# California State Senator wants to mandate denser and taller zoning near transit

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2018-01-09

california, housing, housing-policy, scott-wiener, transit-oriented-development, uncategorized

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California State Senator, [Scott Wiener](http://www.scottwiener.com/about_scott), introduced 3 new bills at the beginning of this year intended to address the statewide housing shortage and continue the pivot from a housing-_last_ agenda to a housing-_first_ agenda.

Here is a summary of the 3 bills:

> _These three bills (1) mandate denser and taller zoning near transit; (2) create a more data-driven and less political Regional Housing Needs Assessment process (RHNA provides local communities with numerical housing goals) and require communities to address past RHNA shortfalls; and (3) make it easier to build farmworker housing while maintaining strong worker protections._

And here is a bit more information about the first one:

> _SB 827 creates density and height zoning minimums near transit. Under SB 827, parcels within a half-mile of high-connectivity transit hub — like BART, Muni, Caltrain, and LA Metro stations — will be required to have no density maximums (such as single family home mandates), no parking minimums, and a minimum height limit of between 45 and 85 feet, depending on various factors, such as whether the parcel is on a larger corridor and whether it is immediately adjacent to the station. A local ordinance can increase that height but not go below it. SB 827 allows for many more smaller apartment buildings, described as the “missing middle” between high-rise steel construction and single family homes._

The belief is that transit-oriented sites in the state of California have the potential to accommodate up to 3 million additional housing units.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/40e9b2cdab80246ac016337f9491fe73.jpg)

Fewer barriers to creating new housing. More data. And less politics. You can read more about [Wiener’s 2018 housing package](https://artplusmarketing.com/california-needs-a-housing-first-agenda-my-2018-housing-package-1b6fe95e41da) over on Medium.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/california-state-senator-wants-to-mandate-denser-and-taller-zoning-near-transit)*