A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled against reinstating Huntington Beach’s lawsuit with the state that sought to circumvent housing mandates.
The ruling is another setback for the city’s case filed back in March 2023. Huntington Beach and the state have been in opposition over the city’s refusal to plan for more housing construction.
Huntington Beach filed the federal lawsuit after that state sued it in state court for not zoning for more housing as California cities have been required to do. A district court judge dismissed the case last year, ruling that the city did not have standing to bring federal constitutional claims challenging state housing allocation laws.
A three-panel judge from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the ruling that the case should be dismissed.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, who have often criticized Huntington Beach’s efforts to thwart state housing mandates, celebrated the judges’ decision.
“Today, yet another court has slapped down Huntington Beach’s cynical attempt to prevent the state from enforcing our housing laws,” Newsom said in a statement. “Huntington Beach officials’ continued efforts to advance plainly unlawful NIMBY policies are failing their own citizens — by wasting time and taxpayer dollars that could be used to create much-needed housing. No more excuses — every city must follow state law and do its part to build more housing.”
“While the city has been wasting the public’s time and money pursuing this meritless lawsuit, its neighboring communities — along with every Californian struggling to keep a roof over their heads or wondering where they’re going to sleep tonight — need Huntington Beach to step up and adopt a housing plan without further delay,” Bonta said in a statement.
The City Council has refused to pass zoning changes that would allow more than 13,000 homes to be built in the coastal community.
Huntington Beach has long argued that its charter city status makes it exempt from certain state housing laws. The appeals court judges wrote that California cities remain subordinate political bodies to the state, no matter how they are categorized, such as being a charter city or not.
They also wrote that Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark and Councilmember Tony Strickland can’t invoke free speech rights as a way to avoid signing documents that are part of the housing mandates, as Huntington Beach had sought in the case.
City Attorney Michael Gates said the ruling wouldn’t discourage city leaders from continuing their housing battles with the state. Gates said the city will request a hearing from a larger panel of judges to try to get a new ruling, and if that doesn’t get the case reinstated, they’ll petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
“We have to keep fighting,” Gates said. “At some point, the tide is going to turn … and we are going to start to get more favorable rulings.”
Gates said the state having the power to dictate how a city council has to vote on housing is “fundamentally un-American and unconstitutional.”