LOS ANGELES—Four Southern California cities, led by Redondo Beach, have filed a legal challenge to Senate Bill (SB) 9, a state law that permits single-family lots to be divided for development of two to four houses. The Los Angeles Superior Court petition was brought Tuesday against Attorney General Rob Bonta by the cities of Redondo Beach, Torrance, Carson, and Whittier, whose leaders want a court order finding the law in violation of the state constitution along with a prohibition on its enforcement. A representative for the Attorney General’s Office could not be immediately reached. “It is undisputed that planning and zoning laws are matters of municipal affairs,” the petition states. “The constitutional right of municipalities to zone single-family residential districts and the sanctioning principle upon which that right is founded has been well settled law for almost 100 years.” By enacting SB 9, the state “eviscerated a city’s local control …