All California municipalities have to have what is called a Housing Element, which is a plan with the state for how they're going to build more housing. Many (rich) towns have fought this on the grounds of it "ruining the character" (which is just NIMBY code for being exclusionary).

But not having one has real consequences as Santa Monica recently found out [1] where ~4,000 new units (20% affordable) got court approval and the city can't say no.

Likewise there are other laws that are abolishing mandatory parking minimums, which goes to your point of California being a car-dependent hellhole (which it is, much like most of the US).

Another example: bypass zoning and planning for building residential property above commercial property if the road it is attached to is a sufficient width. This will allow the building of mixed commercial and residential (which most cities forbid) without lengthy and expensive planning.

But there are a whole host of other bills that have been passed to make building cheaper and easier. Hopefully this will culminate in the Holy Grail of zoning in most municipalities making anything about building anything other than single-family homes illegal (which it is in most of the US).

[1]: https://smdp.com/2022/10/12/new-15-story-project-automatical...