YIMBY Law Denounces CA Governor’s Attempts to Block Duplexes in Fire-Affected Areas, Considers Lawsuit

YIMBY Law condemns Governor Newsom’s executive action blocking duplexes and lot splits in LA’s rebuilding efforts after the Palisades fire. We are considering filing an emergency lawsuit to defend the law and allow more homes as a part of the rebuilding process. This is a crucial opportunity to rebuild these communities in a way that supports climate resilience and housing accessibility. Governor Newsom should be facilitating this process; instead, he is buckling to anti-housing interests that artificially restrict the number of homes in these neighborhoods.

“This order throws out any opportunities to increase climate and fire resiliency in these neighborhoods,” said Zachary Pitts, YIMBY Los Angeles’s Organizing Director. “The worst thing we can do is rebuild in the exact same way and face the exact same risk. Density reduces fire risk, suburbia increases it.”

The stated purpose of the Executive Order is to "afford local governments increased discretion to ensure that SB 9 development in the rebuilding areas appropriately accounts for fire safety concerns.” However, SB 9 already requires proposed development in high fire zones to meet updated ingress and egress standards. It also already allows local governments to deny a project that would have “a specific, adverse impact on public health and safety that cannot be mitigated.”  

The California Emergency Services Act allows the Governor to suspend state laws if "strict compliance with any statute, order, rule, or regulation would in any way prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of the emergency." SB 9 in no way prevents mitigation of the fires’ effects. To the contrary, building new housing—which is what SB 9 facilitates—mitigates the effects of the fires. Suspending SB 9 and allowing LA to prevent higher-density, more fire-safe new housing in the Palisades is a cynical perversion of the purpose of emergency orders.

YIMBY Law is considering a lawsuit to challenge this executive order. Governments are permitted to take actions that mitigate the effects of an emergency. This executive action, however, does not mitigate the effects of the Palisades fire. Instead, it hinders the rebuilding process, makes LA more susceptible to future fires, and reduces the community’s ability to address the housing shortage. 

SB 9, the law Governor Newsom blocked with this executive order, was enacted as one of many necessary measures to address the emergency of the housing shortage. A severe lack of homes drives homelessness and housing insecurity, while driving tens of thousands of residents to leave California in an attempt to find more affordable housing. LA and its surrounding neighborhoods desperately need more homes to accommodate the needs of the people who live and work there. The future of the state’s climate resilience, economy, and resident safety depend on the implementation of SB 9 and similar laws that help address the housing shortage.

“This is an alarming abuse of state executive powers,” said Sonja Trauss, Executive Director at YIMBY Law. “The legislature passed SB 9 to increase the number of homes in existing neighborhoods. This is an opportunity for homeowners to choose to add more homes on their land as they make tough decisions about how to rebuild their lives after the Palisades fire. Legitimate concerns about evacuation routes should be addressed by creating more evacuation routes from the Palisades, not by preventing housing. Newsom’s executive order will create uncertainty in the rebuilding process and reduce the number of homes in LA.”

On July 30, Governor Newsom signed an executive order that will remain in effect as long as the state of emergency from the Palisades fire remains active. It allows local governments to curb the implementation of SB 9 (a law passed in 2021 that legalized duplexes and lot splits in most single-family-only neighborhoods) within the LA fire burn scars. The order affects the entire Palisades within the city of LA, the eastern foothills portions of Altadena, Sunset Mesa, and Malibu. It also includes a 7-day pause on SB 9 development in these neighborhoods to allow local governments to create their own standards. 

Immediately after SB 9 was passed, municipalities abused the emergency process to block its implementation, leading the CA Attorney General to issue guidance to cities, reminding them what is and isn’t a legal basis for an urgency ordinance. The Governor’s executive order is a continuation of these tactics, with an ongoing focus on exempting wealthy neighborhoods from building their fair share of housing to help end the housing shortage. If allowed to continue, this order has the potential to block all duplexes and lot splits in these neighborhoods, undermining the law as it was passed by the California legislature. The order is especially alarming given that this a crucial time in the rebuilding process, just six months after a devastating fire that razed over 5,400 homes.

SB 9 is an important avenue for homeowners to rebuild in a way that works for them. Adding more homes to a lot creates opportunities for more people to live in the neighborhood, increases options for multigenerational households, and provides new housing types at different price points to allow for more diverse, vibrant neighborhoods. Building a more dense neighborhood footprint is also an important part of reducing the risk of fires in the future by making these communities more climate resilient. Increased density encourages less car usage, reducing air pollution and supporting California’s climate goals.

“This overreach of executive powers sets a dangerous precedent for how the state and local municipalities will continue to block new homes if left unchecked,” said Jae Hendrix, Communications Director at YIMBY Law. “We urge Governor Newsom to follow the law and allow LA to create more fire-resistant communities as it rebuilds.”

Yes In My Back Yard Awarded $250,000 Grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Advance Health Equity Through Pro-Housing Policy Implementation

“Housing policy is health policy,” said YIMBY ED Sonja Trauss.

PLAINSBORO, NEW JERSEY - Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) is proud to announce it has received a $250,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime.

