HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Newly elected Huntington Beach City Council members want to fight state housing mandates, but a new letter from the California Department of Housing and Community Development indicates the agency is willing to take the matter to court.

What You Need To Know

  • California Department of Housing and Community Development issued a letter to the city highlighting that noncompliance with state affordable housing mandates could lead to legal action

  • The four newly elected City Council members voted to reverse compliance 

  • The city owes about $3 million to the Kennedy Commission, a number some City Council members worry will grow if the city does not comply with state affordable housing mandates

  • Newly elected Council member Casey McKeon said he is fulfilling a contract with voters by pushing back on the mandate

Huntington Beach has been ordered to build 13,368 affordable housing units, an expensive task the city had resigned itself to completing during the previous City Council.

But a new majority was elected in November with four members who think the mandates go too far.

Casey McKeon, among the four who voted to push back on the mandates, said the legal fight was a promise they made to constituents during the campaign. 

“We don’t want a mandate, but we also want to cooperate and be good stewards and develop realistic affordable housing,” he said.

McKeon said the legal fight is not necessarily about stopping all affordable housing, but halting a mandate he feels infringes on the city’s right to govern itself.

Huntington Beach currently owes the Kennedy Commission an excess of $3 million, a number that other members of the City Council do not want to grow. McKeon believes there’s a legal strategy available that would evaporate the liability for the city. He’s just not sure what it is yet. 

“We signed a contract with the voters of Huntington Beach and one of the pillars of that contract is to push back against these unfounded mandates,” he said. “This is a fight that has to happen.”

While the city retains the services of elected City Attorney Michael Gates, additional legal fees could be in order should he and the City Council choose to add outside legal help.

That decision is for down the road, however, as McKeon said the legal response is still being worked out. 

Mayor Tony Strickland, Gracey Van Der Mark and Pat Burns all joined him in reversing the decision of the previous City Council to go along with the state directive.

The other three members, Dan Kalmick, Rhonda Bolton and Natalie Moser, issued a joint news release Wednesday to share the HCD response. 

“Our city attorney and newly elected City Council members campaigned on the suggestion that certain City Council members lacked the ‘stomach’ to challenge state mandates. This is not a matter of weak stomachs; it’s a matter of brains and pocketbooks. We don’t believe endless, futile litigation — which is not “free” even if handled by the City Attorney’s Office — is the most prudent use of our taxpayers’ dollars,” Bolton said in the news release.

Kalmick worries pushback could be expensive and could distract the city attorney from more essential business. 

The news release also points to previous lawsuits launched by Huntington Beach and other cities as examples of a failed strategy. The three members don’t want to go down that road again. Kalmick also isn’t clear on what strategy Gates would employ.

“To think he has some unique perspective to solve this, nothing up to now has shown that to be the case,” Kalmick said.

The HCD letter and the apparent upcoming legal clash are expected to be discussed in a closed session Tuesday.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed the number of housing units Huntington Beach is required to build. The error has been corrected. (Jan. 13, 2023)