The La Cañada Flintridge City Council voted Tuesday, March 4, to abandon its efforts to block low-income housing at a former church rather than post a $14 million bond to continue fighting it in court.
“Continuing the lawsuits is no longer in the best interest of the city,” Mayor Mike Davitt said in a statement.
Developers argued they had the right to build the complex regardless of zoning under the “builder’s remedy” provision of the state’s 35-year-old “Anti-NIMBY Law.”
The builder’s remedy allows construction that includes low-income housing virtually anywhere in a city or county that fails to adopt housing development plans on time. La Cañada Flintridge’s “housing element” plan didn’t win state approval until more than two years after Southern California’s October 2021 due date.
The order requiring the city to post the “appeals bond” stems from a legal dispute over the city’s decision to deny approval for a five-story apartment-hotel building at the former First Church of Christ Scientist at 600 Foothill Boulevard.
The development would have 80 apartments, at least 16 of which would be affordable to low-income households. Located along one of the city’s main thoroughfares within blocks of a large commercial district, the project also would include 14 hotel rooms and just under 7,300 square feet of office space.
The California Housing Defense Fund, an affordable housing advocate that joined the developer’s lawsuit, said in a Tuesday post that 600 Foothill would be the city’s first multifamily building in decades and would create its first low-income development.
The city denied 600 Foothill’s application, saying the builder’s remedy didn’t apply because the city’s housing plan was “substantially compliant” with state law before the developer’s November 2022 filing.
The developer, Cedar Street Partners, sued the city, and the case later was joined by Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Housing Defense Fund.
In March 2024, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that the 600 Foothill project does indeed qualify for the builder’s remedy.
La Cañada Flintridge appealed.
On Friday, Feb. 28, Superior Court Judge Stephen Goorvitch ruled that the city must post a $14 million “appeal bond” to continue litigation. The bond is needed, the judge ruled, to cover the developer’s potential losses from delays the litigation would cause.
The city’s cost for posting such a bond would have been in the $200,000 to $600,000 range, City Manager Daniel Jordan said.
“The financial cost associated with the appeals process outweighs the potential outcomes of further litigation,” a city statement said.
Despite the city’s decision to abandon its appeal, 600 Foothill still must clear several other hurdles before winning local approval.
While the builder’s remedy waives zoning rules, such projects still must comply with environmental, infrastructure and health and safety standards.
“The city and community will need to chart a pathway forward that integrates the 600 Foothill project as reasonably as possible,” Mayor Davitt said in his statement. “We hope going forward the developer will work with us to minimize any detrimental impacts on the city.”