YIMBY Law Files Second Lawsuit Against the City of Los Angeles Defending Affordable Homes in Single-Family-Only Neighborhoods

Los Angeles, CA — YIMBY Law has filed suit against the city of Los Angeles for illegally delaying a 100% affordable housing project with a total of 190 homes. The project, located on Wilbur Ave in the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles, falls under the original form of Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1 (ED1) which streamlines 100% affordable housing projects. This marks YIMBY Law’s second lawsuit against the city for illegally delaying affordable housing projects in single-family-only neighborhoods.

“When ED1 was first announced, we were so excited to see thousands of affordable homes being proposed throughout the city,” said Jae Garner, Communications Director of YIMBY Law. “But revising the order and retroactively applying new restrictions to projects that have already been submitted is illegal. These homes need to be approved. It’s the law, and it’s what Angelenos need.”

ED1 created a path to streamline the project on Wilbur Ave as well as similar projects representing over 1,500 affordable homes. Instead, the city is illegally subjecting them to the same laborious and expensive process that has killed dozens of affordable housing projects in the past. This is due to a revision in ED1 that exempts single-family-only neighborhoods from the policy. The revision was enacted in June of 2023, after the application for the affordable housing project on Wilbur Ave was submitted.

YIMBY Law filed suit against Los Angeles for a similar project on Winnetka Ave in January of 2024 after reaching out to the Mayor’s office multiple times to urge the approval of the homes proposed under the original form of ED1. Additionally, a broad coalition of pro-housing advocates supported these homes at local hearings and in communications with the Mayor’s office, the planning commission, and the city council. Despite these efforts, the planning commission and the city council illegally delayed hundreds of affordable homes. 

The lawsuit defending proposed homes on Wilbur Ave aims to strengthen the efforts to get this project approved and streamlined, in addition to the other projects that fall under the same version of ED1. YIMBY Law is following this policy closely and will continue to take legal action where necessary to ensure more affordable homes are built in Los Angeles and beyond.

“The city knows what it’s doing,” said Sonja Trauss, Executive Director at YIMBY Law. “They just need to know that we’re paying attention. And we won’t let them get away with denying these much-needed affordable homes.”

PRESS RELEASE: YIMBY Law Wins Appeal in Culver City, City Repeals Illegal Ordinance That Downzoned Residential Land

Media contact: Jae Garner

Los Angeles, CA —YIMBY Law has prevailed against Culver City, CA, in the California Court of Appeal. On January 22, the city repealed its illegal ordinance that down-zoned its single-family-only neighborhoods. This violated The Housing Crisis Act of 2019 (HCA), codified in Government Code section 66300, by reducing the residential capacity of the land by approximately three million square feet. It made it more difficult for multigenerational families to live in the city and to convert large single-family homes into small apartment buildings. The appellate court decision also sets a legal precedent to ensure other cities cannot attempt similar actions.

YIMBY Law sued in response to an ordinance passed by the Culver City Council on July 13, 2020. The ordinance reduced the allowable square footage in single-family homes and made other changes to restrict the amount of housing that could be built in the city. Based on the city’s own data, the illegal ordinance would have reduced the size of residential buildings in single-family zones by 750 square feet—the size of a 2-bedroom apartment. According to city documents, these changes were made to “promote neighborhood compatibility by maintaining the existing character and scale of Culver City’s single-family residential neighborhoods.” Nevertheless, the city spuriously argued after the fact that the ordinance was intended to “open up property owners’ minds to including an ADU or JADU on their property.” The Court of Appeal disagreed, finding that “the City does not show the ordinance would facilitate the development of housing, when its goal is to lower the living space within a house.” Because of a combination of state ADU law and this win, single-family zones in Culver City can now allow up to 4 homes per 5000-square-foot lot.

The Superior Court judge ruled in YIMBY Law’s favor on February 22, 2022, and issued her judgment on May 26, 2022. The City filed an appeal on April 20, 2023, and the Second District Court of Appeal’s favorable decision was released on October 27, 2023. On January 22, 2024, the City repealed its illegal ordinance.

This result in the appellate court affirms the original ruling in this case and sets a precedent for future cases across the state. This will discourage other cities from passing similar down-zoning ordinances and facilitate the creation of more housing. The appellate court upheld the award of legal fees to YIMBY from Culver City, plus a multiplier.

“Following the arrival of our third child in 2021, my family began a search for a home in northeastern Culver City, aiming to be closer to Echo Horizon - a specialized school tailored for DHH (deaf or hard-of-hearing) children like our two daughters,” said Nate Whitaker, 7-year resident of Culver City, research analyst, husband, and father of 3 kids. “While we anticipated it would be tough finding a place that could fit all six of us, we were dismayed to discover that Culver City's 2020 FAR reduction exacerbated the situation. This policy change ultimately resulted in a decrease in the number of bedrooms going into new homes, directly impacting larger families and multi-generational families such as ours. We place our trust in our governments to formulate policies that alleviate these burdens by facilitating an increase in housing supply, rather than impeding it. We are sincerely grateful for the efforts of YIMBY in their work to reverse Culver City's destructive and illegal policy change.”

YIMBY Law, along with YIMBY Action members and over 600 volunteer watchdogs, will continue to monitor city behavior to ensure pro-housing laws are implemented and enforced.

“It’s ridiculous that Culver City wasted so much taxpayer money and staff time to defend their illegal ordinance,” said Sonja Trauss, Executive Director of YIMBY Law. “I’m glad they’ll be forced to follow the law now—these obstructionist behaviors only hurt their current and future residents.”

Press Release: Pro-Housing Nonprofits Prevail in Lawsuit, Cupertino Stipulates To Builder's Remedy

Contact: Jae Garner

San Francisco, CA— YIMBY Law and the California Housing Defense Fund have won a stipulated judgment against the City of Cupertino for the city’s late housing element. In a victory for housing, Cupertino has agreed to honor a state-law “builder’s remedy” for affordable housing projects that filed applications with the City after it failed to revise its housing element in time for last winter’s deadline. The judgment took effect with court approval this week.

“Cupertino recognizes it must plan for housing,” noted Sonja Trauss, Executive Director at YIMBY Law. “The City missed its legal deadline, and that has consequences. Fortunately, the consequences of today’s settlement will be more housing.”

The settlement commits Cupertino to revise its housing plan in accordance with the state’s Housing Element Law. This law requires cities to audit their own zoning ordinances, and other land-use restrictions, to prove that a certain number of homes can be legally built in the next eight-year cycle. Cupertino’s state-set target for the 2023–2031 cycle is 4,588 new homes, including 1,880 that would be affordable for lower-income households.

California law requires each city to update a general-plan component called a “housing element” every eight years. Bay Area cities, including Cupertino, were required to revise their housing elements by January 31, 2023. Eleven months later, almost half of Bay Area cities are still out of compliance.

The state agency tasked with reviewing housing elements, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), determined on December 15 that Cupertino’s latest draft housing element requires further revisions to comply with the law.

“We’re confident that Cupertino can bring its housing element into compliance,” said Dylan Casey, Executive Director of the California Housing Defense Fund. “The builder’s remedy should help create some affordable housing in the short term while the City works to come up with a viable long-term plan.”