California NIMBYs handed historic L

Sometimes, the hard boards get drilled through:

In a historic victory for California YIMBY and the YIMBY movement, the California state legislature today voted to pass SB 79, a bill that will make it legal to build more homes near the highest capacity transit stops across California.

The bill now heads to Governor Newsom’s desk for signature into law.

“Today, California YIMBY achieved one of its founding goals: legalizing apartments and condos near train stations,” said Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY. “We won many victories over the past eight years, but the dream of passing a robust, transit-oriented development program has long eluded us, until now.”

“My message to YIMBY activists across the country: Keep organizing, keep educating, and keep hustling. Your time will come.”

“With the passage of SB 79 – thanks to our allies and legislative partners – we’re delivering on what we set out to do: more affordable homes, cleaner air, vibrant neighborhoods, and better transit,” Hanlon said. “This is a historic win—and a testament to the growing power of the YIMBY movement.”

The journey to the passage of SB 79 began at a bar in San Francisco in 2017, when Hanlon pitched the idea to California YIMBY co-founders Zack Rosen and Nat Friedman. Later that year, Hanlon worked with Sen. Wiener to draft and introduce SB 827. 

While the bill did not advance through its first committee, its scope and breadth – it would have legalized millions of homes near transit – was seen as an opening salvo in national efforts to unlock housing growth across the U.S. and inspired the YIMBY movement to advocate for state, not just local, solutions.

SB 827 drew national attention from nascent YIMBY organizers and pro-housing activists, whose commitment to inclusive, affordable, and well-planned housing growth had yet to gain traction. The following year, as the national YIMBY movement began its rapid growth, California YIMBY and Sen. Wiener pushed ahead with SB 50, the “More Homes” Act  – a revised version of SB 827 that also sought to legalize homes in transit-rich neighborhoods. That bill failed on the Senate floor in the final minutes of the 2019 legislative session (in January of 2020).

But the defeat of SB 50 was concurrent with the advance of other pro-housing bills sponsored by California YIMBY, including laws that have unleashed a wave of housing growth in “accessory dwelling units,” or ADUs, as well as reforms that targeted abuse of state housing law by local anti-housing activists and elected officials. 

“The legislature was clearly developing an appetite to make it legal to build more homes, and we were happy to feed them more ideas,” Hanlon said.

The is just one battle — it needs to be legal to build denser housing in as many places as possible. But this is a great first step, and shows that incumbent homeowners and “fuck off we’re full” cranks of any nominal ideological persuasion aren’t an unbeatable force. One of the next steps needs to be to get the Karens Bass out of office. And remember: if you oppose legalizing infill, you ride with Trump.