SB 79 & the Transit-Oriented Development Transformation
active• belmont
Belmont sits squarely in the path of SB 79, California's new transit-oriented housing law, with its Caltrain station at 995 El Camino Real serving as a Tier 1 qualifying stop. SB 79, which takes effect July 1, 2026, overrides local height and density limits to allow high-density housing projects within a half mile of Caltrain, BART, and other major rail stops, with the greatest density permitted within a quarter mile of the station. For Belmont, this means the El Camino Real corridor — which the city has been carefully reshaping over years through its own planning process — could now see projects approved with minimal local review. Belmont has already been subject to streamlined SB 35 ministerial approvals near Caltrain, with state law prohibiting the city from requiring parking for projects within 0.1 miles of the station — a preview of the further local control constraints that SB 79 will formalize. The city is racing to determine whether to adopt a local TOD alternative plan before July 1 that could provide some local shaping authority.
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Related cause: Development & Neighborhoods
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