First it was Huntington Beach, now another O.C. city is in the state’s crosshairs over housing
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Much ink has been spilled the past few years over Huntington Beach’s defiant stance against the state mandate known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, which requires cities to plan for a specific number of houses for all income levels to be built within a certain time frame.
Huntington Beach and the state of California were locked in dueling lawsuits. Then came a judge’s recent ruling that Surf City owed $160,000 in penalties and would be fined $50,000 a month until it came into compliance with its RHNA planning. On June 16, a reluctant majority on the H.B. City Council approved their city’s overdue plan.
Now another Orange County city finds itself in the state’s crosshairs, with an announcement coming from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office last Thursday that Costa Mesa is one of five cities now being sued under a “No More Excuses” banner for not meeting their RHNA deadlines, according to this Daily Pilot story by assistant editor Sara Cardine. The four other cities on Newsom’s list are Half Moon Bay, Calexico, Ridgecrest and Turlock.
To be compliant, Costa Mesa must, within 120 days of the suit’s filing, adopt a revised housing element that will allow, through zoning, the addition of 11,760 residential units by the end of a housing cycle that ends in 2029.
The mayor of Costa Mesa, John Stephens, seemed taken aback by this turn of events.
“There’s absolutely no reason why we should be named in any lawsuit,” an incredulous Stephens told the Daily Pilot Thursday. “It’s just unbelievable.”
Stephens defends his city by pointing to several steps it has made to bring about needed housing, which are enumerated in the article.
“Staff are now introducing the sweeping changes to the public in a campaign called ‘Neighborhoods Where We All Belong’ and conducting hearings at the planning commission level before seeking adoption by the City Council,” Cardine reports, and they have been in touch with the Department of Housing and Community Development to keep it abreast of local efforts along the way, “in good faith.”
In addition to financial penalties, cities not in compliance with the state RHNA numbers face the “Builder’s Remedy” provision of the state’s Housing Accountability Act for affordable housing projects. It effectively takes away a city’s ability to deny a qualifying housing development even if it doesn’t meet local general plan and zoning rules.
Is the new lawsuit a fair turn of events, given Costa Mesa’s housing efforts? The mayor thinks not.
“If you read [the text of the suit], it sounds like we’re Huntington Beach, refusing to comply,” Stephens told Cardine. “It doesn’t express what we’ve done — it’s so misleading.”
MORE NEWS
• A National Weather Service heat advisory is expected to go into effect at 10 a.m. today and last until 8 p.m. Monday for much of the Southland, including parts of Orange County. Also, according to the L.A. Times, high surf and strong rip currents are expected across much of the Southern California coastline.
• The Irvine City Council was split on the subject, but ultimately a majority decided last week to put ranked-choice voting for local elections on the November ballot, when voters will be asked to decided whether or not that’s an election reform they support.
• An affordable housing project on Neighborhood Congregational Church property in Laguna Beach recently received a boost from the City Council, which approved $6.7 million in needed gap funding. Plans call for 28 income-restricted affordable units and one manager’s unit.
• The June report from the California Assn. of Realtors showed that sales of single-family homes in O.C. increased 12.2% over June 2025, and the median price was $1.490 million, up from $1.470 million during the same period last year.
BUSINESS
• Costa Mesa-based Anduril and Archer Aviation jointly developed a hybrid-electric aircraft called Thunder that was unveiled in London on Monday, The Times reports. It’s intended for both military and commercial use.
• Orange County is demanding $4 million from GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove in the wake of the May 21 chemical crisis there. “The company, according to county attorneys, faced California Division of Occupational Safety and Health citations and more than $900,000 in fines from the South Coast Air Quality Management District for past offenses,” according to the report in The Times.
• Steve Abelowitz, M.D., the Newport Beach pediatrician who founded the Coastal Kids medical practice, then was later fired from it by the hedge fund he partnered with, was interviewed by the Daily Pilot last week in light of a recent decision in his favor by the state Court of Appeals in his claim against Pediatric Associates. According to the article, Abelowitz says he’s heartened by a new state law that empowers California’s attorney general to investigate corporate entities accused of interfering with the decisions of medical professionals, but he believes there’s more to be done.
• James Beard Award-winning chef and author Roy Choi will bring his Las Vegas restaurant concept, Best Friend, to Orange County, it was announced Monday.
