Pasadena is flouting state’s new housing law, AG Bonta says

State AG accuses Pasadena of flouting new housing law

Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter on Tuesday putting the City of Pasadena on notice of his allegations it has violated a new state housing law. The letter could be a prelude to a legal action against the city, similar to the case the state filed against the City of Huntington Beach in 2019 accusing it of violating a different housing law.

"It has come to our attention that the City of Pasadena has adopted an urgency ordinance designed to circumvent Senate Bill (SB) 9," Bonta wrote in his letter for Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo. "Specifically, on December 6, 2021, the city adopted Urgency Ordinance No. 7384, which broadly prohibits the application of SB 9 to any part of the city designated as a 'landmark district.'"

A spokeswoman for the city did not comment by press time.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 9 in September. When it went into effect Jan. 1, it required cities to allow two housing units on lots in areas zoned for single family housing. Scores of cities, neighborhood groups and other organizations opposed the law, saying it infringed on municipal decision-making power.

While SB 9 was under consideration, Pasadena sent a letter to legislators warning the bill was "being undertaken without serious study or consideration of the potential impacts related to traffic, greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, and other environmental factors." According to the text of the December ordinance, it sought "accommodations or exemptions for good actors like Pasadena."

However, according to Bonta's letter, Pasadena "failed to satisfy the legal requirement for urgency ordinances" because it did not identify a direct, avoidable impact.

"The text of SB 9 does not exempt 'landmark districts,' it exempts only landmarks, historic properties, or historic districts," Bonta wrote. "The ordinance is thus contrary to the plain text of SB 9 and cannot stand."

The letter claims Pasadena's Municipal Code makes it relatively easy for homeowners to form new landmark districts. The city has designated 20 landmark districts since it adopted an ordinance allowing them in 2002.

Huntington Beach fought a series of lawsuits against the state over several previous laws, principally SB 35. That 2017 law streamlined the approval process "for infill projects with two or more residential units in localities that have failed to produce sufficient housing," according to a Senate analysis.

The city had been out of compliance with state affordable housing mandates hundreds of affordable units from its development plans two years earlier. A 2018 follow-up law, SB 1333, specified SB 35 applied to charter cities like Huntington Beach.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled last year that SB 35, SB 1333 and two other state housing laws apply to Huntington Beach. The city settled a separate case with the state over affordable housing mandates in 2020.