The Modesto Bee: Call grows to deregulate home building--Environmental law causing valley's sprawl, critics say

Developers and some city planners long have complained that the CEQA-required [California Environmental Quality Act] environmental review process has been abused by "not-in-my-backyard" opponents less concerned about saving the planet and more interested in dragging out projects in costly court battles to scare away developers.

The result, as the builders tell it, is that new subdivisions and apartment complexes get pushed farther away and onto fertile farmland where opposition isn't as intense.

Meanwhile, the demand for housing closer to cities goes up — and with it go prices that push homeownership out of reach.

Now there's talk of eliminating some CEQA reporting requirements on a project-by-project basis to encourage housing closer to the urban core and on old industrial sites.