Judge's Ruling Deals Blow to California's Zoning Reform Law

A Los Angeles County judge has ruled that the California law abolishing single-family zoning across the state is unconstitutional. Passed in 2021, SB 9 allowed single-family homeowners to split their lots in two and build a home on each or convert their homes to duplexes, regardless of local zoning. The ruling means SB 9 now cannot be applied in any of the five Southern California cities — Redondo Beach, Carson, Torrance, Whittier, and Del Mar — that sued the state, and the judge is expected to produce a ruling next month that will strike down the law statewide, reports Kate Talerico for the Marin Independent Journal.

“At the heart of the case is local authority and what gives the state the right to interfere. In California, the constitution requires that state laws impeding cities’ local control must demonstrate a reasonable relationship between the legislature’s stated intention and the design of the law,” Talerico writes. The stated intention for SB 9 was improving housing affordability, but the judge ruled that the legislature’s intention doesn’t match up with the design of the law because the law doesn’t require any of the resulting units to be priced below market rate.

Advocates for local authority over land use and zoning consider the ruling a big win. Housing advocates say the judge’s definition of housing affordability was extremely narrow. Talerico reports that a simple clean-up bill to SB 9, like the one proposed in the legislature last year, could “render the Los Angeles court’s decision moot.”