A builder is asking a judge to allow them to proceed with a nearly 600-unit, mixed-use development in Industry with 20% of all units set aside for affordable housing, which the plaintiff maintains was improperly blocked by the City Council in May.
“This case seeks to give effect to these urgent legislative declarations and enforce their accompanying statutory mandates to ensure housing projects can be built for current and future California residents,” according to Legacy Point LLC’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, in which the builder alleges the city is trying to “skirt the legislative mandates” set by the state’s Housing Accountability Act, which is aimed at facilitating construction of affordable housing.
” The city took these actions in the midst of a legislatively declared statewide housing emergency to be in effect until 2030,” the suit filed Thursday states.
City Attorney James Casso said Friday that he had no comment on the case.
Legacy Point seeks more than $100 million in damages and a court order directing the city to process the plaintiff’s May 2023 application for a 597-unit development project with commercial space and the affordable housing units at the northeast corner of Gale and Azusa avenues, across the Pomona (60) Freeway from the Puente Hills Mall.
According to the suit, last December the mostly industrial city sent Legacy Point letters alleging their application was incomplete and inconsistent with area zoning and the city’s general plan, the suit states. But Legacy Point maintains the application was complete and that the “upshot of the … notice was that the city had no intention to honor” the plaintiff’s application.
The city ultimately turned down Legacy Point’s application and on May 30 the City Council rejected the builder’s appeal as well as any path to completing the project as a builder’s remedy, a legal tool that can allow developers to bypass local zoning and general plan requirements when a locality’s housing element does not substantially comply with state law.
“The City Council did not present any evidence or otherwise even attempt to meet its burdens of proof or make the required findings under the HAA,” the suit states.
Because the project is not subject to any of the denial findings set forth by the Builders’ Remedy, Legacy Point is entitled to have its application receive for process and approval, the suit states.
“That is precisely the remedy the Builders’ Remedy provides,” according to the suit.