Press Release: YIMBY Law Files Lawsuit Against City of Sausalito For Noncompliant Housing Plan
/Contact: Jessamyn Garner
San Francisco, CA— YIMBY Law has filed suit against the city of Sausalito, California following the city’s adoption and self certification of a housing element YIMBY Law argues is noncompliant with state law. The suit aims to bring more housing to Sausalito and marks YIMBY Law’s first legal challenge to the substance of a city’s housing plan.
“Sausalito has blatantly ignored state housing law by including an infeasible site inventory and bypassing necessary environmental review,” said Keith Diggs, Attorney at YIMBY Law. “This lack of compliance subjects the city to the builder’s remedy so much-needed housing can be built anyway.”
Bypassing the environmental review process will obstruct every housing project that comes before the city. Additionally, infeasible sites listed in Sausalito’s housing plan will also create barriers to building new homes. Both obstacles will make achieving state housing goals impossible, YIMBY Law argues.
The builder’s remedy requires cities without a compliant housing plan to approve any housing project that meets affordability requirements of reserving 20% of homes for low-income households or 100% for moderate-income households. Specifically, if a California city does not have a “substantially compliant” housing element, the California Housing Accountability Act indicates that the jurisdiction cannot use its zoning or general plan standards to disapprove any housing project that meets the affordability requirements.
Every eight years, California cities and counties are required to create housing elements (or housing plans) that adhere to state criteria and include enough homes for the community. In the Bay Area, the deadline to create these plans was January 31, 2023. Since then, YIMBY Law and other allied pro-housing legal nonprofits have filed twelve lawsuits against cities that did not meet the deadline.
Sausalito is one of dozens of Bay Area cities that have not met the deadline or have otherwise not met state requirements. This lawsuit, along with housing element lawsuits previously filed, aims to bring the city of Sausalito into compliance with state housing laws and to facilitate projects that fall under the builder’s remedy.
“It’s unfortunate that suing the City of Sausalito is necessary to ensure legal compliance,” said Sonja Trauss, Executive Director of YIMBY Law. “Fortunately, the Builder’s Remedy exists for just this circumstance: to make sure the housing people need will still get built.”
Contact: Jessamyn Garner • jessamyn@yimbyaction.org • (760) 846-2525