CA Court: Builder's Remedy Must Yield to Coastal Act Zoning

A California Court of Appeal held that the state's Coastal Act takes precedence over the Housing Accountability Act’s (HAA) powerful “builder’s remedy.” In 'New Commune DTLA LLC v. City of Redondo Beach,' the court affirmed a city's denial of a mixed-use project that included affordable housing because the proposed residential use was not permitted under the city’s California Coastal Commission-certified Local Coastal Program (LCP).

This is the first appellate decision to directly resolve the tension between these two statutes, clarifying that the builder's remedy cannot be used to bypass fundamental land use restrictions in an LCP. The ruling provides coastal municipalities with a firm legal basis to reject otherwise-eligible HAA projects that conflict with coastal zoning, even if the municipality lacks a compliant state housing plan. For developers, the decision curtails a key strategy for forcing project approvals in the valuable coastal zone and underscores the need to ensure proposed uses conform to the LCP at the outset. The court signaled that any recalibration of the balance between coastal preservation and housing production must come from the state Legislature, not the judiciary, making legislative action the key development to watch.