The Governor just signed SB 79 — a new law that strips local communities of their ability to shape their own neighborhoods.
This law overrides local zoning and hands development decisions to Sacramento. It forces cities and towns across California to allow massive apartment and condo buildings—up to eight stories tall—around transit stations, even in areas currently zoned for single-family homes or small businesses.
In plain language: local communities will no longer decide what kind of housing belongs near their trolley or Sprinter stations. Sacramento politicians will.
This isn’t about thoughtful planning or community input. For decades, cities have spent countless hours and public dollars developing local land use plans that reflect what works best for their residents—balancing growth with infrastructure, open space, safety, and neighborhood character. SB 79 tosses those carefully crafted plans aside with the stroke of a pen.
This law is a one-size-fits-all housing mandate that forces high-density development on communities that had no say. It opens the door to tall, dense apartment projects without regard for neighborhood character, traffic, parking, infrastructure capacity, or community vision. Local governments will be forced to approve projects whether or not their roads, schools, or public safety services can handle them.
And let’s be honest: this doesn’t help young families achieve the American Dream of owning a home. It’s not about making housing more affordable for working families. It’s about creating more opportunities for large corporations and developers to build expensive apartments and reap the profits, while families continue to struggle to find a path to homeownership.
Owning a home has always been a cornerstone of building wealth in America. But Sacramento’s approach ignores that entirely. Instead of empowering people to buy homes, build equity, and plant roots in their communities, this law pushes them into permanent renting — making it harder to ever get ahead.
We should be empowering cities and neighborhoods to plan responsibly for growth, not imposing top-down mandates that erase local control. Local leaders know their communities best. They understand the character of their neighborhoods, the limits of their infrastructure, and the vision their residents have for the future.
The answer to California’s housing challenges isn’t to silence local voices. It’s to work with communities — not against them — to create real pathways to homeownership and build housing that fits, not just housing that’s forced.
Sacramento should be a partner, not a bulldozer.
Jim Desmond is a member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. He represents the 5th District, which includes Escondido, Valley Center, Pauma Valley, Palomar Mountain and much of the Backcountry.
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