Sonoma County Hous. Advocacy Group v. City of Santa Rosa

No. SCV 2311237 (Cal. Super. Ct. Sonoma County filed, Feb. 13, 2003) ; Clearinghouse Number: 55134

Description

California City Agrees to Revise Its Housing Element to Comply with State Planning and Zoning Law

Abstract

Respondent-defendant City of Santa Rosa, California, agreed to adopt a revised housing element that substantially complies with applicable state law. California’s planning and zoning law requires all cities and counties to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan, including a “housing element,” for physical development of land within the governmental entity’s jurisdiction. The California Department of Housing and Community Development determined that city’s housing element did not comply with state law. In their suit against city and its officials, petitioner-plaintiffs—a housing advocacy group and various individuals—alleged that city failed to adopt a housing element with adequate sites for lower-income housing, failed to designate and zone vacant land at sufficient densities and with appropriate development standards, and did not remove constraints to development. They also alleged that city’s failure to accommodate low- and very low-income housing development discriminated, in violation of state law, against low- and very low-income persons, racial and ethnic minorities, families with children, disabled persons, and female-headed households. Under the settlement terms, city’s revised housing element specifically identifies suitable sites with appropriate zoning and infrastructure to permit the development of housing affordable to low- and very low-income households in numbers sufficient to meet or exceed city’s regional share of need for such housing during the current planning period. City agreed to complete any necessary rezoning for these sites within 2003, as long as projects that may proceed as a matter of right were limited to those with at least 25 percent of the units guaranteed as affordable to low- and very low-income families for at least thirty years. City also agreed to pay $28,000 in attorney fees.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Plaintiffs represented by David Grabill,1930 Alderbrook Lane, Santa Rosa, CA 95404 (707.528.6839); Neil M. Herring, 503 Sandretto Drive, Sebastopol, CA 95472 (707.823.9418); MIchael Rawson, California Affordable Housing Law Project of the Public Interest Law Project, 449 15th Street, Suite 301, Oakland, CA 94612 (510.891.9794)
Docket Date
2003-02-13 00:00:00+00:00