After clearing the legislature with bipartisan support, Senate Bill 79, the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act (Wiener), was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 10, 2025. The bill goes into effect in July 2026.
The governor’s signing of SB79 is a watershed moment for land-use policy in California.
“By making it possible to build new multifamily homes near our major public transit stations, we are beginning to shift away from decades of harmful development patterns and move toward building a more sustainable and affordable future,” explained Jordan Grimes, Legislative Director, Greenbelt Alliance. “This critical change will help safeguard our natural and working lands while delivering lasting benefits for our climate, our environment, and our communities. We thank Governor Newsom and Senator Wiener for their steadfast leadership on this issue.”
This new law codifies transit-oriented development (TOD) as an essential strategy to both increase housing affordability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It allows more homes near major transit stops, such as BART, Caltrain, or the San Diego Trolley, and improves walkability in our communities. For more details on how this piece of legislation will achieve this, click here.
“SB 79 builds on the landmark CEQA reforms passed earlier this year in AB 130 (Wicks) and SB 131 (Wiener). By establishing state zoning standards, SB 79 unlocks a great deal of critical land to use (…),” said a press release by Senator Scott Wiener.
Greenbelt Alliance was proud to co-sponsor this bill by Senator Scott Wiener, alongside many housing, environmental, and transit advocates across California, such as Streets for All, California YIMBY, SPUR, Abundant Housing LA, Inner City Law Center, and the Bay Area Council.
In March 2025, we joined this powerful coalition with the goal of elevating the environmental benefits that a bill like SB79 would bring. As an organization that has been fighting to accelerate the production of new homes within cities and away from our open spaces, we know that how we use our lands is one of the most important issues we face today. Throughout this year our Legislative Director, Jordan Grimes, tirelessly elevated the environmental case for housing at meetings, hearings, committees, and directly with legislators in Sacramento.
Why It Matters
Where we are building (or not) directly impacts our daily lives—determining if our children can afford to live where they grew up, if there’s land to grow the food we need, or if people are living in safe or climate-vulnerable areas.
Building more homes of all types and for all incomes:
- Reduces unnecessarily long commutes—and greenhouse gas emissions—;
- Increases access to transit, jobs, and amenities, and improves energy efficiency;
- Creates more connected and walkable communities;
- Reduces development pressure on greenbelts, minimizing exposure to risks, and strengthening wildfire buffers.
For far too long, California has embraced development patterns that have harmed our communities and environment. Making it difficult to build in our existing cities and towns has pushed development further out and caused sprawl—paving over critical wildlife habitat and productive farmland and worsening the affordability crisis in California.
By enabling the construction of thousands of new multifamily homes in the most sustainable places to build—within existing communities near major public transit stops—we can protect critical species and habitat, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and ensure every Californian has an affordable place to call home.
