SB 79: Sacramento’s Plot to Shove High-Rises Into Your Neighborhood

California Democrats are once again showing us who they really work for — and it’s not homeowners, renters, or local communities.

Senate Bill 79 (SB 79), authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener, marks the Democrats' most brazen attack yet on local control, property rights, and the fabric of neighborhoods. The bill would compel cities and counties to greenlight high-density housing developments on nearly any parcel zoned for single-family homes if it’s within half a mile of a public transit stop, even if that’s just a bus stop.

There are no limits on building size, no enforceable mandates to include affordable housing, and no meaningful way for residents or their elected officials to block these developments.

You read that right. A quiet cul-de-sac of single-story homes with front yards and trees could suddenly find itself next to a six-story apartment building — with zero local hearings, no public vote, and no accountability.

If this sounds extreme, that’s because it is. And it’s exactly what the YIMBY (“Yes In My Backyard”) movement — funded by tech billionaires and developers — has been pushing for years.

Another Top-Down Power Grab

This is not the first time Sacramento Dems have tried to override local land use controls under the guise of “housing justice.” My previous article about SB 549 covered how they are increasingly turning to mandates instead of partnerships. SB 79 follows the same playbook: strip local decision-making, impose one-size-fits-all rules, and push a narrative that anyone who disagrees must hate renters or be anti-equity.

But opposition to SB 79 isn’t just coming from suburban homeowners and city councils — it’s coming from the very communities this bill purports to help.

The People Are Pushing Back

Tenant advocacy groups and anti-displacement networks have lined up against SB 79. Groups like the Western Center on Law & Poverty, the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and Public Advocates have all spoken out. These organizations have long fought for affordable housing and tenant rights — but even they recognize SB 79 is a Trojan horse.

Their message is clear: SB 79 has no real affordability requirements and gives luxury developers a blank check to gut working-class neighborhoods. No guardrails. No protections. Just more families priced out — not housed.

And the data doesn’t lie. A 2021 study by UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies found that California’s so-called “transit-friendly” neighborhoods have pushed out low-income and minority residents for the past 20 years. The result? Displacement, gentrification, and a collapse in transit ridership — because the wealthy newcomers the state caters to, prefer Teslas to buses.

SB 79 isn’t housing policy — it’s a gentrification grenade disguised using greenwashed affordability buzzwords.

Ignoring Geography and Mobility

One particularly eye-opening public comment came from Martin Kirby, who flagged a stunning blind spot in SB 79: the bill seems to assume “most tenants of the low-income units do not have a car and will be walking to the bus stop or metro station.” But what if the path to that bus stop is up a steep hill, or there’s no sidewalk? In many parts of California — especially hillside neighborhoods — that’s exactly the case.

Kirby put it bluntly:

“The absence of sidewalks and/or the presence of steep hills makes units built in such an area unusable to the majority of the low-income population... I would advise amending CA SB79 so that the units are built in areas where the old and the infirm can also benefit.”

This isn’t nitpicking — it’s common sense. You can’t claim to help the vulnerable while stranding them on a hillside with no sidewalk.

If It Looks Like a Land Grab and Smells Like a Land Grab…

Here’s another massive red flag: SB 79 gives no community oversight and no appeal process. Under this bill, cities and counties must approve qualifying projects ministerially — meaning no public hearings, no environmental review, and no chance for residents to push back.

No vetting of traffic chaos. No discussion about emergency response delays. No evaluation of crumbling infrastructure.

When asked about these local impacts, bill supporters hide behind the tired buzzword “streamline.” But let’s be real: this isn’t streamlining. It’s steamrolling.

SB 79 doesn’t just loosen rules — it eliminates single-family zoning across huge parts of California, all without a shred of democratic process.

And who really wins here? Not renters, not seniors, not first-time homebuyers.

It’s the well-connected developers, land hoarders, and Wall Street financiers who’ll snap up aging homes, bulldoze them, and shove market-rate high-rises into neighborhoods — leaving displaced families in the dust.

This bill isn’t about equity. It isn’t about affordability. It’s a power play wrapped in “housing crisis” rhetoric, designed to strip communities of their most basic right: self-governance.

SB 79 Is a Declaration of War on Local Democracy

This is what happens when Sacramento politicians get drunk on ideology and developer cash. SB 79 is a brazen power grab that ignores the voices of the very people it claims to protect.

It’s now headed to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for review, then to a vote on the Assembly floor.

If it becomes law, no neighborhood will be safe from top-down rezoning. Your home, your block, your voice — all could be steamrolled by influence-peddling developers wielding a rubber stamp from the state.

But it’s not too late — your voice, your action, right now, can still stop it.

Rally your crew, hit up your state assembly member, and make it clear: vote for SB 79, we’re coming for your job in 2026. No excuses. No mercy.

Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.

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