SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s gubernatorial race has become an interesting battleground over housing reform, with Democratic candidates competing to demonstrate who would push the most aggressive policies to increase housing production and reduce barriers to development.
According to an op-ed by Christina Mojica, a senior policy analyst at the Reason Foundation, the shift marks a significant change in California politics, where Democratic officials previously avoided publicly embracing zoning reform and large-scale housing expansion.
Writing in the Los Angeles Daily News, Mojica noted that “a few years ago, few Democratic politicians would mention things like supporting zoning reform,” but said candidates at a recent gubernatorial forum moderated by Ezra Klein discussed a range of reforms aimed at cutting red tape and increasing housing supply.
The forum reflected growing attention to California’s housing crisis and the state’s recent legislative efforts to encourage denser housing development near transit corridors and urban centers.
One of the most significant recent measures is SB 79, signed into law in 2025 and scheduled to take effect July 1. The legislation establishes minimum density requirements near transit stops and allows apartment and housing developments up to nine stories within a half-mile of rail and bus stops.
Mojica described SB 79 as giving California “one of the nation’s strongest transit-oriented development frameworks.”
The legislation builds on AB 2097, enacted in 2022, which removed many parking mandates for new housing developments in an effort to lower construction costs and increase the number of housing units built statewide.
Mojica argued that together, the laws represent progress toward a legislative framework that would have been politically unlikely a decade ago.
But despite the legislative momentum, Mojica cautioned that California’s longstanding pattern of local resistance threatens to undermine implementation of the state’s housing reforms.
“A pressing question, however, is what happens after these state laws go into effect,” Mojica wrote. “Historically, rather than spurring more housing, the answer has been local resistance and delays.”
She added that “laws that preempt local zoning do not implement themselves and face major hurdles.”
The article points to California’s experience with SB 9, enacted in 2021, as an example of how local governments can slow or limit the impact of state housing reforms. SB 9 legalized duplexes on single-family lots across much of California, but many cities responded by adopting new design standards, minimum lot size rules, and other restrictions that made projects financially or physically infeasible.
“As a result, duplex production has remained far below state projections,” Mojica wrote.
Mojica also cited research on transit-oriented development showing that successful housing production depends on coordination between state law, local governments, zoning codes, fee structures, and administrative procedures.
“Without that coordination, even well-designed state housing laws produce limited results,” she wrote.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, one of the gubernatorial candidates, was highlighted as focusing more directly on implementation barriers than many of his rivals.
According to Mojica, San Jose recorded zero market-rate housing construction starts in 2024, prompting Mahan’s administration to identify process barriers as a major obstacle to development.
Mojica wrote that approval timelines were unpredictable, administrative requirements had accumulated around projects that already complied with zoning rules, and developers were unable to move forward with certainty.
“San Jose’s experience illustrates how housing projects stall when permitting systems and local processes remain misaligned with state housing reforms,” Mojica wrote.
The city later streamlined permitting timelines, reduced administrative requirements, and established a direct approval pathway for qualifying infill housing projects, which Mojica said helped move housing projects forward.
“But this type of effort needs to be scalable statewide,” she wrote.
Mojica argued that voters should press gubernatorial candidates on how they plan to ensure local governments comply with state housing laws.
“First, what carrots, sticks and enforcement mechanisms will ensure cities rezone in line with Senate Bill 79 after it takes effect?” she asked.
Mojica noted that cities including Los Angeles already appear to be “slow-walking changes,” while legal challenges and enforcement actions often move slowly.
“To be successful, the law needs accountability structures with timelines,” she wrote.
The article also raised concerns about development fees, which critics argue significantly increase the cost of housing construction in California.
Mojica cited findings from the RAND Housing Center showing that “impact and development fees average $29,000 per unit in California, compared to less than $1,000 per unit on average in Texas.”
She argued that both cities and the state must identify ways to reduce those costs in order to increase housing production.
Finally, Mojica questioned how the next governor would address cities and counties that technically comply with state housing laws while undermining their broader intent through delays, procedural obstacles, or restrictive local policies.
“California needs a governor who can lead the state, push local governments to enact pro-housing policies and then hold localities accountable when they don’t,” Mojica wrote.
She concluded that while California’s recent housing reforms are among the most ambitious in the nation, their success ultimately depends on implementation at the local level.
“It’s great that gubernatorial candidates are talking about building more housing,” Mojica wrote. “Now they need concrete strategies to overcome local resistance that is slowing the progress of state housing reforms.”
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