Huntington Beach deserves to be sued.
California has a crippling housing crisis that has driven up house prices and rents, fueling homelessness and driving residents and businesses out of the state. And yet somehow the city’s leaders feel that their wealthy enclave on the Orange County coast should be exempt from producing their fair share of homes.
Of course, the city should not be exempt from this. It’s good news that Governor Gavin Newsom and Atty. General Rob Bonta sued Huntington Beach for violating the state’s housing laws. The lawsuit should be a warning to other communities: California is cracking down on cities that try to get around new laws aimed at boosting housing.
Huntington Beach and other cities bitterly complain that state lawmakers are flouting their local control. In fact, the state has passed ambitious new laws that, among other things, require cities to approve backyard and semi-detached homes in single-family neighborhoods and create enforceable plans that specify where new market-leading and affordable housing can be built.
However, these laws were not passed for nothing: cities did not build homes. For decades, elected local leaders have weighed in on Not In My Backyard demands to block or restrict homes to prevent traffic or protect the neighborhood’s character. As a result, the state has not built enough housing to keep up with population growth.
To alleviate the shortage and lower prices, California needs an extra copy 2.5 million homes by 2030. But the state only builds about 125,000 units a year. All cities should make it easier to build more houses. Even Huntington Beach.
Despite numerous warnings from state officials, the Huntington Beach City Council recently voted to deny applications to build secondary housing units or duplexes in single-family communities, banning projects that are legal under state law.
The board also plans to ignore applications filed under the Builder’s Remedy, a provision of the state law that says homebuilders can ignore local zoning laws and in cities that have failed to create a housing plan that meets the requirements of the government, can propose whatever they want. Builders repairing projects only need to ensure that 20% of the units are affordable. Huntington Beach has – no surprise – no compliant housing plan.
Hours after Newsom and Bonta’s announcement, Huntington Beach filed its announcement own lawsuit in federal court against the state’s demand that the city make room for more than 13,000 new housing units in the coming years. The lawsuit accused the state of participating in an “unbridled power play” to turn Huntington Beach into a “high-density mecca.”
Beach town leaders seem more interested in preserving an idealized vision of the suburbs than helping people who live and work in Huntington Beach want more housing options. People like Ty Youngblood, who planned to build an extra unit in his 80-year-old mother’s home so that his family could live with her and take care of her. After paying for engineering and architectural plans, Youngblood said his project is now stalled.
While Huntington Beach has been the most open opponent of enforcing the state’s housing laws, there are other glaring examples of cities trying to get around their obligations. Officials in Sausalito have proposed adding new housing places that are under water. Woodside leaders notoriously tried to designate the Tony Bay Area community as a mountain lion sanctuary. Stop duplex developments. And in La Cañada Flintridge, a pastor agreed to list her church as an “imaginary” website where affordable housing could be built so the city could claim that its housing plan complied with state regulations.
California’s housing crisis is too bad to tolerate disability. So, Newsom and Bonta, continue the righteous fight against NIMBY cities.
Source: LA Times
Roger Stone is an author and opinion journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He is known for his controversial and thought-provoking views on a variety of topics, and has a talent for engaging readers with his writing.
