Housing Accountability Act Helps Sink Challenge To Downtown Livermore Project
- William Fulton
- Jan 9, 2023
- 3 min read
A challenge to a major downtown Livermore affordable housing project has failed in large part due to the Housing Accountability Act, especially the objective standards provisions. And the fact that the project was in a specific plan area helped bulletproof it against legal challenge under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Located along I-580 in eastern Alameda County, Livermore has often been a major battleground in California’s residential growth wars. Most prominent has been the battle over the Terraces at Livermore multifamily project, which was featured in Conor Dougherty’s book Golden Gates. (In the latest skirmish in that long-running battle, the power of the Housing Accountability Act was also on display. See CP&DR’s most recent coverage here.)
On the downtown project, the First District Court of Appeal ruled in an unpublished opinion that Save Livermore Downtown’s litany of claims was meritless. In the local media, Save Livermore Downtown immediately promised to ask for a rehearing.
Eden Housing’s project would consist of two four-story buildings with a park in between. The project’s 130 units would be set aside for residents making between 20% and 60% of the county’s median income.
The city found that the project conformed with the city’s general plan and the downtown specific plan and concluded that because of the specific plan conformity the project was exempt from CEQA. Save Livermore Downtown challenged both the conformity and the CEQA exemption.