State Attorney General adds some muscle to housing law

Bonta creates strike force to enforce new residential development rules

The state attorney general wants to send a message to cities and counties: Housing law really is the law.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Nov. 3 announced a new strike force to enforce housing laws, seeking to put teeth into long-ignored regulations that restrict local authority over residential development.

Bonta took aim at cities that fail to heed state law when rejecting residential development projects or have fallen short of their housing targets.

“Follow the law. Fulfill your obligations, your responsibilities to build your fair share of housing, and there won’t be any issues,” Bonta said. “But please know if you don’t, it will not be without consequences.”

His announcement is the latest in a series of efforts by the state to boost development in the midst of California’s stubborn housing shortage while stiffening oversight and accountability for cities and counties. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of housing bills in September aimed at loosening restrictions on local development and making cities plan for more dense housing.

Newsom applauded Bonta’s move and said it’s “an important component to the state’s efforts to tackle the affordability crisis and create greater opportunities for all Californians to have an affordable place to call home.”

But League of California Cities CEO Carolyn Coleman blasted Bonta for blaming cities for the housing shortage.

“If the state is looking for a real solution to this decades-in-the-making housing crisis,” Coleman said, “we urge a pause on these unproven top-down state mandates and enforcement policies and call on the state to work as true partners with local governments to get housing built.”

California cities and counties already have received new housing production goals that carry harsher penalties for failing to meet their targets.

State lawmakers earlier this year gave the attorney general’s office more power to enforce housing laws. The new strike force will consist of 12 lawyers and staff members with experience in land use and development, environmental law and civil rights. It will work with the state Department of Housing and Community Development, get input from community groups and public hearings and address certain tenantprotection issues.

Bonta’s office also launched a website and a public campaign to educate tenants and homeowners about housing and consumer rights. He said he expects to hold a series of roundtable discussions with tenants in coming months.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, Dsan Francisco, said the state has a housing shortage totaling millions of units, pushing people into homelessness and unsafe, crowded conditions. Municipalities need to do more, he said.

“I’m proud of the laws that we’ve passed,” said Wiener, sponsor of several major housing bills in recent years, “but they have to be enforced.”

Cities and slow-growth groups already are fighting. More than one-quarter of Bay Area cities, towns and counties — mostly wealthy communities — have appealed new, higher development goals set by regional planners this year. Some are also pushing back against a key measure, Senate Bill 9, before it takes effect Jan. 1. It allows homeowners to develop duplexes on their single-family properties, splitting their lots to build and sell new units.

The Cupertino City Council, which opposed the law, this week announced its intention to craft an ordinance to keep tight local control over new development rights.

Pro-housing groups have challenged cities that reject development. In September, a California appeals court upheld the state’s Housing Accountability Act, which limits the reasons a municipality can reject a development proposal.

Michael Lane, state policy director of regional think tank SPUR, said housing advocates have made major strides passing laws promoting housing production and undoing land use policies based on racial segregation. However, he said, enforcement is still needed.

Developers have been reluctant to sue cities over developments, fearing repercussions on future projects, Lane said. Small nonprofit advocacy groups often don’t have the resources, although some have won significant victories in the Bay Area. The attorney general’s office backing pro-housing groups with experienced lawyers “can be very powerful,” Lane said.