Mary Lynn Coffee Discusses Infill Housing Legislation Impacting California

Mary Lynn Coffee was quoted extensively in the Law360 article “Calif. Eyes Urban Infill Housing, Sidestepping CEQA Overhaul.” The article examines how “California state lawmakers faced with an ongoing housing crisis have backed a measure to boost new urban projects, even while avoiding other confrontations over a long-cited obstacle to housing construction.”

One CEQA change in the measure that will impact the issue is moving forward, exempting many infill projects entirely from the law—California political figures have long blamed this as an obstacle to new housing development. Commenting on the issue, Mary Lynn said, “Allowing that infill development to move forward, particularly without multiple layers of CEQA review, is really a very critical step, and one that I do think will help encourage and increase the amount of infill we’re building...But it’s not going to solve our housing crisis.”

Additionally, the California administration began a review in March 2025 to define “waters of the United States” based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA. The definition in the case states a water body is covered by the Clean Water Act only when it has a “continuous surface connection” to navigable waters. Mary Lynn said, “Under S.B. 601, California would seek to impose a stricter standard for protecting bodies of water than the Supreme Court established in the Sackett decision.”

But California already has water standards tougher than the ones instituted by the federal government. In addition to the state’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, Mary Lynn said, “The California Fish and Game Code’s stream bed alteration provisions impose requirements on changes to waterways…To see S.B. 601 brought on as a necessary fix for protecting wetlands is a bit misleading, frankly.”