(The Center Square) \u2013 California is suing five cities that the state says failed to comply with the Housing Element Law.<\/p>\n
The cities are Calexico, Costa Mesa, Half Moon Bay, Ridgecrest and Turlock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Enacted in 1969, California\u2019s Housing Element Law requires<\/a> every city and county to adequately plan to meet the housing needs of all residents. Instead of forcing local governments to build houses directly, the state law requires governments to update zoning and land-use policies so the private market can build enough housing to meet demand.<\/p>\n Editor’s Note<\/p>\n This story was updated late Thursday afternoon to add comments from the city of Turlock.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, we are in a state of emergency in California when it comes to housing production,\u201d state Attorney General Rob Bonta said Thursday at a press conference in San Francisco. \u201cWe need to build more housing immediately, and no single local jurisdiction, no city, no county is responsible for building all of the housing that we need in California. But every city, every county is responsible for building some of the housing that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n The actions taken by Bonta are part of a coordinated effort by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Department of Housing and Community Development.<\/p>\n Ninety-five percent of California\u2019s 540 jurisdictions are in compliance, said Bonta, who called the five cities \u201coutliers\u201d and \u201cscofflaws.\u201d<\/p>\n HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez was at the press conference with the Democratic attorney general.<\/p>\n “This isn’t about making them build. It\u2019s about planning\u201d and ensuring that land is available to plan for the \u201cadequate amount of housing\u201d that residents and workers need, Velasquez said.<\/p>\n “When local jurisdictions aren’t willing to step up, the consequences of our housing and homelessness crisis don’t end at city lines,”\u00a0Velasquez told reporters. “They ripple across every region in our state.”<\/p>\n Bonta said the five cities were provided multiple opportunities to comply before enforcement. For example, HCD issued notices of violation and written findings and allowed each jurisdiction 30 days to submit a written response. Two meetings were also offered to discuss the violations and potential solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Bonta added that four other cities – Atwater, Grand Terrace, Oakdale and Escalon \u2013 have come into compliance after being reached by state officials and agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cThey will come into compliance in August, and I just want to point that out because if you are committed to coming into compliance, you can come into compliance,\u201d said Bonta. \u201cIf you are dedicated, if you work with us, and Atwater, Grand Terrace, Oakdale, and Escalon have taken a different path, the appropriate path that the five cities we are suing today elected not to take by not coming into compliance at this time with housing laws.\u201d<\/p>\n The Center Square reached out to the cities for comment. One city responded.<\/p>\n Public Information Officer Joseph Spangler said the city of Turlock is aware of the lawsuit filed by Bonta. A press release provided by the city noted Turlock is working to meet state requirements, adding that HCD recently confirmed Turlock\u2019s plan addresses all previous statutory issues.<\/p>\n To achieve official compliance, the city must now complete and adopt a required rezoning package.<\/p>\n On Aug. 6, a presentation will be made to the Planning Commission, while a public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 11. A final consideration for adoption will take place on Aug. 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The city has made significant progress toward Housing Element compliance, and we have a clear path forward,” Turlock City Manager\u00a0John J. “J.J.” Murphy said. “This process has involved a substantial amount of planning and technical work, and city staff have worked diligently to bring us to this point. Our focus now is on completing the remaining public process, achieving Housing Element compliance and continuing to plan responsibly for Turlock’s long-term future.”<\/p>\n Newsom was not at Thursday\u2019s press conference. However, the Democratic governor issued a press release<\/a> saying that Calexico, Costa Mesa, Half Moon Bay, Ridgecrest and Turlock \u201chad every chance to follow the law and plan\u201d for their fair share of housing.<\/p>\n \u201cThey chose not to, so now they\u2019ll answer for it in court,\u201d said Newsom. \u201cHousing law applies statewide, and no city gets a pass.\u201d<\/p>\n The five cities are spread out across California. Calexico and Costa Mesa are in southern portions of the state. Half Moon Bay is near San Francisco. Ridgecrest is about 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Turlock is in the state’s Central Valley.<\/p>\n There was another development Thursday as Bonta and California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild sent a Notice of Intent to Sue<\/a> targeting \u201can unlawful agreement between the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) and Invenergy.\u201d The attorney general\u2019s office said<\/a> the agreement would \u201cthwart California\u2019s offshore wind energy development.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 California is suing five cities that the state says failed to comply with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133051,7,63800,9,8,3372,457,161106,3313,38528,2794,8538],"class_list":["post-403489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-calexico","tag-california","tag-california-department-of-housing-and-community-development","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-costa-mesa","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-gustavo-velasquez","tag-half-moon-bay","tag-ridgecrest","tag-rob-bonta","tag-turlock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}