A federal judge has dismissed Huntington Beach’s lawsuit against the state over housing mandates, a loss for local leaders who are fighting the state’s demands for the city to plan more housing.
Judge Fred W. Slaughter granted the motions to dismiss the case filed by the state and the Southern California Association of Governments. Attorney General Rob Bonta, in a statement, celebrated the judge’s decision.
“We filed a motion to dismiss Huntington Beach’s federal lawsuit because we believed it was meritless. We are pleased that the court agreed,” Bonta said. “With this behind us, we look forward to prosecuting our state case against Huntington Beach. Everyone must do their part to address California’s housing crisis.”
In March, the state filed its lawsuit against Huntington Beach accusing it of knowingly violating state housing laws. Hours after top state officials announced the lawsuit, the city sued the state in federal court, arguing that because Huntington Beach is a charter city it wasn’t subject to state housing allocation laws.
The court ruling comes days after the state’s case in Superior Court was put on pause until the federal case was decided.
California for decades has required local communities to plan for housing at a variety of price points, including at affordable levels, to meet future needs and cities have been given allocations to help meet the demand. In recent years, the legislature has given the process more teeth.
The state wants Huntington Beach to adopt zoning that would allow developers to build 13,368 new housing units over the next eight years, almost 6,000 of which must be low- or very-low-income housing.
City Attorney Michael Gates said the city will appeal the new decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He called the ruling “surprisingly light.”
“The city’s lawsuit is compelling and should be given a full, proper analysis under the law,” Gates said in a statement.
Slaughter ruled that Huntington Beach lacked standing to bring federal constitutional claims challenging state housing allocation laws. Slaughter also wrote that the City Council’s personal objections to state housing mandates were insufficient to have standing.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development in 2019 allocated 1.3 million new housing units to cities in the six-county region of the Southern California Association of Governments for the current planning cycle. SCAG denied an appeal from Huntington Beach in 2021 over its allocation of 13,368 housing units.
The City Council has not adopted a compliant housing element that establishes zoning to meet that allocation.
Gates previously said the state wouldn’t be able to issue any penalties against Huntington Beach over not having a housing element in place until the federal case was finished, including any appeals.