Real Estate Developer Rights When Cities Demand Too Much
How To Be A Project Advocate By Diffusing Adjacent Neighbor Tensions
Key takeaways The Building Safety Levy will come into effect in Autumn 2026. The Building Safety Act 2022 gave the government the power to impose a building safety levy on new residential buildings requiring certain building...more
In part two of the Housing New Laws series, Best Best & Krieger LLP (BBK) attorneys provide key analyses of new housing legislation in 2025 addressing governing urban lot splits and two unit projects, accessory dwelling units...more
As in previous years, California saw a significant volume of new housing legislation emerge from Sacramento in 2024. (See Holland & Knight's previous annual recaps of California Housing Laws in the final section below.) This...more
The Assembly Select Committee on Permitting Reform held its first hearing on June 18, 2024, commencing its efforts to address California’s housing and climate crises by reforming the state’s land use permitting regime....more
Osceola County, City of St. Cloud, and City of Mt. Dora are all set to vote on proposed increases to impact fees that, if approved, will substantially increase the cost of development in these jurisdictions. Below is...more
The government has published updated documentation under the Building Regulations 2010 confirming that new residential buildings in England, which are 18 metres or more in height, will be required to have a second staircase....more
In our latest roundup, Airbnb advocates for new short-term rental rules, the U.S. Supreme Court rules on hefty development fees, loan losses becomes greater issue for banks, and more!...more
On April 12, 2024, the United States Supreme Court decided Sheetz v. El Dorado County, No. 22-1074, holding that the Takings Clause “does not distinguish between legislative and administrative permit conditions,” but instead...more
The Florida Legislature on Feb. 28, 2024, passed Senate Bill 328, which amends the Live Local Act (Amended Act). It becomes effective upon becoming law (except as otherwise provided). While most of the 2023 Live Local Act...more
We would not blame you if you said that dealing with attorneys is not your favorite part of being a municipal official. However, in our defense, people use attorneys because they need help with complicated legal processes and...more
San Francisco’s state-mandated plan to raise building height limits to encourage housing production along transit corridors from the Sunset to the Richmond to the Marina came under criticism at the Planning Commission’s...more
We previously published a legal alert on October 12, 2023, about the extensive housing package that Governor Gavin Newsom signed on October 11, 2023, consisting of 56 bills to help address California’s decades-in-the-making...more
San Francisco - Can Free Rent Jump-Start a Downtown San Francisco Revival? Pop-Up Retailers Say Maybe (SF Standard): Nearly halfway into the three-month program, called Vacant to Vibrant, stakeholders say it has breathed...more
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 was given Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. It introduces some wide-ranging reforms to the planning system which we summarise in this Insight. However, most of the changes will not...more
The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, California, a case that concerns whether land use permit conditions in the form of monetary exactions created by legislation are...more
On April 28, 2023, the Planning Commission received an informational presentation from Planning Department staff regarding its work to implement the City’s recently adopted Housing Element Update. (See earlier posts regarding...more
In a decision partially published on November 30, 2022, Save Lafayette v. City of Lafayette, the First Appellate District Court of Appeal upheld the City of Lafayette’s approval of the Terraces of Lafayette (the “Project”), a...more
The land use entitlement process in California is notoriously complicated, lengthy, and fraught with uncertainty. Less attention is paid to the process of receiving building permits, post-entitlement. Generally, this process...more
As DC continues to explore ways to incentivize office-to-residential conversions and revitalize downtown, the Zoning Commission recently dismissed a pending text amendment that would have removed the exemption for...more
A trial court had jurisdiction to find that a denial of a permit application violated the Housing Accountability Act (HAA) on remand, even though the Court of Appeal did not expressly instruct the trial court to address the...more
AB 1561, which was effective as of September 28, 2020, granted an 18-month extension to many housing entitlements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Legislature passed this bill to alleviate the statewide cost that...more
On November 15, 2021, the Oregon Home Builders Association (HBA) presented on "Increasing Access to Home Ownership" to the House Interim Committee on Housing....more
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has adopted material changes to state zoning laws designed to encourage housing development, and in some cases mixed-use development that includes housing. This Holland & Knight alert...more
Nicholas Honchariw’s battles with the County of Stanislaus over his 9-lot subdivision have now resulted in a fourth published appellate decision. (See our prior reports, County Violates California’s Anti-NIMBY Law by...more
On March 6, 2020, just a day after hearing oral argument, the Supreme Judicial Court reaffirmed the longstanding principle that abutting landowners have standing to challenge the application of zoning bylaws only if they...more