America needs more housing: People across the country are struggling to find affordable places to live. The good news? Property owners want to build more housing. Homeowners want to build accessory dwelling units; landowners want to build new homes; and developers want to build apartment buildings. The bad news? Land use regulation is preventing them—causing the housing crisis.
The right to make productive use of your own property is a fundamental right. Since before the founding, Americans have shaped their destinies out of the land, raising homes and new communities from dirt. For the country to keep growing, and for the individual pursuit of happiness to flourish, we need to keep building.
But the government is now abusing its power to restrict the freedom to build. Zoning—which is meant to enhance public health, welfare, and safety—is instead used to preserve the status quo. Permit fees and exactions—meant to compensate for the actual public impacts of construction—are imposed arbitrarily, distorting the housing market and pushing the cost of housing to crippling levels.
PLF is fighting to dismantle unreasonable government restrictions on building.
On April 12, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously for California homeowner George Sheetz in a case about development “impact fees.” George sued his county after it forced him to pay a $23,420 traffic impact fee in order to get a building permit. The high fee was especially absurd in George’s case: He was only trying to build a modest, manufactured home. With the help of Pacific Legal Foundation and former PLF attorney Paul Beard, George won a unanimous decision at the Supreme Court, which affirmed permit fees like George’s must be related and proportional to the building project.
Our system of law should favor the right to build, allowing property owners to pursue innovative and diverse housing options. While homeowners may mutually agree on neighborhood building restrictions—in the form of homeowners association covenants or other private contracts—the government may not abuse its power to throttle the housing supply.
PLF represents property owners in courts across the country to challenge government barriers to housing, including:
We work with legislators to reform laws and restore the right to build across the country. Our model legislation and principles for reform include:
To work with PLF on legislative reform, email Kileen Lindgren at .
Has the government interefered with your right to build? Submit your case to PLF and see if we can help you.
In the children’s classic “The Lorax,” Dr. Seuss created a character that claims to “speak for the trees.” What was merely a piece of juvenile fiction is now threatening to cross over into r…
From “Full House” to “Little House on the Prairie,” “I Love Lucy” to “The Brady Bunch” and “Friends” to “Frasier,” the home has always been a central feature of American televi…
For those wondering how America’s unaffordable housing market became exactly that, Pacific Legal Foundation vice president James S. Burling has an answer—or rather, a series of answers—in his ne…
The cost of housing rose again last month, making it even more difficult for Americans to afford a home of their own.
Unable to deny the obvious, President Biden acknowledged in his State of the Union address that housing prices have hit a crisis point for too many Americans.
Johnston is a small Rhode Island town where Ralph Santoro’s family has long worked. Ralph was not one of the lucky few who inherited generational wealth, but he did inherit his father’s priceless,…
When property owners apply to the government for building permits, they’re often required to pay impact fees: fees meant to cover the strain additional buildings have on public resources like roads,…
Clancy Kenck grew up idolizing his two older brothers. They were men of action, brave soldiers who fought for their country in Vietnam and were always there to stand up for their baby brother. Now tha…
“Workforce housing” fees — a bad idea that drives up the cost of housing and unconstitutionally places the burden of other people’s housing on individual property owners — may soon run their…
It’s been four weeks since deadly fires ripped through the coastal Los Angeles community of Pacific Palisades and through Altadena at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Schools, businesses, and …
According to Bloomberg, new home construction sank to its lowest level in years, comparable only to the downturn during the pandemic-induced shutdowns of 2020. Financial experts quoted in the piece …
There are legal victories, and then there are legal victories—court rulings so decisive, so sharply written, that they can only be considered a judicial knockout. Case in point: Al Hadian and Ralp…
You can’t make housing cheaper by making it more expensive. But that’s what Healdsburg’s so-called “Inclusionary Housing Program” tries paradoxically to do. Jessica Pilling and her lawyers a…
When Mike Colosi moved to Florida, he had a simple but big dream: to build a beautiful home nestled within the serene, natural beauty of his newly acquired 5.07-acre property. He envisioned using only…
Clancy Kenck bought land in Missoula, Montana, with the intention of building a duplex where he and his two older brothers could live. Both his brothers are suffering from declining health issues, and…
