C.A.R.-backed group sues the City of Los Angeles over abandoned rezoning commitments

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Californians for Homeownership, a nonprofit organization sponsored by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (C.A.R.) that aims to address California's housing crisis through impact litigation, today announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for violating state law requirements to zone for new housing development.

"State law requires every city and county to do its part in addressing California's housing crisis by adjusting land use policies to allow for additional housing development," said C.A.R. President Heather Ozur. "These laws only work if they are enforced. With today's lawsuit against Los Angeles, Californians for Homeownership continues to lead the way in enforcing these laws statewide."

The lawsuit, filed jointly with YIMBY Law, another housing litigation nonprofit, alleges that the city abandoned rezoning commitments made in the state-mandated housing plan the city adopted in 2022. At that time, the city determined that it would need to rezone land to enable the development of over 250,000 additional units of housing, including 130,000 units of housing affordable to lower-income households. The rezoning would be accomplished primarily by updating 16 community plans across the city to allow additional development. As of the state-mandated deadline on February 12, 2025, the city had completed updates for only two community plans.

"The City of Los Angeles has pulled a bait-and-switch on the residents, advocates, and state regulators that supported its high-quality housing plans," said Matthew Gelfand, the in-house litigator for the nonprofit. "Three years ago, the city attained state certification and avoided legal challenges to its housing element by making a strong commitment to revise zoning rules citywide. Now it has almost completely reneged on that commitment."

The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) and housing element system is an interconnected process for ensuring that California's cities and counties plan for adequate housing to address statewide and regional housing needs. In the RHNA assessment, state and local governments work together to identify regional housing needs and distribute them among a region's cities and counties. Each city must then develop a "housing element" — a component of the city's general plan that identifies sites available for future housing development sufficient to meet the city's RHNA allocation. If the city cannot identify adequate sites, it must change its zoning to allow additional housing development.

Enforcing these laws has been a major area of interest for the nonprofit over the last three years, and it has filed more than 20 lawsuits against local agencies as part of that effort. While most of these lawsuits raised challenges related to an agency's housing element itself, the focus has increasingly shifted to ensuring that cities follow through on the commitments made in their housing elements. This new lawsuit seeks an order requiring the city to complete its rezoning process within 60 days. Californians for Homeownership has successfully obtained this relief in court orders following two other cases, against the City of La Cañada Flintridge and the City of Hawaiian Gardens. In late 2024, La Cañada Flintridge lost its bid to overturn that order on appeal. 

The new lawsuit is Californians for Homeownership and Yes In My Back Yard v. City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Superior Court Case No. 25STCP00546. Case documents are available on request.

Californians for Homeownership is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization sponsored by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® devoted to using legal tools to address California's housing crisis. For too long, California's cities have treated compliance with state and federal housing law as optional. The organization seeks to change that attitude by proactively enforcing the law, on behalf of the important public interest in having additional housing available to families at all income levels. Californians for Homeownership was established by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (C.A.R.), and it receives financial support from C.A.R. and private donors. To make a tax-deductible charitable contribution today, visit caforhomes.org.

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SOURCE CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (C.A.R.)