The City of Huntington Beach, California, is pressing ahead in a legal challenge against the state’s housing mandates.
The Los Angeles Times reported the city filed an appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday seeking a reversal of a November decision against it by U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter, who ruled city lacked the standing in federal court to file suit against the state. City Attorney Michael Gates argued the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) requirements to zone for 13,368 units in current housing cycle and a requirement to sign a Statement of Overriding Considerations violated the city’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Huntington Beach’s City Council declined to adopt a state-compliant housing element including the RHNA requirements and the state sued last April.
“Zoning and housing and planning and land use have always been considered a matter of local governance,” said Gates.
Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark issued a statement arguing that “local control of our city’s development is imperative. These housing mandates are a prime example of state overreach, and I applaud our city attorney and his staff for not only protecting our city, but also our City Council’s First Amendment rights.”
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Non-human entities probably don’t have 1st and 14th Amendment rights, although that might be less clear after the Hobby Lobby case.
Hood for Huntington Beach.
I hope they win.
This is ridiculous to me. What else is government going to tell us we don’t have the rights to?
Judge says:
“City lacked standing in a Federal Court to file suit against the state.” How can the Fed’s really take that right away from people. That is totally unfair to take that right away from the city.
How many more rights do they want to take away and have already taken away.