{"id":3608,"date":"2026-05-10T13:47:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=3608"},"modified":"2026-05-10T13:47:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:47:04","slug":"after-losing-state-housing-mandate-lawsuit-huntington-beach-could-face-fines-of-up-to-50000-a-month-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=3608","title":{"rendered":"After losing state housing mandate lawsuit, Huntington Beach could face fines of up to $50,000 a month"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After losing a long-running court battle to plan for more housing, Huntington Beach could face fines of up to $50,000 a month, dating back to January 2025.<\/p>\n

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San Diego Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal heard arguments Friday, May 8, from both the city and state regarding the appropriate penalty amount for violating state housing laws, as well as the effective start date for those fines.<\/p>\n

Matthew Struhar, the attorney representing the state, said the maximum civil penalty of $50,000 a month, retroactive to the start of last year, would provide the strongest incentive for the city to come into \u201ccompliance with the housing element law\u201d while \u201cdeterring further violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huntington Beach\u2019s \u201coutright refusal to adopt a housing element affects real people\u201d in Southern California communities, and the penalties would compensate for \u201cthose harms,\u201d Struhar said at Friday\u2019s hearing, and help \u201cfinance the development of affordable housing within those cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late last year, Huntington Beach lost its yearslong fight against the state\u2019s housing mandate, as both the state and federal high courts declined to reconsider a lower court\u2019s decision that ordered the city to zone for more housing, including many affordable units.<\/p>\n

In December, Bacal gave the city 120 days to release a housing plan that zones for 13,368 units by the end of the decade \u2014 the city does not have to build the homes, just have a conducive zoning atmosphere for their development by the free market. The court order also set restrictions on the city\u2019s permitting and rezoning authority in the meantime. In a later ruling, Bacal set the compliance deadline to May 28.<\/p>\n

The city has requested a 240-day extension \u2014 on top of the 120 days given by the court \u2014 to develop a compliant housing element that maps out where and how new housing can be built.<\/p>\n

The city will argue its case for an extension in court hearings set over the next couple of months.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

Anthony Taylor, an attorney for Huntington Beach, said at Friday\u2019s hearing that the penalty should start with the minimum amount of $10,000 a month and that the \u201cearliest possible date\u201d for the fees to kick in should be June \u2014 after the May 28 deadline.<\/p>\n

The maximum penalty requested by the state is unreasonable, Taylor said, because the city has been revising its\u00a0housing element\u00a0and will \u201cvery shortly release\u201d\u00a0an updated plan. The process takes time, he said, and the city should not be punished for it.<\/p>\n

Taylor also pushed back against the state\u2019s argument that Huntington Beach is an \u201coutlier\u201d in failing to meet its share of regional housing needs, noting that only six of 411 jurisdictions updated their housing plans by the given deadline.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Rob Bonta first sued Huntington Beach in 2023 for refusing to adopt a compliant housing plan, which was due in October 2021.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

In response, the city filed a federal lawsuit against the state, arguing that as a charter city, it is not required to abide by certain state laws \u2014 an argument rejected by both a lower court and a federal appeals court. The city has also expressed concern that pushing ahead with more housing construction would run afoul of the California Environmental Quality Act.<\/p>\n

Bacal said she\u2019ll issue a ruling on the penalties before the next hearing Friday, May 15.<\/p>\n

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The state is arguing the city should pay that monthly penalty retroactively back to Jan. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facts","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAfter losing state housing mandate lawsuit, Huntington Beach could face fines of up to $50,000 a month - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=3608\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After losing state housing mandate lawsuit, Huntington Beach could face fines of up to $50,000 a month - 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