LA Uses Its Own Utility to Dodge State Housing Law
LA figured out a cheat code: use the publicly owned utility to deny water and power to fully built buildings, spike development risk, and quietly kill projects that state housing law was supposed to protect.
Not blocking permits. Not fighting in court. Just... no power. For months. For years.
SB79 is going to run straight into this wall.
Unfortunately the alternative in LA is a dysfunctional public utility company that is LADWP. It's so bad here that housing developers have red-lined LA because DWP can't even connect bldgs to the grid, leaving many fully constructed bldgs that just sit waiting for power for many months, and even years on end.
LA is weaponizing its dysfunctional public utility as a back-channel veto on housing development, creating a loophole that could gut state-level housing reform before it even lands.
Source
x.com