By Jorge Casuso

April 3, 2025 -- Councilmember Jesse Zwick is asking the City Council to support State legislation that makes it faster and easier to develop multi-family housing near transit stops and in single-family neighborhoods.

One of the discussion items Zwick placed on the agenda seeks his colleague's support for SB 677, a Senate bill that streamlines a housing law allowing duplexes to be built on single-family lots.

The new law makes a number of technical changes to SB9, which
"sought to legalize duplexes across the state and functionally end single family zoning," said Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who sponsored both bills.

"Unfortunately, the law has at times proved difficult to utilize effectively, and too few applications have been submitted," Wiener's office said.

The proposed law would change SB 9 to prevent Homeowners Associations (HOAs) and Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) from prohibiting or restricting SB 9 projects.

It also restricts the use of Owner-Occupancy Requirements, adds reporting requirements for local governments and reduces coastal commission SB 9 permitting obstacles and delays.

In addition, it makes several changes "to address land use decisions designed to impede the law’s applicability, regarding setbacks, upzonings, height limits, lot coverage limitations, access requirements, and other objective design standards and permitting requirements."

SB 677 also makes changes to another Weiner housing bill -- SB 423 -- that "streamlined the production of tens of thousands of homes across California," according to Weiner's office.

However, the bill's "overly restrictive inclusionary requirements have limited the number of affordable homes produced under the law."

The changes made under the new bill would:

• Expand market-rate project streamlining (subject to 20 percent instead of 50 percent inclusionary requirements) in jurisdictions solely failing to meet lower income RHNA goals.
  
  
• Increase the re-evaluation frequency of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) cycle from every 4 years for most jurisdictions to every 2 years.
  
  
• Shift the burden of proof to require local governments to provide evidence of environmental criteria ineligibility, and make other environmental criteria clarifications.

The second bill Zwick is asking the Council to back -- SB 79, which is also sponsored by Weiner -- establishes State zoning standards around train stations and major bus stops.

These standards would allow multi-family homes of up to seven stories near major transit stops, "with lower height standards extending up to half a mile away from such stops," Weiner's office said.

The bill also "streamlines permitting for homes built within half a mile of major public transit stops" and allows local transit agencies "to develop at the same or greater density on land they own."

SB 79, Weiner's office said, "will tackle the root causes of California’s affordability crisis by allowing more homes to be built near major public transportation stops and on land owned by transit agencies."

The bill will help address three major issues by "bolstering transit use, slashing climate emissions and supporting public transportation in the process."

Zwick's agenda items "direct the City Manager to notify the City’s contract lobbyist and ensure a letter stating the City’s position on the legislation is prepared to inform state Assemblymember Rick Zbur and state Senator Ben Allen."