City of Los Angeles - Increase to Planning Applications and Affordable Housing Linkage Fees - On July 1, 2024, the fee for planning and land use applications increased by 3.5% based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban...more
The California Supreme Court, on June 6, 2024, reversed the First District Court of Appeal’s decision regarding UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) EIR. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision clears the way for...more
The California Supreme Court recently upheld the Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) for the Long Range Development Plan (“LRDP”) for the University of California Berkeley (“UC Berkeley”) and a controversial housing project...more
A California Supreme Court ruling will allow student housing at University of California to be built at Berkeley's historic People's Park. In February 2023, a state appeals court in San Francisco had sided with the opponents,...more
The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a highly anticipated ruling on March 4, 2024, addressing a Builder’s Remedy project denial by the City of La Cañada Flintridge. The decision confirms (i) that a local jurisdiction cannot...more
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) approved housing streamlining legislation voted in last week by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, thus allowing the city to avoid a series of...more
San Francisco - Can Free Rent Jump-Start a Downtown San Francisco Revival? Pop-Up Retailers Say Maybe (SF Standard): Nearly halfway into the three-month program, called Vacant to Vibrant, stakeholders say it has breathed...more
The Berkeley City Council opened the door to high-rise apartment buildings in the Southside neighborhood by signing off on new zoning regulations that could allow for thousands more homes at UC Berkeley’s doorstep....more
As an incentive to builders to create more rental housing units, the federal government has announced the effective elimination of the goods and services tax (GST) payable on newly constructed rental housing, such as...more
The California Supreme Court, on May 17, 2023, granted review of the First District Court of Appeal’s decision in Make UC a Good Neighbor v. Regents of University of California (2023) 88 Cal.App.5th 656, where the Court of...more
Governor Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta have filed a lawsuit accusing the city of Huntington Beach of violating state housing laws, seeking a preliminary injunction against the city....more
Governor Gavin Newsom said he will work this year to reform a landmark state environmental law that he says has been weaponized by wealthy homeowners to block badly-needed housing for students at UC Berkeley....more
As in previous years, the California Legislature enacted a large volume of housing production laws in the 2022 session, some of which may have a significant effect on housing production in 2023. ...more
Landlord sues L.A. for $100 million, saying anti-eviction law caused ‘astronomical’ losses - Bullet Los Angeles Times – August 9 - One of the region’s most prolific apartment builders has sued the city of Los Angeles...more
This article is the fifth in a multi-part series examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on select real estate sectors and the considerations around how technologies will shape future operations and accelerate means to...more
The Sixth District Court of Appeal invalidated a school district’s Level 1 development fee because the underlying fee study did not properly calculate anticipated growth and included the cost of hypothetical new schools that...more
As of January 1, State law offers a new density bonus to qualifying student housing developments. The legislation (Senate Bill 1227) is one of several bills the Legislature has passed over the last two years to address...more