Opinion: U.S. Supreme Court handed California a chance to lower housing costs

Thanks to a recent blockbuster U.S. Supreme Court ruling on excessive and often arbitrary local fees, reform may be on the way that could help ease California’s worsening housing crisis. But critical unanswered questions from the ruling could also lead to an unproductive morass of litigation — something state legislation could avert.

The case, Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, stems from a homeowner who had to pay $23,420 in county fees to mitigate the transportation impact from a single home he proposed to build himself.