Chris Elmendorf Profile picture
The law prof at UC Davis, not the developer in San Diego. Dad. Denizen of San Francisco. Patron of Amtrak. Tweets are my own, not statements of UC. (he/him)
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Jul 3 22 tweets 6 min read
CA deserves its moment in the sun, but journalists should be paying more attention to the amazing Abundance policies -- and better Democratic politics -- of our neighbors to the north.

Washington State is killing it. Oregon's doing pretty well too.

🧵/20. Three examples:

1⃣ Wash. State rid itself of project-level enviro reviews of urban housing on a 97-3 vote, via normal leg process.

In CA, it required a daring gambit by @GavinNewsom, tying enviro review reform to budget.

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Jul 3 26 tweets 6 min read
"Can you put a rough number on how much California's CEQA reforms will increase housing production?"

I've gotten this Q from lots of journalists over the last 48 hours (who sound frustrated w/ my answer), so here's a 🧵 laying out my thinking about it.

1/25 tl, dr: @GavinNewsom was right to call AB 130/SB 131 "the most consequential housing reform in modern history in the state of California" -- but even so, there's no defensible way to give a quantitative "this much more housing" answer to the reporters' question.

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Jun 28 26 tweets 6 min read
An update on California's CEQA / housing package as we hurtle toward the finish line.

tldr: @BuffyWicks's CEQA infill exemption is now *even better* than the 6/24 draft ⤵️; and it looks like @Scott_Wiener will land most of the fish in SB 607 but not the real lunker.

🧵/25 The million dollar (million unit?) question about Wicks's infill exemption has always been, "Will labor unions extract wage concessions that render the bill ineffective?"

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Jun 26 15 tweets 4 min read
For years, California environmentalists have been MIA or worse on an absolute no-brainer of green policy: building dense housing near transit.

Are changes afoot? ⤵️

Maybe! But @NRDC's SB 79 support letter also shows persistence of addled Groups-blob thinking.

🧵/14. First, some context:

- How I came to be an environmentalist without a home in the environmental movement,


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Jun 25 17 tweets 4 min read
Further thoughts on the construction-wage provisions of AB 140, the @BuffyWicks & @GavinNewsom budget trailer bill.

🧵/17. As a matter of principle, I *do not* support industry-specific, let alone task-specific, wage requirements.

I've tweeted that so-called "prevailing wage" rules are the Democratic Party's version of crony capitalism.

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Jun 25 16 tweets 4 min read
Joe C. points out that CA housing trailer bill also modifies the Permit Streamlining Act (PSA) in important ways.

I see the PSA provisions as a work in progress, whose ultimate payoff (if any) will depend on future legislative & judicial tinkering. 🧵/15

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The big idea of the PSA is that if a city doesn't approve or deny a project w/in defined period of time, the project becomes "automatically approved" by operation of law.

However, opponents can attack it in court if project didn't comply w/ applicable rules.

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Jun 25 19 tweets 5 min read
Big news from CA: new budget "trailer bill" will effect biggest CEQA reforms ever (should it pass), and points toward plausibly workable detente between key labor unions & housing developers.

Kudos to @BuffyWicks, @GavinNewsom & @cayimby.

🧵/18 Image The bill marries @BuffyWicks's AB 609, a clean CEQA exemption for infill housing, w/ new labor standards & tribal consultation rules.

The labor standards and tribal rules are different--and much better--than those of other recent CA housing laws.

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May 29 17 tweets 5 min read
Does U.S. Supreme Court's big new NEPA decision have implications for CEQA?

Yes!

The liberals' (!) concurring opinion strongly reinforces an argument that @TDuncheon & I made for judicially narrowing the scope of CEQA review of housing projects.

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Current convention under CEQA prescribe analysis of the "effects" of a project as a whole, relative to a no-project (a/k/a status-quo, a/k/a current-conditions) baseline.

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May 17 18 tweets 5 min read
Worth taking a moment to observe just how far the politics of CEQA reform have shifted over the last 3 years.

A timeline 🧵.

1/15 - spring 2022: CEQA ruling blocks UC Berkeley from expanding enrollment. Met w/ outrage, but Leg musters only very narrow fix.

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courthousenews.com/legislature-pa…
May 7 5 tweets 3 min read
City of L.A. is swinging for the fences w/ demurrer to YIMBY lawsuit challenging adequacy of housing element rezoning.

I think city will lose at this stage, but its demurrer does illustrate a real problem w/ manner in which cities & HCD implement the Housing Element Law.
1/5 Image L.A. argues that *none* of its housing element commitments is enforceable, owing to HE's prefatory description of programs/deadlines as aspirational.

(L.A. concedes it must rezone by statutory deadline, but insists it needn't do any specific rezoning actions listed in HE.)
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May 7 18 tweets 7 min read
This ⤵️ is an outstanding post from @mattyglesias on benefits of concentrated land ownership for urbanism and the renewal of downtowns.

