Huntington Beach has nowhere else to take its years-long court battle against the state’s housing requirements after the US Supreme Court declined on Monday, Feb. 23, to consider its appeal of a lower court decision.
With the high court passing on the city’s request, that leaves in place a ruling that the city violated state law and needs to update its housing plan and zone for at least 13,368 new homes this decade, including affordable options.
Attorney General Rob Bonta applauded the ruling and said he looks forward to holding the city accountable in state court, where his office has sought civil penalties of $50,000 per month against the city for delays in adopting a compliant housing element.
“Huntington Beach took its fight to the highest court in the country — and lost. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court officially declined to step in, leaving no doubt that the city must comply with our state housing laws,” Bonta said in a statement Monday. “After years of meritless resistance that has wasted taxpayer dollars, Huntington Beach can no longer claim that the U.S. Constitution is on its side. It is not.”
Governor Gavin Newsom echoed Bonta’s sentiment and called the city’s lawsuit a waste of taxpayer resources.
“City officials can’t use the First Amendment as an excuse to violate state housing law,” Newsom said. “The Huntington Beach officials who wasted taxpayer dollars on this embarrassing approach rather than doing their jobs ought to be ashamed of themselves. Huntington Beach deserves better.”
Bonta’s office first sued Huntington Beach in 2023 for violating state law by refusing to submit a compliant housing element, which maps out where and how new housing — including affordable housing — can be built. The city doesn’t have to be the builder of the new units; it just has to create an atmosphere for their potential development.
Huntington Beach was supposed to have housing plans in place by October 2021.
The city then filed a federal lawsuit against the state, alleging that, as a charter city, it is not required to abide by certain state laws. A lower court and a federal appeals court rejected that argument.
In September, a state appeals court ordered Huntington Beach to update its housing element within 120 days and allowed state regulators to impose restrictions on the city’s control over permitting and development in the meantime. The California Supreme Court in December denied the city’s appeal of the lower court order.
Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Related Articles
New bipartisan bill aims to help disabled veterans with home loan fees LA County cleans up permit dashboard tracking wildfire rebuilding HUD proposes rule that would force noncitizens from public housing Inland Empire challenge: Diversify jobs from ‘all eggs in one basket’ Irvine’s Tri Pointe Homes sold to Japanese group for $4.5 billionHence then, the article about huntington beach s state housing lawsuit appeal won t get supreme court consideration was published today ( ) and is available on The Orange County Register ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Huntington Beach’s state housing lawsuit appeal won’t get Supreme Court consideration )
Also on site :
- Canaan Inc. Acquires Cipher Mining's Interest in Multiple Operational Mining Projects Totaling ~4.4 EH/s in West Texas
- Anthropic accuses Chinese AI labs of mining Claude as US debates AI chip exports
- The best Crazy Time apps to download and play in Bangladesh