By Bryan Anderson and Madeline Ashmun : sacbee – excerpt (includes map)
Sue you, and you, and you! by SF Blue Comics
In his State of the State address, California Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the state’s housing problem. While he doesn’t intend to sue all of the cities for their failures to meet their housing obligations, he vowed to hold them all accountable.
Encinitas is just the kind of place Gavin Newsom might want to sue.
A local voter-approved initiative from 2013 makes planning for affordable homes nearly impossible, preventing the wealthy city of 60,000 from complying with a state law that requires local governments to build more housing.
The city has already spent $3.5 million in the last few years fighting a pair of housing-related lawsuits. The bill could climb if Newsom follows through on a threat to hold local governments accountable to the state housing law.
“I don’t feel proud to be the mayor of a city that is in the midst of costing millions of taxpayer dollars,” said Catherine Blakespear, the city’s mayor. “I want to free up some of our planning ability to talk about other issues. This housing (issue) dominates everything that we talk about.”
Encinitas of San Diego County is one of 47 California cities under scrutiny by the Newsom administration for not complying with a state law that requires them to plan for the construction of affordable housing. Newsom’s administration recently sued Huntington Beach for not keeping up with its housing promises, alarming other local governments… (more)
