REMEMBER PACIFIC PALISADES? Newsom wouldn’t budge on his duplex ban for the Los Angeles wildfire rebuild. So, a YIMBY group is suing him.

The lawsuit, filed by YIMBY Law on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges the governor unlawfully restricted homeowners’ ability to rebuild after the fires by allowing local governments to set aside Senate Bill 9, a 2021 state law that permits duplex construction and lot-splitting on single-family-home parcels.

Newsom issued his order in July in response to lobbying from property owners in the Pacific Palisades, the coastal L.A. community that was largely destroyed in the blazes. Palisades residents argued that allowing duplexes and spitting lots into two parcels would undermine the neighborhood’s character and worsen evacuation efforts in the event of future disasters. Following the governor’s order, all the jurisdictions affected — the cities of Los Angeles, Malibu and Pasadena and L.A. County — banned SB 9 rebuilds in high-risk fire areas. The suit includes each local government as a defendant as well.

YIMBY Law, which is based in San Francisco and sues public agencies to clear the way for more housing, had agreed in discussions with high-level Newsom staffers late last week not to file its suit if the governor allowed duplex construction again after a year, the group’s executive director Sonja Trauss told POLITICO.

When Newsom did not act, the group turned to the courts.

They f***** up — they trusted Newsom.