I know this has been a recurring update item… but given the current development context in California, I felt like it would be important to share the information again! Because if you only read the newspaper headlines regarding housing development in Huntington Beach, one might get the impression that Surf City hasn’t allowed a new home to be built in our community in decades!

However, a look at the actual facts and data paints a far different picture. Huntington Beach has not blocked housing development – at all. In fact, our efforts on the housing front – including our regional contribution to the affordable housing effort – have been nothing short of heroic.

In short, Huntington Beach has done more for the affordable housing since 2013 (the current State Regional Housing Needs Assessment – or RHNA – planning cycle) than nearly any other city in our region.

I know that the paragraph above may sound unbelievable, given the media narrative that’s been told through-out California. However, facts are facts, and here’s the reality of the situation.

Huntington Beach has worked to meet our goal of 1,353 RHNA units since 2013, and we have zoned for and per-mitted approximately 900 units. Other cities in the region have been required to do less, and they have done less than we have in Surf City. For example, Newport Beach has zoned for two units since 2013… Costa Mesa has zoned for five units… and Fountain Valley has zoned for 86 units.

When compared against the ~900 units we’ve permitted, it’s hard to understand why there’s this perception that Surf City doesn’t allow new housing development. Moreover, and more specifically, outside of zoning updates to allow ~900 units since 2013, we’ve actually produced thousands of new housing units!

From 2013 through 2018, Huntington Beach issued almost 3,000 building permits for new housing units! That’s the fourth largest volume of housing production in Orange County, and it makes Huntington Beach a top-10 housing producer when compared against the 197-jurisdictions located in the SCAG region. This fact is based on a comparison our building permit data with the SCAG jurisdictions in the HCD 5th Cycle Annual Progress Report Permit Summary, dated 6/25/19 (http://www.hcd.ca.gov/community-development/housing-element/index.shtml).

Here in Huntington Beach, we’ve exceeded our above moderate hous-ing allocation by more than 2,000 units; we’ve met all of our moderate income RHNA targets; and we’ve issued permits for 97 very-low and low-income units.

This article was released by Oliver Chi, Huntington Beach City Manager.