Articles

West Hollywood punishes developers for building houses

November 04, 2016 | By JEREMY TALCOTT

One thing that nearly all Californians agree on is that the price of housing in this state is too high. The relentlessly rising prices are unmistakable evidence of a housing shortage: not enough homes are built to meet the rising demand. Husband and wife entrepreneurs Shelah and Jonathan Lehrer-Graiwer thought they could help meet that … ...

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Washington state exaction scheme before the U.S. Supreme Court

August 19, 2016 | By BRIAN HODGES

San Juan County’s scheme to force shoreline property owners into dedicating water treatment buffers is now pending on a certiorari petition with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case, Common Sense Alliance v. San Juan County. As you may recall, in order to address a Washington state statute requiring that cities and counties adopt measures R ...

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Seattle’s Grand Bargain–a bargain for whom?

July 05, 2016 | By ETHAN BLEVINS

  The City of Seattle has proposed “The Grand Bargain” to fix its affordable housing crisis. The epic title doesn’t meet expectations. “The Grand Bargain” would force housing developers across the City to set aside a percentage of their developments as rent-restricted affordable housing units. Or developers ca ...

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PLF sues to stop unconstitutional public art fee on new homes

July 23, 2015 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Today’s money-no-object urban planning elite have a long list of things they think no modern city should be without, but many have no money to buy the stuff on their list. And, city residents tend not to support tax increases to pay for many of these priorities, even if they support someone else paying for it. So city bureaucrats turn & ...

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California Supreme Court limits property rights, again

June 15, 2015 | By TONY FRANCOIS

This morning the California Supreme Court released its unfavorable decision in California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose. The issue in this case is whether a city can withhold a development permit for new housing unless the builder ‘donates’ some of the new homes at a price below the cost of building the homes. … ...

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PLF’s Tony Francois will discuss CBIA v. San Jose on KQED Forum tomorrow at 9 : 00 am

April 08, 2015 | By TONY FRANCOIS

I will be joining KQED host Michael Krasny on his program tomorrow morning during the 9:00 AM hour, to discuss this morning’s oral arguments before the California Supreme Court in California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose. UPDATE: Audio from this morning’s appearance is available here. … ...

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Los Angeles responds to our General Plan 2035 letter

May 07, 2014 | By JONATHAN WILLIAMS

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission is currently in the process of adopting General Plan 2035. Like Obamacare, General Plan 2035 checks in at a whopping 900 pages. It seeks to reshape the county through mandates including: expanded transit districts, expanded mixed use development, mandatory farming districts, and “Employment ...

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Of Jerry Brown and Santa Claus

December 27, 2013 | By TONY FRANCOIS

It appears to be PLF week at the San Diego Union Tribune.  Today the paper published this OpEd by PLF attorneys Harold Johnson and yours truly.  The piece discusses PLF’s pending challenge to San Jose’s affordable housing exactions in the California Supreme Court on behalf of the California Building Industry Association. The piece ope ...

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PLF files opening brief against housing exactions in California Supreme Court

December 11, 2013 | By TONY FRANCOIS

In July of this year, PLF petitioned the California Supreme Court to review a lower court opinion allowing the City of San Jose to essentially takeover 15% of all new homes as units for the city’s affordable housing program.  In September, the Court granted review, and yesterday PLF filed the opening brief on behalf of … ...