We joined this brief in support of the California Building Industry Association’s request for the Supreme Court to accept review of the California Supreme Court’s decision. There, the California Supreme Court upheld the City of San Jose’s Inclusionary Zoning ordinance that required home builders to sell a certain percentage of their newly-built homes at below market value. Our shared position is that this is an unconstitutional exaction, prohibited under the Constitution’s Takings Clause.
We believe that this issue has great relevance in Nashville and throughout the state with the growing emphasis on “affordable housing,” a major issue in the Nashville mayoral race. Nashville is expected to add 1 million people over the next twenty years. The cost of housing has skyrocketed in many neighborhoods. The City Council voted to draft mandatory inclusion zoning proposal, currently in the works, that, like the San Jose law, would require a certain percentage of newly built homes be priced as affordable. Unconstitutional inclusionary zoning laws are sure to be an issue in the very near future for all Tennesseans, and the Beacon Center intends on insisting that any municipalities stay within constitutional parameters and respect the property rights of Tennesseans.