Three months after Huntington Beach updated its housing element in response to mounting fines, the state is pushing for additional penalties based on regulators’ conclusion that the city’s plan is still out of compliance.
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In May, Orange County Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal ordered the city to pay a late fee of $10,000 a month, from Jan. 1, 2025 until it met state requirements — a total of $170,000. To avoid accumulating the fines, Huntington Beach leaders approved a new housing element in June that they said would accommodate the construction of more than 13,000 units by the end of the decade.
After the city updated its housing plan, Bacal put the penalties on hold pending review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, but said the fines would be reinstated and “further penalties could be imposed” if state regulators determined “there has not been substantial compliance and the violation cured.”
The state argued in a Sept. 8 filing that Huntington Beach has not met those conditions, citing an Aug. 18 letter from HDC that said the city has not completed the required zoning changes to ensure compliance with the housing element law.
“Without a judicially enforceable rezoning program, a housing element would be little more than a paper promise,” the state wrote in the filing.
The state urged the court to reinstate a monthly fine of $50,000 — the amount that Bacal previously set should the city fail to update its housing plan by the May 28 deadline.
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The fines would go to a state trust that funds affordable housing and boosts homeownership opportunities across California.
Housing elements, which were originally due from cities in 2021 to guide development for the rest of the decade, do not require cities to be the builders of the mandated housing units, but to have in place the zoning and conditions that would allow developers to construct projects to help meet needs in the state. The housing elements look at a decade at a time, so the next cycle will be coming up in a few years.
Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Huntington Beach in 2023 for failing to adopt a compliant housing plan. Huntington Beach leaders countersued the state, arguing that a charter city is not required to participate in the state’s mandates for housing. The city lost in a lower court and a federal appeals court.
Under the housing element law, Huntington Beach has until Oct. 14, or 120 days, to complete the necessary zoning changes after updating its housing plan.
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The next hearing on the pending penalties is set for Oct. 2.
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