City Faces Competing Lawsuits Over Housing Project

LAFAYETTE, CA -- The city of Lafayette has found itself in the middle of a fight over Bay Area housing, with one group of residents seeking to block or shrink a recently approved housing development and another group suing to force the city to accept a larger, more affordable project on the same site.

At the center of the dispute is a 44-unit development called The Homes at Deer Hill, approved by the city in September.

The property owner, AMD Family Trust, and the developer, O’Brien Land Company, initially applied in March 2011 to build a 315-unit apartment complex on the site, called The Terraces of Lafayette. However, the city and developer agreed to sharply downsize that project in response to vocal community opposition and an unfavorable environmental impact report.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court by the San Francisco Bay Area Renters Federation seeks to set aside the city’s approval of the project in favor of a return to the original proposal. The group, which promotes housing development as a means to address the housing affordability crisis, says the original project would produce a larger number of units affordable to residents with moderate incomes.

The lawsuit alleges that the city has violated state laws prohibiting the denial of a project based on density as long as the proposal falls within existing zoning and general plan requirements.

The renters federation lawsuit is the second to be filed in response to the project. A group of residents opposing development on the site called Save Lafayette filed suit in September seeking to force the city to set aside its approval of the project, alleging violations of state environmental review laws.

The group says it has since collected enough signatures on a petition challenging the project to require the City Council to reconsider its approval or put it on the ballot for a referendum.

“While Save Lafayette is moving forward on the voter ballot, we will continue to negotiate with the representatives of the developer and the property owner in an effort to protect all interests and to see how we can retain maximum open space with minimum traffic impacts,” the group said in a statement on Dec. 3.

City Manager Steve Falk said that while the disputed site is zoned for multi-family housing, that zoning has not been updated in decades and does not reflect current standards. He said the site’s hilly nature and distance from transit make it unsuitable for affordable housing.

The city does have a policy encouraging the development of multi-unit housing around the downtown BART station, however, and has more than 400 units built or in the pipeline in that area, Falk said.

“I think they’re suing the wrong suburb,” Falk said. “Lafayette has actually been very progressive and even aggressive about delivering multi-family units.”

Renters federation member Brian Hanlon said the group chose to target Lafayette because the downsizing of the project was especially egregious, and the city’s development efforts remain “insufficient” to meet regional demand.

“Lafayette is a very nice place, but it is run by people who do not want to do their fair share to meet the need for housing,” Hanlon said, arguing that city leaders throughout the Bay Area have an ethical obligation to build more housing.

“We live in a regional job market and a regional housing market,” said Hanlon, a San Francisco resident. “By not developing housing in Lafayette, they’re causing displacement in the Mission.”

--Bay City News Service, photo courtesy of the city of Lafayette