Beverly Hills is fighting legal challenges on two fronts: its ban on short-term rentals and its handling of Builder's Remedy housing projects on Wilshire Boulevard.
The City Council discussed both issues in a closed session Tuesday, Sept. 1 at City Hall. The agenda listed two new litigation threats and four existing lawsuits tied to proposed high-rise developments.
The city disclosed it received correspondence threatening lawsuits over its short-term rental ordinance and its SB 79 Transit-Oriented Development Alternative Plan. The agenda did not identify who sent the letters. Copies are available through the City Clerk's office.
One day earlier, on Monday, Aug. 31, the Beverly Hills Vacation Rental Alliance filed a federal civil complaint in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Bloomberg Law reported. The group alleges the city's blanket ban on residential leases shorter than 12 months violates homeowners' due process, privacy and equal protection rights and amounts to a government taking under the Fifth Amendment.
The council voted 4-1 in July 2025 to advance the ban. Vice Mayor John Mirisch cast the lone dissenting vote. The city adopted Ordinance No. 25-O-2918 in August 2025. The council also decided Aug. 11 not to temporarily lift the ban for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The SB 79 plan, which the council unanimously approved June 9, shifts higher-density housing away from single-family neighborhoods near transit stops and into mixed-use corridors within a half-mile radius, Beverly Press reported. The identity of the party threatening to sue over the plan has not been disclosed.
Wilshire Boulevard Builder's Remedy cases
Four lawsuits over proposed 19-story towers at 8800 and 8820 Wilshire Blvd. also appeared on the Tuesday, Sept. 1 agenda. The developer, 8800 Wilshire Associates and 8820 Wilshire Associates, and the California Housing Defense Fund each filed suits in Los Angeles Superior Court. All four cases challenge the city's decision that the Builder's Remedy applications for both sites were forfeited because of changes to the projects' square footage.
Beverly Hills received 16 Builder's Remedy applications before the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) certified the city's housing plan on May 1, 2024, closing the window for new applications. At least six developers had filed lawsuits against the city as of August 2025, according to the Beverly Hills Courier.
The city's legal position on Builder's Remedy projects has been tested repeatedly. At a July 21 council meeting, Mayor Craig Corman said the city had little room to block state-mandated housing, Beverly Press reported. "If there was a legal ground to deny this, believe me I would take it," Corman said as the council considered a separate Builder's Remedy project at 232 Tower Drive. The council voted 4-0 to uphold that project.
City Attorney Laurence Wiener said in August 2025 that the city believed it had "legitimate, good faith arguments" that certain developments lost their Builder's Remedy privileges, but acknowledged the state had shifted zoning authority away from cities.
Closed session discussions are confidential under the Brown Act. No outcomes from the Tuesday, Sept. 1 session have been publicly reported. The agenda and litigation correspondence are available through the City Clerk's office at City Hall, 455 North Rexford Drive.
