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YIMBY Law supported San Mateo County’s effort to convert a hotel into permanent supportive housing in Millbrae, CA. On January 8th, 2024, we answered a lawsuit filed by the City of Millbrae, which intended to block San Mateo County from moving forward on the project.
The City of Millbrae used Article 34, a decades-old provision in the California constitution designed to bolster racial segregation. The precedent in this case will help to protect future affordable housing projects from constitutional challenge.
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On December 10th, 2019, The Clayton Planning Commission appealed the approval of a State Density Bonus application for the “The Olivia,” an 81-unit senior community with 7 units designated for very low income units. State law, however, is clear: cities cannot impose subjective standards on density bonus concessions that would make an otherwise zoning-compliant project financially unfeasible.
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Is it even possible to downzone a single family area?
July 13th, 2020 Culver City City Council passed a downzoning that affects all single family residential districts in Culver City. In this case, YIMBY Law expanded our advocacy to the suburbs.
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YIMBY Law and YIMBY Action filed suit against the California Department of Housing and Community Development for its failure to include the jobs-housing balance in its Regional Housing Needs Determination (RHND) methodology for the San Francisco Bay Area, contrary to state law. In particular, HCD ignored the housing element law requiring the state make housing goals that will achieve a “feasible jobs-housing balance” in the SF Bay Area Region.
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On 2/1/2023, we filed a petition for court intervention against the City of Burlingame which failed to meet California State Housing Element Law. The City was supposed to submit its housing element by 1/31/2023, but they never even submitted a draft of a revised housing plan to comply with this mandate.
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We, alongside the California Housing Defense Fund, petitioned for court intervention against the City of Cupertino on 2/3/2023. The City failed to meet California’s Housing Element deadline for the Bay Area. Their housing plan was due on 1/31/2023 and the City failed to complete it, nor submit a draft revision of the current housing plan. Petitioners sent a letter to the City stating that litigation would be forgone if the City acknowledged their lack of compliance and does not block builder’s remedy projects.
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On 2/1/2023 we petitioned the court the pursue action against the Town of Fairfax. Fairfax did not comply with the State’s Housing Element Law that was to go into effect by 1/31/2023. The Town did not even publish a draft revision to comply with this law. The Town was sent a letter on 12/16/2022 stating that if they acknowledged their lack of compliance and were unallowed to reject housing development plans until they meet the housing element, litigation would be foregone.
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Winning lawsuits means more homes are built for people.
Achieving compliance with new pro-housing laws is dependent upon the existence of enforcement mechanisms, something that has only developed in recent years due to YIMBY organizing and support.
Years of housing law neglect and obstructionist behavior (NIMBYism) have taken a toll on housing production and have caused housing shortages for people at all income levels in communities across the United States.
YIMBY Action chapters and members, state and local lawmakers, and pro-housing community organizations advocate for housing laws to address the housing shortage and strengthen compliance. These laws provide clear accountability measures and guidelines for cities to follow so that more homes are built and more people are housed.
The critical next step to achieving housing for all is to ensure these guidelines are followed. Cities and counties now have a job to do and YIMBY Law is here to make sure they do it.
A street level rendering of homes proposed on Stevenson st in san francisco.
A rendering of townhomes in burbank, ca.
a Rendering of the olivia, a housing project for people 55+.
A rendering of homes proposed on o’farrel st in san francisco.