Controversial builder's remedy could get a makeover
It's a hardball negotiating tactic, but no project has broken ground as a result
For the past two years, the builder’s remedy has been the unruly teenager of California housing laws.
Running roughshod over zoning regulations while sowing angst among local elected officials, the law lets developers build as much as they like, wherever they like, in cities and counties that have blown past deadlines to get their housing development blueprints certified by state regulators.
Despite its use as a hardball negotiating tactic by aggressive developers, no project has broken ground, much less finished, as a result of the builder’s remedy. That’s partially because relatively few developers are willing to make use of the confusingly worded law for lack of legal certainty.
Now some of California’s most powerful Democratic lawmakers are pushing legislation that would clear up, but also rein in, the state’s most controversial housing statute. Nearly a year and a half since a developer first used the law to propose a zoning code-blowing project, 2024 may be the year that the builder’s remedy grows up.
“The builder’s remedy has sort of lived in the Twitterverse, but actually making it a clear law, so that everyone is following the same rules of engagement and we know what the rules are … (that) is really what we’re aiming to do here,” said Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, a Berkeley Democrat who chairs the Assembly appropriations committee and who authored AB 1893, which she said would “modernize” the law.
The proposed overhaul, outlined in a newly amended draft of the bill published Tuesday, includes new perks for developers, textual edits to clear up how the law would apply and a new streamlining provision that would let developers bypass environmental review and public hearing requirements as long as they pay their workers union-level wages and meet basic environmental requirements.
But the bill also would put a cap on how big builder’s remedy projects can be, while prohibiting its use in industrial zoned areas. That’s a break from current law, in which the sky — and the California Building Code — is the limit.
“We tried to land this bill in a place where it is a stick
lucia, which has 118 units with studios and one- and two-bedroom layouts.
Two other buildings— Easton, a nine-unit condo building, and Catalonia, an 81-apartment complex with some affordable units—are being built across the street from Brantwood, the developer’s only active adult lifestyle community.
Architecturally, Brantwood blends with the surrounding 1920s Mediterranean-style buildings, as if it has been a part of the area for generations.
Ornate wrought-iron gates open to a Mediterranean-style courtyard anchored by a tiered fountain and landscaped with olive trees and camellias. Wallmounted sculptures, or reliefs, adorn the facade that leads to the entrance of the building.
Behind the towering, wood-carved doors, an expansive, light-filled great room comes into view. It has a high, wood-beamed ceiling, Saltillo-tiled floors, and California plein-air art on the walls—San Gabriel River, Pebble Beach, mountain meadows, and desertscapes. Half of the artists lived in Pasadena and the surrounding area.
“My wife and I are interested in the interface of the art trends in Europe at the end of the 19th century and in California at the beginning of the 20th century,” McCormick said, standing in the great room of the building that borrows its name from the estate where John Ruskin, a Victorian-era British art critic and prominent figure of the Arts and Crafts Movement, retired in Cumbria, England.
William Morris, a British textile designer who shared Ruskin’s passion for the movement, also inspired Brantwood, as seen in the apartment-level elevator landings, which feature different Morris wallpaper designs.
A botanical Morris tapestry hangs off the great room, which features an oversized wet bar.
Designated gathering areas are comfortably furnished for dining or relaxing by the fire of a large antique stone fireplace imported from France.
Residents have access to these and other common areas, including the library, which has sage Farrow and Ball green walls, built-in shelves, a salvaged European fireplace and French doors that open onto the front courtyard.
There are a gym off the rear courtyard and a rooftop garden.
The rooftop garden has a brick patio, brick-lined walkways over crushed granite, and raised planting beds with rows of lavender and rosemary, artichokes, fragrant camellia, grapevines, and fruiting citrus trees. It provides sweeping 360-degree views of the San Gabriel Mountains, Pasadena
City Hall, the Prayer Garden at Fuller Theological Seminary, San Rafael Hills, and beyond.
Views also abound from the unfurnished apartments. Units on the second level feature patios, and those on levels three, four and five have small balconies that can accommodate a small bistro table and chairs.
The two-bedroom, 1,235-square-foot apartment model that Ashworth and Darling showed has two balconies off the main living room, which opens to a dining area and a whitetiled kitchen with a center island.
“There’s one floor plan with a completely separate kitchen,but they’re all fairly open,” Ashworth said between showings. “And if any of these need to be adapted for the ADA, they could be.”
Doors off the main living space to an in-unit washer and dryer.
Each of the airy bedrooms boasts window views, roomy walk-in closets and spacious bathrooms. One has a tub shower, and the other has a walk-in shower.
The rent is $8,250 monthly and includes 24hour security, housekeeping, technical support, concierge services, fitness classes and a chef-prepared Mediterranean-style meal daily.
As developer McCormick puts it, “This is a place to downsize and live an urban life in a communitylike setting.”