A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled that a landmark law ending single-family-home-only zoning in California is unconstitutional, a decision that could lead to the law being invalidated in the state’s largest cities. Judge Curtis Kin determined that Senate Bill 9 does not provide housing restricted for low-income residents and therefore cannot override state constitutional protections afforded to local zoning practices.
” Allowing multiple units to be built on parcels previously reserved only for single-family homes departs from that vision. In defense of SB 9, lawmakers argued that all areas of the state needed to accept growth and often cited the origins of single-family-home-only zoning as a means of excluding Black and other nonwhite residents from neighborhoods.