- calendar_month April 25, 2024
- folder RE News
Judge Rules Controversial State Housing Law Unconstitutional
On Monday, April 22, 2024, Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin ruled that the California law allowing building on single-family lots unconstitutional. This was a major blow to the State control over local development.
SB 9, which took effect in January 2022, allows lots zoned for single-family homes to be split into two lots with two homes each without requiring a public process. In his ruling Judge Kin found that while the State can override local laws to address issues of "statewide concern", SB 9's lack of connection to affordable housing is evident. The Judge stated that, "The court finds that SB 9 is neither reasonable related to ensuring access to affordable housing nor narrowly tailored to avoid unnecessary interference in local government.
It's been said that this is an interesting outcome to the original lawsuit filed by the cities of Carson, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Del mar, and Whittier. This case challenged the application of SB 9 to charter cities by arguing that because SB 9 does not actually require any housing unit be affordable, it is not "reasonably related" to promoting affordable housing and not "narrowly tailored" to avoid unnecessary interference with local control. State laws that do not meet this standard cannot be applied to charter cities because they impermissible interfere with a charter city's local control." Los Angeles is a charter city."
In other words, although the Legislature purportedly adopted SB 9 as a means to facilitate the production of more affordable housing, not only does it fail to reduce housing prices, but it also overreaches into municipal affairs that should be left to charter cities to address. This is exactly what the community has been saying since 2018, and it feels good to have affirmation from the Court that we are on the right path.
