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Los Angeles Extends Adaptive Reuse Policy Citywide
Los Angeles will expand its adaptive reuse policy, allowing office and commercial buildings to be converted into housing citywide, per a unanimous vote of the City Council. Previously, these conversions were largely limited to specific areas such as Downtown, Chinatown, Hollywood, and Koreatown under the older Adaptive Reuse Incentive Areas Specific Plan. These updates are intended not only to expand the scope from the previously limited area but to also make it easier to convert older and underutilized buildings left empty after the pandemic. City officials say this update marks the first step in the Citywide Housing Incentive Program, a program created in order to increase housing production and meet state-mandated housing goals.
YIMBY Law Threatens Suit over Suspension of SB 9 in Los Angeles Fire Recovery Areas
San Francisco-based YIMBY Law is threatening to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom over an executive order he signed in July that essentially bans duplex construction and lot splits in areas affected by the Los Angeles wildfires. The order runs in opposition to Senate Bill 9, which was passed in 2021 and made it legal to build multiple units on land zoned only for single-family homes. Newsom’s order was aimed at giving cities like Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Pasadena the power to suspend SB 9 in high fire-risk zones after the destructive wildfires earlier this year, citing concerns about evacuation safety and community risk. YIMBY Law threatened legal action unless Newsom revises the order to property owners’ ability to build duplexes after one year according to executive director Sonja Trauss. The group argues that SB 9 may provide flexibility to families who may be otherwise priced out of their community during rebuilding, while community members such as Sue Kohl, president of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, argues that these propositions are being pushed by developers over community members, and may exacerbate issues of crowding and congestion that created chaos and forced members of the Palisades community to flee their cars and escape on foot.
San Francisco Upzoning to Face Legal Battle
Neighborhoods United SF plans to file a lawsuit against San Francsico Mayor Daniel Lurie's Family Zoning Plan which he officially signed on December 12. The lawsuit could delay the implementation of the plan until after the next Board of Supervisors election in 2026, which might change the majority of the board with approval power over the plan. The lawsuit argues that the city cannot use an environmental impact report created for the 2022 Housing Element to get California Environmental Quality Act approval for the Family Zoning Plan, because the new plan is very different from the 2022 Housing Element. According to the lawsuit, the FZP will allow 54,000 new housing units, including in many areas not included in redevelopment in the 2022 Element. The suit also criticized the city for ignoring the 71,000 already approved units waiting to be built, saying the 54,000 added in the new plan far outstrips the 10,200 units needed to meet the city's RHNA goal of 82,000. Proponents of the lawsuit criticized the city's Family Zoning Plan for allowing rent-controlled units to be replaced with non-rent-controlled ones, and for not including requirements or funding for affordable housing in new construction.
Del Mar Faces Builder's Remedy Conundrum
The state has sent a warning letter to Del Mar saying the small coastal city must process a builder’s remedy application for a 259-unit bluffside housing project. But city officials say the project changed by more than the allowed 20% between the “preliminary application” permitted by the builder’s remedy law and the final application filed with the city. The developer, local philanthropist Carol Lazier argues that the city is obligated to approve the project because the housing element was not approved when she filed the application. But the city has stalled the application at first by saying Lazier’s application is incomplete because it does not request changes to the city’s planning and zoning policies. Lazier sued, then halted her lawsuit, then sued again before Attorney General Rob Bonta sent the warning letter.
Shortage of Affordable Units Scuttles Major Mall Redevelopment in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara City Council declined to approve the redevelopment plan for the Paseo Nuevo mall after last-minute changes including the removal of part a parcel land from the proposed deal that could reduce the number of affordable units in the project from 80 to 24. Before the changes, the proposed project was set to include 233 market-rate and 80 affordable units, 125,000 square feet of retail space, and open areas and public amenities. City Council members stressed that while housing supply is a top issue, there are concerns around getting the best plan possible and not moving too quickly. The city of Santa Barbara owns the land under the mall, but the deal includes the city giving away the land, valued at between $32 and $39 million, to the project developers. The City Council and the general public have raised concerns about such an unprecedented giveaway, and the Council is considering requiring new guarantees in the next iteration of the plan, such as establishing a minimum number of required affordable housing units.
