2025 Annual Meeting: Housing, Land Use & Transportation Policy Committee Recap 

Back to News
By
CSAC Staff
Date Published
December 11, 2025

The Housing, Land Use and Transportation (HLT) Policy Committee met on Thursday, December 4 during the CSAC 131st Annual Meeting in Santa Clara County. The meeting covered a range of topics including gas tax revenues, housing policy, and the work of the County Building Officials of California. 

The HLT Policy Committee was first joined by Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson, Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee. Assemblymember Wilson presented on the efforts underway in the Assembly Transportation Committee to address declining gas tax revenues resulting from the increased adoption of electric and zero emission vehicles. Chief among efforts discussed was Assemblymember Wilson’s bill AB 1421, which would extend the operation of a technical advisory committee to assess programs as potential alternatives to the current gas tax program. 

Next, Senator Aisha Wahab, Chair of the Senate Housing Committee, presented an update on housing policy in California. Senator Wahab shared the budgetary and legislative actions taken recently in pursuit of the Housing Committee’s goal of housing affordability at all income levels for Californians. Among these were measures taken to protect tenants and homeowners, preserve affordable housing, and produce affordable housing and homeownership opportunities. You can view Senator Wahab’s report, which includes the full list of legislation and budget items discussed, using this link. 

The Policy Committee also welcomed Neville Pereira, a member of the Board of Directors of the County Building Officials of California, who engaged the attendees in a discussion concerning recent legislation and building safety standards. Mr. Pereira further encouraged CSAC members to reach out to the County Building Officials of California with questions about legislation or regulations that affect building standards.  

Finally, the HLT Policy Committee adopted the following legislative advocacy priorities for 2026:  

  • Stable Transportation Funding: CSAC will continue to engage in legislation that seeks to broaden and stabilize the state’s transportation funding system to ensure that counties continue to receive reliable funding from state and federal transportation programs. 
  • Balance Support for More Housing with County Land Use Oversight: CSAC will continue to support legislation that seek to aid the construction of all types of housing, especially housing that supports the most vulnerable, while appropriately balancing county participation in the land use decision process. 
  • Permit Processing Efficiency and Staff Cost Recovery: CSAC will support legislation that aids the dissemination of best practices to improve efficiency and reduce the time required to process land use and building permit applications. Additionally, we will support bills that amend statutes that result in reductions in the staff time required to process these permits, support the use of pre-approved plans while maintaining a county’s ability to assess fees that support the reasonable amount of staff services required to support permit review and processing activities. 
  • Federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization: CSAC supports the National Association of Counties priorities that have been adopted to support county efforts to reauthorize a new federal surface transportation funding program in 2026. 

All CSAC Policy Committee agendas, meeting materials, and presentation slides are available on the CSAC website. Please contact CSAC staff with any questions: