AERIAL VIEW of Huntington Beach housing (Shutterstock).

By Jim Tortolano
Orange County Tribune

The City of Huntington Beach’s efforts to evade a state law mandating zoning for more homes sustained another defeat on Monday.

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the city’s request to consider an appeal of a lower federal court’s rebuff.
After having exhausted their legal options, the city faces the prospect of having the state “restrict the city’s land use authority, effective immediately, until the requirement is satisfied,” according to a statement from the state Department of Justice.

“Huntington Beach took its fight to the highest court in the country – and lost” – said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Today the U.S. Supreme Court officially declined to step in, leaving no doubt that the city must comply with our state housing laws.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom added, “The Huntington Beach officials who wasted taxpayer dollars on this embarrassing approach rather than doing their jobs ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

But Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon, in a statement, had a different view. “Even though this path has ended, other paths will always exist for us to defend the Huntington Beach residents’ local control.”

He conceded that the appeal to the high court after several lower court defeats was a long shot. “It’s certainly not surprising as the Supreme Court takes up about 1 percent of the cases brought before it.”

At issue was the State of California’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment , which required cities to plan for – but not necessarily build – a set number of residences to alleviate a statewide housing shortage.

Huntington Beach’s RHNA was for 13,368 new housing units.