Build affordable housing, pay a price
San Luis Obispo has a housing problem.Anyone who’s tried to rent or buy there lately already knows it.The central California college town consistently ranks among the most expensive housing markets in the country.
It prices out young professionals, young families, and anyone who didn’t plant roots there years ago.Something has to change.So when three longtime friends decided to be part of the solution, you’d think the city would have thrown open its arms.John Ruda, a chiropractor, Rami Zarnegar, an ophthalmologist, and Jordan Knauer, a real estate agent, pooled their resources and their can-do spirit to purchase a run-down, uninhabitable property on Johnson Avenue.
They tore it down, subdivided the lot, and built four new homes, each with an attached accessory dwelling unit.Where there had been zero livable homes, there were now eight.
That’s exactly the kind of private initiative cities say they want.What they got instead was a bill for nearly $100,000.Under San Luis Obispo’s “Inclusionary Housing Policy,” the city informed Ruda, Zarnegar, and Knauer that they had to either pay $98,900 into the city’s affordable housing fund, or deed-restrict one of their newly built homes and get rid of it in a compelled sale.California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!Each home cost roughly $1,325,000 to build.Facing that choice, the three friends paid the fee under protest in September 2024 and kept building.
Later, they asked for a refund.The city said no.Now they’re suing, and I’m their counsel.
The case is worth following closely.The legal argument at the heart of their lawsuit isn’t complicated.The U.S.
Supreme Court has long held that when the government requires people to give up money ...