On March 10, 2016 Berkeley Zoning Board approved a zoning and general plan compliant proposal to tear down an existing single family house and build three single family houses in its stead.
The approval was appealed to the Berkeley City Council, who subsequently denied it in violation of the Housing Accountability Act.
CaRLA stepped up to assist Cristan in fighting back. 1310 Haskell St was CaRLA’s first Berkeley case, and first time providing aid to a small homeowner. Cristan was seeking to add two additional units to a lot containing one in a neighborhood of apartment buildings, duplexes, and two story single family homes.
How it ended
In order to reverse California’s housing shortage, we need cities to approve housing developments even over local NIMBY opposition. In our Berkeley lawsuit, we challenged the city’s disapproval of a three- unit development on a small parcel of land—exactly the type of “missing middle” development we need to see more of. In this case, the neighbors were opposed to changes that might make their single-family neighborhood more affordable, so they appealed the project approval to the City Council.
The Council disapproved the project despite its compliance with all city regulations, and without even attempting to justify the denial under the HAA. CaRLA filed our lawsuit to restore the rule of law in an apparently lawless city. Perhaps realizing that they didn’t stand a chance in court, the city agreed to rehear the project, and promised to comply with the HAA the second time around. Instead, upon rehearing the Council attempted to avoid the HAA by denying the project’s demolition permit rather than development permits. The court was not impressed by these antics, and took the decision out of the City Council’s hand by ordering the project approved and the city to pay all legal fees.
This case was the start of CaRLA’s mission to hold cities accountable for state housing law and their own development code.