A proposal to increase housing density around public transit and in single-family home neighborhoods won’t be considered by California lawmakers this year.
SB-50 was shelved for this year, and won’t be debated again until 2020.
The decision is a major blow to affordable housing advocates and to Gov. Gavin Newsom who said he was disappointed by the decision.
A group of San Diego housing advocates is planning to hold a rally in the Civic Center Plaza in support of SB-50 in San Diego at 5:30 p.m., on Monday. The group is calling on Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, to bring the bill to a vote in 2019.
In an emailed statement, Atkins told KPBS, “I will not circumvent the decision made by the Appropriations Committee Chair on SB 50. Regardless of my own personal feelings about this critical issue, part of my job as the leader of the Senate is to uphold the authority and decisions of committee chairs and take into consideration the views of committee members. To be clear, the bill is not dead, and this is the first year of a two-year session. Short of significantly amending the bill and limiting its applications in large swaths of the state, there was no path to move forward this year. More work needs to be done, and there is no better leader on housing to do that work than Sen. Wiener.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Liam Dillon joins Midday Edition Friday with more on the decision to stall SB-50.
