Huntington Beach loses again in court on state housing mandate suit

Huntington Beach lost another round in its legal battle to resist the state’s requirements for affordable housing, officials said Thursday.

The state Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to review an appellate court ruling in the state’s favor, compelling the city to adhere to state requirements for affordable housing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta hailed the decision in a news release Thursday. Huntington Beach officials, responding with a citywide statement of their own later that same day, said the court ruling was not surprising, as the state’s Supreme Court rarely grants review while a case is still developing in the trial court.

The city’s response further suggested that major legal questions remain unresolved, including whether the state’s housing element law conflicts with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“The city sought review after the court of appeal’s interim decision declined to address the CEQA conflict, leaving the city in a no-win situation — facing penalties unless it adopts a housing element, even though CEQA prohibits adoption until environmental review is completed and lawful findings can be made,” the statement read.

Attorneys for the city have maintained that, due to Huntington Beach’s status as a charter city — which allows for more authority in governing itself — it did not have to comply with state mandates on building affordable housing.

The state sued the city in March 2023 and, the following year, a San Diego Superior Court judge ruled the city violated the state’s housing element law but did not include mandated remedies that state officials had been seeking.

Appellate court justices, however, ruled that the lower court judge erred when a 120-day deadline was omitted, so now the case will be sent back to the judge in San Diego to address the issue.

“Huntington Beach needs to end this pathetic NIMBY behavior,’’ Newsom said in Thursday’s release, using the acronym for “not in my backyard.”

The governor added, “They are failing their own citizens by wasting time and money that could be used to create much-needed housing. No more excuses, you lost once again — it’s time to get building.”

Bonta said in Thursday’s release that Huntington Beach has “run out of excuses in our state’s courts.

“It was required to submit a compliant housing element on Oct. 15, 2021, more than four years ago,” the attorney general said. “Rather than follow the law, the city has been squandering public money to avoid building its fair share of housing.”

Attorneys for Huntington Beach sued the state in federal court to challenge the constitutionality of its housing laws, but the city has failed there as well, both in the lower court and with the federal appeals court.

The city has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and that is still pending. In Thursday’s statement, Huntington Beach officials promised the city would continue to “vigorously defend its environmental stewardship, its charter-city authority and its right to fair and evenhanded enforcement of state housing laws in the Superior Court.”

Assistant editor Sara Cardine contributed to this report.