YIMBY files lawsuit against Cupertino, claims city violated “builder’s remedy” law

Pro-housing group YIMBY Law has filed two lawsuits against Cupertino this week, claiming the city violated state laws by denying multiple housing proposals that would have added dozens of new homes.

The organization alleges that two preliminary proposals submitted under the builder’s remedy provision — Vista Heights and Schofield Drive — faced numerous roadblocks in their application process.

The builder’s remedy is a legal tool in California that allows developers to bypass local zoning and planning requirements and build larger housing projects, especially affordable ones.

The goal of the lawsuit is to compel Cupertino to process the two applications, ensuring that the city follows the California Housing Accountability Act and fulfills the minimum number of homes required by the state, according to a YIMBY press release. Cupertino must approve 4,588 new homes by 2031, with 1,880 of them designated for low-income households.

The city did not respond for a request to comment from this news organization.

California builder’s remedy housing laws state that developers have 180 days after submitting a preliminary application to submit a full application, or else it will expire. Developers have 90 days after that to resolve any missing information in their applications.

In a statement, YIMBY managing Director Gillian Pressman said Cupertino’s interpretation of the law gives developers only 90 days after the first revision request to complete any updates.

“This would allow a city to ask for more work, such as a change to a large study, just hours before the end of the 90 day period,” Pressman said. “It’s absurd and unrealistic. They’re clearly doing this to try and get out of building homes, just like they’ve been doing for decades.”

An application submitted under the “builder’s remedy” cannot be immediately denied if the city does not have a state-approved Housing Element, which is a blueprint that outlines how the city will add a certain number of homes at a range of price points in the upcoming years. Scofield and Vista Heights were submitted before Cupertino’s housing element was approved last May.

The Scofield Drive project calls for a five-story tall building with 20 housing units on a vacant residential lot near Faria Elementary School. The proposal faced backlash from neighbors last year, who said the development will cause congestion and safety issues in an already busy single-family neighborhood.

Vista Heights is a 33-home project consisting of single-family homes and seven town homes project located in the hills overlooking Linda Vista Park. The site was formerly a quarry and is currently vacant.

This isn’t the first time Cupertino’s been involved in a YIMBY lawsuit.

The organization and the California Housing Defense Fund slammed Cupertino, along with a dozen Bay Area cities, with lawsuits in 2023 over their failure to meet the state’s deadline for housing elements submissions.

The suits compelled the cities to comply with state law, and reminding them that they’re subject to the “builder’s remedy” projects. The city settled the lawsuit last year, agreeing to finalizing its housing element and clarify developer’s rights under the ‘builder’s remedy’ laws.

But cities’ interpretation of the “builder’s remedy” law has been a subject of debate. Last week in Los Gatos, the town filed a lawsuit at the Santa Clara County Superior Court for clarification regarding the application process for such projects.

Like Cupertino, Los Gatos interpreted the law to mean that there was only one 90-day period in which developers can fix any issues with their applications. California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, however stated that a developer can have successive 90-day periods to update their applications that could run indefinitely.