Under the guise of increasing housing supply, the California Legislature is threatening to pass multiple bills that allow property zoned for a single-family home to be densified with three to ten additional units.

If this happens, decisions would be taken out of the hands of elected officials and given to developers.

The need for affordable housing is dramatically portrayed daily by the homeless populating in our city streets and our open spaces. To solve our homeless problem, state officials are pursuing multi-unit housing.

Having failed during the last session to force through an expansive high-density housing bill called Senate Bill 50, the state Legislature is now trying a shotgun approach by initiating many, less intrusive bills to provide a high-density solution.

The state Assembly and Senate are debating nine separate pieces of legislation that together will destroy the single-family home neighborhood, the foundation of our lifestyle. They believe that “pack and stack” is the way of the future and single-family home neighborhoods need to be eliminated.
Listed here are the infringements that can impact your neighborhood and the nine bills that Sacramento is considering.

With the passage of these bills, we will witness:

• The demolition of single-family homes as they pave the way for more multi-unit housing via Assembly Bill 3040.

• Expansive development of high-rise projects in our open spaces (SB 902).

• The loss of California Environmental Quality Act protection when constructing multifamily housing (SB 995).

• Some neighborhoods being classified as “opportunity zones” so developers can build multi-unit projects (AB 1279).

• The high-rise height limits extended to be as tall as any building within a half mile (AB 3107).

• Our property subdivided into 1,200-square-foot lots for multi-unit housing (SB 1120).

• The building density increased in our neighborhood regardless of local limits (AB 2345).

• Multi-unit housing shoehorned into neighborhoods currently zoned for single family housing (AB 725).

• The construction of far too much luxury housing and far too little low-income housing (SB 1085).

For more detailed information and background on these nine bills, take a look at the Embarcadero Institute’s 2020 Housing Bills: Legislation in an Age of Uncertainty online at tinyurl.com/yd3qulnc.

These infringements are being justified with a questionable belief that multi-unit housing will resolve our homeless problem. These bills will not fill the needs of our homeless, but they will fill the pockets of big money developers. These developers use campaign funds to influence legislators and get them to vote for these neighborhood destroying bills.

Only the voting public can stop this land grab. Let the state legislators know that you do not approve of these nine bills.

During the COVID-19 quarantine, use your time to protest to the state Legislature. Join the Nix the Nine campaign at nix-the-nine.blogspot.com and let your voice be heard in Sacramento.

Nix the Nine is a collaborative effort among elected officials and community leaders. It is a campaign to kill these bills and educate, engage and empower Californians to protect and preserve single-family homes, local planning authority and environmental protection.

State politicians need to be reminded that Americans fought a revolution to gain freedom. Article IV of our Constitution provides, “The right of the people to be secure in their … houses … against seizure.”

We need to resist the corporate push behind legislation that gives developers the right to call the shots in our communities.

Raymond G. Lorber, of San Rafael, is the author of “George Washington’s Providence.”