Lawsuits’ end could spur other California cities to try rent control .

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Grassroots efforts to establish rent control in more California cities could get a boost from the California Apartment Association’s decision to abandon its lawsuits seeking to overturn voter-approved rent-control laws in Richmond and Mountain View.

The association, which represents landlords, posted on its website late Friday that it has “suspended its legal efforts” to overturn Measure V in Mountain View and Measure L in Richmond.

“I hope it emboldens other communities to not be chilled by threats of lawsuits,” said Juliet Brodie, a Stanford Law School professor who helped draft Measure V.

Judges in Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties had previously ruled against the association’s motions for preliminary injunctions seeking to halt implementation of the measures approved by each city’s voters in November. A full hearing on the merits of the case in Richmond had been scheduled for May 24; that is now canceled.

The association claimed, and still believes, that the laws constitute illegal takings under federal and state constitutions, but “made a business decision that we were going to focus our anti-rent-control efforts other places,” its chief executive, Tom Bannon, said.

That includes trying to nip other grassroots efforts in the bud and “monitoring to make sure that regulations” implementing the Richmond and Mountain View measures are legal, Bannon said.

Rent control means less housing supply. It's just that simple.