letter<\/a> to the state bar association, arguing that she engaged in political advocacy, not legal representation. They were surprised the complaint even passed through the association\u2019s initial screening process, when few do.\u200b<\/p>\n\u200b\u201dEven under the narrowest view of the First Amendment\u2019s protections, the state cannot demand a law license of people who want to write letters telling government officials to change their ways or to vote one way or another on contentious issues,\u201d IJ lawyers wrote.\u200b<\/p>\n
YIMBY Law has used public records requests, warning letters and lawsuits to pressure local officials across California to follow state mandates.\u200b<\/p>\n
Mehr represented the property owners who sold one of three lots under review to a developer, who then sought to build 14 townhouses and two accessory dwelling units. Despite heavy neighborhood opposition, the city council declined to remove the sites, citing state housing laws that limit downzoning.\u200b<\/p>\n
Mehr represented her clients again when the city\u2019s housing plan went to the California Coastal Commission for final approval. She argued the higher density violated local coastal rules favoring single-family homes. The commission still approved the city\u2019s plan.\u200b<\/p>\n
Lessons learned\u200b<\/p>\n
The quick dismissal should discourage similar procedural tactics against residents who challenge cities on housing compliance.\u200b<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitical advocacy is as American as apple pie,\u201d said Sonja Trauss. \u201cThis is an important win for the right to express political opinions, the right to talk about what we think the law requires, and is something all Californians will benefit from.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n
Still, NIMBY forces have shown an unrelenting willingness to take fights to all corners. The episode warns that NIMBY forces may keep testing novel ways to undercut upzoning campaigns.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempt to disqualify a California \u201cyes in my backyard\u201d advocacy group has failed, quickly putting to rest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29736,7,9,8,33132,11853],"class_list":["post-173703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-affordability","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-housing-policy","tag-residential-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}