A year-long tug-of-war between California cities and developers over the state's anarchic "builder's remedy" law is starting to make its way to the courts as litigants spar over the intricacies of the 34-year-old pro-housing provision.
In two of the three cases, judges sided with the builders. And in the third, the judge issued a split decision, finding that cities must comply with the builder's remedy, but that the provision doesn't apply to projects in California's protected "Coastal Zone."
Although the law has been on the books since 1990, opportunities to exploit the provision - which casts zoning rules aside in cities without state-approved housing plans - only became feasible for the first time in the past few years.
"Most of the time, they're putting up some kind of roadblock. And the most common kind of roadblock is basically pretending that the builder's remedy doesn't apply," said Sonja Trauss, exec.
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