Residents so far lukewarm to suggestion that Fountain Valley become a charter city

Fountain Valley, which operates as a general law municipality, is exploring becoming a charter city, but before going further down that path, officials are seeking input from residents to gauge their interest.

As a general law city, Fountain Valley follows state law, even in matters of local affairs. By contrast, charter cities have supreme authority over local elections, governance and law enforcement, according to Colin Burns, Fountain Valley’s legal counsel.

Outside of those core categories, other matters may be classified as municipal affairs, although they may also be deemed to be of statewide concern.

In California, 121 of 482 cities have adopted a charter, including Huntington Beach, Irvine and Newport Beach.

The Fountain Valley proposal received lukewarm reception in City Hall on Sept. 30, during the first of two scheduled town hall meetings. Nearly a dozen of the 20 residents in attendance commented on the idea, some asking why the community would want to pursue charter city status while others stated their outright opposition to the idea.

“I’m just really concerned that we’re spending a lot of time and effort on this when there’s not an outpouring from the community to do so,” Councilman Glenn Grandis said during the town hall.

“We talked about this at the last council meeting,” he continued. “I don’t believe we even have council consensus to move this forward at this point. I’m willing to try [the next town hall meeting on] Oct. 18. Let’s give it a second shot...My mind is not made up on this. I’m willing to do it if there’s a compelling reason to do so, and it’s been asked 10 times tonight, why are we doing it and why now? Why is this so urgent? I haven’t heard a good reason why yet, either.”

Planning and zoning have been major charter city issues recently, including a successful challenge of State Senate Bill 9, which allows for a single-family residential lot to be split into two properties with up to four units occupying that lot.

The prevailing case was City of Redondo Beach, et. al., v. Rob Bonta in 2024. Other cities joining that lawsuit included Carson, Del Mar, Torrance and Whittier.

“It basically says that where you have a residential single-family home, under SB 9, a property owner can split that lot in two and put a duplex on each one,” Burns said. “A number of cities challenged that law as interfering with their charter authority, and the trial court approved their challenge, decided that the fourplex law did not apply to charter cities. That was a trial court decision. That case has been appealed by the state of California. We don’t have an appellate outcome on that case yet.”

Senate Bill 79, passed by the state Legislature in September, would override local zoning law to allow for high-density housing developments of up to nine stories near transit hubs.

Huntington Beach was cited multiple times during the town hall as an example of how claiming charter status to fight the state in court does not always prove fruitful. Surf City saw success in a voter identification case, a decision that’s currently being appealed by the state, while it lost a battle over restricting minors’ access to library materials perceived to by some to contain sexual content.

“My family moved to Fountain Valley about a year ago, in June 2024,” JP Voillequé told those gathered for the town hall. “We felt the usual mix of excitement and exhaustion and everything else as we moved into our house and made renovations and got to know our new neighborhood in our new town. One thing I didn’t expect to feel was an enormous sense of relief that I no longer lived in Huntington Beach. I no longer had to tell people I lived in Huntington Beach. I no longer had to explain what Huntington Beach was doing. They have paid through the nose to lose and lose and lose in the courts.

“Huntington Beach, in particular, waving the charter around as though it’s some sort of get-out-of-state-regulation-free card, has cost themselves an enormous amount of money, and in my personal opinion, it has reputational impacts that will live on long after all of these lawsuits are concluded, no matter how many of them they win.”

A few of those publicly commenting expressed concerns over the legal expenses involved with invoking charter status to fight the state. Others said the city ought to declare its reason for wanting to become a charter city before putting it on a ballot to be decided by residents.

Katy Wright, a local artist who ran for a seat on the City Council last year, asked those on the dais who was driving the charter city discussion. Mayor Ted Bui and Councilman Patrick Harper both indicated they see a benefit.

“Although Huntington Beach has decided to spend a lot of money on litigation, I would certainly think we would take a more conservative approach before we spend a lot of money on certain litigation,” Harper said.

Vice Mayor Jim Cunneen said he wanted to continue learning how becoming a charter city “might help us with future battles...I would suggest that what you see with SB 9 and what you see with SB 79 are examples of the tightening squeeze [from the state] that we don’t want to take anymore.”

The next town hall meeting to discuss whether or not Fountain Valley should pursue switching to charter city status is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18 at the Fountain Valley Recreation Center, 16400 Brookhurst St.