Huntington Beach city leaders are headed back to court with the state of California, arguing to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that they didn’t have the right to sue the state government over mandates to plan for more housing.
Now, the city is appealing their case in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The City’s ongoing fight against the State for local control of our City’s development is imperative,” wrote Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark in a Thursday statement.
Van Der Mark, along with the Republican city council majority, have repeatedly criticized state housing mandates since taking office a little over a year ago.
“These housing mandates are a prime example of State overreach and I applaud our City Attorney and his staff for not only protecting our City, but also our City Council’s First Amendment rights,” she said.
Last November, City Attorney Michael Gates argued that Huntington Beach’s status as a charter city should make them exempt from state housing mandates, and claimed the law violated numerous portions of the state and federal constitution.
But U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter shot that argument down, saying that the city didn’t have the right to sue the state in federal court over the housing mandates – also known as Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) laws.
“Although Plaintiffs (the city) maintain they each have standing to bring federal constitutional claims challenging the RHNA laws, the court finds each group of Plaintiffs lacks standing,” Slaughter wrote.
[Read: Federal Judge Tosses Surf City Lawsuit Against CA Housing Mandate]
While city leaders announced plans to appeal the ruling almost immediately after it was announced in November, the appeal was officially filed today according to a statement released by city staff.
To read a copy of the appeal, click here.
In his appeal, Gates argues that as a charter city, Huntington Beach does have the power to sue the state in federal court, and that that charter cities “are not connected political subdivisions of the state.”
“The issue presented is a novel and important question of law that strikes at the heart of the relationship between Charter Cities and the State of California,” Gates wrote in a statement. “It explains important federal questions of various constitutional violations that need to be resolved – we believe best suited for federal court.”
The council’s conservative majority, who also campaigned with Gates for elected office in 2022, have repeatedly endorsed the city’s lawsuit against the state government, calling on other cities to join them in fighting what they believe is government overreach.
[Read: California’s Battle With Huntington Beach Over Housing Goals Heads To Court]
California Attorney General Rob Bonta also brought a case in state court against the city for refusing to follow state housing laws, but that suit is currently on hold as the two sides battle in federal court.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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