Amid the California housing crisis, state leaders are taking action against cities that state officials say haven’t done enough to comply with state housing laws, including filing suit against Elk Grove over its recent rejection of a new housing development.
The Legislature, governor, and attorney general all agree that the successful implementation of California housing laws is a top priority, Louis Mirante, vice president of public policy with the Bay Area Council, told the Northern California Record.
“All three are committing more energy, focus, and personnel to the enforcement of housing laws, and they are taking it seriously," Mirante said.
The Bay Area Council is a San Francisco-based business association, which claims to advocate for policies that will make and keep the Bay Area and California "innovative, globally competitive, inclusive, and sustainable."
Bonta v. Elk Grove alleges SB 35 violations as well as other recent laws designed to address the housing crisis here, according to a news release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
SB 35 has produced more than 20,000 homes across the state, most of them affordable to low-income people here, Mirante said.
“Streamlining laws like these help remove the red tape and restrictions local governments subject projects to, making the projects cheaper, easier and faster to build,” Mirante said. “Just in San Francisco, the UC Berkeley Terner Center found that SB 35 reduced timelines to build housing by about 30 percent and was able to deliver the housing about 25 percent cheaper than projects without the streamlining.”
Last month, the state also sued Huntington Beach after it allegedly failed to submit a valid plan to build more homes.
Sausalito’s initial housing element plan, which included an eelgrass site currently underwater, brought on a lawsuit by the nonprofit advocacy group YIMBY. The city has since submitted a valid plan, the Marin Independent Journal reported.
“The Attorney General rarely sues cities, and only sues them in situations where it is clear that the local government chose to violate the law and was unresponsive to technical assistance from the State about how to fix the legal problems,” Mirante said. “Only after extensive coaching and technical assistance is denied does the attorney choose a lawsuit. A lawsuit is a last resort, but it is a decision the AG makes fearlessly and with the utmost commitment to affordable housing.”
The Elk Grove City Council on May 10 voted unanimously to fight the lawsuit, the Sacramento Bee reported. A city news release in March disputed the state’s allegations.
Elk Grove is a racially diverse city of about 176,000 people, located south of Sacramento. According to the Census Bureau, Elk Grove has a median household income of $106,000 and a median home value of $466,000.
Among the hundreds of new housing-related bills now before Sacramento lawmakers, Mirante noted that SB 423 would both expand and extend SB 35, which had been scheduled to sunset.
“California needs three main reforms to fix the housing crisis: we need to zone for more homes, we need to reduce the fees on housing, and we need to streamline the production of housing more,” Mirante said. “Current streamlinings are for a limited band of projects, and we need all the tools in the toolbelt to fix the problem in California.”
California’s declining population isn’t likely to make a huge dent in the housing shortage.
“The most important thing to know about housing in California is that it is expensive because we choose, through our elected representatives, to make and keep housing expensive,” Mirante said. “We could change the laws tomorrow at the local and state level and within the next decade see the housing we need. It is up to us to hold people accountable for delivering affordable housing and getting NIMBYism out of the way.”