Partner Jennifer Hernandez Authors Report Showing CEQA Lawsuit Impact on California Housing
Holland & Knight Partner Jennifer L. Hernandez, leader of the firm's West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group, recently authored an industry report for the Center for Jobs & The Economy, whose mission is to identify and analyze policies driving up the cost of living and impacting California's business climate.
The report – "Anti-Housing CEQA Lawsuits Filed in 2020 Challenge Nearly 50% of California's Annual Housing Production" – reveals that despite the California Legislature enacting more than 80 laws during the last seven years to solve the state's acute housing crisis, actual housing production to address what Gov. Gavin Newsom described as a 3.5 million housing shortfall has remained flat.
California has built an average of 110,784 homes per year for the past six years, only about one-third of the governor's housing production target, according to the report. Production is expected to fall in 2023 due to inflation and interest rate hikes. California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuits targeting new housing production, in contrast, continue to expand – with 47,999 housing units targeted in the CEQA lawsuits filed just in 2020.
Holland & Knight Associates Nathaniel Bernstein, Emily Warfield, Deborah Brundy, Melanie Chaewsky and Emily Lieban, as well as Summer Research Clerk Nicholas Quinlivan, also contributed to the report.