• Home
  • About The Herald
  • Local Agencies
  • Daily Email Update
  • Legal Notices
  • Classified Ads

Contra Costa Herald

News Of By and For The People of Contra Costa County, California

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Business
  • Community
  • Crime
  • Dining
  • Education
  • Faith
  • Health
  • News
  • Politics & Elections
  • Real Estate

CA Supreme Court allows City of Lafayette’s approval of Terraces apartment project

March 17, 2023 By Publisher Leave a Comment

The planned Terraces of Lafayette apartment project. Source: O’Brien Homes

Denies request to review lower court’s decision, ends litigation, leaving in place earlier rulings that the City acted properly in approving the development

“This decision is a win for housing, but the fact that this project has taken so long is exactly why we have such a catastrophic housing shortage” – Sonja Trauss, President and Founder of YIMBY Law

By Suzanne Iarla, Communications Analyst/Public Information Officer

After more than two years, litigation against the City of Lafayette and developer O’Brien Land Company (O’Brien) regarding the City’s approval of the 315-unit Terraces of Lafayette development project has ended and is in favor of the City and O’Brien.

In 2020, Save Lafayette, a citizens group, sued the City and O’Brien to overturn the City’s approval of the Terraces of Lafayette. In November 2021, the Contra Costa County Superior Court rejected Save Lafayette’s claims and upheld the City’s approval of the Terraces of Lafayette. Save Lafayette appealed the Superior Court’s decision.

In November 2022, the Court of Appeal issued a unanimous opinion holding that the City’s environmental review complied with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and that the City properly followed the Housing Accountability Act in approving the project. Save Lafayette requested that the California Supreme Court exercise its discretion and review the Court of Appeal’s decision.

On Wednesday, March 15, 2023, the California Supreme Court denied Save Lafayette’s request for review, making the Court of Appeal opinion in favor of the City the final word in the long-running dispute.

“The Courts have once again affirmed that the City complied with the Housing Accountability Act and the California Environmental Quality Act in its environmental review and approval of this 20%-affordable housing project. The litigation is over, and we should now focus on welcoming new residents to our community,” said Lafayette Mayor Carl Anduri.

Now that litigation has ended, O’Brien will be able to proceed with the development of 315 for-rent apartments, including 63 below-market-rate units on a vacant a 22-acre site at the southwest corner of Pleasant Hill and Deer Hill Roads, adjacent to Highway 24 in Lafayette.

Terraces of Lafayette rendering. Source: O’Brien Homes

In response O’Brien Land Company issued the following press release regarding the court decision:

In a landmark victory for housing rights and state housing law, the California Supreme Court denied review of the unanimous California Court of Appeal ruling in favor of the Terraces of Lafayette

As the last step to finally end the litigation over the Terraces of Lafayette apartment community, the Supreme Court of California denied Save Lafayette’s request to review the First District Court of Appeal’s unanimous ruling that upheld the City of Lafayette’s project approvals. In a published opinion, the Court of Appeal rejected in full Save Lafayette’s lawsuit challenging the Terraces of Lafayette, a 315-unit apartment community by O’Brien Land Company. After nearly 10 years of processing and 120 public hearings, the Lafayette City Council had finally approved the project by a 4-1 vote in August 2020.

The Court’s decision can be found here. Project information can be found at https://www.terracesoflafayette.com.
The project site is in an urbanized area adjacent to Highway 24 and located one mile from the Lafayette BART station. With 20%, or 63, of its dwelling units set aside for lower income households, the Terraces is considered an affordable housing project under the Housing Accountability Act (HAA). This will substantially assist Lafayette in meeting its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the lower income categories assigned to it by long-standing state law.
Despite the project’s robust legal protections under controlling state law, Save Lafayette has actively opposed the project and all development on the project site for years. The anti-development group also opposed a 44 single-family home compromise project the City approved in 2015 after the City and O’Brien contractually paused processing of the apartment project to consider an alternative the group might accept. Save Lafayette responded by filing litigation and a ballot referendum that overturned the smaller project. Once the voters rejected the smaller project, O’Brien and the City resumed processing the apartments.

