State officials approved Huntington Beach’s new housing plan, setting the stage to dismiss California’s first lawsuit against a city for failing to plan enough low-income housing.
The Housing and Community Development Department’s decision, announced Tuesday, March 24, comes seven weeks after the Huntington Beach City Council narrowly approved revisions to its housing plan. The changes add zoning for at least 413 new affordable units to the city’s northeast area — enough to meet state requirements that cities plan and zone for housing at all income levels.
Huntington Beach’s new plan also provides “by right” approval of high-density housing projects so long as 20% of the units are reserved for low-income residents — meaning the projects could go forward without a public hearing.
“HCD has agreed to simply dismiss the case since it was mooted by council action,” City Attorney Micael Gates said in an email.
The city’s vote on Feb. 3 to revise its so-called “housing element” reverses a five-year stance opposing state minimum housing mandates. In 2015, the city voted to limit apartment construction in its northeast area, drastically cutting the number of affordable housing units in the process.
As a charter city, Huntington Beach leaders maintained, the municipality has greater autonomy over land use and zoning.
State housing officials disagreed and revoked certification of Huntington Beach’s housing element. The city had a 413-unit shortfall of affordable homes, state officials found.
At the urging of Gov. Gavin Newsom, the state sued Huntington Beach in January 2019, acting under a new law allowing the state to take cities to court if they didn’t have an approved housing plan.
The city changed course last fall and took steps to gain recertification after it became clear the town was missing out on thousands of dollars in state and local grants conditioned on having a state-approved housing plan.
Specifically, the city is hoping recertification will allow it to get a $481,000 state grant from revenue raised under “Senate Bill 2,” which imposed a $75 fee on all real estate documents recorded in a county. The money is needed to build a new “navigation center“ to treat and house the homeless.
Without the new center, Councilmember Mike Posey said, police won’t be able to enforce the city’s anti-campaign ordinance.
In addition, not having a certified plan likely cost the city $625,000 in “SB 2” money last year, as well as numerous other grants for things like park development and funding from a new Orange County housing trust fund, Posey and city staff said.
“What certifying a housing element will do is ensure that we keep … (some local) tax dollars so we can address our homelessness issues,” Posey said.
Getting the city’s plan in order also paves the way for the state to dismiss its lawsuit. The state housing department said it intends to file a stipulated dismissal.
“The whole reason for the lawsuit was they were out of compliance,” said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the state Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, which oversees the state housing department.
Huntington Beach was one of 47 local jurisdictions out-of-compliance with state housing law in 2019, prompting Newsom to threaten additional lawsuits. But 22 since got their housing plans approved, the housing department said.
While supporters said revising Huntington Beach’s housing plan was the pragmatic thing to do, some city officials remained defiant.
The city shouldn’t “just roll over,” Mayor Lyn Semeta added during the Feb. 3 council meeting.
“The whole impetus behind this are these legislative mandates coming down from Sacramento to try to take away all of our local control,” Semeta said. “We need to keep fighting it.”
"plan" - Google News
March 28, 2020 at 07:41AM
https://ift.tt/2UKJzKr
State approves revised Surf City housing plan - OCRegister
"plan" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2un5VYV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "State approves revised Surf City housing plan - OCRegister"
Post a Comment