{"id":158627,"date":"2023-04-10T17:11:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T00:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=158627"},"modified":"2023-04-10T17:11:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T00:11:03","slug":"california-sues-huntington-beach-for-violating-state-housing-element-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=158627","title":{"rendered":"California Sues Huntington Beach for Violating State Housing Element Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) today filed a motion to amend the state\u2019s lawsuit against Huntington Beach in order to hold the City accountable for violating the state Housing Element Law. California originally\u00a0filed the lawsuit on March 8<\/a>, arguing that the city\u2019s ban on the processing of SB 9 and Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) applications violated state housing laws and must be struck down. As a result of the state\u2019s lawsuit, the Huntington Beach City Council reversed course and voted on March 21 to resume processing SB 9 and ADU project applications. However, at a meeting on April 4, the City Council once again violated state housing law by failing to adopt a housing element that is 16 months overdue \u2013 a decision that jeopardizes critical affordable housing opportunities for Huntington Beach residents.<\/p>\n

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Today, the state submitted an amended complaint in People of California v. City of Huntington Beach, arguing that the city is in violation of the state Housing Element Law, and seeking both penalties and injunctive relief. The state also intends to seek temporary relief against the city as authorized by statute, including, among other things, the suspension of the city\u2019s permitting authority and mandating the approval of certain residential projects until the city comes into compliance with the law. Although the state is no longer seeking a preliminary injunction due to the city\u2019s about-face on SB 9 and ADU applications, the amended complaint does also seek a declaration from the court that the city\u2019s previous ban on SB 9 and ADU applications was unlawful and may not be reinstated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuntington Beach continues to fail its residents,\u201d\u00a0said Governor Newsom<\/strong>. \u201cEvery city and county needs to do their part to bring down the high housing and rent costs that are impacting families across this state. California will continue taking every step necessary to ensure everyone is building their fair share of housing and not flouting state housing laws at the expense of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia is in the midst of a housing crisis, and time and time again, Huntington Beach has demonstrated they are part of the problem by defiantly refusing every opportunity to provide essential housing for its own residents,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Bonta<\/strong>. \u201cThe City\u2019s refusal last week to adopt a housing element in accordance with state law is just the latest in a string of willfully illegal actions by the city \u2013\u00a0decisions that worsen our housing crisis and harm taxpayers and Huntington Beach residents. We won\u2019t stand idly by as Huntington Beach continues to flagrantly violate state housing laws designed to bring crucial affordable housing opportunities to our communities. We\u2019ll use every legal tool available to hold the city accountable and enforce state housing laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore housing is the path to ending and reducing homelessness but Huntington Beach continues to brazenly violate state housing laws\u2013wasting valuable time and tax-payer money instead of working on solutions,\u201d\u00a0said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez<\/strong>. \u201cHCD is committed to ensuring every city and county follows state housing laws and fulfills their commitment to building housing for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

State law requires local governments to include housing elements in their general plans. A housing element must include, among other things, an assessment of housing needs, an inventory of resources and constraints relevant to meeting those needs, and a program to implement the policies, goals, and objectives of the housing element. The housing element is a crucial tool for building housing for moderate-, low-, and very low-income Californians. Huntington Beach has been out of compliance on its housing element since October 15, 2021, and last week in a 4-3 vote the City Council once again refused to adopt a draft housing element prepared by the city\u2019s own staff. As a result, the state is seeking injunctive relief and penalties against the city for their ongoing failure to comply with state housing law.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, under California\u2019s Housing Accountability Act, cities that do not have a compliant housing element are subject to the so-called \u201cBuilder\u2019s Remedy,\u201d which allows project developers to submit housing projects with deed-restricted 20% low-income or 100% moderate-income without regard to local zoning and general plan standards. Under the Builder\u2019s Remedy provision, localities must approve these low- and moderate-income projects as long as they conform with objective building and design standards and comply with California Environmental Quality Act and the Coastal Act. These laws allow localities to address any specific, legitimate environmental or health and safety concerns on a project-by-project basis. As Huntington Beach remains non-compliant with the state Housing Element Law, the Builder\u2019s Remedy is in effect, and the city must approve Builder\u2019s Remedy projects that meet the legal criteria.<\/p>\n

The city previously attempted to skirt the Builder\u2019s Remedy by proposing an ordinance to ban\u00a0 Builder\u2019s Remedy projects. On February 13, HCD and the Attorney General\u00a0warned the city\u2019s planning commission<\/a>\u00a0that the proposed ordinance would violate state law. Attorney General Bonta and HCD continue to closely monitor the progress of the proposed ordinance, as well as the city\u2019s actions on any Builder\u2019s Remedy project applications submitted to the city, and stand ready to take legal action if necessary.<\/p>\n

A copy of the motion and of the amended\u00a0complaint filed today, which is subject to court approval,\u00a0are available\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State leaders stand united in their commitment to defending and increasing access to affordable housing in California. In 2021, Attorney General Bonta announced the\u00a0creation of a Housing Strike Force<\/a>\u00a0within the California Department of Justice aimed at advancing housing access across the state. The same year, Governor Newsom launched a\u00a0Housing Accountability Unit<\/a>\u00a0to increase stringent enforcement and oversight at the local level to create more housing, faster across California. Members of the public are encouraged to visit the California Department of Justice\u2019s\u00a0Housing Portal<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0HCD\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0for more resources and information aimed at supporting access to housing.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sacramento, CA…Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) today filed a motion to amend the state\u2019s lawsuit against Huntington Beach in order to hold the City accountable for violating the state Housing Element Law. California originally\u00a0filed the lawsuit on March 8, arguing that the city\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/CaGov-seal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158628,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158627\/revisions\/158628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}