CP&DR Coverage: Santa Barbara Developer Sues in Federal Court over New State Law
A Santa Barbara developer with a pending builder’s remedy project has sued the state in federal court, claiming a new law violates the developer’s constitutional rights. The root of the lawsuit is a proposal by The Mission LLC to build an eight-story housing project behind the iconic Santa Barbara Mission. Under AB 130, passed last summer, infill housing projects of up to 20 acres are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, but under SB 158, passed later in the session and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the infill exemption cannot be applied to the Santa Barbara project. The main argument in the new lawsuit is that SB 158 singles out the project’s developer in a way that violates both the federal and state constitutions, most notably the equal protection clause and the so-called “prohibition on special legislation” in the state constitution, which prohibits passing laws that target specific individuals or corporations. The developer’s lawsuit also names the City of Santa Barbara as a defendant, claiming that the city’s overlay zone does not conform with state Housing Element law. The overlay claim builds on a recent appellate court ruling from Redondo Beach.
Quick Hits & Updates
The Trump administration will reduce protections for threatened fish in the San Joaquin River Delta in order to divert more water into Central Valley farmlands. California officials including Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed opposition to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s plan, which plans to divert more water into the federally operated Central Valley Project aqueducts. Though some valley farmers who view the state’s water policies as prohibitive to business support the plan, state officials warn that the increased water demand would put significant strain on native species in an already limited water supply.
Attorney General Rob Bonta's office warned the City of Del Mar that its position on a proposed housing development legally untenable in a recent letter. The developer filed a builder's remedy application, but the city has maintained that the Coastal Commission's input was required for the application to be complete. The development in question is Seaside Ridge, a proposed 259-apartment complex with 85 affordable units, 42 of which are low-income, that would occupy the bluffs above Dog Beach.
The Southern Sierra Miwuk Nationreclaimed nearly 900 acres across the western edge of Yosemite National Park. The property was transferred from the Pacific Forest Trust, a nonprofit that purchased the property two decades ago when the area was threatened with the proposed development of vacation homes. The transfer takes place at a time of increased state-funded land exchanges and repatriation to native tribes by organizations including The California Natural Resources Agency, which provided $2.4 million in support of acquisition and maintenance costs.
The Coastal Commission and PG&E reached a deal that will keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant online at least until 2030, in exchange for helping conserve 9,200 acres of land across three parcels. The plant was slated for decommission this year due to seismic safety concerns, but it accounts for 9% of the state's electricity, and state officials argued it was essential to keep it operating for the time being. The conservation efforts were pitched as compensation for continuing to perate the plant, which uses around 2.5 million gallons of ocean water per day for once-through cooling, killing an estimated 2 billion marine organisms per year.
A report from Retirement Living analyzing U.S. Census data found that more people are leaving California than any other state. In 2024, California recorded an inflow of roughly 407,000 people, while 661,000 left, for a net loss of 254,000 residents. The report cited cost of living and the impact of wildfires as the largest likely causes for people moving away. California recorded the highest net loss of people in every age bracket, from the silent generation to Gen Z.
The EPA confirmed that it will redefine the scope of the Clean Water Act to confine the act's jurisdiction to "relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water, such as streams, oceans, rivers and lakes, along with wetlands that are directly connected to such bodies of water". The proposal is part of a large package of environmental regulation rollbacks being introduced by the EPA in the wake of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that limited the EPA's authority to regulate pollution into wetlands.
Developer AEG has filed plans to add a 49-story tower at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles, featuring 364 residences, 334 hotel rooms, and multiple bars and restaurants, though construction won’t start soon due to current economic and labor conditions. The project is part of AEG’s broader investment in downtown, including co-developing the $2.6-billion Convention Center expansion.
Hard Rock Casino Tejon, the new $600 million casino and entertainment resort, opened in November in Kern County. The casino, a joint bet by Hard Rock International and the Tejon Indian Tribe, promises 1,100 regional jobs, with future plans for a 400-room hotel and a concert venue.
The owners of a Long Beach gas station wanted to add a car wash. But the property is adjacent to a school and in close proximity to several other gas stations, and Long Beach Unified claimed that the air quality analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act was inadequate. Now, in an unpublished opinion, an appellate court has agreed. On appeal, Justice Stephen Goorvich, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, concluded that the report from the Chambers Group “constitutes substantial evidence that the project would “compound or increase” the environmental impacts of the nearby automobile-related businesses.
