Clients obtain writ of mandate against City of Huntington Beach

Client(s) Veterans and Kennedy Commission

Jones Day obtained a writ of mandate against the City of Huntington Beach. The writ requires the City to cease enforcing an unlawful amendment to a housing specific plan which had previously blocked the development of affordable housing within the City. After meeting with our clients, two formerly homeless veterans and the Kennedy Commission (a non-profit dedicated to advocating for affordable housing in Orange County), the Jones Day team, along with co-counsel (the Public Law Center and the California Affordable Housing Law Project) filed a petition challenging the amendment on July 31, 2015. After the case was transferred to Los Angeles Superior Court from Orange County Superior, the team argued for, and obtained, an expedited hearing and briefing schedule. After briefing was completed, the team successfully opposed an Ex Parte Application to Intervene, filed just three days before the scheduled hearing on the merits, by a prominent Southern California car dealership. The dealership hoped to intervene to allege that voiding the amendment would lead to the "ghettoization" of the neighborhood. On November 12, 2015, the Court granted petitioners’ request and declared the amendment void.