CaRLA News
California’s Undocumented Homes
Santosh Kumar and his wife Shilpa were looking for home. Like many families in the Bay area, they were faced with the almost impossible challenge of finding a home that was both affordable and large enough for themselves and their parents. They found a modest...
SB 35 is working!
Los Altos is a wealthy suburban enclave in the Northwestern part of Santa Clara county. It has a population of just under 30,000 people and is comprised primarily of low-rise single family neighborhoods. A small portion of the city, Downton Los Altos, is zoned for...
SB 50: What cities are covered now?
Every city, at least somewhat. Recent amendments to SB 50 have put cities into 3 different categories: 1) Cities with population less than 50,000 in counties with population less than 600,000. 2) Cities with population more than 50,000 in counties with population less...
Read Our Annual Report for 2018
2018 was a big year for housing! Read our Annual Report to learn where CaRLA fit in: what we did, where we're going, and why we're recognized as the statewide expert on the Housing Accountability Act.
This Saturday in Orange County: Our Next Housing Law Workshop
We're excited to announce our second Housing Law Workshop of 2019! RSVP Today Join Dylan and Victoria this Saturday, March 2nd at the Fowler School of Law at Chapman University, room 142, starting at 10:00am. In this workshop, you'll learn all about what state laws...
Tomorrow’s housing law workshop: How to babysit your local planning commission!
As we announced earlier this year, we'll be holding our first Housing Law Workshop of 2019: How to baby sit your local planning commission. Join us tomorrow, February 2nd at 2pm in Downtown Oakland's Meetspace Community Center at 2044 Franklin St. RSVP is not...
Start your 2019 with a Housing Law Workshop!
2019 promises to be an exciting year in housing law. New legislation, a new governor, and we can pretty much guarantee that cities will find new ways to violate state law. They do it every year. The good news is CaRLA is keeping on top of it so you don't have to!...
Lawsuit: How to Fix San Francisco’s ADU Rules for Single-Family Homes
Today CaRLA has filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco to correct portions of its ADU ordinance that fail to comply with state requirements. Last summer, San Francisco updated its ADU ordinance in several ways that made it easier to develop ADUs in the...
Case Spotlight: Berkeley
1310 Haskell St. One of our earlier cases was 1310 Haskell St, Berkeley, CA. Here, Cristian wanted to replace one single family mansion in a low-rise South Berkeley neighborhood with three working class homes, each selling for less than $800,000. The alternative was...
Sometimes cities do the right thing: Los Angeles cancels landmarking of a gas station.
Not all of our cases make it to litigation. In fact, many of them never make it through to an unlawful denial. In every case, we start out by submitting a stern letter reminding the city in question of their obligation to follow state law, and sometimes it works!...