The grant is being awarded under RWJF’s Reimagining Land Use and Zoning for Health Equity call for proposals, which is funding 10 organizations to address the role that exclusionary land use and zoning policies play in driving health inequities. Through this program, RWJF is supporting YIMBY’s efforts to challenge the deeply entrenched systems that restrict access to affordable housing, especially in America’s healthiest and highest-resource areas.

YIMBY will focus on scaling the implementation of pro-housing laws (such as state-level zoning reform, streamlining mandates, and fair housing enforcement) in cities and neighborhoods that have historically deployed local land use controls to limit new housing and exclude lower- income people. These exclusionary communities consistently rank among the healthiest in the country, yet remain some of the most inaccessible due to restrictive zoning and high housing costs.

“This grant is a powerful recognition that housing policy is health policy,” said Sonja Trauss, Executive Director of YIMBY. “By ensuring pro-housing laws are implemented in healthy, high- resource areas that have blocked new housing, we can begin to undo decades of exclusion and ensure people from all backgrounds have access to America’s healthiest zipcodes.” RWJF’s Land Use and Zoning initiative acknowledges that restrictive zoning has long been a structural barrier to health equity by limiting access to safe, stable housing, well-resourced schools, parks, and economic opportunity.

With this support from RWJF, YIMBY will expand its model of implementing state housing law through monitoring, education, and enforcement. A growing body of research, including YIMBY’s own research, reveals that state housing law doesn’t turn into new homes without focused implementation efforts. This project will particularly focus on implementing housing law in jurisdictions that have the strongest life expectancies and health outcomes but have an entrenched history of blocking new housing.

*Support for this program is provided in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

YIMBY Law Sues Cupertino Twice for Illegally Blocking New Homes

San Francisco, CA— YIMBY Law has filed two lawsuits against the city of Cupertino to defend new housing proposals the city illegally denied. YIMBY Law argues that the city violated California’s Housing Accountability Act by denying two proposals for new housing. Both proposals reserve at least 20% of the homes for subsidized affordable housing. These legal actions aim to ensure Cupertino follows California housing law and allows for the minimum number of homes required by the state. 

The two housing proposals defended by YIMBY Law have faced numerous roadblocks in the application process, and both fall under the Housing Accountability Act’s “Builder’s Remedy” provision, which allows more homes to be built—with affordability requirements—when cities do not comply with Housing Element law. The city claimed that regardless of how many revisions they request in the application, the builder must respond to all of them within 90 days of the first revision request. In these cases, even though the projects are not required to comply with all of the city’s zoning rules, the city illegally demanded that the developers show how they complied with those rules anyway.

“Cupertino has long been a bad actor when it comes to blocking new housing, which is especially egregious considering its status in the global economy as the heart of Silicon Valley,” said Sonja Trauss, Executive Director of YIMBY Law. “We thought suing them the first time would get them back on track, but clearly they need a stronger message. YIMBY Law is here to deliver the message until it sticks. Cupertino must do its part—just like every other city in California—to end the housing shortage and allow the number of homes needed in the community.”

According to a 2015 estimate from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, California is short approximately 2.7 million homes. Recent laws advocated for and passed with the support of YIMBY Action chapters across the state aim to help close the gap and ensure there are enough homes available at every income level. These laws bolster the enforcement of state-mandated housing plans (Housing Elements), adding consequences and workarounds to ensure that cities allow much-needed homes to be added to their communities.

Cupertino is one of many cities that have missed Housing Element deadlines, and remains one of the cities most resistant to allowing more homes. As the location of Apple’s headquarters, Cupertino is one of the most exclusive and expensive communities in the state, with a staggering median household income of $231,139. This is due to the city and its affluent residents artificially restricting the number, types, and price points of the homes in the community.

“Cupertino essentially wants to ask for an unlimited number of updates and changes, all of which have to be submitted to the city within 90 days of the city's first request for more information,” said Gillian Pressman, Managing Director at YIMBY Law and YIMBY Action. “This would allow a city to ask for more work, such as a change to a large study, just hours before the end of the 90 day period. It's absurd and unrealistic. They’re clearly doing this to try and get out of building homes, just like they’ve been doing for decades.”

The state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has already warned other anti-housing cities that these types of restrictions are illegal. In February 2025, HCD issued guidance to Los Gatos to inform them that their similar restrictions are incorrect. Additionally, HCD issued two similar Notices of Violation to Beverly Hills in August and December of 2024. In all of these examples, cities have been told that they cannot arbitrarily claim an application is incomplete. Cupertino, YIMBY Law argues, should be held to the same standard.

“The law is on our side, and so are the people of California who struggle under the impacts of the housing shortage,” said Jae Hendrix, Communications Director at YIMBY Law and YIMBY Action. “Now it’s time for Cupertino to do the right thing so we can stop suing them and we can all get to work doing the right thing: advocating for, permitting, and building more homes for people at all income levels.”

YIMBY Law will continue to defend housing proposals that are illegally denied so that housing laws are followed, more homes are built, and housing becomes affordable and equitable. In the cases against Cupertino, YIMBY Law looks forward to successfully defending the homes that have been illegally denied.