Senate Bill 79 is the third version of a transit-oriented upzoning law. After eight years of failed attempts, the proposal will soon be signed by Gavin Newsom and become law.

Last Friday, the Senate passed the final vote on Senate Bill 79 — the more homes by transit bill. The passage of SB 79 ranks as one of the largest upzonings in the country. This is the culmination of 8 years of legislative battle started by state senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco and the YIMBYs to allow dense housing by transit and to ensure that taxpayer investment into public transit results in a commensurate amount of riders using it. All that is left now is for the governor to sign it, which I imagine is all but certain.

I won’t make the mistake I have made before in implying massive change will happen because of this law. Compared to SB 79’s initial version, and compared to the original vision in 2018 when it was first proposed as SB 827, SB 79 has been considerably scaled down. But the scaling down was not in its effectiveness to build housing, but in scope and that’s a key difference than prior state laws passed in California.

SB 79 zones for multi-family housing near transit. If the transit is a heavy-rail line (a high capacity metro like BART, LA Metro Red-Line, or Caltrain), you can built multifamily homes as tall as 7 stories within a 0.25 mile radius of the station, or 6 stories within a 0.5 mile radius.

If the transit is light rail (small train vehicles like a tram or streetcar, or a bus service with a 24 hour bus lane), housing can be 6 and 5 stories within 0.25 and 0.5 mile radius, respectively. Providing that any portion of a parcel is within range of the pedestrian entrance of a transit station, SB 79 can be utilized. There’s going to be many legal questions as to what constitutes a transit pedestrian area or whether a parcel is in range.

Many suburbanites will be concerned about the tall height limits, but honestly, looking at the parcels on my map, the density limits are quite low. A 5,000 square foot lot (most lots in my city are around 4,000 square feet) allows for 13 homes near a high-frequency rail stop. 13 units in my city is a 3-story building. The tall height limits are ideal for large lots, not small ones.