

Matthew Lewis
Communications Director
California YIMBY