STATUS: WIN! At the Superior court 7/29/2022

Big news! Housing wins at the Superior Court!

You can read the Superior Court’s decision here, and the Court’s judgment here. The City of LA has 60 days to follow the Housing Accountability Act which in this case means they have to process AJ’s application for an apartment building, and approve it at the density proposed by AJ and allowed in the general plan. The city is also barred from requiring rezonings for projects which conform to the densities allowed in the city’s Limited Commercial land use designation.

The statewide import of this is significant. All over California there are areas where the general plan allows higher - sometimes much higher - densities than the zoning allows. This is another confirmation that state law does in fact require cities to follow the density allowed in their General Plans.

The general plan rules

In 2018 legislators passed a very powerful amendment to the Housing Accountability Act. It requires cities to allow housing developments at the density that is allowed in the General Plan, even if the zoning only allows lower densities. Unfortunately, LA is ignoring this new law.

Part of the reason this policy is so necessary is that the Housing Element is part of the General Plan, and one of the ways that cities frustrate the Housing Element process is they will designate certain areas as high density in their Housing Element, but then contradict that density in their zoning.

In this case, the general plan plus density bonus allows a 60 unit apartment building, but the zoning allows only a single family house, and, weirdly, a chinchilla farm.

Despite the law, Los Angeles insists this project requires a zone amendment.

The project sponsor, Akhilesh Jha, came to the United States in 1998 from Bihar in India. He received a PhD from Virginia Tech and had a successful career in the aerospace industry. After 20 years, he decided to change careers, and apply his skills and work ethic to building housing. Despite ongoing, repeated discouragement from the Planning Department in LA, AJ was confident that his interpretation of the state law was correct, and that the City of LA is required to approve his proposal for an apartment building in a single family zone. AJ called us at YIMBY Law and we were able to confirm that we believe his interpretation is correct.

We at YIMBY Law couldn’t be more excited to (finally) have an opportunity to challenge Los Angeles’ manifestly illegal interpretation of the HAA. They are simply ignoring the law. Read our petition here, and check back for updates.