APRIL 12 (LOS ANGELES) - CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® nonprofit organization Californians for Homeownership filed lawsuits today against two Southern California cities under the California Public Records Act in an effort to address the state's housing crisis. A lawsuit seeks records about local housing policy after the cities of South Pasadena and Irvine denied the organization's requests for records.
Otto Catrina, President of the C.A.R., emphasized the importance of transparency in all areas of public decision-making, particularly in the development of sound housing policies. “It is imperative to understand how county and city decisions impact housing affordability due to a dramatic shortage of housing in California. As a result of these lawsuits, the public will be able to access this important information."
This lawsuit concerns South Pasadena's development of its "housing element," which is a state-mandated plan to address the city's housing shortage. In order to qualify for a housing element, you must identify sites where housing will likely be developed over the next eight years. There has been widespread criticism of South Pasadena's draft list of sites, which includes sites unlikely to be redeveloped for housing any time soon.
As part of its investigation into the city's housing element, Californians for Homeownership sent several public records requests to the city. In response, the city produced some responsive records, but withheld most of them, arguing that the public interest would be better served if the city kept its internal housing development process secret. Residents, nonprofits, and the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) need these records in order to evaluate the city's site list informed by all the same information there are about the sites the city lists.
In response to the City of South Pasadena's failure to adapt its housing element by the state-mandated deadline of October 2021, the organization is considering filing another lawsuit.
There is a lawsuit against Irvine relating to the city's policies regarding accessory dwelling units. Often referred to as "granny flats" or "in-law units," ADUs are additional units usually built-in residential neighborhoods alongside single-family homes. As a result of state laws passed in recent years, nearly every California homeowner has the right to build an ADU in addition to their main residence. Some local government officials, including in Irvine, have opposed these ADU laws, despite their widespread popularity among homeowners.
After Californians for Homeownership threatened litigation and HCD informed the city that the proposed ordinance was invalid, the city-backed down from its plans to pass a state law that prohibits the restriction of ADUs by local ordinances. In the absence of a local ordinance, Irvine must apply permissive state law standards to ADUs.
Matthew Gelfand, the nonprofit's in-house litigator, explained, "We learned that the city had developed a secret memo that they were using to enforce stricter, illegal standards for ADUs." After a public records request, the city released the memo but withheld information about its development.
The records in both cases were improperly withheld by cities under the deliberative process privilege, which applies when a city can demonstrate that disclosing the document is more harmful than reviewing it. In order to withhold documents, for this reason, cities must explain how disclosing them would harm them. According to Gelfand, both cities were given multiple opportunities to explain why the documents were being withheld, but they refused. There is no valid reason for the cities to withhold these documents from the public."
About Mr. Claremont
Claremont real estate agent Anthony Grynchal is one of the area's top brokers. For more than 11 years, Anthony Grynchal has led the way in Claremont real estate with a team of members dedicated to professional development.