10 Cities Fail to Meet Housing Standards

Ten of Orange County’s 29 cities have housing plans that fail to comply with state standards, according to state officials.

State law requires cities to update their local housing plan--or the housing element of the city’s general plan for commercial and residential construction--every five years.

In the plan, cities assess current housing and detail plans to accommodate future growth.

These plans must be submitted to the state Department of Housing and Community Development under a state-mandated timetable, but no government agency has the authority to force a city to comply with the requirement. Private citizens can take legal action to force compliance, but several recent challenges have proved unsuccessful.

Cities which fail to submit housing plans on time or turn in plans that do not include adequate strategies for dealing with such issues as low-income housing are deemed out of compliance.

The Orange County cities that failed to meet the standards are Brea, Buena Park, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, La Palma, Mission Viejo, Seal Beach, Villa Park, Westminster and Yorba Linda, according to the Department of Housing and Community Development. Newly incorporated cities whose housing plans are not yet due are Dana Point and Laguna Niguel.

Officials in several of those cities disagreed with the findings and said they comply with state standards.

“If there was a legal challenge, we feel we’d prevail,” said Westminster Public Works Director Don Vestal.

Fullerton officials also disagree with the state, which found the city to be out of compliance partly for failing to include a time line showing how the city plans to implement housing programs for low-income residents.

“As far as we’re concerned, we don’t plan to take any further action,” said Joel Rosen, a Fullerton senior planner. “We’re proceeding with the implementation of our programs. We feel that it’s more important to implement programs than bicker about planning terminology.”

Earlier this year, Seal Beach faced a legal challenge to its housing plan from opponents of a 329-unit housing development. Though a Superior Court commissioner overturned the city’s approval of the development on the basis of a faulty housing plan, a new city council rejected the development. Earlier this month, the court commissioner reviewed a new housing plan and found it valid.

The state has yet to give its stamp of approval to Seal Beach’s housing plan.

The same attorney who represented residents in the Seal Beach case, Jonathon Lehrer-Graiwer, also is handling a suit by Huntington Beach residents based on the claim that the housing plan was outdated when a development was approved.

The most recent court challenge failed. On Friday, a Superior Court judge dismissed a suit against Anaheim’s redevelopment plan because the two residents who filed it had not participated in public forums to discuss opposition to the city’s redevelopment plans.

Anaheim is one of nine jurisdictions in the county listed as in compliance as of Sept. 30.

The others are Costa Mesa, Irvine, Newport Beach, Placentia, San Clemente, Santa Ana and Tustin, and the county as a whole. Under review are plans for Cypress, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Laguna Beach, Los Alamitos, Orange, San Juan Capistrano and Stanton.