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Lefty Hollywood legend Jane Fonda and the wife of multi-billionaire Google founder Eric Schmidt are teaming up to nix a popular proposal designed to make California’s housing more affordable.
Fonda and ultra-green activist Wendy Schmidt, who lives in a $100 million home bigger than the Taj Mahal, are waging war on Prop. 45 — a ballot measure designed on watering down the California Environmental Quality Act, a draconian 1970s law widely criticized for slowing down housing developments.
The group’s ”No on 45” campaign kicks off in Sacramento on Wednesday.
CEQA allows opponents to challenge major developments on environmental grounds, not only housing, but mass transit and other infrastructure projects.
Prop. 45 has rare bipartisan support amid rising frustrations about California’s cumbersome layers red tape— with 73% of voters backing it, including 80% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
The pair are heading the campaign through Clean and Healthy California, an environmental PAC seeded with more than $5 million from Schmidt.
Schmidt, 71, splurged on the 100-plus-room Spelling estate, known as the Manor, in Holmby HIlls, Los Angeles, in 2025.
The woke PAC, which also received funding from billionaires Laurene Powell Jobs and venture capitalist John Doerr to fight oil drilling in California, is now a main opponent of Prop. 45 along with progressive union the Building and Construction Trades Council.
Proponents say it will make housing more affordable, arguing CEQA delays add building costs that are passed on to renters and homebuyers.
Fonda, the 88-year-old “Barbarella” actress turned left-wing activist who lives in a $6 million Century City home, has blasted Prop. 45 campaign as a plot by polluters to destroy the environment.
“This measure would gut the law that stands between reckless development and the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the health of our communities,” said Fonda in a June statement.
“Our coalition is united and prepared to win this fight.”
Prop. 45 would set limits on environmental reviews of housing, infrastructure, water, healthcare and clean energy projects, limiting court-imposed delays to important developments.
CEQA was first enacted by governor Ronald Reagan in the 1970s to protect California’s unique environment, but critics point it’s since now used NIMBYs to tie up projects in court, leading to roadblock in getting new housing built.
Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, a Prop. 45 supporter, has previously pointed out an eye-popping example — alleging a solar company “spent 12 years, preparing a 1,100-page environmental review and getting 72 permits from 28 different agencies, to build one transmission line.”
The prop’s biggest supporters include the California Chamber of Commerce and Building a Better California, a political committee backed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, which contributed $10 million to the campaign.
On the “no” side are Clean and Healthy California, which has contributed $7 million since June; and the Building and Construction Trades Council, which has kicked in more than $1 million across two associated committees.
“It is hypocritical that some of these people are really, really wealthy and have their own palaces secured but don’t want housing for anyone else,” said Matthew Fleming, a fellow at Pacific Research Institute.
Fleming argued that many labor unions have historically relied on CEQA lawsuits as leverage to extract concessions on projects.
“[Prop. 45] is a pretty modest reform to CEQA, and it may or may not be perfect, but it’s not surprising these environmental groups and labor unions are opposing it,” he added.
“They’ve opposed CEQA reform at all turns, nor have they provided any solution to the housing crisis.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed bills in recent years to exempt certain projects, such as urban infill developments, from lengthy CEQA reviews.
But so far, such reforms have done little for housing affordability.
California is No. 1 in rental costs, with renters needing to earn $52.79 per hour to afford a typical two-bedroom home costing $2,745 per month, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Median home prices hit a record high of $930,000 in May, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The No on Prop. 45 campaign pushed back on criticism in a statement.
“This isn’t about affordable housing, and Californians are smart enough to see through that,” a spokesperson said in an email.
“The No on 45 coalition is massive, with over 270 organizations including working families, environmental justice groups, nurses, doctors and the California Democratic Party who all oppose the corporate-backed Polluting Projects Proposition because it limits environmental and public review to fast-track projects like data centers that decimate the health and safety of our communities,” the campaign said.
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