STATUS: Amended Petition filed 11/25/2025

YIMBY Law and the Latala Group have sued the County of Santa Clara for violating the Permit Streamlining Act (PSA) and the Housing Accountability Act (HAA).

Santa Clara County failed to adopt a revised, substantially compliant housing element by the January 31, 2023 statutory deadline. The County’s submitted its fifth draft to HCD on January 29, 2025, and HCD certified the County’s housing element on February 5, 2025. As such, the County was subject to the Builder’s Remedy from January 31, 2023 to February 5, 2025.

On November 19, 2024, the Latala Group submitted a preliminary application for a 173-unit project, with 20% of the units set aside as affordable to lower-income households on a parcel located at 20202 Harry Road, in unincorporated Santa Clara County.

The preliminary application for the project included all information required by the HCA, and the project qualifies for the protections of the Builder’s Remedy. The Latala Group submitted a formal development application 85 days after the preliminary application (within the 180-deadline under the HCA).

Thirty days later, the County issued an incompleteness letter requesting information not required for completeness under SB 330. The Latala Group resubmitted the application in response to the first incompleteness letter within the 90-day timeline.

Despite the fact that the resubmission occurred within 90 days of the County’s First Incompleteness Letter and the HCA’s iterative process is supposed to provide applicants with another 90 days to respond, the County took the position that Petitioner’s vesting rights had expired. And because the County had subsequently achieved substantial compliance with the Housing Element Law, Petitioner lost its right to pursue a builder’s remedy project.

On July 17, 2025, Petitioner YIMBY submitted a letter to the County stating that the County’s incompleteness determination was not in compliance with California law and that the City’s determination that the preliminary application expired violated the HAA.