On October 10, 2025, Governor Newsom signed SB 79 into law — and because of work that began months earlier and reached well beyond Sausalito, the bill no longer threatens our historic district.
SB 79 is a state housing law meant to speed new homes near major transit — rail stations, ferry terminals, high-frequency bus lines. It answers a real shortage. But its early drafts set by-right heights by city size and drew a half-mile circle around each transit hub, and by counting Sausalito's small ferry terminal as a major hub, that circle fell across nearly the entire historic district. It would have allowed 55-foot buildings, by right, where some of California's most protected blocks stand.
Sausalito is too small to move a state legislature on its own. What made the difference was joining forces. SOS worked as part of a statewide coalition of communities and preservation organizations — including the California Preservation Foundation and the Los Angeles Conservancy — each carrying its share. SOS's portion: a Sacramento advocate working directly with legislators and the Governor's office, partnerships with those preservation allies, and more than a hundred calls from residents to Assemblymember Damon Connolly and other officials.
Together, the coalition got the “Tier 3 transportation hub” definition — the very language that swept Sausalito in — struck from the final bill. Removing it protected not only Sausalito's historic district and waterfront but similar places across California.
The objection was never to housing; California needs it, and Sausalito intends to do its part with development that's well-placed and in scale. The lesson of SB 79 is simpler than that: irreplaceable places are kept when the people who love them work together — across a town, and across a state. Thank you to everyone who made a call, sent a message, or stood with the coalition. This is what that looks like.