The Oceanside Chamber has joined a Cal Chamber led coalition to oppose AB 68, a bill that would severely impact local control over housing development decisions. AB 68 unequivocally prohibits local governments from approving any new housing in their jurisdictions outside of “climate smart parcels,” with very limited exceptions. Accordingly, the bill strips California landowners of their ability to develop privately owned land without just compensation. AB 68 pre-determines that only a small fraction of available land in California is suitable for housing and that the vast majority of remaining California land is off limits, no matter how sustainable a housing project is or how thorough the CEQA review. According to the Cal Chamber Coalition letter “AB 68 is arguably a form of exclusionary Not-In-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) housing policies dictating where local governments can and – mostly – cannot permit new housing… AB 68 is a gift to NIMBYs everywhere: it will worsen California’s existing housing crisis by preventing local governments from permitting new housing units in most of their jurisdictions and eliminating construction jobs associated with that new housing.”
