The city of Santa Clarita is facing a lawsuit from a pair of organizations working for more housing in California over claims its policies on accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, also known as “granny flats,” violate state laws intended to encourage their development.
The case is being brought by two Northern California groups, the California Housing Defense Fund and Californians for Homeownership. A representative said Tuesday the city has “doubled down” on a local ordinance despite letters stating specific concerns from the organization and the state’s Housing and Community Development Division.
Dylan Casey, executive director for the California Housing Defense Fund, said Monday that about half the cities that receive such letters “just go ahead and make the changes to come into compliance.”
He said the agency tracks every municipality in the state for changes to their local housing rules and regulations and generally reaches out when an ordinance was found to be “flagrantly out of compliance.”
He also mentioned there was a moving target with respect to state laws and housing and said the city was waiting for a state review, which is why he was taking an “optimistic” approach.
“The state Legislature has continued to, kind of, update statewide ADU requirements. And so, cities have this task of, kind of continually updating their local ordinance to stay in compliance, right? So really, in most cases, we’re just trying to help out,” Casey said. “And a lot of cities are fairly pro-accessory dwelling unit at this point, so they’re happy to make the changes we suggest.”
City officials shared both letters and the city’s response, adding city officials responded to the state’s first letter in April 2023 within a few weeks, and it has yet to hear a response.
Meanwhile, the state’s rules continue to change, Jason Crawford, the city’s director of community development, said in a phone interview.
He mentioned two big concerns from the city’s perspective: Compliance becomes a practical challenge when the rules are constantly changing and agencies aren’t responding in a timely fashion; and a disagreement over how the designations in the recently released maps from the state’s fire marshal should be factored into planning and zoning, based on state law.
“The state keeps changing the rules, and so the city has to go and revise our ADU ordinance, and then the rules change again, right? So that’s part of it,” he said. “And then the other part is that, yes, our city has had concerns about making sure that where there is new building, whether it’s an ADU or any other type of new building, that things like emergency evacuation and fire safety and traffic and all those concerns are addressed.”
He said there had been a back and forth with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, but also that there’s been no reply since April 2023.
Casey said Tuesday the plaintiffs were waiting for a review from the state’s HCD before deciding how the litigation should proceed.
Housing and an affordability issue in Santa Clarita has been mentioned more and more in recent years, including in city surveys and project planning, which prompted a discussion about the city’s potential for an affordable-housing policy in October.
The city’s average list price for a single-family residence, including condominiums and homes, was $896,000, according to the latest available data from the Southland Regional Association of Realtors, which is close to the state median of around $900,000, according to the lawsuit.
The SRAR’s income-to-loan guide for November on an 80% loan for a property at the median list price would require approximately $213,000 in income at the current rate, which comes out to a monthly payment of about $5,100.
City officials are expected to report back next year with a proposed policy for the city to consider.
