California Senate Returns Its Focus To Housing In 2021-2022 Legislative Session

The new 2021-2022 California legislative session has kicked off with the Senate's "Building Opportunities for All" housing package, its latest effort to tackle zoning and California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") reforms in an effort to address California's ongoing housing crisis.  "Each one of these bills is targeted at an element of the housing crisis, and together, they give us a unified approach that would create pathways to home ownership, stable housing for vulnerable families, and a pathway to economic stability for Californians across the golden state," said Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins when announcing the housing package. As anticipated in our  summary of new legislation effective in 2021, this housing package builds upon the housing production bills from the previous legislative session that failed to pass out of committee or gain concurrence votes before the session ended.  Given that many of the bills replicate language from the failed 2020