On April 7, 2023, the 5th District Court of Appeal issued a momentous opinion upholding our client Desiree Martinez’s claims in Martinez v. Clovis! In the first published opinion to interpret the state's requirement for local governments to affirmatively further fair housing, the Court found that Clovis’s overlay zoning scheme permitting development at lower densities than required by the minimum density requirements in 65583.2(h) violated Housing Element Law - and that such failure is inconsistent with the duty to affirmatively further fair housing.

Finding that Ms. Martinez’s fair housing claims could proceed despite the trial court’s previous rejection of the claims, the Court ruled "City violated the Housing Element Law by its continuing failure to meet its RHNA zoning obligation. This continuing failure constitutes a “land use practice..." Thus, as with her FHA cause of action, Martinez has adequately alleged the “practice” element of an FEHA cause of action for housing discrimination.”

Representing a significant breakthrough in the fight for fair and equitable housing in California, the decision reaffirms that fair housing cases attacking zoning and land use actions may proceed even when there is no specific development project in question. The court also confirmed that "a discrimination claim under section 65008, subdivision (b)(1)(C) may be established by proving a disparate impact on developments intended for occupancy by lower income families, even where there is no denial of a particular development.”

The Public Interest Law Project and Central California Legal Services represented Ms. Martinez.  For more information https://lnkd.in/gxdfhyWk