16 O.C. Cities Running Afoul of Housing Rules : Regulations: More than half of the county’s cities have plans that fail to comply with state standards. Environmentalists see a potent tool to halt projects.

More than half of Orange County’s 29 cities have local housing plans that fail to comply with state standards and could face legal problems such as those that barred Seal Beach this week from issuing any new residential building permits, state officials said Friday.

On Tuesday, opponents of a 329-unit development in northwest Seal Beach gained a court order preventing the city from granting permits until the city updates and adopts its state-required housing plan.

While the ruling applies only in Seal Beach, environmentalists said the legal battle highlights a potent new tool to fight developments in cities whose housing plans fail to meet state standards.

“Hopefully, this will set a trend,” said Galen Ambrose, vice president of the Wetlands Restoration Society, which filed the lawsuit against Seal Beach. “I expect all the cities now will be scrambling to adopt their new plans.”

State officials agreed that other cities could face similar challenges. “This could certainly happen to any city that has not updated their plan,” said William Murphy, assistant chief of housing policy development for the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

“Any city that ignores the regulation will be vulnerable to similar court action and to the same kind of decision,” he said.

State law requires cities every five years to update their local housing plan, known technically as the “housing element” of the city’s general plan for commercial and residential construction. In the plan, cities assess current housing and show that their officials are planning to accommodate future growth.

In Orange County, 16 cities either failed to submit housing plans by last summer’s deadline or turned in plans that did not include adequate strategies for dealing with such issues as low-income housing, said Murphy, whose department reviews the plans.

The jurisdictions with approved housing plans are Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Placentia, San Clemente and Tustin. Dana Point and Mission Viejo, plus the county. Newly incorporated cities whose housing plans are not yet due are Dana Point, Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel. Under review are plans for Orange, Huntington Beach and Irvine.

These plans must be submitted to the state according to a state-mandated timetable, although no government agency has the authority to force a city to comply with the housing requirement. Private citizens, however, can take legal action to force compliance.

“We have no authority to take action against a city for not updating their housing element,” said Travis Pitts, deputy director of the state Department of Housing and Community Development. “Private citizens can sue the city for non-compliance. That’s about the only way to enforce this law.”

Seal Beach officials say their housing plan will not be in compliance until at least late April, when the City Council hopes to adopt a new plan.

For Seal Beach resident and developer Henry A. Ericksen, 76, the ruling has hit home.

“I’ve been working eight months getting ready to apply for this permit,” said Ericksen, who sought permission to build two homes Thursday afternoon, just hours after the city stopped granting permits. “I’ve spent $30,000 so far, and now it’ll cost me $1,500 a week just to wait. I’m sitting here with bare land and 10% interest. It’s not very pleasant.”

According to Seal Beach Planning Director Lee Whittenberg, Ericksen is the only permit applicant the city has turned away so far. Officials stressed, however, that the ruling came down only this week and details of enforcement are not complete.

The city has temporarily suspended issuing new permits while awaiting a more detailed ruling on whether each kind of residential building permit would be affected.

City officials say keeping a housing plan up to date is difficult because the process requires a lot of staff time. In addition, state goals, such as making sure there is enough apartment housing for low-income residents, sometimes conflict with the sentiments of residents who oppose high-density housing.

“The growth-control sentiment is part of the problem,” Murphy said. “Everyone seems to have a NIMBY attitude (about high-density housing)--’not in my back yard.’ ”

In Fullerton, the City Council adopted a housing plan over the objections of state officials who said the plan did not include a time line showing how the city will include housing programs for low-income residents. The city decided it would be a waste of time to submit a revised plan to the state, said Joel Rosen, a Fullerton senior planner.

“We feel that we are substantively and substantially in compliance with state law, and, if challenged, we feel we could win on this issue,” Rosen said.

Holly Hamlin, associate planner for Cypress, said she is more concerned with preparing a proper housing plan than with meeting the state’s deadlines.

“The most important thing to us is we do it right, that we adopt a housing element that satisfies state law and meets the needs of the people of Cypress,” she said, adding that a consultant is working on the plan.

Officials of various county cities said they realize that operating without a current housing plan is legally questionable, but they also said some smaller cities cannot afford the expense of updating one.

“The state says, ‘Gee, we’re going to pass all these laws,’ and then they don’t say how they expect us to comply,” said Whittenberg of Seal Beach. “Small cities like Seal Beach don’t have the resources to do everything.”

Ed Knight, director of community development for Dana Point and former planning director in Seal Beach, said he is not surprised that Seal Beach was sued.

“The reason so many general plans are out of date is that it takes so much money to keep them updated,” Knight said. “There’s probably no general plan in the state of California that is adequate.”

In Stanton, Planning Manager Mike Bouvier said his city’s housing plan was neglected “because whoever was in charge at the time didn’t do it.”

“Clearly, we recognize the legal ramifications,” Bouvier said, adding that Stanton’s general plan is being rewritten. “It is just one of the risks all cities have to take.”

However, state officials said cities have had ample notice that housing plans must be submitted every five years and should be able to comply. “We’d certainly like to direct attention to this problem, because we think it’s a big one,” Murphy said. “Since there’s not direct enforcement, the enforcement of the plan depends on public attention.”

Also contributing to this story were Kathie Bozanich, Greg Hernandez, Len Hall, Danica Kirka, Lynda Natali, Lisa Mascaro, Laura Michaelis, Danny Sullivan and Leon Teeboom.

HOUSING GUIDELINES FOR O.C. CITIES

Besides Seal Beach, 15 other Orange County cities could face the same problem that hit that city this week when a judge ruled that no more building permits could be issued until the city updates its housing plan. State officials say these cities have inadequately planned for the future housing needs of residents.

Out of compliance: Housing plans inadequate or outdated:

Brea

Buena Park

Cypress

Fountain Valley

Fullerton

Garden Grove

La Habra

La Palma

Laguna Beach

Los Alamitos

San Juan Capistrano

Seal Beach

Stanton

Villa Park

Westminster

Yorba Linda

In compliance: Housing plans adopted or in approval process:

Anaheim

Costa Mesa

Newport Beach

County of Orange, unincorporated territory

Placentia

San Clemente

Santa Ana

Tustin

Housing plans not due (from new cities):

Dana Point

Laguna Niguel

Mission Viejo

Housing plans under review:

Orange

Huntington Beach

Irvine

Source: State Department of Housing and Community Development