A few months ago, the city of La Cañada Flintridge in Los Angeles County became one of California’s first real tests of a controversial state housing law that puts the power in the hands of developers.
It’s called the Builder’s Remedy, which says cities can’t reject affordable housing projects based on their local zoning rules if they don’t have a state-approved Housing Element in place. A Housing Element is a state-required plan outlining how a city can accommodate enough new housing to meet its population’s needs.
The Los Angeles Superior Court ruled in March that La Cañada Flintridge shouldn’t have rejected a proposed affordable housing project because the city didn’t have a state-approved housing plan when the developer applied for the project, so the Builder’s Remedy did apply.
It marked the first time the state has seen a Builder’s Remedy go through the courts and win.
There are a few pending lawsuits and cases throughout California concerning the Builder’s Remedy, including one in Del Mar. And although the La Cañada Flintridge ruling isn’t considered a binding precedent, or a legal rule that other courts must follow, it could still be an indication of how the Del Mar lawsuit may turn out.
Del Mar v. Seaside Ridge
In February, the developer of a proposed affordable housing project called Seaside Ridge sued the city of Del Mar for repeatedly rejecting the project. They argued that it should have been approved under the Builder’s Remedy and other state housing laws.
Seaside Ridge would be on an ocean bluff site near Del Mar’s Dog Beach. The location was first eyed for a luxury resort a few years ago, but it was defeated by voters at the ballot box in 2020.
It proposes 42 low-income units, 43 moderate-income units and 174 market-rate units. Some of the subsidized units would be made available to people making as little as $30,000 a year in a coastal community with a median household income of more than $150,000. Del Mar is required by the state to make way for 113 affordable units.
The developer says the city can’t reject their project under the Builder’s Remedy because at the time they submitted their application to the city, Del Mar’s Housing Element hadn’t been approved by the state. In fact, it had been rejected by the state three times.
Seaside Ridge representatives are also applying the Housing Crisis Act, which says cities can only rely on rules that were in place at the time the developer’s preliminary application was submitted when they’re reviewing a development project.
Del Mar officials, though, argue that they already have enough sites identified in their Housing Element to meet their housing goals, and they would have to rezone the site to even consider it. They have also previously argued that the city’s Housing Element was “in substantial compliance” before it had officially been approved by the state housing department.
The two parties have been going back and forth for more than a year, and Del Mar officials have asked the developer to resubmit their application four times and have repeatedly said they don’t agree with the developer’s “legal theories.”
Now, Seaside Ridge is suing Del Mar, and the matter will likely be up to a judge to decide.
La Cañada Flintridge
Meanwhile, just a few hours north of Del Mar, a similar battle was taking place.
The developer of a proposed affordable housing project had been going back and forth with the city of La Cañada Flintridge for more than a year.
The proposal was an 80-unit apartment project that would dedicate 20 percent of its units as affordable, along with hotel units and office space. From November 2022 to May 2023, the developer, Cedar Street Partners, submitted the project to the city of La Cañada Flintridge three times for approval, but city officials denied it each time.
Cedar Street Partners argued that the Builder’s Remedy should apply because La Cañada Flintridge didn’t have a state-approved housing plan when the developer submitted its first application. The city has had to resubmit its Housing Element to the state housing department at least four times since October 2022.
But the City Council argued that their Housing Element was in substantial compliance with state housing laws and has been since October 2022, despite the state housing department’s findings that their housing plan wasn’t approved.
Finally, Cedar Street Partners decided to sue the city, and the developer had some big names on its side. Attorney General Rob Bonta, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state housing department all intervened in the case, supporting the developer and its use of the Builder’s Remedy.
On March 4, 2024, the Builder’s Remedy prevailed.
In the ruling, Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ordered the city to begin processing the developer’s application under the Builder’s Remedy. He also ruled that cities don’t have a right to go back and determine their own Housing Elements as compliant; that’s the job of the state housing department.
La Cañada Flintridge has since appealed the court’s decision, which will ultimately be heard by a state court of appeals. An appeals court could then decide to make their ruling binding precedent, meaning it would become a legal rule that all lower courts within the appeals court’s jurisdiction would have to follow.
Darren Pudgil, a spokesperson for the Seaside Ridge project in Del Mar, said via email that the ruling in the La Cañada Flintridge case was “spot on.”
“There are a number of similarities between what occurred in La Cañada Flintridge … and how the city of Del Mar is handling the Seaside Ridge project,” Pudgil said. “Applying the logic and law identified in the [court’s] opinion to the facts of Seaside Ridge would result, in our opinion, in a very similar ruling.”
Del Mar officials declined to comment on the Seaside Ridge lawsuit, but City Manager Ashley Jones noted in an email that La Cañada Flintridge is an inland city that is not subject to the California Coastal Act.
“The Seaside Ridge development is subject to the Coastal Act, and they have not followed the city’s certified Local Coastal Program (LCP) by providing the city with application materials related to the LCP as required,” Jones said.
Pudgil said Seaside Ridge’s project applications do address the city’s Local Coastal Program and “Seaside Ridge complies with all aspects of the Coastal Act.”
The lawsuit between Seaside Ridge and Del Mar is still ongoing. A merits hearing, or a formal court hearing to examine all the issues in a complaint, is expected to take place in October.
This Communist Edict from Newscam and his bandit of thieves is destroying California neighborhoods. It is creating densely populated neighborhoods, overcrowded parking, leading to crime and a lower quality of life. Then their are the downstream costs- utilities, property taxes, etc. Who will pay for these costs? More than likely, the hard working tax paying residents of California through higher taxes. California Dreaming is now California Leaving, especially for the high tax paying citizens.
In their rush to get in on developer campaign contributions that formerly went primarily to local elected officials, the governor and state legislators are helping drive the state’s homelessness crisis. As more developers flood into existing older neighborhoods, buy up existing affordable housing and evict the occupants to make way for expensive new condo towers and apartment blocks, many of the people evicted are ending up homeless. So before state and local politicians start complaining about more growing homelessness, they need to look in the mirror. Homelessness isn’t caused by a shortage of homes. It’s caused when politicians team up with developers to evict people from their homes.
This is the real site? Because i like the construction work.
The project numbers show why we have no affordable housing. 174 units at market rate – some of the most expensive real estate in the world – but only 85 sort-of-affordable units. Those numbers need to flip, if we are to make any progress with this problem. There are plenty of houses for multi-millionaires, but few for the workers needed to keep everything moving.