Do homeowners associations trump CA’s ADU laws?

In a dispute over whether he can convert his three-story condominium’s garage into its own ground-floor apartment, one Carlsbad resident is waging a battle against his homeowners association.

As CalMatters’ Ben Christopher explains, Adam Hardesty is an unemployed project manager and HOA board vice president. After months of research and planning, he decided to turn the 373-square-feet garage of his condo into a standalone accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. Hardesty plans to outfit the ADU with a kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom and rent it out as a source of passive income.

But the Mystic Point Homeowners Association that Hardesty belongs to wants to quash those plans — kicking off a legal dispute that raises the question: Who has the final say about what gets built where?

Amid a severe housing crunch, California lawmakers for the past decade have passed legislation to encourage more housing, with state officials at times suing cities that don’t comply. Several ADU-related laws have also chipped away local authorities’ ability to reject housing. For Hardesty, he cites a 2019 law that voids any homeowners association’s rule that “prohibits or unreasonably restricts” the construction of ADUs.

But the law applies to parcels of land that are “zoned for single-family residential use,” and Hardesty lives in a condominium multi-plex. According to Hardesty’s former attorney, the homeowners association’s lawyer argued that because Hardesty’s parcel is not “zoned for single-family residential use,” the law doesn’t apply.

Hardesty’s situation underscores the fuzzy role homeowners associations play in state policy: Though they’re usually classified as nonprofits, their role is similar to a town’s planning-and-building department, and at times serve as the last bastion for local control. 

So what happens if a resident butts heads with their homeowners associations over a state law? They’ll have to duke it out in court, since the California Department of Housing and Community Development does not “have the ability to take enforcement actions directed at HOAs,” said one department spokesperson.

Read more here.

Members of the California Legislative Black Caucus gathered at the state Capitol Thursday to unveil its package of 15 priority bills for the year. 

You may recall some of the bills from the caucus’ reparations bill package last year, including one proposal to create a fund to decrease violence in local communities and another to compensate residents whose land was taken by “racially-motivated” eminent domain. One measure would also “prohibit slavery in all forms,” and is an update to Proposition 6 to ban forced prison labor that voters rejected in November.

Caucus chairperson Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson said the measures address the “deep generational harms inflicted upon Black Californians.” The San Diego Democrat added that caucus members are also taking into account federal policies under President Donald Trump.

• Sen. Weber Pierson: “We also cannot and should not ignore what is happening now at a national level, as individuals are implementing policies … to actively dismantle the hard-fought and rightful gains for Black Americans.”

Last year the caucus excluded two proposals from its package that reparation advocates pushed for, and did so again this year: One would create a new state agency to handle reparations, while the other would create a fund for reparation policies.

In November the California Air Resources Board approved a controversial set of new rules for fuel standards, which aim to reduce air pollution but could also raise gas prices. In a surprise twist, the state agency that reviews the legality of state regulations rejected the new rules this week, writes CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo.

The Office of Administrative Law said the rules needed more “clarity” and told the air board that the rules must be clear enough “so that the meaning … will be easily understood by those persons directly affected by them.”

The rules faced strong pushback from Republican legislators, who argued that the new regulations could increase pump prices. In 2023, the air board initially projected the standards could raise the cost of gasoline by 47 cents a gallon, but has since backed away from that number. A separate report by the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, found the rules could increase gas by 85 cents through 2030.

The air board said it would review the order and then resubmit the rules, which it has 120 days to do so.

Last year was the hottest year in Earth’s recorded history. 

Read more here.

California lawmakers are considering making seasonal firefighters full-time to ensure year-round readiness for wildfires. CalMatters’ Sameea Kamal and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on the $175 million annual proposal as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.