Judge Rejects Lennar's Lawsuit Against La Habra Over Golf Course Redevelopment

A Superior Court judge has sided with the city of La Habra in a decision that would prevent homebuilder Lennar from constructing 450 new residences on a 151-acre golf course.

There may still be a glimmer of hope for the project, The Real Deal reported. 

The ruling came in the $100M lawsuit that Lennar filed in 2021 against La Habra for denying its project, planned for the Westridge Golf Course. Lennar sued to reverse the city's 2020 rejection of the development. It also petitioned the court to overturn a city ballot measure passed in November 2020, Measure X, that bans development of open space without voter approval, which the court also denied, TRD reported. 

But there's still a chance for Lennar, as the homebuilder filed an application for the project under what's called the builder's remedy in January, while the city's housing element was out of compliance with the state's Department of Housing and Community Development. This version of the project would have 530 homes, not 450 as previously planned.

The builders remedy allows developers to get an essentially rubber-stamped project approval in jurisdictions where housing elements are out of compliance, as long as the proposed projects include a certain amount of income-restricted affordable housing and meet environmental standards.  

In May, Santa Monica, where developers filed plans for about a dozen projects with around 4,000 units before the state approved the city's housing plans, struck a deal with the developer of most of those units rather than allow legal challenges the two parties had mounted play out in court.