Updated on September 30, 2024 to reflect results. Originally published on August 16, 2024.
California’s Congress adjourned the legislative session on August 31, and the results are in. This past year, we endorsed four bills, among Senate and Assembly pieces of legislation, three of which were successful in passing into law.
Each year, Greenbelt Alliance selects legislative priorities to endorse, collaborate, and advocate for. Those guide our team in determining opportunities to take action that will advance our mission to educate, advocate, and collaborate to ensure the Bay Area’s lands and communities are resilient to a changing climate. Learn more about our legislative priorities here.
Check out the endorsed bills that passed or failed this past cycle:
Housing and transportation bills that passed this legislative session include:
Senate Bill 960 – Transportation: planning: complete streets facilities: transit priority facilities (Senator Wiener): Among other things, this bill will strengthen requirements that state-owned surface streets accommodate all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users. This bill codifies Caltrans’ Director’s Policy for Complete Streets for the SHOPP; directs Caltrans to set performance targets for the continuous improvement of transit on state-owned surface streets and integrate transit priority into their investment plans; and streamline the agency’s approvals of transit priority and complete streets improvements. It also directs Caltrans to develop—by January 1, 2026—a transit priority policy with performance targets to improve transit travel time reliability, speeds, reduced transit and rider delay, and improved accessibility at stops, stations, and boarding facilities.
Assembly Bill 1820 – Housing development projects: applications: fees and exactions (Assembly Member Schiavo): This bill will require cities and counties to provide an estimate of the impact fees required for a proposed housing development at the time of building permit application, among other things.
Assembly Bill 2086 – Transportation funding: California Transportation Plan: public dashboard (Assembly Member Schiavo): This bill will require the state to track and regularly report to the legislature and the public on how transportation investments are advancing California’s safety, climate action, equity, and economic prosperity goals through a public online dashboard.
This would be done by:
- Require Caltrans’ annual transportation program budgets to describe how they are advancing each of the “Core Four Priorities”.
- Require the CTC, to develop guidelines and metrics to assess progress toward the Core Four Priorities, including feedback from the public and the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee by 2026.
- Require Caltrans, by 2026, to report on past five-year performance of how the transportation budget adheres to the state’s goals, by district.
Starting in 2027, require Caltrans report to the legislature on how funding made available to it in the prior year was used to advance the Core Four Priorities and targets established as part of (2). - Require Caltrans to create or update an existing online dashboard to display project investments as it pertains to the Core Four.
Bills that failed this legislative session:
Unfortunately, Senate Bill 1182 – Master Plan for Healthy, Sustainable, and Climate-Resilient Schools (Senator Gonzalez) failed to pass this legislative cycle and was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. This bill would require the commission to develop a Master Plan for Healthy, Sustainable, and Climate-Resilient Schools, including assessments of a representative sample of the state’s public elementary and secondary school buildings and grounds, and establishing a set of priorities, benchmarks, and milestones for health, resilience, and decarbonization of public school campuses and support facilities. These Master Plans should be developed by March 31, 2026, and engage with a diverse group of stakeholders and experts regarding their development.
Photo: Karl Nielsen/Greenbelt Alliance