Some Bay Area neighborhoods that have historically resisted efforts to develop high-density housing in their enclaves now are embracing history as an end-run around a new state law that allows homeowners to build up to four residential units on a single-family lot.

A group of homeowners in one of San Mateo's wealthiest neighborhoods has filed an application with the State Historical Resources Commission for designation as an historic district, which would exempt the upscale subdivision from California's SB9 regulation.

The campaign to create a Baywood historic district in a leafy neighborhood populated by Spanish Revival-style homes with tile roofs, fruit trees and hydrangea bushes has divided the Peninsula city into two camps, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.