H.B. charter amendment to ask voters if they want to weigh in on zoning changes, general plan updates

The conservative majority on the Huntington Beach City Council formally added a proposed charter amendment for voters to consider in the November election that would require their approval on updates to the city’s general plan or zoning resulting in “negative impacts to the environment.”

Mayor Gracey Van der Mark and Mayor Pro Tem Pat Burns, as well as Councilmen Casey McKeon and Tony Strickland voted in favor of the proposed charter amendment’s inclusion on the ballot during a special meeting held Monday. The three remaining members of the City Council, Rhonda Bolton, Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser, were absent due to prior commitments and illness.

Supporters of the move say the proposed amendment empowers residents and allows them to protect themselves against development that could lead to long-term damage to their communities. It also asserts that “City Planning and Zoning is a local, municipal affair, beyond the reach of State control or interference.”

“I personally believe this is too important to be left up to a majority four council members,” McKeon said Monday. “So, this agenda item puts it back into the hands of the residents and voters who this will affect.”

Critics of the ballot initiative say it would shift the responsibility of deciding complicated issues that require significant research to fully understand away from the officials elected to do so and shoulder it onto the working families who elected them.

In a statement issued ahead of Monday’s meeting, the three council members who did not attend the meeting described the proposed amendment as a deceptive effort to fight a state-issued mandate to build more housing.

“Some may argue that voters can reject this Charter amendment,” Bolton, Kalmick and Moser wrote in their statement. “But this amendment is disguised as an ‘environmental protection measure’ with ambiguous language that ‘sounds good.’ Huntington Beach residents’ skepticism of new housing makes it likely the amendment will pass.”

McKeon said the proposed charter amendment would not impact homeowners’ or private sector projects and that it was “not directed at housing.”

Huntington Beach was instructed to plan for an additional 13,368 units of housing in the current cycle of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which runs from 2023 through 2029. But so far, the city has failed to pass a housing element that meets RHNA requirements, and it is currently appealing a ruling handed down in San Diego Superior Court in May ordering them to get that done.

“Huntington Beach’s new effort to circumvent state law and avoid building housing is an illegal stunt,” Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, in response to the proposed charter amendment Tuesday. “We’ll continue to hold all communities accountable as we work to build more housing in California.”

Critics of Huntington Beach’s attempts to push back against calls to increase the availability of housing units say it may be self-defeating because those efforts may wind up inviting use of what’s known as the “builder’s remedy.” That’s a provision allowing home builders to ignore zoning codes in cities that are not in compliance with state housing laws.

The City Council members who oppose the proposed charter amendment say it will likely lead to other unintended and unforeseen consequences. Aside from growing fines for being out of compliance with the state’s housing laws, the initiative may wind up spurring a costly special election in order to pass anything that would allow for the zoning of more housing, they wrote in their statement.

“The ‘Newsom threesome’ [Bolton, Kalmick and Moser] are not wrong in pointing out the risks we are taking in opposing a state government 200 times our size,” said Russ Neal, a Huntington Beach resident who came out in support of the proposed amendment. “... We could easily lose the fight and suffer both high costs and the loss of local control. On the other hand, we have much to gain from a successful fight and our honor to preserve, win or lose.”