Lafayette settles its Housing Element lawsuit with the Housing Action Coalition

Lafayette has settled a lawsuit brought by the Housing Action Coalition that alleged the city's Housing Element failed to comply with California's housing element law, the city announced Tuesday, June 9.

Under the settlement, the city will pay $120,080 in attorney's fees and has agreed to consider upzoning 130 acres, most of it along Mt. Diablo Boulevard and in the downtown core.

The word doing the work there is "consider." The city committed only to take the changes up by the end of the year through its ordinary discretionary review and public hearing process. Nothing is rezoned by the settlement itself.

Four changes are on the list:

• Land north of Mt. Diablo Blvd. now zoned at 60 dwelling units per acre would be considered for up to 65.
• Parcels adjacent to and north of Mt. Diablo Blvd., between the El Nido Ranch Road and Pleasant Hill Road intersections, now at 35 units per acre, would be considered for up to 45.
• Parcels abutting the south side of Mt. Diablo Blvd. between Mountain View Drive and the western Golden Gate Way intersection, plus the parcels lying between Golden Gate Way and Mt. Diablo Blvd., also 35 up to 45.
• Two additional acres at the De Silva South parcel at a maximum of 35 units per acre.

If the council approves the upzoning, Lafayette will no longer rely on five specific faith-based organization parcels to meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation. Those sites have been part of how the city showed the state where its assigned housing could go.

"While we dispute HAC's contentions, this settlement agreement was made as part of a compromise in order to avoid time consuming and costly litigation. Lafayette has been and continues to be committed to providing for more housing in our community, including much-needed affordable housing," Mayor Carl Anduri said in the announcement.

The city said the agreement also reduces its exposure going forward. Recent changes in housing case law had created new legal risk, and settling now closes off further challenges to the Sixth Cycle Housing Element. The coalition agreed not to fund or support additional litigation over that element, or over actions the city takes under the agreement.

"Planning for more homes near transit in a high-resource community like Lafayette is exactly the kind of action the Bay Area needs to address the housing crisis and advance fair housing," said Ali Sapirman, advocacy and policy manager at the coalition.

City Manager Niroop K. Srivatsa said the upzoning would allow greater residential density inside the commercial core, with access to the BART station, Highway 24 and the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail, and that the city intends to work with developers to build there.

What happens next: the four land use changes return as public hearings before the end of 2026. The city has not announced hearing dates.