How it ended
The main purpose of the HAA is to prevent cities from denying housing where it is allowed under the city’s own rules. It may seem obvious that if housing is “allowed” to be developed on a property, cities should not deny it. Unfortunately California cities routinely deny housing in these circumstances for no good reason. In Sausalito, the City Council denied a single-family home development simply because it was “out of scale” with the surrounding community of other single-family homes. CaRLA sued Sausalito under the HAA to make sure they follow their own rules on housing. Realizing that they had little or no legal case, the city settled and agreed to rehear the project, and they approved it on rehearing.