Written by Lucie Hollingsworth, Senior Housing Attorney and Policy Director, Legal Aid of Marin

Welcome to a new year of housing legislation!

For the third year in a row, we’re back to report on how our state legislators did to make California a more equitable and just state for all. Many will agree, despite an increase in new housing project approvals, the reality is still status quo – i.e. housing stability is still an elusive dream for way too many of us. Will the pendulum theory of history come through? No one knows, but what we do know is that the pro-housing voices grow stronger every year (say hello to our new and long-fought-for Marin housing coalition – Call Marin Home!). Maybe that pendulum will get an extra push this year to keep it going and maybe even speed it up.

And speaking of Call Marin Home… if you haven’t heard the news, the hardest-working, board-run housing advocacy organization in Marin, Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative (MEHC), has evolved into a Marin-wide housing coalition. This coalition represents every piece of the housing puzzle from homelessness experts to developers and everything in between with the unifying belief that addressing all 3 Ps — production, preservation, and protections — is the only way to get us out of this housing mess. It’s like cats and dogs calling a truce because they finally realize the vacuum cleaner is the real enemy.

Anyway, enough palavering. Let’s see what we accomplished in 2025, starting with housing production.

Housing production and preservation

The biggest housing bill of the year, AB 130 (CEQA exemptions for infill housing) is already speeding up housing approvals. This legislation exempts many infill housing developments from environmental impact report requirements and streamlines approvals. For more on this legislation, see our September 2025 Perspective. The just-approved 700 Irwin Street project (known to NIMBYs as the behemoth skyscraper (?!) that will destroy San Rafael’s ‘quaint’ character) used AB 130 to speed its application, and the 4040 Civic Center development followed suit, gaining it a quick approval with the Planning Commission on January 27. Just a thought – are our friends and neighbors opposing the Irwin Street project the same ones complaining about unhoused people resting in our parks and on our sidewalks? Hmmm . . .

SB 79 | Multi-family housing near transit

Both the biggest news and, at least for Marin, the biggest nothingburger is Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 79. How does this make sense you ask? Senator Wiener’s bill permits multi-family housing near transit stops and overrides any restrictive or prohibitive local zoning. This bill also allows transit agencies to build on their own land, potentially providing additional sources of desperately-needed revenue. Projects must include affordable units and this bill prohibits demolishing rental housing and displacing tenants (P #2, Preservation in the house!).

And the nothingburger bit? It only applies to urban transit counties with 15 or more passenger rail stations, i.e., NOT Marin County. Not surprisingly, we still had to hear a lot of negative campaigning against this bill locally. Why did we include this nothingburger you ask? It serves as a good lesson that we all just seem to have to learn the hard way: read the actual bill instead of gathering voter information from YouTube ads. At least this teaching moment didn’t produce pain other than a money-drain, which is rare (Prop 13 and the interminable hell unleashed on future generations comes to mind). We also hope for future amendments to this bill that will apply to Marin. Selfishly, so that our senses will get some relief from SMART train ballot measures and the mind-boggling amount of money fighting them. But more importantly because both public transportation and housing have historically been neglected in Marin and SB 79 would move us forward on both fronts.

AB 648 | Building low-income housing for faculty and staff on school-owned properties

AB 893 | Extending upzoning near public colleges

Let’s turn to a housing production bill that does apply to Marin. AB 648 allows California community colleges to build low-income housing for faculty and staff on their property without having to comply with local zoning ordinances. In addition, AB 893 extends upzoning to all commercial and mixed-use zones near public colleges, including College of Marin. Anyone who has hiked the trails behind Indian Valley campus may wonder how this flew under the radar. If all goes as planned, those magnificent views will become even better with new affordable and environmentally-sustainable housing that lets those who work in Marin to also live – and hike – in Marin (because the Indian Valley Preserve is, well, preserved).

AB 1021 | Building housing on school-owned properties

And in the spirit of finally showing appreciation, albeit still not enough, for our tireless and historically put-upon K-12 teachers and school staff, AB-1021 streamlines building housing on school-owned properties. This should assist the Novato Unified School District in its valiant efforts to build on its land and provide housing for some of the most important people in our children’s lives. Now who can argue against that? I guess we’ll soon find out.

SB 489 | Requirement to publish application requirements
AB712 | Consequences for missing permitting deadlines

Lastly, with SB 489 and AB 712, our legislature further streamlined development approvals. Cities already must maintain a list of requirements to deem an application complete, but in today’s complex world, developers must often get permits from other government agencies and special districts. Thanks to SB 489, all government agencies and districts must now post application information, which will hopefully stop the frustrating and expensive guesswork to determine the list through repeated rejections. AB 712 finally creates consequences for cities that do not follow permitting standards by assessing fines for jurisdictions that do not comply with permitting timelines. These two bills combined may result in much quicker processing of project applications and fits in well with our theme of getting along for a common purpose. If planners and developers can repair their relationship to get housing built, then the idea behind Call Marin Home will be a cake walk.

Tenant Protections

AB 628 | Property owners must provide and maintain working refrigerators and cooking stoves

Enough of production and preservation. Let’s talk about the protection bills that managed to get through (read my disappointment between the lines). AB 628 and AB 806 both fall under the (overflowing) category of “this-wasn’t-a-law-already?!” Anyway, AB 628 requires landlords to provide and maintain a working refrigerator and stove in their rentals. So the days of paying most of your income for a rental with a bacteria-laden, leaky rot-box fridge and cooking your meals on a lil’ smokie are over, renters — that is, of course, if you have the courage to of courseomplain to your landlord during a housing crisis. The legislature had to be the adult in the situation and tell landlords that a stove that cooks food and a refrigerator that safely stores that food are characteristics of a habitable dwelling. And to all of you good landlords out there, no need to fear protection legislation. These laws simply affirm what you’re already doing right. Props to good landlords!

AB 806 | Nullifies mobilehome park bans on cooling devices

Lastly, a shout out for our home town hero, Asm. Connolly who is proving to be a champion of our last bastion of affordable home ownership – mobilehome parks, of which Marin has a whopping 13. AB 806 nullifies any park rules or tenancy agreements that ban the installation of cooling devices. And before you ask, yes, many homeowners in mobile home parks had to make the choice between baking in home-turned-sauna or losing their investment and entire life savings when they get evicted for installing an A/C (FYI, contrary to the name, mobilehomes are not mobile). Thank you Asm. Connolly and we look forward to seeing more attention on the plight of the precariously housed mobile homeowners, many of whom are low-income older adults and persons with disabilities.

Wrapping up

Quantitatively, it wasn’t a big year for housing but the bills passed are potentially very powerful, and we’re only one year into a 2-year legislative cycle so stay tuned.

There are some great bills that still may survive the judiciary or, alas, appropriations committees (aka where good bills go to die). And there are some great bills about to be introduced. I liken this time of year to spring training… so much hope, every team has a chance. In the words of the immortal Casey Stengel, “You can’t get into the Hall of Fame unless you limp.”

RESOURCES

Read about more pro-housing legislation here. Thanks to all who helped get these important bills through – from tenants to legislators and everyone in between. We look forward to working with you to change systems, laws and hearts to make Marin a better place.

We are a broad and strong coalition

Call Marin Home is a collaborative partnership of leading Marin County organizations working to create systemic change that expands access to affordable, workforce, and accessible housing in order to ensure that everyone in Marin has a place to call home. The coalition continues to grow. Interested in joining? Email Jenny. View our current membership here >>.