YIMBY Law Sues Newsom Over Senate Bill 9 Exceptions

Pro-development organization YIMBY Law is taking Gov. Gavin Newsom to court for his executive order banning Senate Bill 9’s application in Los Angeles neighborhoods burned by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

YIMBY Law’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that Newsom unlawfully restricted homeowners’ ability to rebuild by giving local governments the green light to shelve SB 9, the 2021 state law that permits duplex construction and lot-splitting on parcels zoned for single-family homes, Politico reported.

Residents in the Pacific Palisades appealed to Newsom over the summer to stop SB 9’s implementation, fearing that allowing duplexes and split lots would diminish the neighborhood’s character and make evacuation efforts in future fires worse. Mayor Karen Bass and City Council member Traci Park similarly expressed their opposition to SB 9’s use in the Palisades.

Newsom issued his order in July in response to the lobbying, from people including reality TV star and Palisades resident Spencer Pratt.

“My parents survived the Eaton fire, but our home didn’t,” Altadena resident Andrew Post said in a news release from YIMBY Law. “Now, as we want to rebuild and come back to the community we love, we’re staring down costs we can’t meet. SB 9 isn’t a danger, it’s a lifeline. It gives people like us a real chance to rebuild by creating rental income or making space for multiple generations and families to live on the same land. Taking that option away means pushing out the very people who are trying hardest to come back.”

After the governor handed down his order, the city governments of Los Angeles, Malibu and Pasadena, as well as Los Angeles County, put the kibosh on SB 9 rebuilds in areas prone to fires. YIMBY Law’s suit includes each local jurisdiction as a defendant. The nonprofit claims SB 9 provides cash-strapped property owners the opportunity to earn rental income or sell a portion of their lot to pay for their rebuilding efforts.

The San Francisco-based group was in talks with Newsom’s team last week about standing down on its lawsuit if the governor agreed to allow duplex construction after a year, YIMBY Law executive director Sonja Trauss told Politico. The Newsom camp didn’t act, prompting the organization to pursue legal action.

Most homeowners were under-insured, and now rents are spiking, land values are falling, and rebuilding costs are astronomical,” Trauss said in a statement. “Making it harder for families to use the single most impactful tool they have left — their land — doesn’t make recovery safer. It raises the barrier of who gets to come back at all.”

Newsom’s team swiftly rebuked the lawsuit.

“We will not allow outside groups — even longstanding allies — to attack the Palisades, and communities in the highest fire risk areas throughout L.A. County, or undermine local flexibility to rebuild after the horror of these fires,” Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos told Politico. “Our obligation is to survivors, full stop. We will not negotiate that away. If defending them requires drawing firm lines, we will draw them.”

Park, who represents the Palisades, also shared her disappointment with YIMBY Law’s complaint.

“After what this community just lived through, the idea of forcing more density into a high-fire-severity zone demonstrates this isn’t about sound housing policy, but ideological extremism,” Park told Politico.

Whether the banning of SB 9 in these neighborhoods was legal remains a question to be answered by the court as part of YIMBY Law’s case.

— Chris Malone Méndez