Berkeley – 1310 Haskell St

On March 10, 2016 Berkeley Zoning Board approved a zoning and general plan compliant proposal to tear down an existing single family house and build three single family houses in its stead.

The approval was appealed to the Berkeley City Council, who subsequently denied it in violation of the Housing Accountability Act.

CaRLA stepped up to assist Cristan in fighting back. 1310 Haskell St was CaRLA’s first Berkeley case, and first time providing aid to a small homeowner. Cristan was seeking to add two additional units to a lot containing one in a neighborhood of apartment buildings, duplexes, and two story single family homes.

How it ended

In order to reverse California’s housing shortage, we need cities to approve housing developments even over local NIMBY opposition. In our Berkeley lawsuit, we challenged the city’s disapproval of a three- unit development on a small parcel of land—exactly the type of “missing middle” development we need to see more of. In this case, the neighbors were opposed to changes that might make their single-family neighborhood more affordable, so they appealed the project approval to the City Council.

The Council disapproved the project despite its compliance with all city regulations, and without even attempting to justify the denial under the HAA. CaRLA filed our lawsuit to restore the rule of law in an apparently lawless city. Perhaps realizing that they didn’t stand a chance in court, the city agreed to rehear the project, and promised to comply with the HAA the second time around. Instead, upon rehearing the Council attempted to avoid the HAA by denying the project’s demolition permit rather than development permits. The court was not impressed by these antics, and took the decision out of the City Council’s hand by ordering the project approved and the city to pay all legal fees.

This case was the start of CaRLA’s mission to hold cities accountable for state housing law and their own development code.

Timeline

March 10, 2016: Berkeley Zoning Board approved a zoning and general plan compliant proposal to tear down an existing single family house and build three single family houses in its stead. The approval was appealed to the Berkeley City Council.
March 10, 2016: City of Berkeley submitted : Berkeley ZAB staff report
July 12, 2016: Berkeley City Council upholds the appeal, denying the project, contra state law.
October 7, 2016: CaRLA submitted : Petition for Writ of Administrative Mandamus
October 21, 2016: Alameda Superior Court orders the city to approve the project.
October 21, 2016: Alameda County Superior Court submitted : Order to approve
February 28, 2017: Berkeley City Council re-hears the project. Despite the order the Council had signed and over the objections of the city attorney, the Council voted the project down again.
February 28, 2017: City of Berkeley submitted : City Council Agenda
May 25, 2017: CaRLA asks the court to enforce the previous order by filing a second lawsuit.
May 25, 2017: CaRLA submitted : Petition for writ of administrative mandamus
May 25, 2017: CaRLA submitted : Notice of motion to enforce stipulated order
May 26, 2017: CaRLA submitted : Memo of Points & Authorities in Support of Motion
June 6, 2017: Kristen Lee submitted : Declaration in Opposition to Motion
June 6, 2017: Steven Buckley submitted : Declaration in Opposition to Motion
June 7, 2017: City of Berkeley submitted : Opposition to Motion
June 13, 2017: CaRLA submitted : Petitioners’ Reply in Support of Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement
June 13, 2017: CaRLA submitted : Exhibit to support the Reply
July 21, 2017: Judge Kimberly E. Colwell submitted : Order to enforce
July 31, 2017: The court orders Berkeley yet again to approve the project, or else.
July 31, 2017: Judge Kimberly E. Colwell submitted : Clarifying order
September 19, 2017: CaRLA prevails! The City of Berkeley finally granted its approval of the project.
September 20, 2017: Judge Kimberly E. Colwell submitted : Final Order
December 6, 2018: Blog post: Case Spotlight: Berkeley

Press

Status: We Won!

The property owner got their approval and has began construction of three homes for familes where there was just one mansion.

Documents in this case

Date	Author	Title	Summary
2016-03-10 02:37	City of Berkeley	Berkeley ZAB staff report	Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustment Board produced a staff report recommending approval.
2017-02-28 02:43	City of Berkeley	City Council Agenda	Four months later, Berkeley City Council finally reheard the proposal for 3 houses at 1310 Haskell Street. Despite the order the Council had signed and over the objections of the city attorney, the Council voted the project down again.
2017-07-31 03:18	Judge Kimberly E. Colwell	Clarifying order	This is another Order, clarifying the one from 10 days ago. The project is going to go back to be heard by Berkeley City Council, but the judge clarified that if she sees us again, she’ll order the permits granted.
2017-06-06 03:06	Kristen Lee	Declaration in Opposition to Motion	This is funny document. In this document Berkeley’s Manager of Housing Services outlines all of the wonderful programs Berkeley has to protect or create affordable housing. Of course none of this has anything to do with whether they broke state law.
2017-06-06 03:11	Steven Buckley	Declaration in Opposition to Motion	Here is another declaration, this one by Berkeley’s land use planning manager. It has a nice appendix showing how much housing Berkeley entitled and built over the last 5 years. Also, none of this is relevant for the lawsuit.
2017-09-20 03:19	Judge Kimberly E. Colwell	Final Order	All of the parties agreed that Cristian would get his permits and we would get about $45,000 in legal fees from Berkeley.
2017-05-25 03:00	CaRLA	Notice of motion to enforce stipulated order	Motion to enforce the order from the first lawsuit. So Berkeley is actually defending two lawsuits from us right now. It is a very short document. Basically just “here ye, here ye, Berkeley broke their agreement with us.”
2017-06-07 03:05	City of Berkeley	Opposition to Motion	This is where Berkeley argues that we are wrong and Berkeley shouldn’t have to approve the three houses.
2016-10-21 02:42	Alameda County Superior Court	Order to approve	The City of Berkeley capitulated immediately. The city attorney agreed that Berkeley had no defenses, was clearly acting contrary to state law. The parties signed an order where the City agreed to reconsider the decision it had made, and make a new decision, in compliance with state law.
2017-07-21 03:16	Judge Kimberly E. Colwell	Order to enforce	We won! The judge agreed that Berkeley illegally disapproved the houses … AGAIN. The remedy is that the houses are going to go back to Berkeley City Council to be reconsidered.
2016-10-07 02:39	CaRLA	Petition for Writ of Administrative Mandamus	CaRLA filed a petition in Alameda County Superior court asking the Court to force Berkeley to follow the state law.
2017-06-13 03:14	CaRLA	Exhibit to support the Reply
2017-06-13 03:13	CaRLA	Petitioners’ Reply in Support of Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement
2017-05-26 03:03	CaRLA	Memo of Points & Authorities in Support of Motion	This document is more of what you probably expected to read. It has a narritive, and cites laws and cases in support of our Motion.
2017-05-25 02:50	CaRLA	Petition for writ of administrative mandamus	We filed a new lawsuit to cover our bases.