ICYMI: Bay Area News Group Endorses Prop 45 to Make California’s Approval Process “Fairer, Less Expensive and More Predictable”
October 19, 2026
Editorial boards call Prop 45 a “modest CEQA reform” that will make California’s broken permitting process “fairer, less expensive and considerably more predictable”
Sacramento, CA — The Bay Area News Group editorial boards have endorsed Prop 45, the Building an Affordable California Act, calling on voters to approve a reform that will make California’s planning approval process “fairer, less expensive and considerably more predictable” and cut the delays driving up costs for families.
In a joint editorial published in the San Jose Mercury News and East Bay Times, the editorial boards highlight decades of abuse under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), its role in driving up housing costs, and the broad coalition of organizations supporting Prop 45 to rein in costly delays.
The boards point to the unusually diverse coalition backing the measure, including hospitals, farmers, seniors and clean energy advocates:
“The California Hospital Association, the California Farm Bureau, the California Senior Alliance and more than a half-dozen clean energy groups are among a vast list of institutions seeking relief from the migraines they face because of the broadly written, vague law.”
The endorsement also underscores how CEQA has been exploited to block or stall needed projects for more than 50 years, citing research documenting the law’s role in California’s housing shortage and skyrocketing housing costs. Importantly, the boards reject concerns that Prop 45 would eliminate local decision-making or silence community voices, noting that “local governments would still have considerable authority in the approval process. Activists wouldn’t be muzzled.”
Prop 45 streamlines approvals for housing, water infrastructure, clean energy, transportation, hospitals and health care facilities, schools, broadband, and wildfire prevention. It sets clear, enforceable timelines and greater accountability so California can build faster and more affordably while maintaining strong environmental, labor, and tribal cultural resource protections and preserving local decision-making.
[Read the Full Editorial Here]
Other Key Excerpts:
- “Prop. 45 won’t transform the state’s regulatory maze overnight. But it would make California’s planning approval process fairer, less expensive and considerably more predictable.”
- “The 1970 state law makes it too easy for third parties to block or stall proposals that they don’t like or want to be paid to support. This led directly to a 2017 analysis that documents CEQA’s central role in the state’s decades-old shortage of housing, massively driving up the cost of all types of shelter and impoverishing millions of residents.”
The endorsement adds to growing editorial support for Prop 45 across California.Twenty-six newspapers across the state, including the Sacramento Bee and San Diego Union-Tribune, have endorsed Prop 45 – arguing that California’s affordability crisis is tied directly to how long and how much it costs to build essential projects. Years of unnecessary delays drive up the cost of housing, energy, water, transportation and other essentials, costs ultimately passed on to families, ratepayers and taxpayers. Experts estimate Prop 45 could cut costly delays by 2 to 10+ years, lowering costs, getting critical projects built sooner, and improving quality of life for Californians.
BACKGROUND: Prop 45, the Building an Affordable California Act, modernizes California’s project approval and permitting process for essential projects — including housing, water infrastructure, clean energy, transportation infrastructure, hospitals and health care facilities, schools, broadband, and wildfire prevention projects — by establishing clear timelines, improving accountability, and reducing unnecessary delays, while preserving strong environmental, labor, and tribal cultural resource protections. Prop 45 is supported by a broad and growing coalition of 180+ organizations, including affordable housing advocates, civil rights leaders, clean energy builders, water providers, agricultural groups, and business organizations statewide.
Learn More: YESonProp45.com