Gavin Newsom files housing lawsuit against Huntington Beach

A yearslong battle between California and Huntington Beach officials reached a climax on Thursday, as both sides unveiled they were suing one another over the state’s right to enforce housing laws on local governments in order to alleviate its crippling affordable housing crisis.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday morning announced that the state filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court alleging that Huntington Beach was unlawfully blocking housing production. It’s the second time the state has sued the coastal city in Orange County for failing to comply with California housing laws.

“Huntington Beach is ‘Exhibit A’ in what’s wrong with housing in the state of California,” Newsom said during a virtual press briefing. “They’re ‘Exhibit A’ in what NIMBYism looks like, and they are not representing the people they claim to represent.”

Hours later, Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland revealed the city filed its own federal lawsuit on Thursday challenging a daunting state mandate that the city identify enough land to accommodate the construction of thousands of new housing units.

The lawsuit argues that the state has overreached on the city’s constitutional right to make its own local land use decisions, according to Strickland. The state’s latest round of Regional Housing Needs Allocation requires Huntington Beach to zone for 13,368 units to be built inside the city limits from October 2021 through 2029.

“Their goal is just to urbanize quiet, private-property-owning communities,” Strickland said about state officials during a Thursday afternoon press briefing in front of Huntington Beach City Hall.

He called the city’s lawsuit the “first major step in taking the governor and the state to task over their faulty narratives about housing” and for “stripping charter cities of their ability to make their own decisions.”

California, Huntington Beach file dueling housing lawsuits

In the state’s lawsuit, Bonta has accused Huntington Beach of stifling affordable housing projects, infringing on the rights of property owners and knowingly violating state housing laws.

At issue is a recent decision by officials in the coastal city of Orange County to ban the construction of new accessory dwelling units and projects under Senate Bill 9, a state law that took effect at the start of 2022 allowing property owners to build additional units on land that was previously restricted to a single-family home. If left in effect, the moratorium could block the construction of up to 600 new Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), as well as an unknown number of potential SB 9 projects, according to the state.

The state has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the city from implementing the ban until the ongoing litigation has concluded.

“The laws are clear, as is Huntington Beach’s willful and intentional refusal to follow them,” Bonta said Thursday. “(City officials) have asked for this and they have earned this.”

Despite the lawsuits, Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said the city was in the process of completing its state-mandated housing plan. He also said the city had not officially implemented the ban on ADUs or projects under SB9 and that the final decision would be made later this month.

“In my view, the whole press conference today was a non-issue,” Gates said about the state’s lawsuit announcement. “It was a bunch of bluster.”

An ongoing legal battle over state housing laws

The dueling lawsuits mark the latest salvo of a yearslong back and forth between the state and Huntington Beach over the city’s rejection of state policies meant to increase access to affordable housing across California.

In January 2019, California sued Huntington Beach in the state’s first-ever lawsuit accusing a local government of ignoring a state law mandating that cities and counties identify enough properties to accommodate new residential development. The city agreed to settle the case a year later by adding an amendment to their housing plan that made it easier for developers to build multi-family housing.

Bonta in 2021 created a team within the California Department of Justice dedicated to enforcing state housing laws. Newsom has repeatedly stated that a top priority of his second term is to hold local governments accountable for reducing the state’s homeless crisis and increasing its affordable housing stock.

“At the end of the day, the state vision as it relates to housing cannot be realized anywhere else except locally,” Newsom said. “At the end of the day, we’re all in this together, and we have a responsibility to one another.”

Housing development stifled in Huntington Beach

The new round of litigation comes two days after the Huntington Beach City Council took an initial vote to limit homebuilding in the seaside town by ignoring all applications filed by developers under the so-called “builder’s remedy” provision, according to reports. Builder’s Remedy is part of a 1990 California law that allows developers to bypass local zoning restrictions in cities that fail to enact a state-approved housing plan.

If the city confirms its decision regarding builder’s remedy through a second vote on March 21, the state will update the lawsuit to fight that as well, according to Gustavo Velasquez, director of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

Velasquez, who said his department has offered to provide tools and support to help the city of Huntington Beach come into compliance, called it a “disappointing moment in California’s battle against the housing crisis.”

“Here we are using possible litigation as a last resort to ensure that Huntington Beach — like all cities and counties across the state — follow the laws that our elected officials have put in place to make it easier to pass this desperately needed housing at all income levels that will alleviate the housing crisis,” he said.

Ty Youngblood of Corona said he took out a loan and had already made considerable investments to prepare to build an ADU on his aging mother’s property in Huntington Beach when the city council announced the ban.

His family planned to move onto the property to care for his 82-year-old mother and wanted to build a separate space to ensure that she was able to keep some of her independence. Now, those plans are up in the air and Youngblood faces mounting debt as his ADU application goes unprocessed.

“It is unacceptable for the city council to disregard state law and deny us the opportunity to build an ADU,” he said Thursday. “The decision not only affects my family but also impacts the broader community’s ability to create alternative living spaces that meet their unique needs and circumstances.”

This tale was initially revealed March 9, 2023, 11:01 AM.