Huntington Beach is moving to ask voters this November to approve a new law that would leave future housing development plans up to residents.
The City Council on Tuesday, July 2 directed staff to craft a charter amendment ballot initiative that would require city-initiated zoning changes to get voter approval. Critics said it would put the city at even higher risk of financial penalties from the state for refusing to allow more housing to be built.
The proposal, from Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark and Councilmembers Casey McKeon and Pat Burns, would force new city housing plans to get voter approval first before they could be implemented. The city has refused to adopt a state-mandated housing element that would allow developers to build at least 13,368 housing units this decade.
The Council would have to vote again to place the charter amendment on people’s ballots.
McKeon, who submitted the item, said private developers who seek zoning changes wouldn’t be affected by the proposed charter amendment. Only city-initiated zoning changes, like with a housing element, that force the city to adopt a statement that says the benefits of new housing outweigh the environmental impacts would need to go before voters.
Those environmental impacts can include noise, more traffic and utilities.
“That decision, we feel, to permanently and negatively impact our environment, is too important to be left out to a majority of four councilmembers and should be left up to the voters to decide,” McKeon said.
All four members of the council’s conservative majority voted for the item on Tuesday with the rest of the council abstaining.
Housing elements are city plans that show where new developments can occur and set policies to encourage affordable housing construction. The Huntington Beach City Council has refused to adopt a new housing element for the city, instead choosing to fight a legal battle with the state arguing it doesn’t have to.
A judge in May ruled that Huntington Beach had…
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