Examining Entitlement in California to Inform Policy and Process: Advancing Social Equity in Housing Development Patterns
This report details findings and analysis from the ongoing Comprehensive Assessment of Land Use Entitlements Study (CALES). CALES examines how jurisdictions approve housing development that would produce five or more units, if built. CALES also analyzes how enforceable climate policies, such as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), operate in relationship to the approval of new housing in urban and exurban areas and whether new housing development in both contexts faces opposition through lawsuits. All data points to local authority over land and local regulation as the most significant barrier to increasing the development of dense, infill housing and affordable housing in the study areas. Local governments could eliminate obstacles associated with state-level environmental regulation (and related litigation) by reforming their own local law. Though community opposition to housing through litigation varies across cities, less than 3% of all approvals in our data faced litigation—with no meaningful difference between litigation rates for housing in urban or exurban contexts. Both urban multi-family and exurban subdivision development used similar expedited environmental review pathways intended to promote infill development; this is true for exurban development sited in high fire hazard areas.