California Coastal Cities’ Housing Plan: Build Elsewhere

September 01, 2023

Republican-controlled Huntington Beach has sued the state government to stop enforcement of state housing mandates.

by Steven Greenhut Reason.com

One of the more entertaining aspects of the state’s battle to open up housing development to reduce California’s housing shortage is the degree to which it has united officials in liberal coastal cities with those in conservative ones. Although Left and Right typically use different rhetoric to evade new housing bills, they are strangely aligned in their ultimate quest to block permissive new construction laws.

Republican-controlled Huntington Beach, which has sued the state government to stop enforcement of state housing mandates (and was sued first by the state for its failure to process “by right” duplex approvals under Senate Bill 9), has championed the “local control” argument and stoked NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) fears about turning this suburban city into an urban hell-scape.