Referring to state housing laws as the “governor’s mandate,” Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland and two other city council members blocked approval of the city’s massive housing plan for the rest of the 2020s.
But rather than kill the city’s 1,164-page “housing element” outright, the sharply divided city council united behind a motion to postpone the matter for further consideration at its next city council meeting on April 4.
Strickland and one other council member cited environmental concerns for blocking the homebuilding plan.
“I don’t believe (Gov. Gavin Newsom’s) housing crisis, his housing mandate, is more important than the health and safety of our citizens,” Strickland said during the council’s meeting Tuesday, March 21. “That’s why I’m opposing this housing element.”
Strickland was joined in voting down the housing plan by Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark and Councilmember Pat Burns.
Councilmember Casey McKeon, who frequently votes with the majority, recused himself because of a potential conflict of interest. That resulted in a 3-3 vote, one vote shy of the majority needed for plan adoption.
“I cannot in good conscience support (this) item,” Van Der Mark said before the vote, complaining about the effects of housing construction on clean air, water supplies, traffic and the city’s wetlands. “I don’t believe the benefits of building outweighs the consequences of destroying our city.”
The decision raised the specter of past housing fights that erupted over the city’s refusal from 2015-20 to comply with state demands it revise its last housing element. That resulted in a 2019 lawsuit against the city. The two sides returned to court earlier this month, trading state and federal lawsuits over housing on March 8 and 9.
At stake is a state-required blueprint for how the beachside, Orange County city of 199,000 will increase housing by 2030.
Although some council members tied the state’s homebuilding…
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