Liz Klebaner Quoted on CA Real Estate Legislation to Watch

Liz Klebaner was quoted in the Law360 article, “California Real Estate Legislation To Watch In 2021's 2nd Half” (subscription required). The article provides an overview of the legislation that lawmakers, attorneys and those in the real estate industry in California will be keeping a close eye on in the second half of the year.

Commenting for the article, Liz said that attorneys should be tracking S.B. 7, which Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed. S.B. 7 revives an earlier law designed to move projects more quickly through litigation by reducing the length of California Environmental Quality Act challenges.

“The bill represents a consensus among some of the biggest real estate investors in the state. Facebook, Google, labor, environmental groups,” said Liz. “I think that the bill will have a positive impact, not just on affordable housing but on large-scale projects as well.”

While S.B. 7 has the potential to fast-track projects, only projects that use union labor are eligible—which could disqualify some projects from getting the fast-track that S.B. 7 provides.

Even with this caveat, Liz added that she thought S.B. 7 has “the potential to save developers on litigation costs and create more project certainty, which could help developers on the question of nailing down financing.”

“It does increase the cost of the project. It may discourage some developers from using the process,” she said. “Where that economic threshold lies is yet to be seen.”