By Jorge Casuso

September 23, 2021 -- The three "Change" Council members will test their political clout on Tuesday with a vote on whether to take steps to challenge the State's housing mandates for Southern California.

An item placed on the agenda by Councilmember Phil Brock calls for the Council to request that a group representing Westside governments join a lawsuit against the State filed by their Orange County counterparts.

The lawsuit alleges that the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) "failed to comply with state statutes governing the determination of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation," according to the item.

Under the State allocation, Southern California must plan to build 1,341,827 new housing units by October 2029. Santa Monica's quota is 8,895 new units, 6,168 of them affordable.

"Santa Monica has done more than its part for the last decade" to build affordable housing, Brock said. "Because we have a train, transit connections and build affordable housing we get penalized.

"How much density can we take?" he said. "Do we have the water and natural resources to accommodate the new units? We're already a built-out city."

Santa Monica can avoid legal liability by joining the lawsuit as part of the Westside Cities Council of Governments (WSCCOG), which includes Beverly Hills, Culver City, West Hollywood, the City of Los Angeles Council Districts 5 and 11 and the County of Los Angeles.

"We don't want to be in a situation where we would have to pay HCD legal fees," Brock said. "This has to be a widespread effort. It's not just Santa Monica's fight."

Brock's agenda item asks the Council to "direct its representatives to the Westside Cities Council of Governments (WSCCOG) to seek a determination from the WSCCOG whether the WSCCOG should join as a party in the lawsuit."

The City's representatives are Brock and Mayor Sue Himmelrich, a staunch supporter of affordable housing.

The lawsuit filed on June 21 by the Orange County Council of Governments (OCCOG) claims the Southern California region’s share should be 651,000 housing units, less than half its allocation.

According to the lawsuit, the state used wrong population forecast data to determine housing needs. The State also used national averages instead of comparable regions to evaluate household overcrowding and cost-burden rates, the lawsuit claims.

In a statement issued June 1, Trevor O’Neil, Anaheim councilman and chair of the council of governments, said HCD "did not follow the statutes outlined in state law to develop the projected number of units needed."

Brock's agenda item asks the Council to "direct its representatives to the Westside Cities Council of Governments (WSCCOG) to seek a determination from the WSCCOG whether the WSCCOG should join as a party in the lawsuit."

The City's representatives are Brock and Mayor Sue Himmelrich, a staunch supporter of affordable housing.

Tuesday's agenda item could further solidify a marked shift in the Council's housing policies.

While 52 Southern California cities appealed their allocations (only two were successful), Santa Monica's previous City Council embraced the challenge of meeting its State mandate ("Santa Monica Scrambles to Meet Housing Targets Other Cities Are Opposing ," March 9, 2020).

In March 2020, Santa Monica became the first city in Southern California to proactively take steps to meet its goal when the Council approved an emergency interim ordinance to spur developers to reach the housing goal.

Its pro-development stance may have contributed to the ouster of three incumbents in last November's Council race, as many as had lost in the previous 24 years.

The three new Councilmembers -- who ran on a slow-growth slate that included Brock, Oscar de la Torre and Christine Parra -- immediately began departing from the previous Council's pro-housing policies.

Two months after taking office, they asked the City to officially oppose two state bills intended to make affordable housing easier to build ("New Council Breaks with Past Housing Policies," February 10, 2021).

They contended that Senate Bills 9 and 10 -- which were signed into law by Gov. Newsom last week -- would shift local control of key zoning issues to the state and eliminate community input.

In April, the three Councilmembers opposed a plan that paves the way for building the more than 6,000 State-mandated affordable housing units, including in exclusive single family neighborhoods ("Divided Council Approves Plan to Meet State's Affordable Housing Mandate," April 6, 2021).

The plan approved on a 4 to 3 vote largely relies on building 100 percent affordable housing projects on City land and in an overlay zone that would allow four-story buildings in most parts of the City.

Former Councilmember Kevin McKeown, who voted for the plan, abruptly retired in June and was replaced by Lana Negrete, who could cast the deciding vote on Tuesday.

The OCCOG lawsuit seeks a peremptory writ of mandate directing HCD to "vacate and set aside its RHNA determination" for the Southern California region.

It also seeks to direct HCD to "change the input of information utilized in calculating its RHNA determination" and conduct a new assessment for the Southern California region in compliance with state local planning laws.