My addenda follow below. 🧵/17 Matt's core point is that developers' incentive to invest in amenities like beautiful design, quality public space, and gathering places like coffee shops & bars is increasing in the share of the neighborhood that the developer owns.

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May 5 23 tweets 10 min read
After reading @GaneshSitaraman & Chris Serkin's "Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy" alongside @ezraklein's interview of @ZephyrTeachout & @saikatc, I think I'm finally starting to understand the crux of the Left's vehement reaction to Abundance.

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Each camp offers a diagnosis of the Democratic Party's predicament + a way out. I'd summarize it thus:

- Team Abundance: Improve blue-state governance. Attract new residents. Make voters elsewhere want their state (and nation!) to be more like California, New York, Illinois.

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Mar 27 15 tweets 3 min read
Here's a follow-up 🧵w/ highlights from the rest of the Fast Track Housing Package.

- @MattHaneySF's AB 1294 requires all local govs to accept a single, uniform, state-issued application for housing development projects. An excellent pro-competition policy.

1/14 - @AsmLoriDWilson's AB 660 authorizes third-party review of building permit applications (by licensed engineer) if city flubs shot-clock deadlines. An important self-help remedy and alternative to litigation.

- @JoshHooverCA's AB 1308 similarly authorizes third-party...

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Mar 23 16 tweets 5 min read
Proposition: Abundance and the conservationist mode of environmentalism are (or should be) friends, not enemies.
🧵/15. Image There's a widespread view that Abundance squares w/ environmentalism only insofar as climate supersedes conservation as the Big Issue for enviros.

Tradeoffs b/t conservation & green energy give rise to a "Greens' Dilemma."
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Mar 11 17 tweets 5 min read
Even if CA enacts this amazing set of bills ⤵️, there are big challenges ahead.

I see six areas of concern on the horizon. 🧵/16. Concern #1. Local political incentives.

Ditching public hearings on housing proposals ("ministerial approval") is good, but it doesn't give city council members any affirmative reason to facilitate -- or simply not obstruct -- development.

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Mar 11 17 tweets 6 min read
It's exciting to see the public-intellectual drumbeat around "Abundance" manifest in this year's crop of California housing bills.

They're far more ambitious--and promising--than anything I've seen previously. 🧵/17 Image
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#1: CEQA reform that's broad, deep, and clean.

@Scott_Wiener's SB 607:
- authorizes admin mapping of good-for-infill areas & greatly simplifies CEQA review of housing in those areas (in line with the recommendations of this...

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leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavC…
Mar 4 14 tweets 5 min read
Correction: My earlier posts (⤵️) about AB 1893's "baby builder's remedy" for projects on housing-element inventory sites missed an important detail.

There was (I think) an accident in the drafting of AB 1893 which may greatly limit its reach. 🧵/13 Image
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AB 1893 is @BuffyWicks's "builder's remedy grows up" bill.

It tried to clarify the development standards that apply to those housing projects which a city may not disapprove (or render infeasible) on grounds of noncompliance w/ zoning.

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Feb 1 18 tweets 4 min read
Had a great chat yesterday w/ Tal Alster about Israel's TAMA 38 program and potential extensions to SFH -> plex projects in the U.S.
🧵/17 Image TAMA 38 authorizes condo HOAs, by supermajority vote, to contract w/ developer to redevelop their building as a larger building w/ more units.

- owners each get a bigger/nicer/safer condo, and money to pay for temporary housing

- developer profits from the added units

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Jan 30 22 tweets 6 min read
An L.A. rebuild problem which @GavinNewsom & Leg ought to fix, post-haste:

- Many people who lost their homes are underinsured & can't afford to rebuild.
- Many others are inexpert at supervising contractors & vulnerable to being scammed.

The best path forward...
1/🧵 Image for many such folks is probably to sell their burned out property to a developer, for cash or cash + option to purchase a new townhome or condo that the developer will build on the property.

But, L.A. County's plan to 2-track permitting...

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Jan 27 5 tweets 3 min read
This Tuesday, LA County Commission will vote on a clusterf*ck resolution to speed the rebuilding of firetraps -- while exempting "fire impacted communities" from virtually all state housing laws for the next 5 years.
1/5 Image (link: )

I figured there'd be some nonsense after the fires, but nothing like this.

The County proposes a two-track permitting system: fast lane for like-for-like rebuilds; slow lane for everything else.
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Jan 21 7 tweets 2 min read
Curious about federal tax & housing policy? Check out my new paper w/ @aarmlovi and @samjacobson9.

We argue that Congress should make housing projects in big, expensive cities ineligible for affordable-housing tax credits unless the city opts into federal prohousing rules.
1/5 Image @aarmlovi @samjacobson9 (link: )

The federal prohousing rules would borrow from the recent "YIMBY" reforms adopted, on a bipartisan basis, in red and blue states alike.

To retain tax-credit eligibility, big cities would have to (1) allow dense housing in commercial...
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