'Who wants to live in a congested urban environment?' said Newport Beach Councilwoman Diane Dixon.
As Peggy Huang drove through the hills of Yorba Linda, she passed ranch-style homes with backyard stables.
“I’m not a NIMBY,” Huang said, using an acronym for “not in my backyard.” “I just think it’s important for people to understand that one size fits all doesn’t work, and that’s the very policy Sacramento is pushing on us.” The argument is about how many units of new housing each city should be required to accommodate. It is also about the essence of Orange County, which is becoming more racially diverse, more politically liberal — and more crowded.
In every eight-year cycle, cities are assigned a certain number of new units under a complex formula that anticipates future housing needs. To fulfill the requirement, cities identify areas where zoning can be changed to allow new development.—including church parking lots, an event venue and a hotel — for possible zoning changes. They were hoping to decrease their requirement to between 70 and 211 new homes.
Redondo Beach, Lakewood, Torrance, Cerritos, Downey and Whittier were also plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was dismissed in November by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.In O.C., some city officials see the building requirements as overreach by state officials who haven’t spent time in the area and aren’t familiar with the geographic limitations.“Who wants to live in a congested urban environment?” she said. “That’s why people move to Orange County in the first place.
But others say more growth in suburban communities is necessary to combat the shortage of available homes and the upward trajectory of housing costs. The last Regional Housing Needs Assessment plan required Yorba Linda, which has a population of about 68,000, to create 669 new housing units. The city exceeded that, issuing building permits for 932 units between 2014 and 2019.
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