California's new governor has sent a strong signal to local governments: build housing to comply with state law or else.
"Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that California was suing an Orange County city over what he said was its failure to allow enough new homebuilding to accommodate a growing population," reports Liam Dillon.
"The lawsuit accuses Huntington Beach of defying a state law that requires cities and counties to set aside sufficient land for housing development," according to Dillon. Dillon has written extensively in the past on the California's Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) law, and its ineffectiveness at compelling cities to build enough housing to meet state mandates.
In 2015, Huntington Beach downzoned two major corridors in the city, leaving the city without "enough land zoned to accommodate low-income residents under state requirements," according to Dillon.
This is the latest sign that Governor Newsom plans to use the power of the state to force more local governments to build new housing. Earlier this month, in his inauguration speech, Newsom promised to withhold funding from cities that don't build housing.
A lot more detail on the political context and the history of housing planning in Huntington Beach are included in the article.
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