In the California Assembly District 17 (AD-17) election, David Campos and Matt Haney differ on what to do with CEQA, an environmental law which has expanded into a powerful tool to fight change. Matt Haney favors reforming CEQA. David Campos thinks CEQA is fine the way it is.
Housing
Matt Haney says in his YIMBY questionnaire that CEQA slows things down too much and things need to go faster:
I am committed to making our permitting processes more efficient and making it easier to build housing. Last year, Mayor London Breed and I introduced legislation to prevent the frivolous CEQA appeals process from delaying city projects and policies. I remain committed to reforming the CEQA process to ensure that bad actors are not able to abuse the public approval process to stop much needed housing and transportation developments.
David Campos does not mention any CEQA reform proposal when asked in the YIMBY questionnaire. Campos says in YIMBY debate that there is a good balance of local control and CEQA.
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
In the SF Bicycle Coalition candidate questionnaires, Matt Haney supports SB 288, which would speed up bike & transit projects by exempting them from CEQA. David Campos opposes it.
UC Berkeley
In March 2022, UC Berkeley was forced to reduce its student population in response to a CEQA lawsuit. Matt Haney supports CEQA reform so that UC Berkeley can add more students: “This important environmental law should not be used to halt housing on parking lots or freeze student enrollment.”
David Campos has said nothing about the UC Berkeley lawsuit decision, which would be consistent with his other statements that CEQA should not be reformed.
Conclusion
Matt Haney publicly advocates for exempting more projects from CEQA and not letting CEQA block housing or students. David Campos will keep the CEQA status quo.
