AG says Pasadena ordinance violates California affordable housing law

Town of Pasadena, residence to the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl school soccer contest, is violating a brand new California legislation designed to extend reasonably priced housing, the state lawyer basic warned Tuesday.

It’s Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta’s second such motion after proponents of denser housing stated greater than a dozen communities throughout California had been hurrying to undertake restrictions earlier than the legislation took impact Jan. 1. Greater than 150 cities opposed the legislation because it was being thought of within the Legislature final yr.

It permits householders to construct as much as 4 residential models on a single-family lot, a measure that Bonta stated is required to deal with essentially the most populous state’s continual housing and homelessness issues by rising provide and affordability.

Bonta warned cities to “take severely their obligations beneath state housing legal guidelines” or “we are going to maintain you accountable.” Bonta’s workers stated his workplace is evaluating comparable ordinances elsewhere.

Bonta, a Democrat, in November created a brand new “housing strike power” throughout the state Division of Justice to search for violations.

Lower than a month earlier than the state legislation took impact, Pasadena, a Southern California metropolis of roughly 140,000 individuals, handed an ordinance that amongst different restrictions permits officers to exempt eligible areas by declaring them “landmark districts.”

However no such exemption exists beneath the legislation, Bonta stated.

The ordinance “undermines SB 9 and denies residents the chance to create sorely wanted extra housing, beneath the guise of defending ‘landmark districts’, ” Bonta stated in a press release. “That is disappointing and, extra importantly, violates state legislation.”

Pasadena’s mayor, metropolis lawyer and its director of planning and group growth didn’t instantly remark.

Bonta final month issued an identical warning to the rich Silicon Valley city of Woodside after it declared that it was exempt as a result of the complete city is habitat for endangered cougars. Hours later, city officers stated they’d settle for functions for rising housing in any case.

Whereas Bonta advised Pasadena officers that there is no such thing as a such factor as a “landmark districts” exemption beneath the state housing legislation, particular person properties will be exempt if they’re a part of a landmark, historic property or historic district.

However Bonta stated in a letter to Pasadena officers that these designations can’t be arbitrary and have to be supported by substantial proof.

He contended that Pasadena’s standards, in contrast, are very broad and aren’t linked to historic sources, so that they doubtlessly would come with massive areas of the town.

Metropolis leaders additionally erred by adopting the restrictions as an “urgency ordinance,” Bonta stated. He stated the town didn’t present proof that the state legislation would considerably hurt public well being or security, not to mention the required “substantial proof of a big, quantifiable, direct, and unavoidable impression.”

He requested Pasadena to repeal or amend its ordinance to adjust to the brand new state legislation inside 30 days, with out saying what would possibly occur if it doesn’t.

The legislation’s writer, Senate President Professional Tem Toni Atkins, final month praised Bonta’s efforts to push again towards what she termed “attention-grabbing and inventive methods to actually work towards supportive housing.”

“These efforts actually inhibit and undermine our potential to supply housing for Californians,” she stated throughout a discussion board hosted by the Sacramento Press Membership. She stated the objective is “so as to add mild density in a manner that maintains the standard of a neighborhood.”