Building more housing requires the right people working from the right playbook. It takes lawyers who know the cases, researchers who know the data, and policymakers who know how to turn both into results. The YIMBY Law Conference brings them together. Join us September 28 in San Francisco for a day of programming on implementation, policy design, and housing project advocacy, followed by an evening reception. Stay tuned for the DC edition of the conference happening later this year!
The YIMBY Law Conference
Conference Recap
Proceedings
Coverage
Be sure to check out the coverage of the event over on Jeremy Levine's Jeremy's Quarterly and Colin Parent's Newsletter.
Photos
Programming
Enforcement
How housing law gets applied on the ground — from builder's remedy to local permitting fights.
Policy design
Frameworks that produce more housing — what the research says and what practitioners are building.
Project advocacy
Litigation strategies for specific housing projects — how to win approvals and fight bad denials.
Conference Agenda
Where two sessions are listed for the same time, choose Main Hall or Breakout Room.
8:30 – 9:30 AM · Breakfast & Networking
9:30 – 9:35 AM
Welcome Remarks
Speakers: Sonja Trauss
9:30 – 10:00 AM
Morning Keynote by Scott Wiener
Framing remarks that set the intellectual tone for the day: Sen. Wiener takes on the central puzzle facing the movement right now — if California's landmark housing laws are working, why hasn't it shown up yet in building permit numbers, nationally, in the state, or even in cities like San Francisco?
Speakers: Sen. Scott Wiener
10:00 – 10:25 AM
Buffy Wicks: Kick-Off Remarks
Asm. Wicks sits down with Laura Foote for a conversation built for a room that's already pro-housing, technical, and closely tracking what's happened at the Capitol.
Speakers: Asm. Buffy Wicks, Laura Foote
10:30 – 11:15 AM
Designing Policy for Outcomes
Policy design — not just political will — has a huge impact on whether housing actually gets built. A look at how upzoning affects housing supply, setting the stage for the day's deeper dive into policy mechanics.
Speakers: Yipeng Su
Proceedings · 4 resources
- Presentation slides
- How Big Upzonings Affect Housing Supply — Urban Institute
- What Made Zoning Reforms in Philadelphia and New York City Impactful — Urban Institute
- How Upzoning Affects Housing Supply — Housing Matters (Urban Institute)
Two Years After Sheetz: Fighting Impact Fees in the Courts
Two years after the Supreme Court's Sheetz decision, this panel digs into how courts are actually applying it to rein in excessive impact fees — including the Austin v. El Dorado County case and a 2023 ruling that forced Palo Alto to refund nearly $1 million in unspent parking fees for failing to justify holding onto them. Panelists break down what's actually litigable and where the next fights are.
Speakers: Daniel Freedman, Jaimie Cavanaugh, Dylan Casey
Proceedings · 6 resources
- Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, U.S. Supreme Court opinion, April 12, 2024
- SCOTUSblog, "Court rules for property owner in building fee dispute"
- Coalition for Fairness in SoHo and NoHo v. City of New York, Jan. 13, 2026
- Brownstein, "CEQA News You Can Use," April 2026
- Pacific Legal Foundation, "Safe Harbor from Excessive Exactions"
- Pacific Legal Foundation, "How to Protect Property Rights from Improperly Assessed Exactions"
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM
Rewarding Outcomes: ROAD Act Case Study
How a policy that started as the BUILD Now Act became a section of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act: rewarding cities that build more housing than average with additional Community Development Block Grant funding, and penalizing cities that build more slowly.
Speakers: Reed Schwartz, Will Poff-Webster
Proceedings · 2 resources
- Presentation slides
- The Success of the New Federal Housing Law Now Rests on States and Localities — Institute for Progress
Cutting Edge Entitlements
An open conversation with developers and land use consultants who are pushing state density bonus law as far as it goes — "tuning" projects using every available lever to maximize feasible unit yields, from small infill to 25+ story buildings, while navigating local opposition.
Speakers: David Balducci, Mark Rhoades, Will Sterling, Laura Foote (moderator)
12:00 – 12:45 PM
Designing Policy for Enforcement
Laying out the policy foundation needed to build an effective housing-law enforcement ecosystem.
Speakers: Ryan Patterson
Proceedings · 5 resources
- California HCD, Town of Los Gatos – 980 University Avenue Project – Notice of Potential Violation, Feb. 12, 2025, with enclosed Saratoga Road Project Letter of Technical Assistance, Aug. 30, 2024 (Permit Streamlining Act 90-day incompleteness resets and State Density Bonus Law)
- Janet Jha v. City of Los Angeles, No. 23STCP03499 — Decision on Petition for Writ of Mandate, July 24, 2024 (PSA, HAA, and Density Bonus Law violations)
- Californians for Homeownership, Inc. v. City of Beverly Hills, No. 24STCP02082 — Ruling on Petitions for Writ of Mandate, Aug. 12, 2025 (HAA and PSA builder's remedy dispute)
- MEEDL LLC v. City and County of San Francisco, No. CPF-26-519727 — Judgment Granting Petition for Writ of Mandate, Aug. 27, 2026 (HAA, SB 35/423 ministerial approval, and Density Bonus Law)
- Teodorescu, Plonsky, Ayal, and Barkan (2021), "Frequency of Enforcement Is More Important Than the Severity of Punishment in Reducing Violation Behaviors," PNAS 118(42)
Behind the Scenes of SB 79: Passage & AI Implementation
A look at how AI tools are changing the work of monitoring and enforcing SB79 compliance across California cities — including how ListenPublic's platform has reshaped CalHDF's workflow for identifying non-compliant jurisdictions and building the case for enforcement.
