May 9, 2025 Your Source for Brentwood News

Column: SB 9 Ended R-1 Zoning, but It’s Not Meeting Goals

By Tom Elias

More than a year after it took effect, the landmark housing density law known as SB 9 has drawn many derogatory labels: a usurper of local powers, a neighborhood wrecker, a destroyer of dreams, and more. But the most accurate epithet for it today is something much simpler. So far, it’s a flop.

SB 9, sponsored by San Diego’s Democratic state Sen. Toni Atkins, was intended to help solve the California housing shortage by encouraging owners of current single-family homes to divide their lots in two, with each half eligible for a duplex and an additional dwelling unit, often known as an ADU.

So six housing units are now authorized almost automatically on most single-family properties in this state. The SB 9 sponsors believed when it passed in the fall of 2020 that this would create enormous financial incentives for current homeowners to sell to developers.

After all, a new cottage industry had arisen since permitting of ADUs, also known as “granny units,” became virtually automatic in January 2020, with almost all new homes featuring them and many existing homeowners buying and renting out prefabricated units.

But enthusiasm for the kind of density SB 9 intended to create has not come close to matching the homeowner and developer interest in building ADUs. A report early this year from UC Berkeley’s consistently pro-density Terner Center for Housing Innovation described the law’s impact so far as “limited or nonexistent.”

The failure so far of this law may comfort some homeowners interested in maintaining their roomy lifestyles and the character of their neighborhoods, but the conditions causing it may not be permanent.

For one thing, nothing in SB 9 compels anyone to build as much as a single affordable unit, or any units designated for low-income residents.

With both median home prices and the cost of building a single one-bedroom unit in California both hovering above $800,000, it’s difficult to see how creating bunches of duplexes will be much help to families who currently don’t own homes and thus have not built up many tens of thousands of dollars in equity.

The contrast with building large apartment or condominium complexes is sharp: They must include at least some affordable units. They also can get a “density bonus” allowing them to create more units if they provide more than the required percentage of affordable or low-income ones.

So the market for new duplexes is not hot today, especially in a time of dropping population. Then there’s the matter of financing: Interest on home and construction loans is higher today than almost any time in the last 20 years, as the Federal Reserve Board keeps upping interest rates to stem inflation.

That depresses both home prices and sales everywhere in the nation, including California, and makes it difficult for developers to fund new projects.

There’s also a shortage of construction workers, similar to the dearth of workers that has seen “help wanted” signs appear in thousands of restaurant and store windows.   

All these conditions might be temporary, possibly changing considerably as inflation slows.

But there’s also the matter of reluctance by current homeowners to carve up their properties or sell out and move elsewhere.

The steady rise of California property values over the 14 years since the Great Recession – until it halted or slowed in mid-2021 – has left huge numbers of longtime homeowners flush with equity, sometimes mounting into the millions of dollars.

If they access some of that resource via refinancing or reverse mortgages, a lot of the financial incentive for creating six homes out of one can disappear.

All of which means SB 9 does not figure to become a major housing factor anytime soon.

This has caused its onetime enthusiastic backers to deny they ever saw it as a major part of the solution. One example is Atkins, the state Senate’s president then and now. She told a reporter SB 9 “was never intended to be an overnight fix to our housing shortage…it was intended to increase the housing supply over time.”

It still may do that someday, but reality right now is that SB 9 has not amounted to much.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net.

Related Posts

Jim Carrey Reprices Brentwood Estate Amid Market Shifts and Wildfire Concerns

May 6, 2025

May 6, 2025

Iconic Actor Carrey’s Brentwood Retreat Back on Market at $18.75M  Actor Jim Carrey has reduced the asking price for his...

Bruce Willis’ Former Beverly Hills Canyon Property Listed for $15 Million

May 5, 2025

May 5, 2025

Eight-Lot Mulholland Estate Includes a 1950s Ranch Home. 31 Acres A sprawling canyon estate in the Beverly Hills Post Office...

Prices Spike in Brentwood, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica Amid Post-Fire Housing Rush

May 5, 2025

May 5, 2025

Displaced Families Are Reshaping Los Angeles’ Housing Market on the Westside Home sales and prices across Los Angeles surged in...

Jessica Alba’s “Dream Home” Hits the Market for $19M Amid Split from Cash Warren

May 4, 2025

May 4, 2025

After 16 Years, the Couple Parts Ways and Prepares to Sell Their Family Estate. Actress and entrepreneur Jessica Alba and...

Preliminary Hearing Begins for Driver in Malibu Crash That Claimed Four Pepperdine Students’ Lives

April 30, 2025

April 30, 2025

Defense Disputes Speed Claims in PCH Tragedy That Killed Four A Malibu man accused of speeding and crashing into a...

Visible Flames Expected as ATF Conducts Testing in Santa Monica Mountains

April 29, 2025

April 29, 2025

Los Angeles Fire Department to oversee public safety during ATF fire tests The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and...

Los Angeles Residents Accused of Defrauding FEMA After Devastating Wildfires

April 28, 2025

April 28, 2025

Defendants Faked Damage and Residency to Illegally Collect FEMA Aid Five individuals have been arrested on federal charges for allegedly...

Gene Simmons Lists Modern Beverly Hills Home for $14 Million Amid Downsizing

April 27, 2025

April 27, 2025

Kiss Rocker is Trimming His Real Estate Portfolio, Parting Ways With a Luxury Home Rock legend Gene Simmons is looking...

March Sees Another Dip in Home Sales as Inventory Grows Nationwide

April 27, 2025

April 27, 2025

Existing-Home Sales Fall, Inventory Builds as Buyers Face Higher Prices Existing-home sales across the United States declined in March, according...

Mayor Issues Emergency Order to Waive Permit Fees for Palisades Residents

April 27, 2025

April 27, 2025

City Departments Ordered to Suspend Collection of Fees for Rebuilding Mayor Karen Bass on Friday issued an Emergency Executive Order...

Representative Brad Sherman in Person at CSUN Town Hall This Weekend

April 22, 2025

April 22, 2025

Constituents of California’s 32nd District Invited to an In-Person Q&A Session U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman will hold an in-person town...

Lawsuits Allege Insurance Giants Conspired to Undercut California Fire Victims

April 21, 2025

April 21, 2025

Two Lawsuits Accuse Top Carriers of Price-Fixing and Violating Antitrust Laws Attorneys representing homeowners impacted by California’s January wildfires have...

Los Angeles City Attorney Sues Over Illegal Rentals, Wildfire Price Gouging

April 20, 2025

April 20, 2025

City Attorney Seeks Permanent Ban and Millions in Penalties for Operators City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has filed a civil...

Multi-Concept Asian Restaurant Coming to Prime Sunset Strip Corner

April 20, 2025

April 20, 2025

Round 1 Delicious Inks Lease for Asian Dining Concept in WeHo West Hollywood will be the location for a high-end...

Hollywood Legend Raquel Welch’s Former Home Changes Hands in Beverly Glen

April 20, 2025

April 20, 2025

The Late Actress’s Longtime Residence Sold for $3.1 Million More than two years after Raquel Welch’s passing, the late actress’s...