“Despite the fact that the project, located on a former quarry site, is supported by the Sierra Club and Greenbelt Alliance, and provides critically-needed, affordable housing, it took 12 years to get to this point after finally getting the project approved and through this and other wasteful litigation,” said Dennis O’Brien, President and Founder of O’Brien Land Company. “It’s been disheartening the last few years to have to tell local residents and workers that we weren’t yet able to build the apartments the City approved. People have long been in need of housing like this for themselves, family members, and local workers, and all we could do was add their name to an interest list and ask them to be patient while we saw the project through an incredibly difficult and time-consuming process. We are elated that we can now move forward.”

Although the apartment project included a full environmental impact report, Save Lafayette’s lawsuit claimed the City’s approval violated the California Environmental Quality Act, a law frequently employed by anti-development NIMBY groups to challenge new housing. The lawsuit also claimed the project was not entitled to the protection of the HAA, which protects housing developments from changes in local land use laws after an application is deemed complete by, among other things, substantially curtailing the circumstances under which a housing project may lawfully be disapproved. As the Superior Court did in 2021, the Court of Appeal rejected Save Lafayette’s arguments and agreed that the City complied with the law in approving the project.

Matt Regan, Senior Vice President of Public Policy for the Bay Area Council added his voice in support of the Supreme Court’s decision saying, “When anyone asks why we have a housing affordability crisis in California, I just show them the history of the Terraces in Lafayette. This is a site where the City said they wanted housing, a developer offered a proposal that met their requirements, and here we are 12 years later after multiple plan changes, referendums, lawsuits, delay after delay after delay, needless costs piled on top of needless costs, and still no homes,” he added.

“The team at O’Brien Homes should be given every credit for refusing to be bullied and sticking with this project.”

The Court of Appeal recognized the HAA’s statutory mandate to interpret and implement the HAA to “afford the fullest possible weight to the interest of, and the approval and provision of, housing” and accordingly held that the trial court “rightly refused to disturb the City’s approval of the project.”

About the decision, Sonja Trauss, President and Founder of YIMBY Law, stated, “This decision is a win for housing, but the fact that this project has taken so long is exactly why we have such a catastrophic housing shortage. The people involved with Save Lafayette should be ashamed of themselves. They have denied housing for more than 700 middle income people for the last 10 years while they fought this project. Imagine if Save Lafayette had spent their time and money actually helping people.”

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

 

 

Filed Under: Courts, Growth & Development, Lamorinda, News

Contra Costa Superior Court announces escheatment of unclaimed funds

February 4, 2023 By Publisher Leave a Comment

By Matt J. Malone, Public Information Officer, Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa

Per Government Code Section 68084.1, the Court intends to escheat the sum of $201,665.09 in the Court’s Operations Fund that has remained unclaimed for a period exceeding three years. For more information on the unclaimed funds, please visit the Court’s website at:

https://www.cc-courts.org/fees/unclaimedfunds.aspx

The Court has published a legal notice in the East Bay Times and has sent letters to potential owners of these funds. If you believe that you are entitled to any of the funds, you must complete and submit a Claim Affirmation Form and Claim for Reimbursement. These forms and instructions are available at the above hyperlink. Claim forms must be postmarked no later than March 24, 2023.

Filed Under: Courts, News

COVID spike causes jury selection in Contra Costa Superior Courts suspended until Jan. 14

December 28, 2021 By Publisher Leave a Comment

Cases in which a jury has already been empaneled and the trial underway, will proceed as previously scheduled.

By Allen Payton

In response to concerns of juries being cancelled as of Monday, Dec. 27, a spokesperson for the Contra Costa Superior Court provided the following explanation:

“The Court remains open and fully operational with one exception. The Court has suspended jury selection/panels out of an abundance of caution with the increased infection rate in the County having risen 165%.  This will only impact any case in which voir dire is currently underway or in cases set to begin between now and January 14th. Cases in which a jury has already been empaneled and the trial underway, shall proceed as previously scheduled.

This is a very disappointing development as the Court was making good progress in addressing the backlog of cases.

That said, the risk of exposure and infection for court employees and court users (including defendants detained in county jail) is too great for the time being in light of the new COVID-19 variant and significant rise in infection rates in Contra Costa County.

All other services remain open to the public and are functioning.”

Filed Under: Courts, News

CCC-Fair-2023
Rocketship-ENG-03-thru-07-23
Liberty-Tax-AH-03-23 web
Delta-RC-8th-12-22B-1
Deer-Valley-Chiro-06-22

Copyright © 2023 · Contra Costa Herald · Site by Clifton Creative Web