AERIAL VIEW of Huntington Beach housing (Shutterstock).

By Jim Tortolano/Orange County Tribune

After years and months of trying to avoid a state mandate on housing requirements imposed by Sacramento, the Huntington Beach City Council reluctantly on Tuesday night voted to approve a “housing element” to the city’s general plan they believe will conform with a requirement to zone for – but not necessarily build – over 13,000 new residences.

The vote was 6-1, with Councilmember Chad Williams dissenting. In a last-minute attempt to delay what other councilmembers regarded as inevitable, he kept offering substitute motions, none of which passed.

Mayor Casey McKeon, citing the mounting amounts of fines – at least $100,000 so far – being imposed on the city for ‘non-compliance,” held out hope that the battle for local control of housing decisions might yet be won at the ballot box in the future.

“This is not the final step,” he said. “It’s just the prudent step,” he said.

Former city attorney Michael Gates had told the council that – as a charter city – Huntington Beach had a legal right to refuse to conform to some state laws.

But the courts did not agree and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the case.

Also on Tuesday night, the council voted 6-0 (with Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark abstaining) to approve the 2026-27 city budget of $592,366,017.