Yet another battle brewing over local control

Tuesday, San Francisco Democratic Assemblymember David Chiu rolled out a proposal to crack the whip on cities that lag on approving new housing.

A little context: Every eight years, the state sets a housing production goal for each region. Those regional assignments are divvied up and assigned to each city.

If a city fails to meet its quota…not much happens. In extreme cases, the state can take a building-averse municipality to court. See: Huntington Beach.

Chiu’s law would require cities to check in with the state halfway through each eight-year cycle. Any that are 10% below their region’s production level would be required to adopt more “pro-housing” policy. Details are still TBD, but that might include zoning changes or the elimination of parking requirements.

Pandemic or not, this is still California, which means some of the fiercest legislative battles this year are sure to be about the state’s housing shortage. Earlier this year, the Senate’s Democratic leader Toni Atkins got behind a package of pro-production bills.

The coming fight over Chiu’s latest is likely to be especially fierce.

California’s legislative graveyard is full of bills trying to force local governments to do what they don’t wanna. I asked Chiu about the bill’s prospects. He didn’t exactly answer, but said the need for change is self-evident.

Chiu: “Everyone acknowledges that we’re still in the most intense housing and homelessness crisis in our state’s history… We want to make sure that every city is doing what they say they are going to do.”