Speakers: Aaron Eckhouse, Mark (ListenPublic), James Lloyd (CalHDF), Leora (moderator)
Proceedings · 2 resources
- Presentation slides
- ListenPublic — Implementing SB 79 tracker (referenced in the deck; code: yimbylaw2026)
12:45 – 1:30 PM · Lunch
1:30 – 2:15 PM
A Conversation with the Attorney General's Housing Justice Team
A conversation with the Housing Justice Team at the California Department of Justice on how state-level enforcement can accelerate local housing production — the tools state government has to hold jurisdictions accountable, and how their office interacts with activist enforcement organizations.
Speakers: David Pai, Matthew Struhar, Alex Fisch, Beth Collins (moderator)
2:15 – 3:00 PM
The Housing Enforcement Ecosystem
A panel of attorneys representing the three major third-party nonprofit housing law enforcement organizations in California that are actively suing cities over housing law violations — what's worked, what hasn't, and how cases get chosen.
Speakers: Sonja Trauss, Dylan Casey, Matt Gelfand, Ryan Patterson (moderator)
3:00 – 3:45 PM
The Evidence for Organizing: How Advocates are Effecting Implementation
An evidence-based look at whether housing project advocacy actually moves the needle. (Spoiler: yes.)
Speakers: Alexander Sahn
Proceedings · 7 resources
- Presentation slides
- Sahn (2025), "Public Comment and Public Policy," American Journal of Political Science 69(2): 685–700
- Sahn and Simko, "Issue Accountability Among Public Meeting Commenters," American Journal of Political Science (conditionally accepted)
- Einstein, Glick, and Palmer (2019), Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America's Housing Crisis, Cambridge University Press
- Yoder (2020), "Does Property Ownership Lead to Participation in Local Politics? Evidence from Property Records and Meeting Minutes," American Political Science Review 114(4): 1213–1229
- Dynes, Karpowitz, and Monson (2022), "How Local Officials Respond to Expressions of Public Opinion," working paper
- Data: San Francisco Planning Commission in-person and email comment data, 1998–2026
3:45 – 4:00 PM · Break
4:00 – 4:45 PM
Rubber Meeting the Road: Political Organizing to Get Housing Actually Built
Laws aren't self-enforcing — they just give advocates and developers more opportunities to fight for housing. A look at how organizers turn legal wins into lasting policy through hearings, coalitions, and sustained political pressure.
Speakers: Rashi Kesarwani, Emily Ramos
Proceedings · 1 resource
- The YIMBY Revolution Will Be Litigated — Jeremy Levine's recap of the conference
4:45 – 5:00 PM
Closing Remarks & Wrap-Up
Sonja Trauss closes out the day with thanks to speakers, sponsors, and attendees.
Speakers: Sonja Trauss
5:00 – 7:00 PM · Networking Reception
Meet Our Speakers
The lawyers, researchers, and policymakers leading the day's Policy Design and Implementation tracks.
Policy Programs Director
CA YIMBY
Special Assistant Attorney General
California Department of Justice
Assistant Professor of Political Science
UNC Chapel Hill
Assemblymember, District 14
California State Assembly
Shareholder
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP
Executive Director
San Francisco Democratic Party
Shareholder
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP
Managing Principal
Align Real Estate
Supervising Deputy Attorney General
California Department of Justice
Housing Justice Team
Executive Director
CalHDF
Mayor
City of Mountain View
Senior State Policy Counsel
Pacific Legal Foundation
Director of Planning & Investigations
CalHDF
Executive Director
Palo Alto Forward
Executive Director - Founder
YIMBY Action
California Director
YIMBY Action
Founder
Listen Public
President/CEO
Rhoades Planning Group
In House Litigator
Californians for Homeownership
Matthew Struhar
Deputy Attorney General
California Department of Justice
Councilmember
City of Berkeley
Associate Infrastructure Fellow
Institute for Progress (IFP)
State Senator
California State Senate
General Counsel
YIMBY Law & YIMBY Action
Managing Partner
Patterson & O'Neill, PC
Director of Infrastructure Policy
Institute for Progress (IFP)
Partner
Holland & Knight
Senior Research Associate
Housing and Communities Division
Urban Institute
Founder and Executive Director
YIMBY Law
Questions? You’re more than welcome to email hello@yimbylaw.org!
Sponsors
The YIMBY Law Conference is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, who share our commitment to building more housing and stronger communities.
