Governor Newsom Statement on Court Ruling on Affordable Housing in the Southern California Community of La Cañada Flintridge

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SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom issued the following statement today after the Los Angeles Superior Court rejected arguments by the city of La Cañada Flintridge, an affluent community of about 20,000 residents in Southern California, that it did not have to comply with state housing laws.

“La Cañada Flintridge is the latest community that has failed in their effort to override state housing laws. Today’s favorable ruling should serve as a warning to other NIMBY jurisdictions that the state will hold every community accountable in planning for their fair share of housing.” Governor Gavin Newsom
In December of last year, Governor Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), announced that the state would seek to intervene in the case of California Housing Defense Fund v. City of La Cañada Flintridge to uphold California’s housing laws, and reverse the City of La Cañada Flintridge’s denial of a mixed-use project that would create 80 mixed-income residential dwelling units, 14 hotel units, and 7,791 square feet of office space.

The court determined that the city violated the Housing Accountability Act (HAA) when it refused to process the developer’s application under California’s “Builder’s Remedy” – a provision of the HAA that prohibits a local government from denying a housing project for very low, low-, or moderate-income households, based on inconsistency with zoning or land use designation, while the city’s housing element was not in substantial compliance with state law.

The city has been ordered to reverse its denial of the project and process the application under the HAA.

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