• SeaLegs at the Beach, the open-air, live music bar at Bolsa Chica State Beach, is marking its 10th anniversary this summer.
• Also celebrating a milestone is family-owned Roma d’ Italia in Tustin, which has built a loyal clientele over 65 years and is now operated by its founders’ grandchildren.
• The Earl of Sandwich debuted its new flagship location at Downtown Disney District in Anaheim on July 15 with a ribbon-cutting and appearances from Earl of Sandwich founder Robert Earl and Mickey Mouse.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
• Many readers may recall the tragic death last August of surfing standout Kolby Aipa, who had been riding an e-bike while clinging to the side the pickup truck of one of his peers when he lost control of his bike and was struck by the truck. Well, last week the Orange County district attorney’s office charged the driver of the Toyota Tacoma involved, Brandon Scott Soleau, 21, with a felony count of vehicular slaughter with gross negligence in connection with the death of Aipa, 20.
• The body of a 61-year-old woman was found in a Laguna Beach house Monday at around 11 a.m. when police responded to a call about a disturbance. They have identified a “person of interest” in the woman’s death.
• A 24-year-old Long Beach man has been arrested and charged with murder for the April 15 crash along Pacific Coast Highway that killed a woman whose car was pushed into the wetlands in Huntington Beach.
• The driver who was found dead inside a Tesla after it rolled over into Newport Beach’s Back Bay early Friday morning was identified by officials as Joseph Santos Requejo Jr., 33, of Santa Ana.
• Also, from City News Service reports we learned:
— A knife-wielding 20-year-old man who called 911 saying he was experiencing a mental health crisis was fatally shot by officers at Sungate and Silkwood in the Turtle Rock neighborhood of Irvine yesterday afternoon, authorities said.
— Santos Arturo Ochoa, 27, pleaded guilty Monday and was immediately sentenced to 11 years in prison for pistol whipping another man
over a dispute about a handball game at University Park in Irvine on Nov. 24.
— Emmanuel Messiah Wesley, 23, was charged Thursday with fatally shooting his mother, 61-year-old Theresa Jones, on the Fourth of July. The victim’s body was found on July 7 in the passenger seat of her car, which was parked in a church lot in Fullerton.
— Alex Figueroachavez, 30, pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for deliberately running into two people, critically injuring one of them, while driving out of a store parking lot in Anaheim on Aug. 23, 2024.
SPORTS
• The Angels enjoyed a 3-2 comeback win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night in Angel Stadium.
• The Times’ Eric Sondheimer offers his latest prep football transfer tracker of top players.
• Huntington Beach High School’s Ben Arguello took top honors as Player of the Year when the Daily Pilot announced its annual Boys’ Volleyball Dream Team last week.
OBITUARY
• ‘Jersey Joe’ Carchio, a former Huntington Beach mayor, businessman and youth sports coach died in New Jersey at the age of 89 this month. Carchio was Surf City’s mayor in 2011, when Ocean View Little League won the Little League World Series. He organized a parade in the hometown team’s honor.
LIFE & LEISURE
• Times features columnist Todd Martens gives a terrific behind-the-scenes look at Knott’s Berry Farm’s “Ghost Towns Alive!” interactive show in his latest newsletter, Mr. Todd’s Wild Ride.
• Visually impaired students taking part in the Beyond Blindness Next Steps summer camp last week traveled via Amtrak to downtown San Juan Capistrano for lunch at In N Out, then returned to Santa Ana. Daily Pilot reporter Matt Szabo went along for the ride. “The students learned ways to figure out which track to stand on, listening to the patterns of the trains and feeling the positioning of the sun — all things that people with good eyesight take for granted,” Szabo noted.
CALENDAR
• Comedian, writer and political commentator Trevor Noah will be in Costa Mesa on Thursday, July 30 to perform at the Pacific Amphitheatre at 8:15 p.m. Tickets, which include admission to the O.C. Fair, can be purchased here.
• The Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum will hold a grand opening at its new location, the city’s Main Street Library, 525 Main St., this Friday, July 24, at 5 p.m. The event will also launch a new exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the World Surf League.
• Gallery Sonder in Corona del Mar will host the inaugural installment of its new series, “Poetry at Sonder,” tomorrow. A reception will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by a poetry reading at 7 p.m. A limited number of seats will be available at the gallery, but guests are encouraged to bring their own blankets or chairs. RSVP at gallerysonder.com.
Stay cool!
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memories of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.