New Version of Villages Uses State Law to Build 790 Units with 20% Affordable

The Ratkovich Company, a Los Angeles-based real estate development company with a more than forty-year successful track record of creating residential and commercial communities that improve the quality of urban life, intends to use the “builder’s remedy” provision under California state law to secure permits and begin construction on the 790-unit Villages at The Alhambra. This adds hundreds of much-needed homes that the City of Alhambra is required to provide based on state law. The 790-unit project includes 158 affordable housing units at the low-income level, which is significantly more affordable housing than Alhambra mandates under its own zoning.

The City of Alhambra has been unable to meet its mandates under California housing laws, permitting just 532 out of the 1,492 units it was required to permit under the 5th Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) cycle, which lasted from 2013 to 2021— and just seven of the 850 very-low, low-, and moderate-income units mandated. Alhambra is still seeking approval of its housing element that complies with state law, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

Under California law, jurisdictions without compliant housing elements like Alhambra cannot deny certain types of residential projects that include a set level of affordable housing, which is known as the builder’s remedy.

“Alhambra’s anti-housing policies are evidenced by the fact that the City permitted only 35% of the housing units (and essentially none for people with very-low, low, or moderate incomes) required between 2013 and 2021. What is even more troubling is that over this same period, median home prices in Alhambra have skyrocketed to nearly $840,000,” said Brian Saenger, President and CEO of The Ratkovich Company.

“The Villages at Alhambra project is a win-win-win that provides affordable homes for families, economic opportunities for businesses and a blueprint for the city of Alhambra to build housing accountability. It's not just a legal requirement for California cities to meet housing goals amid the state's affordability crisis and worsening homelessness. Local leaders have a moral obligation to support projects that put roofs over more heads,” said Tracy Hernandez, Founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, widely known as BizFed.