If California Can Suspend Permitting Rules After Wildfires, It Can Abolish Them
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has this week issued an executive order to spare victims of the Los Angeles wildfires from onerous government permitting and review requirements as they rebuild their homes and lives. Specifically, he’s putting on hold cumbersome rules required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the Coastal Act.
That’s smart politics and good policy, but why not take this approach further?
“When the fires are extinguished, victims who have lost their homes and businesses must be able to rebuild quickly and without roadblocks,” the governor said in a statement. His order “will help cut permitting delays, an important first step in allowing our communities to recover faster and stronger.” Newsom also “ordered our state agencies to identify additional ways to streamline the rebuilding and recovery process.”
That’s encouraging from a governor who usually loves to regulate, but the decision raises obvious questions. If building regulations are an impediment during an emergency, aren’t they also an impediment during normal times? Since removing these permit and review processes will help communities “recover faster and stronger,” won’t their permanent removal help California deal with, say, its housing shortages and make the supply recovery “faster and stronger”?
Newsom hasn’t suddenly gotten the free-market religion, of course. In a subsequent post, he added, “We are also extending key price gouging protections to help make rebuilding more affordable.” “Price-gouging” – i.e., allowing prices to rise to reflect their scarcity – actually speeds up the rebuilding process as contractors rush to the scene in the hopes of securing lucrative work. The rush of new contractors creates competition and brings prices back to Earth.
Maybe that level of market thinking is too out there for Newsom, but we’ll take progress wherever we can get it. CEQA (signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970) remains an enormous hindrance to building anything in California, as it allows any “stakeholder” to file a lawsuit challenging the project. It requires voluminous Environmental Impact Reports. Often, project opponents are labor unions seeking higher wages (boost wages and we’ll drop the lawsuit) or neighbors who don’t want extra traffic.
CEQA lawsuits add costs, reduce the size of projects, or even stop new developments. This is widely acknowledged even by the Legislature, yet lawmakers have been loath to take on environmental interests and reform CEQA except on an ad hoc basis.
Article from Reason.com
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