Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass Declare NIMBY Martial Law To Stop Duplexes in the Palisades
Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. This week’s stories include:
- A California homeowner files yet another challenge to a local “inclusionary zoning” program.
- Oregon passes what might just be the most radical YIMBY reform yet.
- A federal judge sides with fair housing groups claiming that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is improperly dragging its feet on awarding federal fair housing enforcement grants.
But first, our lead item on California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ declaration of NIMBY martial law to prevent duplexes from being built in areas of Los Angeles affected by this year’s wildfires.
Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass Declare NIMBY Martial Law
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are doing their best to ensure that no new net housing is created during the rebuilding of Los Angeles’ wildfire-ravaged neighborhoods.
On Wednesday, the two issued twin executive orders that collectively suspend a state law allowing builders to build duplexes on single-family zoned properties and/or divide single-family zoned lots into separate properties.
The state law, Senate Bill (S.B.) 9, was passed in 2021 with the goal of enabling more small-lot starter homes and “middle housing” in the state’s lowest-density areas.
Bass said in a statement issued a day prior to her executive order that while she supports the goal of S.B. 9, deploying it in the context of the Palisades rebuild would strain local infrastructure and heighten future fire risks.
“Legislators in Sacramento could not have foreseen the bill’s impact on the Palisades community as it works to rebuild from one of the worst natural disasters in state history,” said Bass in a Tuesday statement. Permitting new duplexes and lot splits “could fundamentally alter the safety of the area.”
Critics of Newsom and Bass’ orders argue that S.B. 9 already contains sufficient fire safety provisions and that suspending the law will only impair efforts to rebuild the Palisades.
Sonja Trauss, executive director of YIMBY Law, which litigates to enforce state housing laws, says that the governor’s post-disaster emergency powers to suspend laws are more properly applied to regulations that might inhibit recovery efforts. She gives the example of suspending procurement laws to expedite the purchase of emergency supplies.
Suspending a law that allows additional housing construction does not fit that mold, she says.
“S.B. 9, which allows duplexes on single-family lots, doesn’t interfere with recovery. It is recovery,” Trauss tells Reason. “For someone who had a single-family home and now has nothing, it might be a faster path for them to rebuild up to four units if that’s more economically feasible.”
S.B. 9 already requires builders to meet updated ingress and egress standards. It also gives local governments discretion to deny S.B. 9 projects if they have health or safety impacts that cannot be mitigated.
Nevertheless, Newsom’s executive order says that “the unprecedented scale of this disaster calls for affording local governments increased discretion to ensure that SB 9 development in the rebuilding areas appropriately accounts for fire safety concerns.”
The practical effects of suspending S.B. 9 are likely limited. Builders have made little use of the law since it went into effect in 2022, in large part because local governments have actively limited its effectiveness by piling additional regulations and fees on duplex and lot split projects.
A bill to make S.B. 9 more usable by preempting those additional local rules failed a crucial committee vote back in April.
Bass and Newsom’s executive orders attempting to streamline wildfire rebuilds have also generally excluded projects that would add additional units and additional floor space.
Both have the effect of limiting builders’ willingness to propose S.B. 9 projects in the Palisades.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told LAist that only seven S.B. 9 applications have been filed in the Palisades since the fire in January, out of 400 wildfire rebuild applications in the area. The Palisades fire destroyed 5,000 homes in Los Angeles in very high fire hazard severity zones.
Despite the limited use of S.B. 9 in the Palisades, community groups and local elected officials have expressed concern that the law has been enabling builders to profit off of the wildfire rebuilding efforts.
“While your Emergency Orders have paved the way for an accelerated recovery by streamlining and waiving hurdles that have greatly benefitted homeo
Article from Reason.com
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