Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)

Citation: Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)
Parent Document: Cal. Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 2025-12-18
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10761039/cal-apartment-assn-v-city-of-pasadena/ ↗

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housing requirement and thus encompassed by its preemption.
(Id. at pp. 1411-1412.)
       The relocation assistance requirement under section
1806(b)(C) operates similarly to the in lieu fee in Palmer/Sixth.
Like the ordinance in Palmer/Sixth, the relocation assistance
requirement financially penalizes landlords for exercising their
rights under the Costa-Hawkins Act. Even if imposing an
obligation to pay relocation assistance is not a direct restriction
on a landlord’s ability to set the rent, the money a landlord must
pay in relocation assistance reduces the amount of income the
landlord receives from the rental property. The Costa-Hawkins
Act was meant to rein in rent control by allowing landlords to
raise the rents on exempt units to their fair market value. (NCR
Properties, supra, 89 Cal.App.5th at p. 47; Apartment Assn. of Los
Angeles County, supra, 173 Cal.App.4th at p. 30.) The relocation
assistance requirement counteracts that purpose by protecting
tenants, at landlords’ expense, from the free market. However
worthy and laudable that goal of Measure H is, state law
provides for a different purpose. (See Coyne, supra,
9 Cal.App.5th at p. 1231 [“A property owner’s lawful decision to
withdraw from the rental market may not be frustrated by
burdensome monetary exactions from the owners to fund the
City’s policy goals.”].) Because its effect is to frustrate the
purpose of the Costa-Hawkins Act, section 1806(b)(C) is
preempted. (See Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. County of Monterey,
supra, 70 Cal.App.5th at p. 172 [local regulation cannot frustrate
purpose of state law]; accord, Great Western Shows, Inc. v. County
of Los Angeles, supra, 27 Cal.4th at p. 868; AIDS Healthcare
Foundation, supra, 101 Cal.App.5th at p. 88.)

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